(Vol. vii., pp. 377. 433. 460.)
The statute against monopolies (21 Jac. I. c. 3.) contains a clause (sec. 10.) that its provisions should not extend to any commission grant or letters patent theretofore made, or thereafter to be made, of, for, or concerning the digging, making, or compounding of saltpetre or gunpowder, which were to be of the like force and effect, and no other, as if that act had never been made.
In the famous "Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom" agreed upon by the House of Commons in November, 1641, there is special allusion to the vexation and oppression of the
subject by purveyors, clerks of the market, and saltpetre men. (Parliamentary History, x. 67.)
Shortly afterwards was passed an act (which obtained the royal assent) giving liberty for importing gunpowder and saltpetre, and for making of gunpowder. The preamble asserts that the importation of gunpowder from foreign parts had of late times been against law prohibited, and the making thereof within this realm ingrossed; whereby the price of gunpowder had been excessively raised, many powder works decayed, this kingdom very much weakened and endangered, the merchants thereof much damnified, many mariners and others taken prisoners and brought into miserable captivity and slavery, many ships taken by Turkish and other pirates, and many other inconveniences had from thence ensued, and more were likely to ensue, if not timely prevented. (17 Car. I. c. 21.)
Lord Clarendon, in reviewing the various "important laws" of the Long Parliament to which the king assented, makes the following observations with reference to this particular act:
"'An Act for the free making Saltpetre and Gunpowder within the Kingdom:' which was a part of the prerogative; and not only considerable, as it restrained that precious and dangerous commodity from vulgar hands; but, as in truth it brought a considerable revenue to the crown, and more to those whom the crown gratified and obliged by that license. The pretence for this exemption was, 'the unjustifiable proceeding of those (or of inferior persons qualified by them) who had been trusted in that employment,' by whom, it cannot be denied, many men suffered: but the true reason was, that thereby they might be sure to have in readiness a good stock in that commodity, against the time their occasions should call upon them."—History of Rebellion, book iii.
On the 3rd April, 1644, the Lords and Commons passed an ordinance for the making of saltpetre, &c. This was grounded on the following allegations:
"1. The great expence of gunpowder, occasioned by the then war within his Majesty's dominions, had well near consumed the old store, and did exhaust the magazines so fast, that without a larger supply, the navy forts and the land armies could not be furnished.
"2. Foreign saltpetre was not in equal goodness with that of our own country, and the foreign gunpowder far worse conditioned and less forcible than that which is made in England.
"3. Divers foreign estates had of date prohibited the exportation of salt-peter and gunpowder out of their own dominions and countries, so that there could be but little hope or future expectation of any peter or powder to be brought into this kingdom, as in former times, which would enforce us to make use of our own materials."
From these circumstances, it was held most necessary that the digging of saltpetre and making of gunpowder should by all fit means be encouraged, at that time when it so much concerned the public safety; nevertheless, to prevent the reviving of those oppressions and exactions exercised upon the people, under the colourable authority of commissions granted to salt-peter-men; which burden had been eased since the sitting of that Parliament. To the end there might not be any pretence to interrupt the work, it was ordained that the committee of safety, their factors, workmen, and servants, should have power and authority, (within prescribed hours) to search and dig for saltpetre in all pigeon-houses, stables, cellars, vaults, empty warehouses, and other outhouses, yards, and places likely to afford that earth.