Kailyard money: nation, empire and speculation in Walter Scott's letters from Malachi Malagrowther

This essay re-reads Scott's three letters from Malachi Malagrowther in the context of the 1825 banking crisis. It suggests that these letters have a complex relationship to British imperialism as it was consituted at that time. First, it shows how far Scottish capital was connected to finanical speculation in the Americas as part of British expansionist ambitions in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars. Second, it indicates how Scott's letters contains a curious series of images of Amerindians that positions Scots as a colonised nation. It tries to read this imagery back into Scott's novels to consider how far this allows his letters to disguise class interests beneath a veneer of nationalism.