The Scots
Trading Diaspora
This European lifeline wasn�t restricted to
the staple ports of the Low Countries. Scots merchant communities
were established across Northern Europe in Bordeaux and Dieppe in
France, Bergen in Norway, M�lmo in Sweden, Elsinore and Copenhagen
in Denmark, into the Baltic Sea at Danzig, and even as far afield as
Russia. Where ever they went the Scots stuck together and established
their own trading networks, as well as their own Kirks, often with
altars dedicated to St Ninian (the first Scottish
Saint).
In the 17th century, Poland was described as �Scotland�s
America�. Contemporaries estimated that 15,000-40,000 Scots were
settled in Poland mainly as merchants, peddlers and craftsmen. This
mass migration is largely forgotten in modern Scotland, though is
remembered still in Poland. The names of the descendants of Scots
immigrants are still to be found in Polish phone books, such as
Ramzy from Ramsay, or Czarmas from Chalmers. Danzig still has many
Scottish street names and villages in the hinterland are named after
the Scots - Dzkocja, Skotna G�ra, Szotniki or Szoty.