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         Series XXVI           Nos. 1-2-3

         JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDIES
                       IN
         Historical and Political Science

      Under the Direction of the Departments
        of History, Political Economy, and
                Political Science

       *       *       *       *       *




BRITISH COMMITTEES, COMMISSIONS, AND COUNCILS OF TRADE AND PLANTATIONS,
1622-1675


BY CHARLES M. ANDREWS
Professor of History



  BALTIMORE
  THE JOHNS HOPKINS PRESS

  PUBLISHED MONTHLY
  January, February, March, 1908


  Copyright 1908 by
  THE JOHNS HOPKINS PRESS




TABLE OF CONTENTS.


CHAPTER I.

CONTROL OF TRADE AND PLANTATIONS UNDER JAMES I AND CHARLES I.

  Before 1622, Privy Council the sole authority                         10
  Commission of Trade, 1622-1623                                        11
  Commission of Trade, 1625-1626                                        12
  Privy Council Committee of Trade, 1630-1640                           13
  Temporary Plantation Commissions, 1630-1633                           14
  Laud Commission for Plantations, 1634-1641                            14
  Subcommittees for Plantations, 1632-1639                              17
  Privy Council in control, 1640-1642                                   21
  Parliamentary Commission for Plantations, 1643-1648                   21


CHAPTER II.

CONTROL OF TRADE AND PLANTATIONS DURING THE INTERREGNUM.

  The Council of Trade, 1650-1653                                       24
  Plantation Affairs controlled by the Council of State, 1649-1651      30
  Standing Committee of the Council for Plantations,
    1651-April, 1653                                                    33
  Plantation Affairs controlled by the Council of State,
    April-Dec., 1653                                                    35
  Trade controlled by Council of State and Parliamentary Committees,
    Dec., 1653-June, 1655                                               36
  Importance of the years 1654-1655                                     36
  The great Trade Committee, 1655-1657                                  38
  Parliamentary Committees of Trade, 1656-1658                          43
  Plantation Affairs controlled by Protector's Council and Council
      of the State, 1653-1660                                           43
    Special Council Committees for Plantations, 1653-1659               44
    Council Committee for Jamaica and Foreign Plantations, 1655-1660    44
    Select Committee for Jamaica, known later as Committee
      for America, 1655-1660                                            45
  Inadequacy of Control during the Interregnum                          47


CHAPTER III.

THE PROPOSALS OF THE MERCHANTS: NOELL AND POVEY.

  Career of Martin Noell                                                49
  Career of Thomas Povey                                                51
  Enterprises of the Merchants, 1657-1659                               53
  Proposals of Noell and Povey                                          55
    "Overtures" of 1654                                                 55
    "Queries" of 1656                                                   58
    Additional Proposals, 1656, 1657                                    58


CHAPTER IV.

COMMITTEES AND COUNCILS UNDER THE RESTORATION.

  Plantation Committee of Privy Council, June 4, 1660                   61
  Work of Privy Council Committee                                       63
  Appointment of Select Councils of Trade and Plantations, 1660         64
  Membership of these Councils                                          67
  Comparison of Povey's "Overtures" with the Instructions for
    Council for Foreign Plantations                                     68
  Comparison of Povey's "First Draft" with Instructions for
    Council of Trade                                                    71
  Work of Council for Foreign Plantations, 1660-1665                    74
  Control of Plantation Affairs, 1665-1670                              79
  Work of Council of Trade, 1660-1664                                   80
  Parliamentary Committee of Trade, 1664                                85
  Commission for English-Scottish Trade, 1667-1668                      86
  Reorganization of Committees of the Privy Council, 1668               87
  Work of Privy Council Committee for Foreign Plantations, 1668-1670    90
  New Select Council of Trade, 1668-1672                                91


CHAPTER V.

THE PLANTATION COUNCILS OF 1670 AND 1672.

  Influence of Ashley and Locke                                         96
  Revival of Council for Foreign Plantations, 1670-1672                 97
    Membership                                                          97
    Commission and Instructions                                         99
    Meetings and Work                                                  101
  Select Council of Trade and Foreign Plantations, 1672-1674           106
    Membership                                                         106
    Commission and Instructions                                        107
    Meetings and Work                                                  109
  Causes of the Revocation of the Commission of Select Council, 1674   111
  Later History of Plantation Control, 1675-1782                       112


APPENDICES.

  I.   Instructions, Board of Trade, 1650                              115
  II.  Instructions, Council for Foreign Plantations, 1670-1672        117
       Additional Instructions for the Same                            124
  III. Draft of Instructions, Council of Trade and Foreign
         Plantations, 1672-1674                                        127
  IV.  Heads of Business; Councils of 1670 and 1672                    133




BRITISH COMMITTEES, COMMISSIONS, AND COUNCILS OF TRADE AND PLANTATIONS,
1622-1675.




CHAPTER I.

Control of Trade and Plantations Under James I and Charles I.


