Been going through the Questia books for hours.

What I have found is that my statements about ferm-touns were pretty well correct. The old Scots Plough needed a few men to handle it and lots of casual labour was needed at harvest time etc. The Cottars existed on small patches of land in the ferm-touns and paid rent in labour. They had no real rights to the land. The period from 1700-1800 saw Scotland go from a very low urbanisation to one of the most urbanised countries in Europe. The process created a demand for food production and a rise in real wages at the same time. If the cottars already had a loom in their cottage they simply moved it into the nearest village whilst the farms were limed, enclosed and otherwise improved to increase production. There were good paying jobs in manufacturing and coalmining, So the process was not accompanied by discontent as it was a natural process that seemed to benefit all parties at the time.

I am now fairly certain that my earliest known ancestor "Alan the coalminer" must have have been a cottar family and come off one of the upland farms that were the first to re-arrange their labour force. Still have to find where

There is a trail of Charles' and Francis' leading down from Dalmellington to Coylton then a generational gap. As
Alan had sons called Charles and Francis (relatively uncommon Caldwell names) I might be on to something there

Strangely coalmining from the 1780's for 20 to 30 years was one of the better paying jobs fuelled by labour shortages and increasing demand.

Large coalminer's families and immigrant labour from Ireland and the Highlands removed the shortage of labour. The increasing number of pits opened and improved transport of coal by railway reduced the relative price. Eventually a slump in demand turned the miner's lot into a poverty trap. Hardly surprising that by the 1880's any way out was good. Many immigrated to better paid mining jobs overseas.

Tom