There are indications that the monopoly the Company sought to enforce in tobacco and sassafras would, if it had been put into the strictest operation, have excluded all independent traffic. In 1618, a petition was offered to Lord Zouch as the warden of the Cinque Ports, in which permission was sought by Captain Andrews of the Silver Falcon, who was associated with a Dutch merchant, to make a trading voyage to America. Among the objects to be secured were the erection of a plantation for the production of tobacco and grain, the purchase of furs from the Indians, and the barter of fish caught on the coast of Canada for the commodities to be obtained in Virginia. The great evils to be expected, according to the statement of the promoters of the enterprise, were that the “monopolists” of that Colony would break up any settlement the petitioners established, by removing the people, or would prohibit all trade between them and the Virginians, or if they did not do this, would at any rate except tobacco and sassafras from the list of articles to be exchanged, in which case, all the rest might as well be denied.[1] As a means of conciliating the Company, they proposed that if the result of the voyage was highly profitable, they should contribute in proportion to their gains to meeting the regular charges upon that body in supporting the plantation. Zouch granted the warrant sought, the vessel being described as his own.[2]
The magazine ship, the George was followed in the course of the year of its arrival by two other vessels, which had been dispatched by the same combination of private
