Attempts to Form Chartered Companies. 27 



Massachusetts was not to be caught napping, and William 

 Phips promptly sent another protest against this charter, on the 

 same grounds as before,^ while at the same time a body of mer- 

 chants requested the Board of Trade not to report favorably.- 

 Phips maintained that the waste lands desired by the company 

 had already been granted to Massachusetts. On the 8th of 

 February, 1703, a further memorial was received from the 

 subscribers, insisting on the necessity of £100,000 stock, and 

 urging that their proposed restriction on stock-jobbing would 

 be sufficient. To prove the first of these assertions, they en- 

 closed an estimate of the probable cost of the undertaking for 

 the first two years. The total amount was £171,400.^ 



The Board of Trade, after a careful consideration of both 

 sides of the question, revised the charter, inserting such amend- 

 ments as they saw fit, and submitted it to the Queen.* The ar- 

 guments of the company had apparently prevailed, so far as to 

 lead the Board to make certain concessions. The power of 

 purchasing land in England or America was now allowed, to the 

 value of £5,000 per annum ; also, the transference of property. 

 In regard to the joint-stock, the provisions were fairly liberal. 

 The company were to be granted "full power and authority to 

 raise a joint-stock in order to manage and carry on the afifairs 

 of the company from time to time for the ends and purposes for 

 which the said company is erected; and the same joint-stock to 

 augment and increase or reduce and diminish from time to 

 time as they, the said governor and company, shall find most 

 fitting and convenient, — the sum not at any time to exceed 

 £100,000 to be underwritten here in England, and the further 

 sum of £50,000 to be underwritten by any of our subjects in 

 America for which purpose books are to be sent to Boston in 



^Protest from Phips, B. T. New Eng., L: 43. 



^Protest from Merchants of Mass., B. T. New Eng., L: 44. 



^B. T. New Eng., L: 49. 



^Representation to the Queen from Board of Trade, enclosing 

 draft of proposed charter, B. T. New Eng., Entry Bk. D, fols. 410- 

 443- 



