ABSTRACT
The protection of a specific invention by a private Act of Parliament has rarely followed a pattern, at least in England. The use of private Acts to obtain protection for an invention originally arose from the absence of the King during the Civil War. The most famous private Act during this period is that passed in favour of the Marquis of Worcester – a prolific inventor. The Scottish Parliament willingly granted extensive exclusive rights to supposed inventors over above those granted by patents. The Act for Manufactories 1641 was part of a continuing Scots policy which has been said to have been "to rival the Dutch in the fishing industry and the English in the cloth trade". The Darien project was an attempt to boost Scottish trade and the national economy in a period of nationalism and protectionism. Parliament was, therefore, quite content to reward certain inventors well beyond that which was allowed by the Statute of Monopolies.
