 In the High Middle Ages , although the Scottish economy was still dominated by agriculture and by short @-@ distance , local trade , there was an increasing amount of foreign trade . Coins were replacing barter goods , with Scottish coins being struck from the reign of David I. Mints were established at Berwick , Roxburgh , Edinburgh and Perth , but until the end of the period most exchange was done without the use of metal currency , and English coins probably outnumbered Scottish ones . Until the disruption caused by the outbreak of the Wars of Independence in the early fourteenth century , most naval trade was probably coastal and most foreign trade was with England . The wars closed English markets and raised the levels of piracy and disruption to naval trade on both sides . They may have led to an increase in continental trade , and isolated references indicate that Scottish ships were active in Norway and Danzig , and the earliest records from the 1330s indicate that five @-@ sixths of this trade was in the hands of Scottish merchants . 
