British Committees, Commissions, and Councils of Trade and Plantations , 1622-1675 Part 4

CHAPTER IV.

Committees and Councils Under the Restoration.

Charles II landed at Dover on May 25, 1660 and on the twenty-seventh named at Canterbury four men, General Monck, the Earl of Southampton, William Morrice, and Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, who took oath as privy councillors. Others who had been members of the Council on foreign soil or were added during the month following the return of the King swelled the number to more than twenty. The first meeting of the Privy Council was held on May 31, and it was inevitable that during the ensuing weeks many pet.i.tions concerning the various claims and controversies which had been agitating merchants and planters during the previous years and had been reported on by the Committee for America should have been brought to the attention of the Council. Such matters as appointments to governors.h.i.+ps and other offices, the political disturbances in Antigua, Barbadoes, and Jamaica, the t.i.tles to Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Barbadoes, became at once living issues. Many of the pet.i.tions were from the London merchants, and we may not doubt that the personal influence of those whose names have been already mentioned was brought to bear upon the members of the Council. It became necessary, therefore, for the King and his advisers to make early provision for the proper consideration of colonial business in order that the colonies might be placed in a position of greater security and in order that the West Indian and American trade, from which the King and his Chancellor expected important additions to the royal revenue, might be encouraged and extended. Among the pet.i.tions received in June, 1660, were two from rival groups of merchants interested in the governors.h.i.+p and trade of the island of Nevis. One of these pet.i.tions desired the confirmation of the appointment of Col. Philip Ward as governor of Nevis; the other the reappointment of the former governor, Russell. This was the first difficult question that had yet arisen, for Berkeley's return to Virginia was a foregone conclusion, while the condition and settlement of Nova Scotia, Barbadoes and Jamaica were to be of importance later.

Acting on these pet.i.tions regarding Nevis, only the second of which is entered in the Privy Council Register, the King in Council appointed on July 4, 1660, a committee, known as "The Right Honorable the Lords appointed a Committee of this Board for Trade and Plantations." The members were Edward Montague, Earl of Manchester, the Lord Chamberlain; Thomas Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, the Lord Treasurer; Robert Sydney, Earl of Leicester; William Fiennes, Lord Say and Seale; John Lord Robartes; Denzil Holles, Arthur Annesley, Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, and the Secretaries of State, Sir Edward Nicholas and Sir William Morrice. The committee was instructed to meet on every Monday and Thursday at three o'clock in the afternoon, "to review, heare, examine, and deliberate upon any pet.i.tions, propositions, memorials, or other addresses, which shall be presented or brought in by any person or persons concerning the plantations, as well in the Continent as Islands of America, and from time to time make their report to this board of their proceedings."[1]

It is evident from the wording of these instructions that the committee was designed to be a continuous one and to carry on the work of the former committee for foreign plantations of the Council of State. There is no essential difference between these committees, except that one represented a commonwealth and the other a monarchy. We pa.s.s from the one arrangement to the other with very little jar, and with much less sense of a break in the continuity than when we pa.s.s from the system under the Republic to that under the Protectorate. The Privy Council committee had all the essential features of a standing committee and, after the experiment with separate and select councils had proved unsatisfactory, it a.s.sumed entire control of trade and plantation affairs in 1675, a control which it exercised until 1696. Though an occasional change was made in its members.h.i.+p and some reorganization was effected in 1668, the Lords of Trade of July 4, 1660, commissioned with plenary powers by patent under the great seal, became the Lords of Trade of February 9, 1675.

From 1660 to 1675 this committee of the Privy Council played no insignificant part although, after the creation of the councils, it was bound to be limited in the actual work that it performed. During the four months after its appointment it was the only body that had to do with trade and plantations except the Privy Council, which occasionally sat as a committee of the whole for plantation affairs. During the summer the committee considered with care and a due regard for all aspects of the case the claims of various persons to the government of Barbadoes. Despite the opposition of Modyford, who had been commissioned governor by the Council of State the April before, and John Colleton, one of the Council of Barbadoes, and despite the efforts of Alderman Riccard and other merchants of London, Francis Lord Willoughby was restored to the government under the claims of the Earl of Carlisle.

