How Did David I Modernize Scotland

It is among the opinion of many historians that David I modernised Scotland from what has been described by contemporaries as a barbarous nation into a cultured European civilisation. Many have attributed this to the influence of the king’s upbringing, which was spent in England, in Henry I’s court. He brought an Anglo-Norman influence to Scotland that helped to develop the government, economic system and bring Church reform to the whole country. It is now acknowledged that much of what he was able to accomplish in the revolutionising of Scotland had been initiated through reforms made by his predecessor and brother Alexander I. However, it is also accepted that David did the majority of the ‘building work’ for this stage of progression and …show more content…

He was the first Scottish king to make his own coinage, silver pennies, which was equal to the money used in England, helping to increase friendly financial negotiations between Scotland and England. Even more importantly he introduced burghs to the country. These benefitted the merchants as well as increasing royal revenue as, by monopolising trade in these commercial centres it eased the process of revenue collection, as well as his being able to control and tax the sale of all items in the burghs. The introduction of the burghs also increased the opportunity for foreign trade, including with Germany and Northern Flanders, this also brought with it the introduction of skills and goods to ‘enrich native society’. This introduction into Scotland of a standardised coinage as well as the monopolisation for the burghs brought Scotland’s economic system to a more sophisticated level than it had previously been. In creating the specific boundaries of the burghs and introducing his own sheriffs around Scotland, David created a more organised form of economics, while at the same time centralising and enhancing his own