WEST INDIES. 
CKAP. H.] 
24-9 
dry kinds of woollen goods, and other manufac¬ 
tures not before known; and they imported from 
the coast great quantities of gold, out of which, 
in 1673, 50,000 guineas (so named from the coun¬ 
try) were coined. They also imported redwood 
for dyers, ivory, wax, and some other valuable 
commodities, and they exported to the value of 
*£* 70,000 annually in English goods. 
But the revolution in 1688 changed the scene; 
for by the 1st of William and Mary, as the Petition 
and Declaration of Right is commonly called, the 
African and all other exclusive companies not au¬ 
thorised by parliament, were abolished: the Afri¬ 
can trade, therefore, became in fact, free and open; 
although the company still persisted in seizing the 
ships of separate traders; a measure which occa¬ 
sioned much clamour, and no small obstruction to 
the negro trade. The disputes which this conduct 
gave rise to, are, however, too uninteresting at 
present to be brought again to remembrance. 
In 1689 was established the first Assiento compa¬ 
ny for supplying the Spanish West Indies with ne¬ 
groes from Jamaica; and in 1698 the trade to Afri¬ 
ca, which, by the Petition of Right, was virtually 
laid open, was expressly made so, under certain 
conditions; for by statutes 9 and IQth of Will, and 
.Mary, c. 26. it was enacted—- 
£C That for the preservation of the trade, and for 
the advantage of England and its colonies, it should 
Vol, II. 1 1 