At the same time the claims of the Kirks, Elliott, and Sterling to Nova Scotia were examined and eventually decided in favor of Col. Temple, the governor there. Willoughby immediately appointed Capt. Watts governor of the Caribbee Islands, himself, through his deputy, took the governors.h.i.+p of Barbadoes, Modyford became governor of Jamaica, Berkeley of Virginia, and Russell of Nevis. It is at least worthy of recall that Willoughby, Watts, Temple, and Russell were all within the circle of Povey's friends, that Povey and Noell both pet.i.tioned the King for Russell's reappointment, and that Temple wrote Povey begging him to exert his influence in his (Temple's) behalf, lest he lose the governors.h.i.+p. Povey was certainly in high favor with the monarchy; in 1660 he was appointed treasurer to the Duke of York and Master of Requests to his Majesty in Extraordinary June 22, 1660,[2] and during the years that followed he held office after office and with all the skill of a politician continued to find offices for his kinsmen. William Blathwayt, of later fame, was his nephew. Noell was no less honored; he became a member of the Royal Company of Merchants, the Royal African Company, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England, and was finally knighted in 1663 and died in 1665.[3] As we shall see, both men became very active in the affairs of the plantations, and it is more than likely that the opinions of the King in Council were not infrequently shaped by their suggestions and advice.

How early the decision was reached to create separate councils of trade and foreign plantations it is impossible to say. Some time between May and August, 1660, Povey must have planned to recast his "Overtures"

and to present them for the consideration of the King. At first he endeavored to adapt those of 1657 to the new situation by subst.i.tuting "Foreign Plantations" for the "West Indies," "Ma^{tie}" for "Highness,"

and "his Ma^{ties} Privie Councill" for "the great Councill"; but he finally decided to present a new draft, in which, however, he retained many of the essential clauses of the former paper. Whether the recommendations of Povey as presented in the "Overtures" influenced Lord Clarendon to recommend such councils to the King we cannot say; it is more likely that the practice adopted under the Protectorate had already commended itself to the Chancellor, who was beginning to show that interest in the plantations which characterizes the early years of his administration. That he should have consulted Noell and Povey and other London merchants is to be expected of the man who for at least five years kept up a close correspondence with Maverick of New England, Ludwell of Virginia, and D'Oyley, Littleton, and Modyford in the West Indies,[4] and who was constantly urging upon the King the importance of the plantations as sources of revenue and the great financial possibilities that lay in the improvement of trade. On August 17, 1660, the King in Council drafted a letter to "Our very good Lord the Lord Maior of the Citty of London & to the Court of Aldermen of the said City," reading as follows:

"After our hearty commendations these are to acquaint you, That his Majesty having this day taken into his princely consideration how necessary it is for the good of this kingdom, that Trade and Commerce with foreign parts, be with all due care, incouraged and maintayned, And for the better settling thereof declared his gracious intention to appoint a Committee of understanding able persons, to take into their particular consideration all things conducible thereunto; We do by his Ma^{ts} special command and in order to the better carrying on of this truly royal, profitable, and advantageous designe, desire you to give notice hereof unto the Turkey Merchants, the Merchant Adventurers, the East India, Greenland, and Eastland Companys, and likewise to the unincorporated Traders, for Spain, France, Portugal, Italy, and the West India Plantations; Willing them out of their respective societies to present unto his Majesty the names of fower of their most knowing active men (of whom, when his Majesty shall have chosen two and unto this number of merchants added some other able and well experienced persons, dignified also with the presence and a.s.sistance of some of his Majesty's Privy Council) All those to be by his Ma^{tie} appointed const.i.tuted and authoried by commission under the Great Seal as a Standing Committee, to enquire into and rectify all things tending to the Advancement of Trade and Commerce; That so by their prudent and faithful council and advice, his Ma^{tie} may (now in this conjuncture, whilst most Foraigne Princes and Potentates doe, upon his Ma^{ties} most happy establishment upon his throne, seek to renew their former Allyances with this Crowne), insert into the several Treatyes, such Articles & Clauses as may render this Nation more prosperous and flouris.h.i.+ng in Trade and Commerce. Thus by prudence, care, & industry improving those great advantages to the highest point of felicity, which by its admirable situation Nature seems to have indulged to this his Majesty's kingdom. So we bid you heartily farewell."[5]

