X. 1695. stationary or retrograde since the union of the BOOK crowns. The benefit derived by Holland from her Indian trade, and by England from her colonies since the reformation, roused the attention and envy of the Scots; and when a commercial spirit was first excited by Paterson's schemes, like a gamester who contemns the slow returns and accumulation of profits, they languished for the sudden influx of national wealth. at Darien It was Paterson's original and ostensible design, Settlement to establish an East Indian trade in Scotland, to projected. which foreign merchants, impatient of the exclusive companies in England and Holland, might be invited to subscribe. Neither the stock for trade, nor the market for sale, was to be found in Scotland, where a small part of the profits could be expected to remain. Such an inconsiderable company as has since been transferred from Ostend to Sweden, might have subsisted by underselling those large societies, whose monopolizing spirit, and expensive management, have ever required the most exuberant profits. But a secret and magnificent plan was engrafted by Paterson on his original designs. During his voyages with the buccaneers he had probably visited the isthmus of Darien, of which a considerable part was unoc cupied, or, as he conceived, unappropriated by the Spaniards, and inhabited by tribes of independent Indians, hostile to their name. On each side of the isthmus he proposed to establish an emporium X. 1695. BOOK for the trade of the opposite continents; that the manufactures of Europe, and the slaves of Africa, when transported to the gulph of Darien, and conveyed by land across the ridge of mountains. that intersects the isthmus, might be exchanged for the produce of Spanish America, and for the rich merchandize of Asia, imported to the gulph of St. Michael, or to the river Sambo, in the bay of Panama. The same trade-winds that wafted the European commodities across the Atlantic, would carry them across the Pacific ocean to Asia. The ships from each continent would return loaded with the produce of the others, while the ships from Europe would return with the produce of both the Indies. To unite the commerce of the two Indies, by a colony planted in the isthmus of Darien; or, in his own language, to wrest the keys of the world from Spain, was certainly the conception of no vulgar mind. It may be com pared with the noblest and the most successful of Alexander's designs; to establish a mart in Egypt, through which the commerce of India might flow for ages; and was worthy of Spain to execute, had Spain continued a free and enlightened nation, But the schemes of Paterson were addressed to one of the poorest nations in Europe, and recommended by advantages more immediate, and to the Scots more attractive. He represented the natural fertility of the soil, as adapted to the most valuable productions of the tropical climates, and the mines X. 1695. of gold with which the isthmus abounded, as suf- BOOK ficient to gratify their most insatiate desires. With a wiser policy, he proposed to render the colony a free port; where no distinction of party, religion, or nation, should prevail. His schemes were communicated to a select number; and as they were gradually suspected, or suffered to transpire, the commercial ideas of the Scots were expanded, and they began to grasp at the riches of both the Indies 43. to Scotland But the schemes of Paterson, however splendid Unsuitable or successful, were unsuitable to Scotland, or to the circumstances perhaps of any nation not pos sessed of extensive settlements in the west and east. Before a state engages in distant colonization, its capital should be sufficient to cultivate and improve its lands, to manufacture the produce for domestic consumption, and to transport the surplus to a foreign market. But the rude produce of Scotland was generally transported in Dutch barks. There was no capital for its manufacture, even for home consumption, much less for the proper culture and improvement of the soil. That capital which has since encreased from the quick returns of a trade nearer home, must have been absorbed and lost in the settlement of Darien, the profits of which would have been remote and circuitous, and the probable demands of 43 Darien Papers, MS. Adv. Lib. Collection of Papers concerning Darien, Anno 1701. p. 22. X. BOOK which the manufactures of the country were then unable to supply. Instead of supporting domestic 1695. industry, a trade consisting of foreign manufactures, conducted even by a national capital, would have left nothing but the profits to be spent in Scotland. A premature attempt to colonize must have deprived the nation even of that capital, by its very success. The settlement and plantation of Darien must have drained the country of its most active and industrious inhabitants, of its funds and credit; while the wealth that returned, would have departed through a thousand channels to the neighbouring nations, whose manufactures supplied its consumption and trade. The colony might perhaps succeed; but the capital withdrawn from domestic industry, and lost to the country, must have retarded, if it did not prevent, the accumulation of stock; and Scotland might have still continued stationary and uncultivated, without industry or even the means of improvement. Opposed in Such consequences were then imperfectly understood; but more obvious difficulties occurred, which Paterson, with the presumptuous ardour of a projector, had not duly estimated. A joint stock was proposed, of six hundred thousand pounds, to be raised in equal proportions for England and Scotland. Such was the reputation with which the African, or Indian company began its career, that within nine days three hundred thousand pounds were subscribed in London, where X. 1696 ten English directors were appointed to reside. BOOK But the commercial jealousy of the Dutch and English East India companies was immediately excited the West India merchants caught the alarm; and all the bitterness of national animosity was at once revived. The two houses of parliament concurred in a violent and absurd address; that from the vast immunities conferred on the African and Indian company, the stock and shipping of England would be transferred to Scotland, which might become a free port for the commodities of the east; that the English expelled from the foreign markets by the competition and exemption of the Scots from duties, would be undersold by a clandestine importation at home; and that if Scotland were once permitted to acquire a settlement in America, the colonial trade of England would be utterly lost. The king replied, that he had been ill served in Scotland, but that some remedy to prevent the inconvenience might still be found. His ministers, the marquis of Tweedale, who did not long survive, and the two secretaries, Johnson and Dalrymple, were immediately dismissed. But the commons proceeded to enquire by what means the act had been obtained in the Scottish parliament; to examine what subscriptions had been procured in London; and to impeach the directors in each kingdom for administering an oath of fidelity in England. The adventurers, intimidated at these furious pro |