Talk:Darién scheme

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FYI: This colony was recently in the news. See Panama to display letters from failed Scots colony at Yahoo! News (from a Reuters's report). BlankVerse ∅ 08:38, 15 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] the Company raised 400,000 pounds

Is that Pound sterling or Pound Scots? –Hajor 17:07, 4 October 2005 (UTC)

I think it was 400,000l. sterling, but I'm really not sure - both were used in finance in Scotland at the time, confusing matters, and I really don't trust Google over this. Certainly the description of it as a large fraction of the currency in Scotland suggests English, not Scots - 400k Scots would only have been about thirty-five thousand in sterling, and a few decades earlier one man was able to underwrite the English navy for half that amount out of his own pocket [1].

With those comments, the staggering amount in sterling seems more likely that the more moderate amount in Scots. Thanks. –Hajor 17:54, 4 October 2005 (UTC)

Can we sanity-check this? Yes. Let's try...

It looks like the total English GDP was about £55m (contemporary value) in 1688. The Scottish one would have been smaller... hmm... let's call it a fifth, eleven million, which is probably too high but hey.

This'd make the Darien sum about three and a half percent of GDP; if a third, total cash in the country would have been eleven percent of GDP.

Currently, in the US, currency makes up ~6.25% of GDP, twelve and a half or so if you include checking accounts and other "M1 money" (see money supply).

I'm not an economist, by far - feel free to find one and ask them - but this makes "a third of all the money" being 400k sterling look plausible to me. Shimgray | talk | 18:25, 4 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Why Darién?

What's the source for this? I'm used to Darien. Septentrionalis 05:39, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

I'm afraid I don't understand your question, the source for what? AllanHainey 08:05, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

"Darien scheme" quite aptly redirects to "Darién scheme" (with the diacritic). No problem, really. =J //Big Adamsky 11:18, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

Ah, I see what you mean, the wee dash above the e. My understanding is that this is how Darien is rendered by the Spanish who claimed Darien, and presumably by the Panamanians who hold the territory now. I see your point though "Darien scheme" relates to the Scottish scheme & so the Scottish spelling (without dash) should be used unless at the time of the scheme the dash was used Eg in advertising for the venture, newspaper reports, etc. I have no idea whether it was or wasn't but frankly doubt it as the accented e isn't used in Scots, or in English. AllanHainey 08:22, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

This violates Wikipedia:Naming conventions (common names) and Wikipedia:Naming conventions (use English). --Dhartung | Talk 01:37, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Quality?

This article seems shallow and subjective. Can anyone offer a more objective indepth account?