This letter was signed by Chancellor Hyde, Earl of Southampton, George Monck, Earl of Albemarle, Lord Say and Seale, Earl of Manchester, Lord Robartes, Arthur Annesley, and Secretary Morrice, who probably formed a special committee appointed to draft it. Some time within the month the answer of the Aldermen must have been received, for on September 19 the Council ordered the attorney general "to make a draught of a commission for establis.h.i.+ng a Councell of Trade according to the grounds layed"

in the letter of the seventeenth of August, "upon the perusal whereof at the Board his Ma^{tie} will insert the names of the said Counsell."

It is more than likely that the project for the second council, that of plantations, went forward _pari pa.s.su_ with the Council for Trade and that the letter to the Mayor and Aldermen served a double purpose. At any rate that must have been the understanding among those interested at the time, for on September 26, one Norwich, Captain of the Guards, who had been in Clarendon's employ, sent in a memorial to the Chancellor begging that the King employ him "in his customs and committees of trade and forraign plantations."[6] The matter of drafting the commissions must have taken some time, for they are not mentioned as ready for the addition of names before the last week in October. The business of making up the lists of members must have been a difficult and tedious matter. Many lists exist among the Domestic Papers which contain changes, erasures and additions, drafts and corrected drafts, which show how much pains Clarendon and the others took to make the members.h.i.+p of the Council of Trade satisfactory. A suggested list was first drawn up containing the names of privy councillors, country gentlemen, customers, merchants, traders, the navy officers, gentlemen versed in affairs, and doctors of civil law. With this list was considered another containing the names of the persons nominated by the different merchant companies.

Other lists seem also to have been presented.[7] Probably in much the same way the list of the members of the Council for Foreign Plantations was made up, but more slowly.

The commissions were both ready by October 25 and on November 7 had reached the Crown Office (Chancery), ready to pa.s.s the great seal. The commission for the Council of Trade pa.s.sed the great seal on that day and is dated November 7, 1660; but the commission for the Council for Foreign Plantations was held back that the names of other members might be added and it became necessary to have a new bill pa.s.sed and duly engrossed three weeks later.[8] Therefore the commission for the Council for Foreign Plantations is dated December 1, 1660.

An a.n.a.lysis of the members.h.i.+p of these two councils and of the members.h.i.+p of the Royal African Company, created soon after, shows many points of interest. The Council of Trade consisted of sixty-two members, that of Foreign Plantations of forty-eight,[9] and that of the African Company of sixty-six. Twenty-eight members are common to the first two bodies, eleven are common to the Council of Trade and the Royal African Company, and eight are common to all three groups. These eight are John Lord Berkeley of Stratton; Sir George Carteret, Sir Nicholas Crispe, Sir Andrew Riccard, Sir John Shaw, Thomas Povey, Martin Noell, and John Colleton. The other members common to the two councils are Lord Clarendon, the Earl of Southampton, Earl of Manchester, Earl of Marlborough, Earl of Portland, Lord Robartes, Francis Lord Willoughby, Denzil Holles, Sir Edward Nicholas, Sir William Morrice, Arthur Annesley, Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, William Coventry, Daniel O'Neale, Sir James Draxe, Edward Waller, Edward Digges, William Williams, Thomas Kendall, and John Lewis; while among the other members of the Council for Foreign Plantations are such well-known men as Sir William Berkeley, Capt. John Limbrey, Col. Edward Waldrond, Capt. Thomas Middleton, Capt. William Watts, and Capt. Alexander Howe. Thus the merchants, sea-captains, and planters, men thoroughly familiar with the questions of trade and plantations and intimately connected with the plantations themselves are members of the Council of Plantations and sometimes of that of Trade also. It is significant that among the four London merchants common to all three groups should be found the names of Noell and Povey. Their a.s.sociates, Crispe and Riccard, were persons well known in the history of London trade, and probably the four names represent the four most influential men among the merchants of London who supported the King. When we turn to the work of these councils we shall see that Povey and Noell were active members also.

