The Darien Scheme

A strategic trading post

A Scottish colony was to be established in Central America at a place called Darien, on the Isthmus of Panama. Merchants trading to the East would no longer need to undertake the long, hazardous journey around the Cape of Good Hope (near the southern tip of Africa) or Cape Horn (the southern tip of South America), but instead could ship their goods to an eastern port on Darien where they could be transported across the narrow isthmus to a port on its western side, and there exchange goods with ships from the East Indies and Asia.

The directors of the powerful East India Company in London feared that their own trading monopoly would be harmed, and the King ordered a withdrawal of all English support for the venture. Infuriated, the Scots proceeded alone, raising an enormous £400,000 sterling in Scotland to finance the venture, with stock-holders eager for a promising return on their investment.

First colonists abandon colony in 1699

Five ships were prepared and equipped, and on 18 July 1698 the expedition of some 1,200 people left the port of Leith. They arrived at Darien - which was patriotically renamed 'New Caledonia' - in November. The settlers were unable to make much progress with their visionary scheme. Darien turned out to be little more than a hot, fever-ridden swamp, and the weakness of Scottish manufacturing meant that the colonists had very little to trade, only woollen cloth, linen, wigs and Bibles. Hundreds of settlers died of fever, and in 1699 the colony was abandoned.

Second wave of colonists surrender to Spanish

A second expedition was already being prepared, and left from the River Clyde in August 1699 with another 1,300 would-be colonists. They arrived to discover the settlement of 'New Edinburgh' deserted and overgrown, but quickly set about rebuilding it. However, their fear of being driven out by the Spaniards, who regarded the territory as theirs, led them to attack the Spanish fort at Toubacanti in January 1700. The Scots were then subjected to sustained Spanish attacks at Fort St Andrew for a month before surrendering, and were afterwards allowed to leave.

A quarter of Scotland's liquid capital lost

Over 2,000 colonists died in the venture, and the financial loss to Scotland amounted to some £153,000 sterling, nearly a quarter of its liquid capital.

News of the disaster in Scotland unleashed an outpouring of rage against the King, the English, and his ministers in Scotland. It led to debate in the Scottish Parliament about Scotland's right to its own colonies. The King was already unpopular for involving Scotland in his wars with France, and for the loss of trade which this had caused in Scotland; but it was known that he had also ordered colonial governors in the Caribbean not to help the Darien colonists. It was hardly surprising that questions about the succession to the Scottish throne and the powers of the Scottish monarch were reopened.