Attempts to Form Chartered Companies. 36 



tity annually if they were not losers by the price obtained. 

 They called the attention of the objectors to the fact that Swed- 

 ish goods were paid for in money, while those from the planta- 

 tions were paid for in the products and manufactures of Eng- 

 land; so that the increase in the export of the latter commodities 

 to the plantations would be enough to balance the bargain, even 

 if the pitch and tar were not so cheap as the Swedish products.^ 



The subscribers showed a surprising indifference to the out- 

 come of their petition, by observing, at the close of their an- 

 swers, that although they could not effectually answer the in- 

 terest of the government without being incorporated, they 

 would desist from further prosecuting, if the granting were not 

 convenient. 



On the 14th of December, 1704, it was decided by the Queen's 

 Most Excellent Majesty in Council, that the charter desired by 

 jNIr. Byfield and others was a matter for both Houses of Parlia- 

 ment, and therefore no order was given.- This action was a vir- 

 tual admission that wider issues than the mere incorporation of 

 a single company were involved: The question of naval stores 

 was about to enter upon the parliamentary phase of its history,^ 

 which will be fully discussed in a subsequent chapter. In the 

 meantime, without waiting for the final answer of the govern- 

 ment, the Pennsylvania Company had, in the spring of 1704, 

 gone so far as to purchase and fit out a ship to sail to Carolina 

 for pitch and tar.* The ship was fifteen months making the 

 voyage, because of waiting for the pitch and tar to be made, and 

 a further delay of three months at Lisbon until a convoy could 

 be found. On the arrival of the cargo, in July, 1705, the com- 

 pany petitioned the Board of Trade, that, inasmuch as their 

 ship had brought in 400 barrels of pitch and tar before the pas- 



^ Reports of Commissioners of Customs, Attorney and Solicitor 

 General, B. T. Proprieties, M: 50. 



^Memorandum of decision of Council at St. James, B. T. Proprie- 

 ties, M: 53. 



*Cf. p. 63 et seq. 



^Statement by Thos. Byfield & Co., B. T. Proprieties, N: 25. 



