Scotland divided into 32 subdivisions, known as local authorities, or councils. Glasgow City is the largest subdivision in Scotland in terms of population, with Highland being the largest in terms of area. Limited self-governing power, covering matters such as education, social services and roads and transportation, is devolved from the Scottish Government to each subdivision. "Scotland" comes from "Scoti", the Latin name for the Gaels. Philip Freeman has speculated on the likelihood of a group of raiders adopting a name from an Indo-European root, *"skot", citing the parallel in Greek "skotos" (σκότος), meaning "darkness, gloom". The Late Latin word "Scotia" ("land
Scotland in the early modern period the exile of many chiefs and sending of ordinary clansmen to the colonies as indentured labour. All of this largely reducing clan leaders to the status of simple landholders within a generation. There are almost no reliable sources with which to track the population of Scotland before the late seventeenth century. Estimates based on English records suggest that by the end of the Middle Ages, the Black Death and subsequent recurring outbreaks of the plague, may have caused the population of Scotland to fall as low as half a million people. Price inflation, which generally reflects growing demand for food,