34 A. D. 1713. 



fhips for carrying over the company's goods, fadlors, and Servants. Biif 

 yet the court of du'eftors were not a Uttle furprlfed to find, that the 

 queen had referved to herfelf, or to her afligns, another quarter part of the 

 .afliento ; befide her grant of 7-^ per cent to Don Manuel Manafl'es Gil- 

 ligan, the Spanifli agent at her court, out of the clear profits of the an- 

 nual fliip : yet (he afterward refigned her quarter part of the afllento to 

 the company, on condition that they fhould, befides the above grant to 

 Gilligan, aflign 21 7 per cent of the clear profits of the annual fliip to 

 perfons whom flie would afterward name, who were then faid to be 

 Lord Eolingbroke, Lady Mafliam, and Arthur Moore, Efq. Such were 

 then the wild and ill-grounded expedtations from this new trade ; yet, 

 on better advice, the queen gave up entirely to the company her part 

 of the fuppofcd profits, to the no fmall mortification of the above and 

 other courtiers, as was then commonly reported, and generally believed. 



On the 30th of April 171 3 the houfe of commons, after reading 

 the feveral petitions of the feparate traders to the coaft of Guinea with- 

 in the limits of the royal African company, once more refolved, that 

 the trade to Africa ought to be free and open to all the queen's fubjeds, 

 under fuch proper regulations as fhould fubjedl that trade to duties for 

 maintaining its forts and fettlemcnts. Yet a bill for this purpofe was 

 foon after dropped in the houfe of peers. 



Peter, the czar of Mufcovy, in completion of his plan for a new em- 

 porium at St. Peterfhurgh, now removed the bulk of the commerce of 

 Archangel thither, and alfo tranfplanted 30,000 people from his antient 

 capital city of Mofcow, and obliged more of his bojars (or nobles) to 

 eredt palaces therein, as he alfo did one for himfelf, making St. Peterf- 

 burgh henceforth his ufual refidence. 



The great importance of the filk manufacHiures of England, at this 

 time, eminently appeared from a petition to parliament by the weaver's 

 company of London in behalf of thofe nianufadtures. They therein 

 fet forth, that by the encouragement of the crown, and of divers adts 

 of parliament, the filk manufadture is come to be above twenty times 

 as great as it was in the year 1664: and that all forts of black and col- 

 oured filks, gold and filver fluffs, and ribands, are now made here as 

 good as in France. That black filk for hoods and fcarves, not made 

 here above 25 years ago, hath amounted annually to above L300,ooo 

 worth, for feveral years pafi:, which before were imported from France; 

 which increafe of the filk manufacture hath caufed an increafe of our 

 exportation of woollen goods to Turkey, Italy, &c. 



This petition was purpofely levelled againfl the 8th and 9th articles 

 of the commercial treaty with France, the ratification of which propof- 

 ed by parliament would, in place of our filk manufidlure, have intro- 

 duced an inundation of French filks, ribands, embroideries, &c. whefe- 

 by our Spitalfields and Canterbury looms would have flood flill, and our 



