The Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and The Indies, overseas trading company, Edinburgh, 1695-1707

What became the Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies was the idea of William Paterson, a prolific ‘projector’ or promoter of speculative money-making schemes. He had been instrumental in the foundation of the Bank of England in 1694, but his new plan aimed to bring financial prosperity to Scotland, his homeland. He proposed that the Scottish Parliament, following the passing of "An Act for Incourageing Forraign Trade" in 1693, should grant a Scottish monopoly on trade with Africa and the Indies to a trading company, enabling it to harness the lucrative Far Eastern trade.

A key part of the plan was the establishment of a Scottish colony in Central America, at a place called Darien (now part of Panama), so that merchant ships could reach the Pacific more easily, without having to make the long and perilous journey around Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope. Instead, goods would be transported to the colony at Darien, on the Atlantic side of the Isthmus of Panama, and carried across to a port on the Pacific side, where ships with exchange cargoes from the East Indies and Asia would be waiting.

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