However uncertain we may be regarding the influence of Povey and Noell in shaping the policy of Clarendon and the King, that uncertainty disappears as soon as we examine the instructions which were drafted to accompany the commission for a Council for Foreign Plantations.

The instructions are little more than a verbal reproduction of the "Overtures" which Povey drafted some time during the summer of 1660 for presentation to the King. They are based on the earlier overtures and proposals and certain pa.s.sages can be traced back unchanged to the first "Overture" of 1654. Seven of the eleven clauses are taken from the Povey papers as follows:

_Overtures._ _Instructions._

They may forthwith write letters 2. You shall forthwith write to everie Governour ... requiring letters to evrie of our an exact and perticular Account of Governo^{rs} ... to send unto the State of their affairs; of the nature and const.i.tution of their 3. you ... perticular and exact Lawes and Government, and in what accompt of the state of their modell they move; what numbers of affaires; of the nature and them, what Fortifications, and const.i.tution of their lawes and other Strengths, and Defences are governm^{t} and in what modell upon the Places. and frame they move and are disposed; what numbers of men; what fortifications and other strengths and defences are upon the place.

To apply to all prudentiall meanes 5. To applie your selves to for the rendering these Dominions all prudentiall means for the usefull to England, and England rendering those dominions usefull helpfull to them; and that the to England, and England helpful Severall Pieces, and Collonies bee to them, and for the bringing the drawn and disposed into a more severall Colonies and Plantacons, certaine, civill, and uniform waie within themselves, into a more of Government; and distribution of certaine civill and uniforme publick justice. [waie] of government and for the better ordering and distributeing of publicque justice among them.

To settle such a continuall 4. To order and settle such a correspondencie, that it may be able continuall correspondencie that to give upp an account once a yeare you may be able, as often as you to his Ma^{tie} of the Goverment of are required thereunto, to give each Place; of their Complaints, up to us an accompt of the their Wants, their Aboundance, of Governm'{t} of each Colonie; of everie s.h.i.+pp trading there, and its their complaints, their wants, lading; and whither consign'd; and their abundance; of their severall to know what the proceeds of that growths and comodities of every Place have been that yeare; whereby s.h.i.+pp Tradeing there and its the instrinsick value, and the true ladeing and whither consigned and condition of each part and of the what the proceeds of that place whole may be thoroughly understood; have beene in the late years; that and whereby a Ballance may be thereby the intrinsick value and erected for the better ordering and the true condicon of each part of disposing of Trade, and of the the whole may be thoroughly growth of the Plantations, that soe, understood; whereby a more steady each Place within itself and all of judgem^{t} and ballance may be them being as it were made up into made for the better ordering and one Comonwealth, may by his Ma^{tie} disposing of trade & of the bee heere governd, and regulated proceede and improvem^{ts} of the accordingly, upon common and equal Plantacons; that soe each place principles. within it selfe, and all of them being collected into one viewe and managem^{t} here, may be regulated and ordered upon commonand equall ground & principles.

To enquire diligently into the 6. To enquire diligently into Severall Governments and Councells the severall governm^{ts} and of Plantations belonging to Councells of Colonies Plantacons forreigne Princes, or States; and distant Dominions, belonging and examine by what Conduct and to other Princes or States, and Pollicies they govern, or benefitt to examine by what conduct and their own Collonies, and upon what pollicies they govern or benefit Grounds. And is to consult and them; and you are to consult and provide soe, that if such Councells provide that if such councells be be good, wholesome, and practicable, good wholesome and practicable, they may be applyed to our use; or they may be applied to the case if they tend, or were designed to of our Plantacons; or if they our prejudice or Disadvantage, they tend or were designed to the may bee ballanced, or turned-back prejudice or disadvantage thereof upon them. or of any of our subjects or of trade or comerce, how then they may be ballanced or turned back upon them.

To receive, debate, and favour 11. To advise, order, settle, and all such Propositions as shall dispose of all matters relating to be tendered to them, for the the good governm^{t} improvement improvement of any of the forreigne and management of our Forraine Plantations, or in order to any Plantacons or any of them, with other laudable and advantageous your utmost skill direccon and enterprize. prudence.

