Company of Scotland

Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies
	Arms of the company
Company type	Joint-stock company
Industry	International trade
Founded	26 June 1695
Defunct	1 May 1707
Fate	Dissolved
Headquarters	Edinburgh, Scotland
Key people	John Hamilton, 2nd Lord Belhaven and Stenton; Adam Cockburn, Lord Ormiston; John Maxwell, Lord Pollok; William Paterson

The Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies, also called the Scottish Darien Company, was an overseas trading company created by an Act of the Parliament of Scotland in 1695. The Act granted the Company a monopoly of Scottish trade to India, Africa and the Americas, extraordinary sovereign rights^[1]^: 25 and 21 years of exemptions from taxation.^[2]^: 100

Financial and political troubles plagued its early years. The court of directors was divided between those residing and meeting in Edinburgh and those in London, amongst whom were both Scots and English.^[1]^: 26 They were also divided by business intentions; some intended to trade in India and on the African coast, as an effective competitor to the English East India Company, while others were drawn to William Paterson's Darien scheme, which ultimately prevailed.^[2]^: 111–2

In July 1698 the company launched its first expedition, led by Paterson, who hoped to establish a colony in Darien (on the Isthmus of Panama), which could then be used as a trading point between Europe and the Far East. Though five ships and 1,200 Scottish colonists landed successfully in Darien, the settlement was poorly provisioned and eventually abandoned.^[1]^: 28 A second, larger expedition (launched before the fate of the first was known) took up the deserted settlement, but was quickly besieged by the Spanish. More than a thousand succumbed to hunger and disease, and in April 1700, two ships carried the few survivors home.

In 1700–01 the Company sent further expeditions to Java and China, but suffered shipwrecks at Malacca and seizure of cargo by pirates at Madagascar.^[1]^: 29

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Fry, Michael (2001). The Scottish Empire. Birlinn. ISBN 184158259X.
^ ^a ^b Watt, Douglas (2008). "The Management of Capital by the Company of Scotland 1696–1707". Journal of Scottish Historical Studies. 25 (2): 97–118. doi:10.3366/jshs.2005.25.2.97. Retrieved 8 December 2020 – via Edinburgh University Press.

[MF01-1] Fry, Michael (2001). The Scottish Empire. Birlinn. ISBN 184158259X.

[DW08-2] Watt, Douglas (2008). "The Management of Capital by the Company of Scotland 1696–1707". Journal of Scottish Historical Studies. 25 (2): 97–118. doi:10.3366/jshs.2005.25.2.97. Retrieved 8 December 2020 – via Edinburgh University Press.

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