Broadside ballad entitled 'Trade's Release: or, Courage to the Scotch-Indian-Company'

Commentary

This ballad begins: 'Come, rouse up your Heads, Come rouse up anon! / Think of the / Wisdom of old Solomon, / And heartily Joyn with our own Paterson, / To fetch Home INDIAN treasures'. Below the title, it is stated that this new song is sung to the tune of 'The Turks are all Confounded'.

This ballad is a celebration of the Scotch-Indian-company, better known as the Darien Company. Formed in 1695, the company's aim was to establish colonies that Scotland could use for trading purposes. A lengthy ballad, most of the verses make extravagant claims for the success that the company will achieve. However, the company never recovered from its disastrous attempt to set up a Scottish colony in Darien, Panama, in 1698, and it consequently folded in 1707. The failure of the Darien Company was a massive blow to Scottish confidence, and was one of the main reasons for the Union of 1707.

Broadsides are single sheets of paper, printed on one side, to be read unfolded. They carried public information such as proclamations as well as ballads and news of the day. Cheaply available, they were sold on the streets by pedlars and chapmen. Broadsides offer a valuable insight into many aspects of the society they were published in, and the National Library of Scotland holds over 250,000 of them.

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