The Glorious Revolution in America

1 “An Affayre of State”: Trade and Commerce

"An Affayre of State": Trade and Commerce The Restoration of Charles II offered Englishmen splendid opportunities to expand dominions overseas. The settling of new plantations after 1660 was part of an overall economic expansion which, in addition to planting people in America, involved English merchants, courtiers, and promoters in mercantile ventures as diverse as extracting furs from the shores of Hudson's Bay and Negroes from the coast of Africa. Charles's restoration made it possible for an increasing number of interested Englishmen to devote attention to matters of colonies and trade. Around the throne gathered an influential group of noblemen and merchants who helped to shape colonial policy for the next generation. Although this group of well-placed individuals did not share precisely the same ideas about what ought to be done, they agreed generally that colonies in America existed for the benefit of England and for the benefit of those whose money and time were invested in particular colonial schemes and chartered monopolies of trade. 1 1 2 The Glorious RevolutioninAmerica The names of this group are not hard to find, since they keep popping up on membership lists of chartered companies and as proprietors of colonies in America. Several appear, too, among the committees and councils of trade and plantations which were appointed during the 1660's and 1670's to administer the business of the expanding empire. First on most lists were James, Duke of York, and Prince Rupert, Charles's brother and cousin, respectively, whose associations with the several councils and chartered companies were almost identical. James was also sole proprietor of the colony of New York after its conquest from the Dutch in 1664. Outside the royal family , most prominent among the courtier-promoters were AnthonyAshley Cooper (later Earl of Shaftesbury), William, Earl of Craven, George Monk, Duke of Albemarle, John, Lord Berkeley (brother of Sir William Berkeley, already governor of Virginia and a proprietor of Carolina ), Sir George Carteret, and SirPeter Colleton. These well-established gentlemen were in positions whereby they might not only help to formulate colonial policy, but they might help formulate it according to their own colonial and trading interests.1 Within a generation after the Restoration the number of colonies in America doubled. With the exception of New Hampshire, the new colonies—the Carolinas, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania— were proprietary grants, given by the King to favorites and others to whom Charles was obligated in getting back his throne. With these grants went a good deal of power, and although the courtier-promoters probably shied away from the authority boasted of by the Lords Baltimore over Maryland, each charter, Pennsylvania's excepted, fitted the proprietors with considerable control over both government and soil. During the same period the Crown also chartered several trading monopolies , most conspicuous being the Hudson's Bay Company and the Royal African and Royal Fishery companies. Each conferred specific 1. Each of the above individuals was a proprietor of Carolina; a member of both Royal African and Royal Fishery companies; except for Berkeley a charter member of the Hudson's Bay Company; and except for Albemarle a proprietor of the Bahamas (although his son was). Moreover, all were members of Parliament— Colleton not until 1681; Shaftesbury was a Privy Councillor at two different times; all but Colleton served at one time or another on at least one of the committees or councils of trade and plantations (Shaftesbury, Carteret, and Berkeley were on most of them); Craven, Carteret, and Berkeley were original members of the Lords of Trade appointed in 1675; and Berkeley and Carteret were proprietors of New Jersey. In addition, Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, was a member of both councils for trade and plantations in 1660 and a proprietor of Carolina. For this information I am indebted to Professor John C. Rainbolt of the University of Missouri. Formerly a research assistant at the University of Wisconsin, he made a detailed listing of the imperial interests of more than one hundred individuals of the Restoration period. "An Affayre of State": Trade and Commerce 3 rights respectively for trade in furs, slaves, and fish in particular areas; charter members and investors included the same group of people who were closely connected with other major economic enterprises of Restoration England. Along with settling new colonies in America, and as part of the strong economic interest in overseas planting and trade, was a...