 Exports of hides and particularly salmon , where the Scots held a decisive advantage in quality over their rivals , appear to have held up much better than wool , despite the general economic downturn in Europe in the aftermath of the Black Death . Exports of hides averaged 56 @,@ 400 a year from 1380 to 1384 , but fell to an average of 48 @,@ 000 over the next five years and to 34 @,@ 200 by the end of the century . In the late Middle Ages , the growing desire among the court , lords , upper clergy and wealthier merchants for luxury goods , that largely had to be imported ( including fine cloth from Flanders and Italy ) , led to a chronic shortage of bullion . This , and perennial problems in royal finance , led to several debasements of the coinage , with the amount of silver in a penny being cut to almost a fifth between the late fourteenth century and the late fifteenth century . The heavily debased " black money " , introduced in 1480 , had to be withdrawn two years later and may have helped fuel a financial and political crisis . 