In considering the subject which forms the chief topic of this paper, we
are not primarily concerned with the question of settlement, intimately
related though it be to the larger problem of colonial control. We are
interested rather in the early history of the various commissions,
councils, committees, and boards appointed at one time or another in the
middle of the seventeenth century for the supervision and management of
trade, domestic, foreign, and colonial, and for the general oversight of
the colonies whose increase was furthered, particularly after 1650, in
largest part for commercial purposes. The coupling of the terms "trade"
and "foreign plantations" was due to the prevailing economic theory
which viewed the colonies not so much as markets for British exports
or as territories for the receipt of a surplus British population--for
Great Britain had at that time no surplus population and manufactured
but few commodities for export--but rather as sources of such raw
materials as could not be produced at home, and of such tropical
products as could not be obtained otherwise than from the East and West
Indies. The two interests were not, however, finally consolidated in
the hands of a single board until 1672, after which date they were not
separated until the final abolition of the old Board of Trade in 1782.
It is, therefore, to the period before 1675 that we shall chiefly direct
our attention, in the hope of throwing some light upon a phase of
British colonial control that has hitherto remained somewhat obscure.
Familiar as are many of the facts connected with the early history of
Great Britain's management of trade and the colonies, it is nevertheless
true that no attempt has been made to trace in detail the various
experiments undertaken by the authorities in England in the interest
of trade and the plantations during the years before 1675. Many of
the details are, and will always remain, unknown, nevertheless it is
possible to make some additions to our knowledge of a subject which
is more or less intimately related to our early colonial history.

At the beginning of colonization the control of all matters relating
to trade and the plantations lay in the hands of the king and his
council, forming the executive branch of the government. Parliament
had not yet begun to legislate for the colonies, and in matters
of trade and commerce the parliaments of James I accomplished much
less than had those of Elizabeth. "In the time of James I," says Dr.
Prothero, "it was more essential to assert constitutional principles
and to maintain parliamentary rights than to pass new laws or to create
new institutions." Thus the Privy Council became the controlling factor
in all matters that concerned the colonies and it acted in the main
without reference or delegation to others, since the practice of
appointing advisory boards or deliberative committees, though not
unknown, was at first employed only as an occasional expedient. The
councils of James I were called upon to deal with a wide variety of
colonial business--letters, petitions, complaints and reports from
private individuals, such as merchants, captains of ships voyaging
to the colonies, seamen, prisoners, and the like, from officials
in England, merchant companies, church organizations, and colonial
governments, notably the governor and council and assembly of Virginia.
To all these communications the Council replied either by issuing orders
which were always mandatory, or by sending letters which often contained
information and advice as well as instructions. It dealt with the
Virginia Company in London and sent letters, both before and after the
dissolution of the company, to the governor and council in Virginia,
and in all these letters trade played an important part. For example,
the order of October 24, 1621, which forbade the colony to export
tobacco and other commodities to foreign countries, declared that such
a privilege as an open trade on the part of the colony was desirable
"neither in policy nor for the honor of the state (that being but a
colony derived from hence)," and that it could not be suffered "for that
it may be a loss unto his Majesty in his customs, if not the hazarding
of the trade which in future times is well hoped may be of much profit,
use, and importance to the Commonalty."[1] Similarly the Council issued
a license to Lord Baltimore to export provisions for the relief of his
colony at Avalon,[2] ordered that the _Ark_ and the _Dove_, containing
Calvert and the settlers of Maryland, be held back at Tilbury until the
oaths of allegiance had been taken,[3] and instructed the governor and
company of Virginia to give friendly assistance to Baltimore's
undertaking.[4]

Of the employment of committees or special commissions to inquire
into questions either commercial or colonial there is no evidence
before the year 1622. A few months after the dissolution of the third
Stuart parliament, James I issued a proclamation for the encouragement
of trade, and directed a special commission not composed of privy
councillors to inquire into the decay of the clothing trade and to
report to the Privy Council such remedial measures as seemed best
adapted to increase the wealth and prosperity of the realm.[5] At the
same time he caused a commission to be issued to the Lord Keeper, the
Lord Treasurer, the Lord President of the Council and others "to collect
and cause a true survey to be taken in writing of the names, qualities,
professions, and places of habitation of such strangers as do reside
within the realm of England and use any retailing trade or handicraft
trade and do reform the abuses therein according to the statutes now in
force."[6] The commissioners of trade duly met, during the years 1622
and 1623, summoned persons to appear before them, and reported to the
Council. Their report was afterward presented to the King sitting with
the Council at Wansted, "was allowed and approved of, and commandment
was given to enter it in the Register of Counsell causes and to remain
as an act of Counsell by order of the Lord President."[7] There is
evidence also to show that the commission issued orders on its own
account, for in June, 1623, the Mayor and Aldermen of the city of London
wrote two letters to the commission expressing their approval of its
orders and sending petitions presented to them by citizens of London.[8]

On April 15, 1625, less than three weeks after the death of James I,
a warrant was issued by his successor for a commission of trade