Changing Tenurial Forms and Service Renders in the North East of Scotland between the Fifteenth and the Eighteenth Centuries: Evidence for Social Development, Capitalised Agrarianism and Ideological Change

Documentary evidence relating to tenurial agreements and service obligations survive for a number of estates in north-east Scotland, spanning the fifteenth to late eighteenth centuries. Close inspection demonstrates the development of terminological usage as semantics alter with reference to changing socioeconomic mechanisms underpinning the structure of society. This article also explores the possibility that these changes may be linked to a developing philosophical view within which the growth of capitalism was rationalised.