The continuation of the Auld Alliance and the retention of Scottish trading privileges in France after 1560 have important ramifications for our understanding of Franco-Scottish trade in the long seventeenth century. So too does a reconsideration of the people involved in this trade at every level and a close examination of what and how they traded. Trade is habitually viewed as a national phenomenon – after all, trade routes start in one port and end in another, fostering exchanges between two (or more) foreign nations. The impact of this trade is consequently viewed at a national level, and oft en based on quantifiable evidence – which countries and ports do these routes link; what do these exchanges contribute to national revenue; does one country have a favourable balance of trade over another? Such an approach gives an overview of where primary trading routes were situated and the goods that were exchanged along these routes, and has contributed to attempts to calculate the revenue generated by duties charged and the contribution of overseas trade to the economy of the nations concerned.

An approach that prioritizes the people involved in commerce, though, provides nuances to these conclusions, and in some cases offers an entirely different picture. To understand how trade was conducted and thus how economies interacted and developed in the early modern period it is vital to consider fully the roles played by merchants and their networks.