lighten the labors of the busy Privy Council and to furnish it with authentic information. A special board for this purpose was done away with, but its place was filled in part in another way. The Board of Customs was created in 1671 as a treasury division to manage the customs revenues. Its functions were imperial in sweep, including the enforcement of the acts of trade and the collection of duties through its own agents at home and in America.[1] Its intimate and constant contact with colonies and commerce made it an especially well-informed body, which the Lords of Trade were prompt to utilize in an advisory way. In the years of its greater vigor before 1685 the committee summoned the members of the Customs Board into frequent conference, and repeatedly called upon it to submit itemized accounts of foreign and colonial trade and to report upon a wide variety of problems, such as commerce, coinage, customs service, emigration, fisheries, and finances.[2] The board prepared the trade instructions for the colonial governors,[3] and rendered valuable service in the review of colonial laws, going to much trouble in getting at the facts by consulting merchants, planters, colonial agents, and others.[4] In all these matters the board's opinions were given high credit by the committee, which usually made them the basis of its final report to the king and council.
The Board of Customs embraced in its membership during the first quarter-century a noteworthy group of merchant princes, diplomats, economists, and expansionists of prestige. Indeed the close connection of the merchants with the statesmen and officials in the dual tasks of building and governing the empire is a striking factor in British expansion.[5] The directors of the privileged trading companies were frequently consulted and their interests supported by the government. They were employed in the offices of
- ↑ Atton and Holland, The King's Customs, I. 103 ff.; Andrews, Guide, II. 111–113; Beer, Old Col. System, pt. I., vol. I., pp. 262–264, 276–288.
- ↑ Cal. St. P., Col., vols, for 1675–1696, passim; L. T. J., I. 165–167; III. 37, 46. 210, 211, 302, 309, 337–338.
- ↑ Cal. St. P., Col., 1685–1688, §§ 292, 312, 317, 573, 589, 917, 1015, 1124.
- ↑ Ibid., 1677–1680, § 521; 1681–1685, §§ 318, 1336, 1602, 1626, 1874, 1875; 16S5–1688, § 1337; 1689–1692, § 2124; 1693–1696, §§ 892, 1947, 2127.
- ↑ For instance, of the eight persons common to the Royal African Company, Council of Trade, and Council of Plantations of 1660, two were of the royal circle, five were prominent London merchants, and one a colonial planter. Andrews, Brit. Comm., pp. 67–68. The history of the interlocking directorates in the companies of expansion and in the political control of empire may be traced in the careers of such great merchants as Thomas Povey, Martin Noell, Josiah Child, and Dudley North. Ibid., ch. III.; Dict. Nat. Biog., X. 244 (Child); XLI. 152 (North); Fox Bourne, English Merchants, ch. XIII.
