any, whose petition,--largely reproduced in the report of the
Council,--contained a bitter arraignment of the Dutch, calling to mind
the "impudent affronts to the honor of this nation and the horrid
injuries done to the stock and commerce thereof," and demanding damages
and a definite regulation of trade in the forthcoming treaty with
Holland then under debate; treaties with foreign powers, clauses in
which concerning trade were taken up at the early meetings of the
Council; prohibition of imposts on foreign cloths and stuffs, regarding
which sundry shopkeepers, tradesmen, and artificers of London had
petitioned the Privy Council in November, 1660,[20]--all these matters
the Council took under consideration. It dealt with the granting of
patents, with the encouragement of home industries, particularly the
business of the framework knitters, silk-dyeing, and the manufacture of
tapestry, and with the establishment of an insurance company.[21] As far
as the plantations were concerned, its recommendations were few, and
were made chiefly in connection with reports on the ninth and eleventh
articles of its instructions, which touched upon convoys, imports,
and composition-ports. It drafted a carefully drawn list of necessary
convoys in which, of all the American plantations, only Newfoundland
is mentioned. It considered the importation of logwood and tobacco,
and upon the latter point made the suggestion "that all tobacco
of English Plantations do pay at importation 1/2d. a pound and at
exportation nothing." This recommendation was accompanied by a valuable
essay on trade in general. It dealt with the question of making Dover
a free port for composition trade and took the ground that the Acts
of Navigation should be inviolably kept. On this question the Earl of
Southampton, the Treasurer, and Lord Ashley (Cooper), Chancellor of the
Exchequer, took the opposite ground, favoring the freedom of the port,
"Dover having formerly been a port for free trade," and adding that
"a free trade thus settled we conceive might conduce to the advantage
of your Majesty's customs," trade being injured by the "tyes and
observances which the Act of Navigation places upon it." They reported
further that the farmers of the customs wished the Act to be dispensed
with in some cases.[22]

Regarding the attitude of the Council toward the sixth article
of its instructions, the promotion of the fisheries, we have fuller
information. At the session of De