X-Nico

2 unusual facts about Darien scheme


Clan Paterson

William Paterson was a founder of the Bank of England, however he is more well remembered as being the architect of the disastrous Darien scheme.

Darien scheme

The only luck the settlers had was in giant turtle hunting, but fewer and fewer men were fit enough for such strenuous work.


Daniel Defoe

In despair, he wrote to William Paterson the London Scot and founder of the Bank of England and part instigator of the Darien scheme, who was in the confidence of Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, leading minister and spymaster in the English Government.

John Hamilton, 2nd Lord Belhaven and Stenton

He was a director of and invested heavily in the Scottish Trading Company, which was formed in 1695 and was responsible for the ill-fated Darien scheme to set up a Scots colony on the Darien peninsula in Panama.


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