The Scottish Parliament and the politics of empire: Parliament and the Darien Project, 1695–1707

Abstract

SUMMARY This article examines the politics of the Scottish Parliament and the attempt to establish a colony, ‘New Caledonia’, at Darien on the isthmus of Panama in the late seventeenth century. The failure of this project has traditionally been regarded as one of the main economic reasons for pushing Scotland into an incorporating union with England in the 1707 Act of Union, with the loss of circa 25 per cent of Scotland's liquid capital. It was also an emotive issue in increasing tension in Anglo-Scottish relations in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. This article therefore examines important parliamentary legislation that was enacted to encourage and develop overseas development, in the context of the parliamentary sessions of the Williamite Parliament of 1689 to 1702. This Parliament met in ten sessions between 1689 and 1702 and it owed its origins to the 1689 Convention of Estates. In turn, the Convention played an important role in the ‘Glorious’ Revolution in its Scottish context. The role of parliamentary committees, most notably trade committees in the 1693 and 1695 sessions, is examined. The role of parliamentary committees in the drafting of legislation relating to Darien and membership links between these committees and the Company of Scotland marks an important contribution to recent historiography on the Darien project. The failure of the project had an important impact on Scottish parliamentary politics in the sessions of 1698 to 1702, notably in the development of the Country Party, in terms of party politics and factionalism, and the submission of petitions and addresses to Parliament for the defence of Darien. Darien continued to be a controversial political issue in the reign of Queen Anne, following the death of King William in 1702. Abortive negotiations for a union between Scotland and England took place in 1702–03. Compensation for the failure of the Darien project was one of the main reasons for the breakdown in the negotiations. Yet the issue was resolved in the successful negotiations for a treaty in 1706, whose Article XV provided for compensation. This article concludes by examining the politics of Darien in the context of Scottish parliamentary politics in the Parliament of 1703 to 1707 and the successful progress and ratification of the Treaty of Union in the final session of the Scottish Parliament in 1706–07.