g, so far as we can discover, either for or against the trade
with France. It considered the granting of patents, foreign trade with
Piedmont and elsewhere, the export of wool, disputes among the merchant
companies, dispensations from the operation of the Navigation Act, and
a few matters relating to home industry, particularly as regards abuses
in the baize trade. It took into consideration the order in Council
of October 23, 1667, permitting the Dutch to send three or more ships
yearly for seven years to trade from Holland to New York, and reported
so strongly against it that the Privy Council revoked the order.[40]
More important still, it took up the whole question of the operation of
the navigation acts in the colonies, called upon the merchants and the
farmers of the customs for information, and made a careful report to the
Privy Council, which the latter, on January 20,1669, embodied in the
following order:

"His Ma^{tie} this day taking into consideration the great
importance the Trade of his severall plantations is to his
Ma^{tie} & his Kingdome, and being informed that severall
Governments of the s^{d} Plantations have been wanting to
their duty in the following particulars, viz:

1. That Governors have not taken the oath enjoined by law,

2. That shipps have been permitted to trade to and from the
Plantations not qualified according to law,

3. That there has been omission in taking Bond and Security
and returning those Bonds according as directed by the severall
Acts of Parliament.

For redresse it is ordered, that the Farmers of the Customs do
and are hereby required (at their owne charge) to send over and
make choice of upon the place & from time to time commissionate
& maynteyne one or more persons in each Plantation (whom his
Ma^{tie} shall approve & authorize) to administer the usual oaths
to the severall Governors, that no vessels be admitted to trade
there till said officer has the perusal of the passes and
certificates and certifies that they may trade there, and that
no Bond or security be admitted without the allowance of said
officer,

That letters be written to all said Governors to take said
oaths before said officer and also to give them countenance and
assistance,

That Directions be given to the Commanders of his Ma^{ties} ships
and to any merchant shipps to arrest any ship trading