To call to its Advice and 7. To call to your a.s.sistance Consultation from time to time, as from time to time as often as the often as the matter in debate and matter in consideration shall under consideration shall require, require any well experienced any well experienced Persons, persons, whether merchants, whether Mechants, or Seamen, or planters, seamen, artificers, Artificers. etc.

In the "Overtures" there are no clauses corresponding to those in the Instructions relating to the enforcement of the Navigation Act or to the spread of the Christian religion; these may well be deemed Restoration additions, inserted at Clarendon's request. But the clause concerning the transportation of servants, poor men, and vagrants may well have been Povey's own, for both Povey and Noell were interested in the question and Noell had been in the business since 1654. In the "Queries"

is the following paragraph:

"Whither the weeding of this Comon Wealth of Vagabonds, condemned Persons and such as are heere useless and hurtful in wars and peace, and a settled course taken for the transporting them to the Indias and thereby princ.i.p.ally supplying Jamaica is not necessary to be consulted."

Among the Povey papers is one ent.i.tled "Certain propositions for the better accommodating the Forreigne Plantacons with Servants," which Povey may have drawn up. Hence, there is no good reason to doubt but that Povey wrote the entire draft of these instructions himself. Even those portions that are not to be found in the "Overtures" are written in Povey's peculiar and rather stilted style.

That Povey and Noell were the authors of the instructions given to the Council of Trade it is not so easy to demonstrate. A preliminary sketch of "Instructions for a Councill of Trade" as well as a copy of the final instructions are to be found among the Povey papers and both Povey and Noell were sufficiently familiar with the requirements of trade at that period to have drafted such a doc.u.ment. The fact that the second paper is but an elaboration of the first leads to the conclusion that they bear to each other much the same relation that the "Overtures" bear to the Instructions for the Council of Plantations:

FIRST DRAFT. FINAL INSTRUCTIONS.

1. You shall in the first place 1. You shall take into your consider, and propound how to consideration the inconveniences remedy inconveniencys of the the w^{ch} the English Trade hath English trade, in all the respective suffered in any Partes beyond the dominions of those Princes and Seas, And are to inquire into such States with whom his Mat^{ie} may Articles of former Treaties as renew Alliance, and to that end have been made with any Princes or make due enquiry into such former States in relation to Trade, And treaties as relate to Trade. to draw out such Observations or Resolutions from thence, as may be necessary for us to advise or insist upon in any forreigne Leagues or Allyances. That such evills as have befallen these our Kingdomes through the want of good information in these great and publique concernm^{ts} may be provided against in tyme to come.

What Articles have bin provided 2. You are to consider how & by in favour of the Trade of his whome any former Articles or Ma^{ties} Subjects, How they have Treatyes have been neglected or been neglected & Violated, What violated, what new Capitulations new Capitulations may be necessary are necessary either to the pro Ratione Rerum, et temporum. freedome of Sale of your Commodities of all sorts, as to And those, either in Relation: price & payment, Or to the best expedition of Justice to the 1. To the freedome of Sale of your recovery of Debts, or to the Commodities of all sorts, as to Security of Estates of all factors price & payment. & their Princ.i.p.alls in case of the factor's Death, Or to the 2. To the best expedition of prevention of those interruptions Justice for recovery of your debts. w^{ch} the Trade & Navigations of our Kingdomes have suffered by 3. To the security of the Estates Imbargoes of forreigne Princes or of all factors, and their States, Or Imprestinge the s.h.i.+pps Princ.i.p.alls in case of the factor's of any of our Subjects, for their death. Service.

4. To the Prevention of the 3. You are to consider well the Interruption of the Trade & Interest of all such trades as Navigation, by Embargos of forraigne are or shall be Incorporated Princes & States, or imprestinge by our Royall Charters, & what your s.h.i.+pps to their Service. Jurisdictions are necessary to be obteyned from such as are, 5. To the Interest of all Trades or shall be in Allyance with us, that are or shall be incorporated for the more regular managem^{t} by his Mat^{ies} Charters, what & governm^{t} of the Trade, jurisdictyon is necessary to be & of the members of those our obtained from our Allies, for Corporations & forreigne the more regular government factories.

