The employment of expert advisers in the Jamaica business was rendered necessary by the financial questions involved, and in December Robert Bowes, Francis Hodges and Richard Creed were called upon to assist a committee of Council appointed May 10, 1655, in determining the amounts due the wives and assignees of the officers and soldiers in Jamaica. Creed was dropped and Sydenham and Fillingham were added in 1656.[39] But a more important step was soon taken. On July 15,1656, Cromwell appointed a standing committee of officers and London merchants to take general cognizance of all matters that concerned "his Highness in Jamaica and the West Indies." The following were the members: Col. Edward Salmon, an admiralty commissioner and intimately interested in the Jamaica expedition; Col. Tobias Bridges, one of Cromwell's major generals, afterwards serving in Flanders, who was to play an important part in proclaiming Richard Cromwell Protector; Lieutenant Colonel Miller, of Col. Barkstead's regiment, and Lieutenant Colonel Mills; Capt. Limbrey, London merchant and Jamaican planter, who had lived in Jamaica and made a map of the island, and as commander of merchant vessels had made many trips across the Atlantic; Capt. Thomas Aldherne, also a London merchant and sea captain, the chief victualler of the navy, and an enterprising adventurer in trade; Capt. John Thompson, sea captain and London merchant; Capt. Stephen Winthrop, sea captain and London merchant; Richard Sydenham, and Robert Bowes, already mentioned as commissioners for Jamaica,[40] and lastly Martin Noell, London merchant, and Thomas Povey, regarding whom a fuller account is given below. Povey, who was not appointed a member until October, 1657, apparently became chairman and secretary, while Francis Hodges was clerical secretary. Except for Tobias Bridges, the military members had little share in the business of the committee, the most prominent part being taken by Noell, Bridges, Winthrop, Bowes, Sydenham, and Povey. As far as the records show, Salmon, Miller, Aldherne, Thompson, and White never signed a report, while Mills and Limbrey signed but one. The committee seems to have sat at first in Grocer's Hall, afterward in Treasury Chambers, where its members discussed and investigated all questions that came before them with care and thoroughness. Their instructions authorized them to maintain a correspondence with the colonies, obtaining such information and advice as seemed essential; to receive all addresses relating thereunto, whether from persons in America or elsewhere; to consider and consult thereof and prepare such advices and answers thereupon as should be judged meet for the advantage of the community. Their earliest business concerned itself with Jamaica, its revenues, finances, expenses of expeditions thither, arrears due the officers and soldiers, their wives and assignees, individual claims, want of ministers, and other similar questions. But as addresses came in from other colonies the scope of their activity was broadened until it included at one time or another nearly all the American colonies. The committee reported on the constitution, governing powers, fortifications, militia of Somers Islands (Bermudas) and on the fitness of Sayle to be governor there; on the controversy between Virginia and Maryland and on the organization and government of the former colony; on the petition of the Long Islanders and others in New England, and on complaints against Massachusetts Bay; on the revenue, government, and admiralty system of Barbadoes; on questions of governor and arrears of salary in Nevis and Tortugas; on the desirability of continuing the plantation in Newfoundland; and lastly on the important subject of ship insurance, upon which Capt. Limbrey presented a very remarkable paper.[41] These reports were sent sometimes to the Protector, sometimes to the Council of State, and sometimes to the committee of the Council on the affairs of America. While the latter committee, under the name of "Committee for Foreign Plantations" continued until the return of the King, the select committee for America does not appear to have lasted as a whole after the final dissolution of the Rump Parliament, March 16, 1660. Thomas Povey alone seems to have been the committee from March to May, and on April 9 and May 11 made two reports on matters referred to him by the Council committee regarding Jamaica and Newfoundland. As Charles II had been recalled to his own in England before the last report was sent in, the machinery created under Cromwell for the plantations remained in existence after the government set up by him had passed away.[42]
Any account of the system appointed for the control of trade and plantations during the Interregnum is bound to be something of a tangle, not because the system itself was a complicated one, but because its simplicity is clouded by a bewildering mass of details. Occasional committees of Parliament, the Council as a board of trade and plantations, committees of the Council, and select councils and committees do not form a very confusing body of material out of which to fashion a system of colonial control. Yet, despite this fact, the management of the colonies during the Interregnum was without unity or simplicity. Control was exercised by no single or continuous organ and according to no clearly defined or consistent plan. Colonial questions seemed to lie in many different hands and to be met in as many different ways. Delays were frequent and there can be little doubt that many important matters were laid aside and pigeon-holed. When an important colonial difficulty had to pass from subcommittee to committee, from committee to Council, and sometimes from Council to Parliamentary committee and thence to Parliament, we can easily believe that in the excess of machinery there would be entailed a decrease of despatch and efficiency. Indeed, during the Interregnum colonial business was not well managed and there were many to whom colonial trade was of great importance, who realized this fact. Merchants of London after 1655 became dissatisfied with the way the plantations were managed and desired a reorganization which should bring about order, improve administration, economize expenditure, elevate justice, and effect speedily and fairly a settlement of colonial disputes. They doubted whether a Council, "busyed and filled with a multitude of affairs," was able to accomplish these results and they refused to believe that affairs of such a nature should be transacted "in diverse pieces and by diverse councils." The remedy of these men was carefully thought out and carefully expressed and though it was undoubtedly listened to by Cromwell, it never received more than an imperfect application. To these men and their proposals we must pay careful attention for therein we shall find the connecting link between the Protectorate and the Restoration as far as matters of trade and the plantations are concerned.
([1]) Among others, The Advancement of Merchandize or certain propositions for the improvement of the trade of this Commonwealth, humbly presented to the Right Honorable the Council of State by Thomas Viollet, of London, Goldsmith, 1651. This rare pamphlet was drawn up by Viollet when connected with the Mint in the Tower and sent to the Council of State, evidently in manuscript form. Most of the papers composing this pamphlet were transmitted by the Council of State to the Council of Trade. For Viollet see Cal. State Papers, Domestic, 1650–1651, 1659–1660.
([2]) The Council of Trade accumulated in this and other ways a considerable mass of books and papers, but this material for its history has entirely disappeared.
([3]) Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1650, p. 399; 1651, pp. 16, 29, 38, 107, 230; 1651–1652, pp. 87. The first suggestion of this committee was as early as January 1650, Commons' Journal, VI, p. 347.