In October 1652 a London newsbook, The Faithful Scout, reported that ‘the long-expected news of the Irish calm, is at last blown over to us with a happy gale’.1 For the conquerors, the question of precisely how this calm should be exploited remained to be decided. A vast confiscation and redistribution of land was imminent, and Irish Catholics and Protestants, adventurers and soldiers, state creditors and other interested parties all expected to be accommodated. This chapter will reconstruct the bargaining process that occurred relating to the design of the settlement from the autumn of 1652 to final approval in the Act of Satisfaction of September 1653. Once that legislation was passed, the Irish government was expected swiftly to oversee the commencement of the land settlement. As during the conquest, however, the pace of proceedings in London had proven altogether too slow for the needs of the authorities in Dublin. In the closing months of 1652, and throughout the first half of the following year, they had already moved to address their concerns around food supply, finance and security through a range of policies, including transplantation. Because these measures helped subsequently to shape the implementation of the settlement approved in London, it is necessary to take account of them here. Ultimately, the Irish government was faced with the task of enforcing the disruptive policy of transplantation to Connacht while at the same time endeavouring to preserve the arrangements that it had already put in place to promote recovery. This circumstance ensured that the former scheme would enjoy a somewhat tentative beginning.