The Darien design and the context of Scottish imperialism

1. The Darien design and the context of Scottish imperialism Gabriel Glickman

2. Britain in the 1690s – the making of a world power • Increased taxation agreed between king and parliament. • Professionalisation/ modernisation of government machinery. • Aim is to serve European, not imperial goals – keep Britain as active partner within the Grand Alliance. • Domestic tension - question of the royal succession.

3. The isthmus of Panama (Darien)

4. The Darien design – key themes • Not seen as frivolous or doomed to failure in contemporary opinion – taken seriously. • Exposes limitations on Scottish independence – danger of antagonising English colonial interests. • Clashes with European priorities of William III. • Raises new questions over the future of Anglo-Scottish relations.

5. Scotland in the 1690s – politics and religion • Radical settlement in 1689 – separate and independent terms reached with William III. • But questions over how free and sovereign Scotland really is when kings reside in England. • Religious divisions – radical Presbyterian settlement destroys Episcopalian Church. • Political and military conflict over the Revolution 1689-82: Episcopalians becoming Jacobites.

6. Scotland in the 1690s – society and economics • Heavily rural, subsistence economy vulnerable to agricultural downturns. • Succession of famines 1690-96. • Exacerbated by: • Economic effects of 1689-92 civil conflict. • Taxation levied for war in Europe. • Effect of protectionist tariffs imposed in Europe/English Navigation Acts.

7. Mercantilism – key tenets • National power created by taxable national wealth, not quality of armies or size of territories. • Wealth created by trade. • Trade/wealth in the world is finite. • Trade therefore a zero-sum game - expansion of one nation’s resources always comes at the expense of another. • Colonies seen as the best way of creating permanent spheres of commercial interest.

8. C17th Scotland - thwarted imperialism • Collapse of schemes in Nova Scotia (1632) and Carolina (1686) – only success is East New Jersey. • Navigation Acts aim to keep American Empire exclusively English. • Scottish expansion largely into Northern Europe (‘forgotten diaspora’ in Sweden/Poland) and Ulster. • National identity therefore less Atlanticist than that of England in 1689.

9. Creation of the Company of Scotland • Original focus on Africa and India rather than America. • Mobilise in London (1695) - attract merchants excluded by monopolies of English joint-stock companies. • Early membership not just Scottish – English, Dutch, Sephardi Jewish directors. • 1696 – forced to move base from London to Edinburgh after exposure by Westminster Parliament. • Patriotic campaign for subscriptions – first colony to be christened Caledonia.

10. William Paterson (1658-1719)

11. The shift to the Americas • Isthmus of Panama weak link in the Spanish Empire. • Spain seen as exhausted and declining power. • Darien to be the focal point of a new empire: capture of trade over conquest of territory (long theme in English imperial thinking).

12. ‘The Door of the Seas and the Key of the Universe’ (Paterson)

13. Darien – reasons for failure • Opposition from Spain and the Papacy - formal protests sent to London. • William III – pre-eminence of European over imperial affairs. • Opposition from the English colonial lobby – merchants, planters, governors: Darien seen as rival attraction for traders and settlers. • Extent of opposition confirms that Darien seen as a very serious proposition in its own time.

14. Darien - the fall-out • National humiliation for Scotland. • Loss of £400,000 – 25 per cent of Scottish liquid capital. • Seen as betrayal by William III and invasion of Scottish sovereignty by the English. • Contemporaries fear re-run of Scottish rebellion against Charles I. • Stark choice for Scotland: to push for greater independence from England - or closer union?