BBC Online - History - Scottish History

The following extract was taken from the "BBC Online" website. The full text can be seen at http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/scottishhistory/europe/intro_europe.shtml.

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.