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

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British Committees, Commissions, and Councils of Trade and Plantations, 1622-1675 British Committees, Commissions, and by Charles M. Andrews 1 British Committees, Commissions, and by Charles M. Andrews The Project Gutenberg EBook of British Committees, Commissions, and Councils of Trade and Plantations, 1622-1675, by Charles M. Andrews This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: British Committees, Commissions, and Councils of Trade and Plantations, 1622-1675 Author: Charles M. Andrews Release Date: August 1, 2010 [EBook #33313] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BRITISH COMMITTEES *** Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Garcia and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net [Transcriber's Note: Portions of this text are written in an archaic manner in which macrons over single or double letters stand in place for an abbreviation. This has been represented in the text version by enclosing the letter in square brackets and preceeding the letter (or letters) with a tilde character. There are also copious British Committees, Commissions, and by Charles M. Andrews 2 single and multiple superscripted abbreviations represented in the text version by enclosing the superscripted characters with curly braces, preceded by a caret.] 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. 3 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. 4 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. 5 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. 6 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. 7 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. 8 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.
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