Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
- 8,995
On February 16, 1707, the Scottish Parliament...
...approved with 110: 69 votes the "Act of Union", the union with the Kingdom of England ...:
A triumphant success for the creation of the United Kingdom ...?
No - because the voting result came about through simple bribery!
It all started with the idea of the Scottish financial expert William Paterson, who founded the Bank of England in London and made a fortune in England.
On November 13, 1695, Paterson founded the "Company of Scotland" trading company in London (here the coat of arms of the company) ......
His idea seems a bit spooky today:
On November 13, 1695, Paterson founded the "Company of Scotland" trading company in London (here the coat of arms of the company) ...
... and started collecting money from investors.
With the money, a Scottish (!) Colony was to be founded - at the end of the world, so to speak, in the Darién province in Panama ...:
On July 18, 1698, at Leith launched the first five ships with colonists for the colony called "New Caledonia" ...
... on November 2, 1698 they reached the coast of Darién.
The colonists built Fort St. Andrews on the Gulf of Darién as a base ...:
Then they started clearing the jungle and for the planned New Edinburgh settlement and fields ...:
But the whole thing ended in disaster!
The new colony looked very tempting on the map, but unfortunately nobody had bothered to take a personal look at the square beforehand:
"New Caledonia" was contaminated with mosquitos and malaria (which is why the natives avoided the area like the plague!) ...
... the soil was not very fertile, the supplies that had been brought rot in the tropical rain and the hot, humid climate made it difficult for the 1,200 settlers.
They were starving. More and more fell ill. After all, there were up to ten dead every day ...:
New Edinburgh was abandoned and the fort was withdrawn ...:
On November 30, 1699 (nobody knew anything about the catastrophic conditions at home), a second fleet brought another 1,140 settlers.
In order to have a roof over their heads at all, they rebuilt New Edinburgh, otherwise nothing changed: they went hungry, got sick - and died.
Then Spanish colonists, who claimed the area as part of the Real Audiencia de Panamá, attacked the "invaders" and besieged Fort St. Andrews. In March 1700 the last Scottish settlers surrendered to the Spaniards; at least they had something to eat for them.
That meant the end of the soaring plans of "New Calodonia"! The "Company of Scotland" was broke (of the £ 400,000 subscribed (i.e. firmly promised by investors), only £ 153,448 had actually been paid in, the Scottish state had to step in (which brought the state treasury to the brink of ruin!) And lots of people lost a lot of money.
Now the English Queen Anne...
... came into play, which negotiated the "Act of Union" with the Scots in 1706/1707 ...:
And the impending Scottish state bankruptcy was exactly the point where she could use the lever!
The law on unification was supplemented by the passage that England would assume all Scottish national debt and compensate investors.
So the queen bought a compliant majority in the parliament because there were also many people who had lost a lot of money through the "Darién project" and were now hoping for compensation ...:
End of the story.
P.S.
I'm just wondering what Prime Minister Johnson will do when the next referendum is due in Scotland ...
Cheers
...approved with 110: 69 votes the "Act of Union", the union with the Kingdom of England ...:
A triumphant success for the creation of the United Kingdom ...?
No - because the voting result came about through simple bribery!
It all started with the idea of the Scottish financial expert William Paterson, who founded the Bank of England in London and made a fortune in England.
On November 13, 1695, Paterson founded the "Company of Scotland" trading company in London (here the coat of arms of the company) ......
His idea seems a bit spooky today:
On November 13, 1695, Paterson founded the "Company of Scotland" trading company in London (here the coat of arms of the company) ...
... and started collecting money from investors.
With the money, a Scottish (!) Colony was to be founded - at the end of the world, so to speak, in the Darién province in Panama ...:
On July 18, 1698, at Leith launched the first five ships with colonists for the colony called "New Caledonia" ...
... on November 2, 1698 they reached the coast of Darién.
The colonists built Fort St. Andrews on the Gulf of Darién as a base ...:
Then they started clearing the jungle and for the planned New Edinburgh settlement and fields ...:
But the whole thing ended in disaster!
The new colony looked very tempting on the map, but unfortunately nobody had bothered to take a personal look at the square beforehand:
"New Caledonia" was contaminated with mosquitos and malaria (which is why the natives avoided the area like the plague!) ...
... the soil was not very fertile, the supplies that had been brought rot in the tropical rain and the hot, humid climate made it difficult for the 1,200 settlers.
They were starving. More and more fell ill. After all, there were up to ten dead every day ...:
New Edinburgh was abandoned and the fort was withdrawn ...:
On November 30, 1699 (nobody knew anything about the catastrophic conditions at home), a second fleet brought another 1,140 settlers.
In order to have a roof over their heads at all, they rebuilt New Edinburgh, otherwise nothing changed: they went hungry, got sick - and died.
Then Spanish colonists, who claimed the area as part of the Real Audiencia de Panamá, attacked the "invaders" and besieged Fort St. Andrews. In March 1700 the last Scottish settlers surrendered to the Spaniards; at least they had something to eat for them.
That meant the end of the soaring plans of "New Calodonia"! The "Company of Scotland" was broke (of the £ 400,000 subscribed (i.e. firmly promised by investors), only £ 153,448 had actually been paid in, the Scottish state had to step in (which brought the state treasury to the brink of ruin!) And lots of people lost a lot of money.
Now the English Queen Anne...
... came into play, which negotiated the "Act of Union" with the Scots in 1706/1707 ...:
And the impending Scottish state bankruptcy was exactly the point where she could use the lever!
The law on unification was supplemented by the passage that England would assume all Scottish national debt and compensate investors.
So the queen bought a compliant majority in the parliament because there were also many people who had lost a lot of money through the "Darién project" and were now hoping for compensation ...:
End of the story.
P.S.
I'm just wondering what Prime Minister Johnson will do when the next referendum is due in Scotland ...
Cheers
