The attempt to drain and develop the Dismal Swamp region of Virginia in the early eighteenth century was an early attempt at large scale venture capitalism, and by all accounts a tremendous failure. By following a trans-Atlantic paper trail, Royster uncovered the details of a web of friendships, associates and business partners that each contributed in ways large and small the failure of the Dismal Swamp Company. Public improvements, familial turmoil, fraud, and irrational choices based on forlorn hopes, all had a cumulative influence on the failure of the
The attempt to drain and develop the Dismal Swamp region of Virginia in the early eighteenth century was an early attempt at large scale venture capitalism, and by all accounts a tremendous failure. By following a trans-Atlantic paper trail, Royster uncovered the details of a web of friendships, associates and business partners that each contributed in ways large and small the failure of the Dismal Swamp Company. Public improvements, familial turmoil, fraud, and irrational choices based on forlorn hopes, all had a cumulative influence on the failure of the