Union and No Union. Being an Enquiry into the Grievances of the Scots

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Of Defoe and the Union

Daniel Defoe had played an important role in the advancement of the Act of Union, which joined England and Scotland in 1707. In despair during his imprisonment for the seditious libel case, Defoe wrote to William Paterson, the London Scot and founder of the Bank of England and part instigator of the Darien scheme, who was in the confidence of Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, leading minister and spymaster in the English Government. Harley accepted Defoe’s services and released him in 1703. He immediately published The Review, which appeared weekly, then three times a week, written mostly by himself. This was the main mouthpiece of the English Government promoting the Act of Union 1707.

But the Union was not seen as secure for some time, given the problems of succession, with queen Anne having no direct heir, as well as settlement between the churches of England and Scotland and issues of taxation. Claims began surfacing, primarily around the Hanoverian succession, that affronts on each of these issues had already sundered the Union. Defoe here takes up the taxation argument primarily, with much of the discussion surrounding a Malt tax, and details how the introduction of such taxes did not constitute an “undue burden” on Scotland.