Scottish colonial and trade endeavours
The East Jersey project was one in a series of attempts at colonial settlement by Scots in the 17th century.
The earliest initiative, to Nova Scotia, was led by Scots courtiers, Sir Robert Gordon of Gordonstoun and Sir William Alexander of Menstrie in 1622. Several initiatives followed in attempts to emulate colonies of other European countries but these failed. One, in 1669, involved two ships carrying 400 emigrants to the newly English colony of New York but sadly the Hope of Leith was wrecked near Fraserburgh in North East Scotland and the fate of the James is unknown.
English Navigation Acts
This was a time of mercantilism, when states jockeyed to control and protect trade, trying to augment royal coffers and promote manufacture at home and shipping through protective measures. The English Parliament passed Navigation Acts in the 1660s and 1670s to limit opportunities for other countries for trade with England’s colonies. These required that ships be English-owned and crews predominantly English, while commodities like sugar and tobacco could only be carried between England’s colonies and English ports.
Despite being part of the 1603 Union of the Crowns, this applied to Scotland as well as to England’s main competitors, France and the Netherlands. English parliamentarians were worried that such countries could use Scotland as a back-door to their markets.
While there were ways to get round the Navigation Acts, they seriously hampered Scottish trade. Scotland’s merchant fleet stayed small while England’s expanded, and its trade was mainly concerned with coastal, North Sea and Bay of Biscay trade. There were the beginnings of transatlantic trade from Clyde coast ports, though typically involving less than 10 ships a year by the early 1680s. Again, in contrast to England, the returns from international trade to the national exchequer paled in comparison.
Looking for solutions
Meanwhile the rest of the Scottish economy was in a weak state following the civil war years and further religious strife.
The situation encouraged leading merchants and politicians to develop radical ideas and plans to develop trade and make the most of Scotland’s resources and so close the economic gap with England.
The arrival of King Charles II’s brother, James, Duke of York, in Edinburgh as Lord High Commissioner of Scotland in 1679 provided further impetus. While he was there to distance himself from opposition in London to his Catholicism, he was very interested in measures to develop the Scottish economy including through manufacturing and processing ventures. He set up a Committee on Trade in 1681 to explore these. Amongst other propositions from merchants was the setting up of a Scottish colony in North America, with a preference for Florida. Establishing a colony and expanding transatlantic trade would be no easy matter given the outlays and risks involved.
Soon plans were being made for settlements in Carolina and in East Jersey. Ten years later came the venture to Darien in Panama, the latter promoted by the Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies.
Read more
Scottish colonial schemes
George Pratt Insh, Scottish Colonial Schemes, 1620-1686 (Maclehose, 1922)
Peter Gouldesbrough, ‘An Attempted Scottish Voyage to New York in 1669’, The Scottish Historical Review, 40.129 (1961), pp. 56–62
Scottish trade in the 17th century
Eric J. Graham, A Maritime History of Scotland, 1650-1790 (Tuckwell, 2002)
Theodora Keith, Commercial Relations of England and Scotland, 1603-1707 (Cambridge University Press, 1910)
Macinnes, Allan I., Clanship, Commerce and the House of Stuart, 1603-1788 (Tuckwell Press, 1996)
T.C. Smout, Scottish Trade on the Eve of Union, 1660-1707 (Oliver & Boyd, 1963)