nd and for the bounding of Acadia," October 2, 4, 1667, which
took into consideration the question of the restitution of Acadia to the
French;[18] and it referred important matters of business to committees
of selected experts. Under these conditions the affairs of the colonies
were managed until the appointment of a new Plantation Council in
August, 1670.

The Council for Trade met in Mercer's Hall some time before November
13, 1660, and at its preliminary session considered that part of its
instructions which related to bullion and coin. On December 13, 1660, it
passed a resolution urging and inviting people and merchants to send in
petitions, and it requested the King to issue a proclamation defining
its powers in all matters relating to trade and manufactures and calling
on "any person, concerned in the matters therein to be debated or who
have any petition or invention to offer, to apply to them for redress
of evils brought on by the late times or for the improvement of trade
regulations."[19] In response to, this appeal a large number of
petitions, sent either to the Privy Council or directly to the Select
Council itself, were received, and the discussion of these petitions
and the preparing of reports upon them occupied the attention of the
Council during the first two years. These reports show that the Council
took its duties seriously and was thoroughly in earnest to improve,
if possible, the trade of the kingdom, and to carry out to the full
the commands which the King had laid upon it. There is not a clause
of the instructions to which it did not pay some attention, and upon
many matters it debated long and ardently, making reports that are as
valuable for the student of the trade policy of the seventeenth century
as are the familiar writings of well-known mercantilists. The Council
took up and discussed the export of bullion and coin, expressing its
opinion that the penalties should be withdrawn as injurious to trade,
because they prevented the English merchants from bringing their money
into the kingdom where it would be detained, and saying that money most
abounded in countries which enjoyed freedom from restraints on exports.
The trade in the Baltic, the East Indies, and the Levant to which trade
freedom to export bullion was preeminently important; the Merchant
Adventurers, regarding whose history and position the Council made
a valuable report, viewing the subject from the beginning; the East
India Comp