The disaster of the Scottish expedition was enormous. Review: ONE QUARTER of the entire liquid assets of Scotland were lost in these expeditions in the late 1690’s. The act of Union between England and Scotland occurred in 1707. A majority of the Scottish people were against this union but  the votes of the Scottish parliament for each of the articles of union were roughly 2-1 in approval of union. Why did this happen? It so happens one of the side effects of the union is that England reimbursed a lot of the money to Scotland and it’s investors for the Scottish expeditions. Editors Note: This book made no attempt to link these events but looking objectively at the facts make me wonder if the economic factors of the legislators were responsible for these votes. While it might be too harsh to call this a bribe…I wonder.

(Book – Scotland: The Story of a Nation – Magnus Magnuson)