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Blackleaf · Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2007 7:18 pm Post subject: The Darien Scheme

The Darien scheme was an unsuccessful attempt by the Kingdom of Scotland to establish a colony on the Isthmus of Panama. If successful this could have been the beginnings of a Scottish Empire.

But the scheme failed and, not long after, Scotland joined the Union with England and Wales - probably due to the fact that this venture bankrupted the Scottish economy.

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The Darien Scheme - The Fall of Scotland

Some have said: 'The Darien venture was the most ambitious colonial scheme attempted in the 17th century…The Scots were the first to realise the strategic importance of the area..." Whilst others claimed: "They were plain daft to try…. It was disaster. They never had a chance." T'is for you to decide!

William Paterson, a Scot who's other major claim to fame was the foundation of the Bank of England, was born in Tinwald in Dumfriesshire in 1658. He made his first fortune through international trade, travelling extensively throughout the America's and West Indies.

John Senex. A new map of ye Isthmus of Darien in America, the Bay of Panama...
Scale: 45 miles to 1 inch. 47 x 28 cm

Upon his return to his native Scotland, Paterson sought to make his second fortune with a scheme of epic proportion. His plan was to create a link between east and west, which could command the trade of the two great oceans of the world, the Pacific and Atlantic. In 1693, Paterson helped to set up the Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies in Edinburgh to establish an entrepot on the Isthmus of Darien (the narrow neck of land separating North and South America now known as Panama). It was claimed that the company would prosper through foreign trade and promoted Darien as a remote spot where Scots could settle.

The original directors of the Company of Scotland were Scottish and English in equal numbers, with the risk investment capital being shared half from the English and Dutch, and the other half from the Scots. However under pressure from the East India Company, afraid of loosing their trade monopoly, the English Parliament withdrew its support for the scheme at the last minute, forcing the English and Dutch to withdraw and leaving the Scots as sole investors.

No shortage of takers though as thousands of ordinary Scottish folk invested money in the expedition, to the tune of approximately £500,000 - about half of the national capital available. Almost every Scot who had £5 to spare invested in the Darien scheme. Thousands more volunteered to travel on board the five ships that had been chartered to carry the pioneers to their new home where Scots could settle, including famine driven Highlanders and soldiers discharged following the Glencoe Massacre.

But, who had actually been out to see this Promised Land, this remote spot where Scots could settle? Well not Paterson apparently! The pioneers had wrongly believed, on the basis of sightings by sailors and pirates, that Darien offered them a colony where entrepreneurs could establish trading links with the world and bring prestige and prosperity to their country. And so it was much fanfare and excitement that the ships sailed from Leith harbour on 12 July 1698 with 1,200 people onboard.

It was however, a depleted and less excited group of pioneers that arrived on the mosquito-infested scrap of land known as Darien on 30 October 1698. Many were already sick and others were quarrelling as power struggles arose among the elected councillors. They struggled ashore and renamed the land Caledonia, with its capital New Edinburgh. The first task was to dig graves for the dead pioneers, which included Paterson's wife. The situation grew worse because of a lack of food and attacks from hostile Spaniards. The native Indians took pity on the Scots, bringing them gifts of fruit and fish. Seven months after arriving, 400 Scots were dead. The rest were emaciated and yellow with fever. They decided to abandon the scheme.

Sadly, news did not travel quickly in the 17th Century, and six more ships set sail from Leith in November 1699 loaded with further 1,300 excited pioneers, all blissfully ignorant about the fate of the earlier settlers. And whoever said that bad news travels fast was obviously not a Scot as a third fleet of five ships left Leith shortly after.

Only one ship returned out of the total of sixteen that had originally sailed. Only a handful survived the return journey. Scotland had paid a terrible price with more than two thousand lives lost. Together with the loss of the £500,000 in investment the Scottish economy was almost bankrupted. It has been argued that the Darien Scheme crippled the country's economy to such an extent that it triggered the dissolution of the Scottish Parliament and led to the 1707 Act of Union with England. A mere coincidence, or had the English withdrawal from the scheme been deliberately engineered to ensure its failure?

http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/Scotland-History/DarienScheme.htm

azzuri · Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 12:11 am Post subject:

The genius of the darien scheme did indeed come 100 years too early. The foresight of it was amazing - we are indeed a nation of genuises Blackleaf...
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One O'Clock Gun · Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 11:11 am Post subject:

Coming up on the history channel next-

Blackleaf posts an article about some queen called mary, who had her head chopped of by some other queen, apparently (with important bits highlighted in red)
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a country with 'democratic' and 'people' in it's title, usually has scant regard for either.

Corby Boy · Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 7:47 am Post subject:

I know this story it was one of my ancestor's who dreamt the whole thing up and lost his missus in process.

BonnieBlueFlag · Posted: Tue May 01, 2007 6:57 am Post subject:

Neither the Spanish or English assisted the Scots in trouble at Darien. Once again another example of how education should be used to teach people why the Union was not designed as a partnership but a annexation. The English would silence any Scottish threat both on the mainland as well as eliminating a potential trade threat.
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Jimbo · This is Ma' Life! Joined: 18 Feb 2007 Posts: 623

"A mere coincidence, or had the English withdrawal from the scheme been deliberately engineered to ensure its failure? "

Of course it had.

Anthropos · I Love 'Our Scotland' Joined: 15 Jul 2006 Posts: 323

BonnieBlueFlag · Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 2:02 pm Post subject:

Its not a simplistic evaluation, Scottish history in general is not widely known, even among Scots. With proper education the troubles between Catholics and Protestants would be considerably less.

I also believe that the "Spanish turf" you mention was actually indigenous American 'turf', merely stolen by the Spanish.

I certainly don't see Scotland as a victim in every account through history but there are examples of Scotland being the underdog and in a sense the 'victim' however you can apply that notion to a whole nation.
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Anthropos · I Love 'Our Scotland' Joined: 15 Jul 2006 Posts: 323