The monograph contributes to the field of eighteenth-century comparative European history. Based mainly on British and German customs accounts, it is a bilateral case study of the basic working mechanisms within a much larger framework – the eighteenth-century Atlantic economy. The Scottish customs records are unique, insofar as they allow precise reconstructions of Scotland’s trade volume in yearly series after 1743, which can be broken down by singular countries/commodities. As the Scottish-German trade pattern linked back into the Atlantic framework, it is hoped that the present model study will encourage further research into cross-country studies of North Sea and Atlantic trade – the most dynamic branch of European commerce post-1700.