CHAPTER II. 



The Attempts to Form Chartered Companies for the 

 Importation of Stores. 



I. The Dudley Case. 



The most noteworthy attempt to establish the trade in naval 

 stores by means of a joint-stock company was that made by Sir 

 Matthew Dudley and "some hundred notable gentlemen and 

 merchants of London." The case covers a period of over 

 seventeen years and admirably illustrates the attitude of the 

 Board of Trade towards the proposal to develop colonial sup- 

 plies, and their policy respecting joint-stock companies and 

 monopolies. The gentlemen mentioned above, acting on in- 

 formation received from New England that some copper mines 

 had been discovered in America, raised a joint-stock of £ioo,- 

 ooo and in March, 1687, petitioned for a charter to work the 

 mines. ^ The original proposition had nothing to do with naval 

 stores. The company evidently represented the substantial busi- 

 ness interests of London and it included such men as Sir John 

 Shorter, Lord Mayor of London, and Sir Humphrey Edwyn, 

 Sheriff of the City of London.- A charter in thirty-three articles 

 was drawn up, in which elaborate provision was made for 

 the control of land, the appointment of officers, the power to 

 make necessary regulations, and the erection of courts for deal- 

 ing judicially with the concerns of the company and with crimes 

 and misdemeanors (except capital offenses).* 



The company desired that "all justices or other civil officers 

 in any part of New England should be obliged to return any 



^Petition of Sir Matthew Dudley and others for a charter, B. T. 

 New Eng., Entry Bk. A., March 1687. 



2Ibid. 



^Copy of Proposals of the Petitioners, dated June 26, 1688, B. T. 

 New Eng., Vol. 6, B: 23. 



