A. D. 1627. 345 



II) ' To Sii- John Hacket and Odavius de Strada, tor rendering fea- 

 ' coal and pit-coal as ufeful as charcoal, for burning in houfes, without 

 ' offence by the fmell or fnioke, according to their invention.' 



III) ' To Thomas Roufe and Abraham CuUyn, for the fole making 

 ' of ftone pots, jugs, and bottles, according to their new invention.' 



Alfo IV and V) ' One for draining water out of mines, &c. and an- 

 ' other for making guns, great and fmall.' [Fcedera, V. xviii, p. 870.] 



About this time, (according to the ingenious author * of Carib- 

 beana, 2 V. 4to, 1741) the fugar trade of England had its rife in the 

 firll fettlement of the ifland of Barbados f , the mother oF all the fugar 

 colonies. Yet, till feveral years after this time, the Portuguefe fupplied 

 moft parts of Europe with Brazil fugars. 



At this time, according to a French pamphlet on the Eaft-India trade, 

 Guftavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, iflued his letters-patent, inviting 

 his people to form a Swedifli Eaft-India company : but the war in Ger- 

 many and that great king's death a few years after prevented the ac- 

 complifliment of that defign. 



The following proclamation from King Charles I will partly fhew the 

 nature of the London goldfmiths bufinefs, and the flate of the Englifh 

 filver and gold coins at the time. 



' Whereas the exchange of all manner of gold and iilver, current in 

 monies, or otherwife, as the buying, felling, and exchanging of all man- 

 ner of bullion in fpecies of foreign coins, billets, ingots, &c. fine, re- 

 fined, or allayed, howfoever, being fit for our mint, hath ever been, 

 and ought to be, our fole right, as part of our prerogative royal, and 

 antient revenue; wherein none of our fubjeds, of what trade or qua- 

 lity foever, ought at all, without our fpecial licence, to intermeddle, 

 the fame being prohibited by divers ads of parliament and proclama- 

 tions, both antient and modern : and whereas ourfelf and divers of 

 our royal predecefibrs have for fome time pafl tolerated a promifcu- 

 ous kind of liberty to all, but efpecially to fome of the myftery and 

 trade of goldfmiths in London and elfewhere, not only to make the 

 faid exchang.es, but to buy and fell all manner of bullion : and from 

 thence fome of them have grown to that licentioufiiefs, that they have 

 for divers years prefumed, for their private gain, to fort and weigh all 

 forts of money current within our realm, to the end to cull out the old 

 and new monies, which, either by not wearing, or by any other acci- 

 dent, are weightier than the reft ; which weighteft monies have not only 

 been molten down for the making of plate, &c. but even traded in and 

 fold to merchant ftrangers, &c. who have exported the fame ; whereby 



* Late attorney general of Barbados. g>^n> the author of the Hiftoiy of Biirhados, has 



f Others, as we have ah-eady feen, dated the iirft left a blank for the dale of the difco\-ery of the 

 .'ettlement of Barbados twelve years earlier. Li- ifland by Sir William Courten. 



Vol. IL X x 