of the Trade & members of those Corporations in forraigne 4. You are to consider of the factoryes. several Manufactures of these our Kingdomes how & by what occasions 2^{ly}. And next you shall they are corrupted, debased & consider, how the reputation disparaged, And by what probable of all the manufactures of his meanes they may be restored & Mat^{ies} Kingdome may be recovered maintained in their auncyent by a just regulation and standard goodness & reputation, And how of weight, length, and breadth, they may be farther improved to that soe the more profitable and there utmost advantage by a just ample Vent of them may be procured. Regulation & Standard of weight Length & Breadth, that soe the private profitt of the Tradesmen or Merchants may not destroy the Creditt of the Commodity, & thereby render it neglected & unvended abroad, to the great loss & scandall of these our Kingdomes.

5. You are also to take into your Consideration all the native Commodities of the growth & production of these our Kingdomes, and how they may be ordered, nourished, increased & manifactured to the ymployment of our People and to the best advantage of the Publique.

4^{ly}. How the fis.h.i.+nge Trades 6. You are especially to of Newfound Land, the Coasts consider of the whole business of England, Irland, & New of fis.h.i.+ngs of these our England may be most improoved, Kingdomes or any other of our and regulated to the greatest distant Dominions or Plantations advantage of the Stocke and & to consult of some effectuall navigation of the nation, by meanes for the reinforceing excludinge the intrusion of our encouraging & encreasinge, and neighbors into it. for the regulating & carryinge on of the Trade in all the Parts thereof. To the end That the People and Stock, and Navigation of these our Kingdomes may be ymployed therein and our Neighbors may not be enricht with that which soe properly & advantagiously may be undertooke & carryed on by our own Subjects.

3^{ly}. How the Trade of the 7. You are seriously to Kingdome to forraigne parts consider & enquire whether the may be soe menaged and Importation of forreigne proportioned, that we may in Commodityes doe not over-ballance every part be more Sellers than the Exportations of such as are buyers, that thereby the Coyne Native, And how it may be soe and present Stocke of money may Ordered remedied, & proportioned be preserved and increased. that we may have more Sellers than Buyers in every parte abroad, And that the Coyne & present Stock of these our Kingdomes, may be preserved & increased, We judging, that such a Scale & Rule of proportion is one of the highest and most prudentiall points of Trade by w^{ch} the riches & strength of these our Kingdomes, are best to be understood & maintained.

8. You are to consider & examine by what wayes & means other Nations doe preferr their owne growths & Manifactures, & Importations, & doe discourage & suppress those of these our Kingdomes, & how the best contrivances and managem^{t} of Trade, exercysed by other Nations may be rendred applicable & practicable by these our Kingdomes.

9. You are well to consider all matters relatinge to Navigation, & to the increase, & the Security thereof.

10. You are thoroughly to consider the severall matters relatinge to Money, how Bullonge may be best drawne in hither, & how any Obstructions upon our Mynt may be best removed.

5^{ly}. How the forraigne 11. You are to consider the Plantations may be made most useful general State & Condition of our to the Trade & Navigation of these forreigne Plantations & of the Kingdomes. Navigation Trade & severall Commodityes ariseinge thereupon, & how farr theire future Improvem^{t} & Prosperitie may bee advanced by any discouragement Imposition or Restraint, upon the Importation of all goods or Commodityes w^{th} which those Plantations doe abound, and may supply these our Kingdomes, And you are alsoe in all matters wherein our forreigne Plantations are concerned to take advise or information (as occasion shall require) from the Councell appointed & sett apart by us to the more perticuler Inspection Regulation and Care of our forreigne plantations.

12. You are to consider how the transportation of such things may be best restreined and prevented, as are either forbiddenby the Lawe, or may be inconvenient, or of disadvantage by being transported out of these our Kingdomes and dominions.[10]

The councils thus commissioned and instructed soon met for organization and business, the Council for Plantations holding its preliminary session December 10, 1660, in the Star Chamber, and all remaining meetings in the Inner Court of Wards; the Council for Trade meeting, first, in Mercer's Hall, near Old Jewry, afterwards in certain rooms in Whitehall, still later in a rented house which was consumed in the great fire, and, after 1667, in Exeter House, Strand. Philip Frowde became the clerical secretary of the Plantation Council and George Duke secretary of the Council of Trade, a position that he seems to have lost in 1663 but to have resumed again before 1667. The meetings were attended chiefly by the non-conciliar members, for it was usually the rule that privy councillors were to be present only when some special business required their cooperation. Both councils were organized in much the same manner, with a number, at least seven, of inferior officers, clerks, messengers, and servants, and in both cases journals of proceedings and entry books containing copies of doc.u.ments, patents, charters, pet.i.tions, and reports were kept.[11] Whether minutes were taken of the meetings of the subcommittees is doubtful; no such papers have anywhere been found.

