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The article reviews periodical literature on economic history that was published in 2011. Topics noted include the origins of medieval common rights systems, statistics from the record-keeping text "Little Domesday Book," and gender roles in medieval Europe. Also addressed are the history of British maritime trade, the payment of compensation to British slave owners following abolition, and the history of the Scottish banking system. In addition, the history of property rights, cultural aspects of feminism, and post-World War II British politics are discussed.

This article uses the records of nineteenth-century Scottish banks in an attempt to understand investor behaviour in the early British capital market. It presents four main findings, some of which do not conform to the basic assumptions of standard asset pricing theories. First, in an era when efficient portfolio diversification was not possible, the intrinsic risk of an equity security was an important input into investor decision-making. Second, our evidence suggests that businesspeople initially regarded bank stock as a consumption good, as being a stockholder gave them privileged access to bank finance. When bank lending practices changed in the middle of the century, this access-to-credit advantage associated with owning bank stock largely disappeared. Third, investors typically exhibited a bias towards banks that conducted business in the areas where they resided. Fourth, a sizeable proportion of investors were stockholders in more than one bank. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article assesses the economics of the Scottish gate-money football industry from 1890 to 1914. The late nineteenth century was a period of rapid commercialization of sport in Great Britain. As has been shown, however, not all the entrepreneurs involved were motivated primarily by the profit motive. Whereas it is clear from their prospectuses that many companies concerned with cycling, horse-racing, and ice-rinks were looking to deliver dividends to their shareholders, the committeemen and directors of most Scottish soccer clubs changed their sports organizations into business enterprises and adopted company status with the intention of winning matches and championships rather than making money. Whether utility-maximization was more common to team than to other sports remains to be investigated. Recent research has suggested that cricket also belongs to the utility end of the motivational spectrum. Why the degree of profit/utility mix varied both between and within sports is also a subject for future research, although the work on Scottish Football suggests that the occupational composition of the shareholders and directors may have had a role to play.

This article examines the development and performance of the economy of Scotland during wartime. This article seeks to remedy the lack of documentation on Scotland between the wars by examining in the following two sections the development and performance of its economy. These reveal the relatively poor growth achieved and emphasize the extent of "the Scottish problem" after the First World War. Section three examines the conflicting arguments which have developed over the role of industrial structure and its influence on Scottish economic performance. Both this and the following section challenge the popular view that there was no great difference between the industrial pattern in Scotland and Great Britain as a whole, that rather than structural weaknesses. Scotland's relatively poor performance can be attributed to the failure, industry by industry, to match the rates of growth achieved in the national economy. While acknowledging the importance of the latter factor, this article contends first, that significant structural differences did, indeed, exist and second, that these constitute a major part of the explanation of the relatively slow rate of growth of the Scottish economy between the wars.

The article focuses on British urban redevelopment with special reference to Glasgow, Scotland. In the middle of the nineteenth century the ancient heart of Glasgow with its Mercat Cross, its Cathedral and its University was, despite its former distinction, at least as debased as the center of any great British town. Although the population had increased five-fold between 1801 and 1861, the whole of the Glasgow of 1775 remained geographically intact. There was, in the center of this rapidly expanding conurbation a medieval city, covering about 100 acres with narrow winding ill-paved streets which were quite unsuited to the requirements of an industrial city. The central business district, including the new City Chambers, had moved west, and much of the new industry had fanned out along both sides of the River Clyde and to the north. The middle classes had moved west, leaving the declining areas to the poorest classes. Virtually no demolition took place, and indeed the demand for cheap dwellings was so great that former middle-class gardens were filled with jerry-built back-tenements.