International trade has long fostered exchanges of ideas and encouraged the spread of cultural influences. Possibly the most fruitful period for such exchanges between Scotland and America was that of the Scottish Enlightenment which reached its zenith in the late eighteenth century. At this time there was an extraordinary flowering of cultural achievements spanning literature, philosophy, religion, education, law, science and the arts.

Going back, Glaswegian merchants had actively pursued trade links with America well before the 1707 Act of Union opening England's colonies to Scottish traders was brought into force. Scottish merchants in Virginia loading up their ships with tobacco destined for home or re-export to northern European markets helped spread Scotland's reputation for intellectual and cultural distinction while they took home with them a vision of the opportunities to be found in the New World. As the tobacco trade increased exponentially following the Act of Union (reaching a peak in 1771 by which time Glasgow accounted for more than half the total British trade in tobacco, up from just ten per cent some thirty years earlier, according to Andrew Hook), so too did the reputation of Scotland as a leading centre of culture and learning.

"Minds are like parachutes," wrote Sir James Dewar (1842-1923), the Kincardine-on-Forth-born chemist and physicist, and inventor of the vacuum flask. "They only function when they are open." During the late eighteenth century, those who travelled abroad to work, learn, or make a new life, seemed to have just such open minds.

From the earliest days of the Enlightenment Scottish teachers travelled to America where they disseminated Scottish intellectual values in addition to knowledge. Several made significant contributions to the development of American schools, universities and medical faculties. One of these was James Blair who in 1693 founded the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg. Another was William Smith, in 1755 first provost of the College of Philadelphia. Among others was Dr. John Witherspoon* who became a president of the College of New Jersey (later known as Princeton University). In his book Scotland and America: a study of cultural relations, 1750-1835, Andrew Hook relates that Witherspoon was popularly known in Scotland as "the walking library".

By the late eighteenth century Scotland, with its reputation for educational excellence, was also playing host to increasing numbers of young Americans. Many of these were medical students, attracted to Scotland by its reputation as the country with the most advanced medical training in Europe. In the second half of the eighteenth century, 117 Americans were awarded medical degrees from the University of Edinburgh*. One of these, John Morgan, was to found the Medical School of the College of Philadelphia. Another, Benjamin Rush* (who had some Scottish ancestry), was America's first chemistry professor and one of the founding fathers of Penn's medical school.

On the literary front, in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries there were two distinct Scottish schools of international influence. On the one side there were the philosophers, perhaps the most prominent of whom were the philosopher, historian, economist and essayist David Hume (1711-1776) and the philosopher and political economist Adam Smith (1723-1790). In addition there were the influential "common sense" philosophers, Thomas Reid, Adam Ferguson, James Beattie and Dugald Stewart.

Another school of Scottish writers conjured up a strongly romantic imagery of Scotland, its people and its history. Most famously, in terms of their popularity in America, there was the great Scottish poet and songwriter Robert Burns (1759-1796), and the novelist and poet Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832).

The Scottish Enlightenment also espoused specific religious and philanthropic leanings. Episcopalianism and Presbyterianism were introduced into America by Scottish immigrants and today there are believed to be over three million American Presbyterians. Scottish values and priorities also led, in 1747, to the founding in Philadelphia of the St. Andrew's Society for the support of Scots in need. While other societies had been set up as early as 1729, the Philadelphia society, according to Duncan A. Bruce in his book The Mark of the Scots, claims to be the oldest charitable organisation in continuous existence in North America. Today there are St. Andrew's societies all over the country.

The spread of Scottish intellectual influence was much aided by the development of the printed media. Many of America's early publishers were Scots or had Scottish ancestry. Duncan A. Bruce relates that it was a Scot, John Campbell, who in 1704 first published The Boston Newsletter, America's first regular newspaper. John Dunlap launched the country's first daily paper, Pennsylvania Packet, in 1784. Just seven years later the first American edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica was published by Thomas Dobson, also a Scot.

Whether for reasons of historical development and influence at home or farther afield – or perhaps coincidence – Scotland's eighteenth-century trading and economic development took place during a period of exceptional intellectual and cultural pre-eminence. Scotland's Enlightenment thus had significant international impact. At any other time Scottish merchants bringing home tobacco, cotton, sugar or indigo would have been just that – merchants. And Scottish emigrants would perhaps have had less to contribute to the New World and other regions in which they sought a new life. As it was, they were also ambassadors for their country's values.

Surveying the broad history and development of both Scotland and America since the early eighteenth century one can ponder, as Andrew Hook has done, the relationship between economic growth and cultural development. A second question might be: to what extent did America's early relationship and exchanges with Scotland – and the two countries' mutual admiration – contribute to foster the intellectual and cultural climate of the Scottish Enlightenment – to the eventual benefit of both nations?

As the celebrated nineteenth-century Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., another American with Scottish ancestry, was to say, "It is the province of knowledge to speak and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen." The Scottish Enlightenment and its widespread influence illustrate the fruits of such intellectual openness.