Darien Affair

Farmerman, I've never heard of this, do you have a link?

None that Ive used as reference acquiunk. it is a topic that came up in dinner conversation. As i recall from history , SCotland tried to establish a Panama Colony with the idea of controlling the cross Pacific trade. This was at the end of the 17th century and preceeded Bonnie Prince Charlies debacle.9Not related as events however),it was our dinner point that history is full of examples of pretty stupid moves by people who blindly follow leaders who are not as bright as theyre touted to be
Sound familiar?

It turns out there is a bunch of stuff on the web about this; here are a few sites, for more type Scotland+Panama+Darien into google.
This project had a precursor called New Providence established in approximately the same place by English Puritians in 1630. The Spanish ran them out in 1641 and the Scots were back at it 15 years latter. I was aware of the earlier effort. For an excellent history of the New Providence effort see the book by Karen Kupperman. (disclaimer: she is a friend) click on the Amazon link below for a review

http://atlasgeo.span.ch/fotw/flags/pa-dar.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/3006370.stm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/timelines/scotland/darien.shtml
http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/Scotland-History/DarienScheme.htm

linkAmazon

cool, thanks for the links. Now maybe I can settle this . The major opinion is mismanagement of secured funds and the costs of security.
That, however, seems to cover almost all contingencies.