Attempts to Form Chartered Companies. 31 



hope for success. The irritation of the British government at 

 the Swedish monopoly of pitch, tar and other stores had ren- 

 dered the deslrabihty of obtaining such suppHes from their 

 own plantations more than usually apparent.^ Applications 

 for contracts to furnish stores were constantly being made to 

 the Board of Trade, and it must have seemed to the Pennsyl- 

 vania Company that there was an excellent opening for them. 

 They were already well established in trade, and, therefore, had 

 not to cope with some of the difficulties which a corporation 

 freshly starting in business would have encountered. While 

 they hoped to include, in time, the importation of masts, they 

 applied for a charter authorizing them to deal in pitch and tar, 

 commodities which were already reckoned among the chief 

 products of Carolina.- 



The proposals made by the Pennsylvania Company in 1703 

 offered the following terms to the government:^ They would 

 undertake to furnish 200 barrels of pitch at 18 shillings per bar- 

 rel, and 400 barrels of tar at 8 shillings per barrel, delivered to 

 the Queen's agents in Carolina, twelve months after notice could 

 be given to their factors; or, if the government preferred to 

 have the goods delivered in England, they would merely add 

 to the price the usual freight and customs charges. They pro- 

 posed to double the quantity the second year, and increase from 

 year to year. They said that they had ordered sample masts 

 to be sent by their factors, on information received that Caro- 

 lina could furnish better masts than New England. If this 

 proved to be the case, they proposed to contract for masts, as 

 well as pitch and tar, at reasonable rates. In view of the "ex- 

 traordinary charge of such an undertaking," they humbly de- 

 sired a charter. 



^Cf. p. 57 et seq. 



2N. Carolina Records, Vol. I, p. 663. Lord Bellomont had called 

 the attention of the Board of Trade to Carolina, intimating that he 

 thought it might be best to get all the naval stores for the govern- 

 ment from that province. B. T. New Eng., F: 25. 



"Proposals of Thos. Byfield and Co., B. T. New Eng., N: 5. 



