Interest in Colonial Resources. 7 



the 15th of March in that year.^ Some eleven gentlemen were 

 invited,- and these presented their proposals in detail, in order 

 that the Lords of Trade might compare prices and be in a 

 better position to judge what encouragement might properly 

 be given to importers, and whether it would be better to recom- 

 mend the incorporation of a chartered company, as Sir Mat- 

 thew Dudley suggested, or to rely upon private contracts, ac- 

 cording to the custom of the Navy in purchasing stores from 

 foreign countries. The New England agents. Sir Henry 

 Ashurst and Stephen Evance, vigorously opposed the grant- 

 ing of a charter to Dudley, and stirred up Massachusetts to pro- 

 test against such a monopoly.^ They devised all sorts of de- 

 lays, and finally contrived that no final action should be taken 

 until Massachusetts should have time to send over a formal 

 argument against the proposed charter. 



In the meantime, as another means of baffling Dudley's de- 

 sign, Ashurst and Evance themselves submitted proposals to 

 furnish stores. They got leave to send over for specimens of 

 stores to be tested by the naval authorities and compared with 

 the foreign products used by the navy; but w^hen, after eight- 

 een months, a scant ship-load was deposited in the navy-yard, 

 the samples were found to be of so indifferent a quality that 

 Ashurst and Evance desisted from further eflforts in that direc- 

 tion.* It was plain that a considerable outlay would need to be 

 made by somebody, whether by merchants, by corporations, 

 by the planters themselves, or by the government, before stores 

 of a suitable quality could be imported for the royal navy. John 

 Taylor, the contractor, reported that in the estimation of ship- 

 masters one gallon of Swedish tar was worth two of New Eng- 

 land tar, and that he himself sent over pitch and tar for use in 

 his own ship-building in New England.^ The plank from that 



^Notification from Board of Trade of a hearing at Whitehall. 

 B. T. Plants. Gen., C: 15. 



^The gentlemen were: Dudley, Ashurst, Evance, Bernon, Taylor, 

 Allen, Warren, Nicholson, Paggen, Heathcote and Slye. 



^Memorandum, B. T. New Eng., Entry Bk. A., January 15, 1694. 



^Attorney General's Report. B. T. New Eng., A: 2. 



^Letter from Taylor to Board of Trade. B. T. Plants. Gen., C: 19. 



