Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

In 1660 C harles II appointed a Council of Trade (7 November) and a Council for Foreign Plantations (1 December) to advise his P rivy C ouncil on overseas affairs. After the councils became defanct in 1665, they were succeeded by several temporary committees until 1675, when the Committee on Trade and Plantations (known as the Lords of Trade) was formed as a component of the Privy Council. Under William Blathwayt, the Lords became the first effective agency for gathering information on American affairs and enforcing English policies overseas, but then lost much of their authority and effectiveness to ad hoc committees added to the Privy Council under J ames II and W illiam Ill. On 15 May 1696, the Lords were replaced by a new institution, the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations, known as the Board of Trade. The board was charged with monitoring trade and the fisheries, nominating appointees for governor and other high offices, advising the Privy Council on American events, and making recommendations on which acts passed by provincial legislatures should receive royal assent. The board pursued its work vigorously at first, but steadily declined under the Hanoverian dynasty and lost control of colonial patronage to the secretary of state for the Southern Department in the 1720s. The board sank into a long period of lethargy – benign neglect – after 1720, except for a ... log in or subscribe to read full text