The Council for Plantations had a continuous existence from December 10, 1660, when the preliminary meeting was held, probably until the spring of 1665, though August 24, 1664, is the date of its last recorded sitting. During that time it shared in the extraordinary activity which characterized the early years of the Restoration and represents, as far as such activity can represent any one person, the enthusiasm of the Earl of Clarendon. There was not an important phase of colonial life and government, not a colonial claim or dispute, that was not considered carefully, thoroughly, and, in the main, impartially by the Council.[12]

The business was nearly always handled, in the first instance, by experts, for with few exceptions the working committees were made up of men who had had intimate experience with colonial affairs or were financially interested in their prosperity. The first committee, that of January 7, 1661, for example, was composed of Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, who had been on plantation committees during the Interregnum; Robert Boyle, president of the Corporation for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England and one of the founders of the Royal Society; Sir Peter Leere and Sir James Draxe, old Barbadian planters; Edmund Waller, poet and parliamentarian, who had been interested in colonial affairs for some years; General Venables, who knew Jamaica well; Thomas Povey, Edward Digges, John Colleton (soon to be Sir John), Martin Noell (soon to be Sir Martin), and Thomas Kendall, all merchants and experts on colonial trade, and Middleton, Jefferies, Watts, and Howe, sea-captains and merchants in frequent touch with the colonies. Other committees were made up in much the same way, although the number of members was usually smaller. When letters were to be written or reports drafted that required skill in composition and embodiment in literary form, we find the task entrusted to Povey alone or to Povey a.s.sisted by the poets Waller and Sir John Denham. Povey was, indeed, the most active member of the Council, serving as its secretary in much the same capacity as on the Committee for America from 1657 to 1660.[13] On both these boards he exemplified his own recommendation that there should be on the Council "a Person who is to be more imediately concern'd and active than the rest ... allwaies readie to give a full and digested account and consideracon of any particular relating to those Affaires." Among the Povey papers are many drafts of letters and reports in process of construction, bearing erasures and additions which point to Povey as their author.[14]

The Council for Plantations and its committees sat and deliberated apart, the latter in Grocer's Hall; but the subjects under examination were considered by both bodies. The subcommittees were frequently instructed to call in persons interested, to write to others from whom information could be obtained, and to pursue their investigations with due regard for both sides of the case. Sometimes questions would be submitted to the attorney general, to Dr. Walter Walker and others from Doctors Commons, to special members of the Council who were more familiar than the rest with the facts in the case. On at least one occasion all the members of the Council were requested to bring in what information they could obtain regarding a particular matter. Question after question was postponed from one meeting to another, because the Council had not obtained all the details that it felt should be in hand before the report was sent to the King in Council. On a few occasions members of the Council accompanied the report to the Privy Council apparently with the intention of explaining or emphasizing their recommendations. The subjects under debate concerned the internal or external affairs of all the colonies. They related to Jamaica, Barbadoes, Maryland, Virginia, and New England, including Nova Scotia, Ma.s.sachusetts, Maine, and Long Island; they dealt with Quakers, Jews, vagrants, and servants, supplies, provisions, naval stores, emigrant registration, and abuses in colonial trade; they included that burning question of the period, the Dutch at New Amsterdam and the complaints that arose regarding Holland as an obstruction to English trade. The amount of time taken and pains expended on controversial points can be inferred from an examination of the New England case, which was taken up at the first regular meeting in January and was under examination from that time until April 30, when the Council sent in its report.

Even then it was taken up by the Privy Council, referred to its own committee, called the Committee for New England, and in one or two particulars was sent back to the Council for further consideration.

