Francis Watt

“ He went to the continent and pressed it to no purpose in Hamburg, Amsterdam and Berlin, and on his return to London he engaged in trade and rapidly amassed a considerable fortune. About 1690 he was occupied in the formation in the Hampstead Water Company, and in 1694 he founded the Bank of England. The government required money, and the country, rapidly increasing in wealth, required a bank. The subscribers lent their money to the nation, and this debt became the bank stock. The credit of having formulated the scheme and persuaded its adoption is due to Paterson. ”

“ Encouragement was to be given to foreign Protestants and Jews to settle in the kingdom, gold and silver were to be coined free of charge, and money kept up to its nominal standard. All export duties were to be abolished and import regulated on a new plan. ”

“ There is singular fitness in the motto “Sic vos non vobis” inscribed under the only portrait of him we possess.
See Life of W. Paterson, by S. Bannister (Edinburgh, 1858) ; Paterson's Works, by S. Bannister (3 vols., London, 1859) ; The Birthplace and Parentage of W. Paterson, by W. Pagan (Edinburgh, 1865) ; Eng. Hist. Review, xi. 260. The brilliant account of the Darien scheme in the fifth volume of Macaulay's History is incorrect and misleading; that in Burton's Hist. of Scotland (vol. viii. ch. 84) is much truer. ”

“ Paterson believed that thus the late disasters would be more than retrieved. (2) A Proposal to plant a Colony in Darien to protect the Indians against Spain, and to open the Trade of South America to all Nations (1701) . This was the Darien scheme on a new and broader basis. It points out in detail the advantages to be gained: free trade would be advanced over all the world, and Great Britain would largely profit. (3) Wednesday Club Dialogues upon the Union (London, 1706) . These were imaginary conversations in a club in the city of London about the union with Scotland. ”