 Wool and hides were the major exports in the late Middle Ages . From 1327 to 1332 , the earliest period for which figures survive , the annual average was 5 @,@ 700 sacks of wool and 36 @,@ 100 leather hides . The disruption of the Wars of Independence , which not only limited trade but damaged much of the valuable agricultural land of the Borders and Lowlands , meant that this fell in the period 1341 – 42 to 1342 – 43 to 2 @,@ 450 sacks of wool and 17 @,@ 900 hides . The trade recovered to reach a peak in the 1370s , with an annual average of 7 @,@ 360 sacks , but the international recession from the 1380s saw a reduction to an annual average of 3 @,@ 100 sacks . The introduction of sheep @-@ scab was a serious blow to the wool trade from the early fifteenth century . Despite a levelling @-@ off , in the Low Countries there was another drop in exports as the markets collapsed in the early @-@ sixteenth century . Unlike in England , this did not prompt the Scots to turn to large @-@ scale cloth production and only poor @-@ quality rough cloths seem to have been significant . 
