"in and for all the affairs which do or may any way concern the
navigation, commerce, or trade, as well domestic as foreign of these our
kingdoms and our said foreign colonies and plantations." Five were to
constitute a quorum of which the president or vice-president or one of
the unsalaried members should always be one. The salary of the president
was raised to L800, that of the vice-president was made L700, while that
of the other salaried members remained as before, L500. No treasurer or
secretary is named in the commission, but Dr. Worsley held these offices
until in September, 1673, he was discharged and John Locke took his
place. In all other respects the commission of 1672 reproduces that
of 1670.

The most noteworthy difference between the two councils is to be
found in the instructions, which for the Council of 1672 form a very
comprehensive and intelligent statement of the essentials of plantation
control. The draft was undoubtedly written by Shaftesbury and Locke, for
a preliminary sketch is to be found among the Shaftesbury Papers; the
preliminary meeting for the consideration and approval of the articles
was held at Shaftesbury's residence, Exeter House; and the essential
portions of the document are all to be found embodied in one form or
another in the instructions and suggestions sent to the planters in
the Bahamas and Carolina, colonies which for two years had been a kind
of experimental station for Shaftesbury's and Locke's ideas. All the
later commissions and instructions were based in the main on the
principles laid down in these documents, and neither the Lords of Trade
from 1675 to 1696 nor the Board of Trade from 1696 to 1782 ever in any
important particular passed the limits herein defined. Probably the
instructions of 1672 became from this time forward the precedent and
guide for those who in later years were called upon to shape the powers
vested in the boards of trade and plantations. It frequently happened,
of course, that orders in Council directed the attention of the boards
to matters which needed special examination, but in the main it may be
said that Povey first and Shaftesbury afterward mapped out the lines
to be followed by future commissions in their control of plantation
affairs. This fact gives to the work of these men a peculiar interest
and value.

By the terms of the instructions of 1672, the Council was to consider
first of all the trade of the kingdom and of the plantations