Union of England and Scotland

The Union of England and Scotland in 1707 joined the two kingdoms in the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution and the transfer of effective authority from the monarch to Parliament. Its significance in the book’s account lies not only in the political union itself, but in the institutional setting it consolidated: Parliament had become the firm center of state policy, creating conditions more favorable to property rights, trade, industry, and pluralism, even though the electorate remained narrow.

Constitutional Settlement and Parliamentary Supremacy

The union followed the 1688 Glorious Revolution and the constitutional settlement negotiated by Parliament and William III. The Declaration of Rights, read to William when Parliament offered him the crown in February 1689, set out principles that constrained royal authority: the monarch could not suspend or dispense with laws, taxation required parliamentary consent, and a standing army in England required that consent as well. The settlement also asserted Parliament’s role in determining succession, departing from inherited assumptions about hereditary monarchy.

From a Vague Settlement to a Change in Power

Some provisions were imprecise. The Declaration said parliamentary elections ought to be free without defining freedom, and called for frequent Parliaments without specifying how often they must meet. The earlier Triennial Act had required a Parliament at least once every three years, but Charles II had ignored it without consequence because no enforcement mechanism existed. After 1688, Parliament did not need to devise a comparable enforcement device: authority and decision-making had shifted to Parliament, and William III abandoned practices used by earlier kings, including interference in legal decisions and the claim to receive customs revenues for life.

Union and the Interests of Parliament

The Act of Union in 1707 brought England and Scotland together as Great Britain within this new political arrangement. Parliament was now firmly in control of state policy, and its interests differed from those of the Stuart kings. Many parliamentarians had investments in trade and industry and therefore had a strong stake in enforcing property rights, which the Stuarts had often infringed. Parliament also approached taxation and public spending differently once it controlled the government’s purse: rather than resisting higher taxes and a stronger state, it could raise revenue for purposes it considered valuable, especially strengthening the navy to protect overseas mercantile interests.

Pluralism and Its Limits

Parliamentary control widened access to political decisions compared with rule directed by the king, but the settlement did not make England a democracy. In the eighteenth century, fewer than 2 percent of the population could vote, and all voters had to be men. The industrial cities of Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, and Sheffield lacked independent representation in Parliament, while rural areas were overrepresented. The union therefore belongs to a story of expanding constraints on royal power and a more pluralistic political order, not of equal political participation. Its institutional importance lay in making Parliament—not the monarch—the principal arena for shaping policy, while leaving broad limits on who could take part.