In the performance of its duties the Council for Plantations can never be charged with indolence or neglect. In the year 1661 alone it held forty meetings, or an average of one every nine days.

After August, 1664, the records of the Council come to an end, but there is reason to believe that the Council continued its sessions at least until the spring of 1665. That the last meeting was not held on August 24 is certain, not only from the wording of the minute, which reads: "ordered, being a matter of great moment and the day far spent, that the further consideration be deferred for a week," but also from two further references to the existence of the Council, of later date,--one dated September 7, when the Council sent in a report regarding the proposed establishment of a registry office, and the other in the form of an endors.e.m.e.nt upon a letter from Lord Willoughby which says: "Ref^{d} to the Council, Feb. 24," that is February 24, 1665. It seems probable, therefore, that the Council was sitting as late as February-March of that year.[15] Probably its meetings were broken up by the plague which started in London about that time, in the westernmost parish, St. Giles-in-the-Fields, and lasted until the end of October. Whether the Council resumed its sessions after the plague had subsided it is almost impossible to say. No definite record exists of its meetings or work. Some of its members had died, Sir Martin Noell in October, 1665, and Sir Nicholas Crispe the next year; others had left England, Lord Willoughby, Capts. Watts and Kendall, and possibly Sir James Draxe; while others had accepted posts that took them away from London, as in the case of Capt. Middleton, who became commissioner of the navy at Portsmouth. Certainly Povey could have had very little to do with the affairs of a council in London in 1664-1666, when as surveyor-general of the victualling department he was required to be frequently at Plymouth and to spend a considerable amount of time travelling about England.[16]

Yet there is nothing to show that its commission was revoked, and an order of the Privy Council, September 23, 1667, to which further reference will be made below, reads as if the Council were in existence at that time. If so, it must have been merely a nominal body.

After 1665, and until 1670, plantation affairs seem to have been controlled entirely by the Privy Council and its committees, which proved themselves capable and vigorous bodies. Before 1666, besides the Committee for Foreign Plantations, which has already been noticed, other committees were appointed as occasion arose,--committees for Jamaica, for Jamaica and Algiers, for the Guinea trade, for the Royal Company, for fis.h.i.+ng in Newfoundland, for Jersey and Guernsey, and for New England. Committees for Trade and for hearing appeals from the Plantations also existed. On December 7, 1666, after the plague had subsided and the great fire had spent itself, the Privy Council reappointed its plantation committee, which now entered upon a career of greatly increased activity.[17] At the same time the Council made use of its other committees, particularly the "Committee for the Affaires of New England and for the bounding of Acadia," October 2, 4, 1667, which took into consideration the question of the rest.i.tution of Acadia to the French;[18] and it referred important matters of business to committees of selected experts. Under these conditions the affairs of the colonies were managed until the appointment of a new Plantation Council in August, 1670.

The Council for Trade met in Mercer's Hall some time before November 13, 1660, and at its preliminary session considered that part of its instructions which related to bullion and coin. On December 13, 1660, it pa.s.sed a resolution urging and inviting people and merchants to send in pet.i.tions, and it requested the King to issue a proclamation defining its powers in all matters relating to trade and manufactures and calling on "any person, concerned in the matters therein to be debated or who have any pet.i.tion or invention to offer, to apply to them for redress of evils brought on by the late times or for the improvement of trade regulations."[19] In response to, this appeal a large number of pet.i.tions, sent either to the Privy Council or directly to the Select Council itself, were received, and the discussion of these pet.i.tions and the preparing of reports upon them occupied the attention of the Council during the first two years. These reports show that the Council took its duties seriously and was thoroughly in earnest to improve, if possible, the trade of the kingdom, and to carry out to the full the commands which the King had laid upon it. There is not a clause of the instructions to which it did not pay some attention, and upon many matters it debated long and ardently, making reports that are as valuable for the student of the trade policy of the seventeenth century as are the familiar writings of well-known mercantilists. The Council took up and discussed the export of bullion and coin, expressing its opinion that the penalties should be withdrawn as injurious to trade, because they prevented the English merchants from bringing their money into the kingdom where it would be detained, and saying that money most abounded in countries which enjoyed freedom from restraints on exports.