Milne’s Ct, Edinburgh EH1 2NE
In the 1690s Scots spent over £9,000,000 (2016 money) on Eastern goods, and in 1695 the Scottish ‘Company Tradeing to Affrica and the Indies’ was licenced. In 1696 here in Milne’s Court lived seven investors: merchant James Balfour; Deans of Guild McLurgg and Allan; solicitor Cunningham; Alexander Gibson; and apothecary Miln. Their neighbour James Byers furthermore succeeded in being made governor of the Company’s ill-fated Darien trading post. The Company’s failure led to painful losses but after 1707, investment opportunities in the English East India Company were extended to Scots like portrait painter Allan Ramsay of nearby Ramsay Gardens.
Interior of Milne’s Court.
The Darien Chest which held the money and documents of the Company of Scotland, now at the National Mueum of Scotland.
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