on that came before the Council was no less
significant in its relation to the growth of British trade than was the
decay of the Societies of Fellmongers and Staplers. It concerned the
breaking down of the privileges of the merchant companies in general,
and the establishment of free ports and free trade in England--that is,
free trade controlled and ordered by the state. To this end, the Council
appointed a committee of eleven merchants to whom it gave elaborate
directions to report on the feasibility of setting apart four free ports
to which foreign commodities might be imported without paying customs
dues if again exported. These merchants met and drew up a report dated
April 26, 1651, and again on May 26 of the same year expressed further
opinions on the advisability of the "opening of free ports for trade."
"Trade being the basis and well-being of a Commonwealth, the way to
obtain it is to make it a free trade and not to bind up ingenious
spirits by exemptions and privileges which are granted to some
particular companies." In addition to the home merchants, the Council
of Trade presented its queries to the merchant strangers and to the
Committee for the Affairs of Trinity House, all of whom returned
answers. It also made public its desire to consider the appointment of
"convenient ports for the free trade in the Commonwealth," and as early
as May 22 a number of the out-ports, Dover, Plymouth, the Isle of Wight,
Barnstaple, Bideford, Appledore, and Southampton petitioned that they be
recognized as free landing places. The period was one of rivalry between
London and the out-ports, and the latter believed that the various acts
of 1650 and 1651 were in the interest of the London merchants only.
"Yet thus much that act seems to have on it only a London stamp and
a contentment to subject the whole nation to them, for most of the
out-ports are not capable of the foreign trade to Indies and Turkey. The
Londoners having the sole trade do set what price they please upon their
commodities, knowing the country cannot have them nowhere but by them,
whereby not only the out-ports are undone but the country brought to the
devotion of the city. But a great abuse is here, for the city are not
contented with this act but only so far as it serves their own turns,
for they procure (upon some pretexts or other) particular licenses for
many prohibited commodities contrary to that act, as namely for the
importation of French wines and fre