Editing David I of Scotland (section)

=== Economy ===
The revenue of his English earldom and the proceeds of the silver mines at [[Alston, Cumbria|Alston]] allowed David to produce Scotland's first coinage. These altered the nature of trade and transformed his political image.<ref>Oram, ''David I: The King Who Made Scotland'', pp. 193, 195; Bartlett, ''The Making of Europe'', p. 287: "The minting of coins and the issue of written dispositions changed the political culture of the societies in which the new practices appeared".</ref>

David was a great town builder. As Prince of the Cumbrians, David founded the first two [[burghs]] of "Scotland", at [[Roxburgh]] and Berwick.<ref>Duncan, ''Scotland: The Making of the Kingdom'', p. 465.</ref> Burghs were settlements with defined boundaries and guaranteed trading rights, locations where the king could collect and sell the products of his ''cain'' and ''conveth'' (a payment made ''in lieu'' of providing the king [[hospitality]]).<ref>See G. W. S. Barrow, ''Kingship and Unity'', pp. 84–104; see also, Stringer, "The Emergence of a Nation-State", pp. 66–69.</ref> David founded around 15 burghs.<ref>Stringer, "The Emergence of a Nation-State", p. 67. Numbering is uncertain; Perth may date to the reign of Alexander I; Inverness is a case where the foundation may date later, but may date to the period of David I: see for instance the blanket statement that Inverness dates to David I's reign in Derek Hall, ''Burgess, Merchant and Priest'', compare Richard Oram, ''David'', p. 93, where it is acknowledged that this is merely a possibility, to A. A. M. Duncan, ''The Making of the Kingdom'', p. 480, who quotes a charter indicating that the burgh dates to the reign of William the Lion.</ref>

[[File:MelroseAbbey01.jpg|thumb|The ruins of [[Melrose Abbey]]. Founded in 1137, this [[Cistercians|Cistercian monastery]] became one of David's greatest legacies.]]

Perhaps nothing in David's reign compares in importance to burghs. While they could not, at first, have amounted to much more than the nucleus of an [[immigrant]] [[merchant]] class, nothing would do more to reshape the long-term economic and ethnic shape of Scotland than the burgh. These planned towns were or dominated by [[English people|English]] in culture and language; [[William of Newburgh]] wrote in the reign of [[William the Lion]], that "the towns and burghs of the Scottish realm are known to be inhabited by English";<ref>A. O. Anderson, ''[[iarchive:scottishannalsfr00andeuoft/page/256/mode/2up|Scottish Annals]]'', p. 256.</ref> as well as transforming the economy, the dominance of an English influence would in the long term undermine the position of the [[Middle Irish language]], giving birth to the idea of the [[Scottish Lowlands]].<ref>Stringer, "The Emergence of a Nation-State", 1100–1300", p. 67; Michael Lynch, ''Scotland: A New History'', pp. 64–66; Thomas Owen Clancy, "History of Gaelic", [http://www.bord-na-gaidhlig.org.uk/about-gaelic/history.html here] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070911232223/http://www.bord-na-gaidhlig.org.uk/about-gaelic/history.html |date=11 September 2007}}</ref>