making casks.
It was then decided, "after a long and solemne debate of the whole
matter," _nemine contradicente_, "that there being no disadvantage in a
corporation But many great Advantages, powers and Immunities that cannot
be had by Commission That the best way of advancing & encouraging the
Fishing Trade is by way of [a] Corporation." To this corporation were to
be granted "the sole power of Lycensing the Eating and killing of flesh
in Lent," the power to make by-laws, to dispose of "guifts that are or
shalbee given for carrying on of this Trade," to administer oaths, to
constitute officers, to exercise coercion in case of contempt against
orders, to fine and in some cases to imprison, to send for papers,
persons, books, etc. The corporation was to be universal, perpetual, and
a joint stock company.[23] As a result of the report of the Council a
charter of incorporation was issued to the Duke of York and thirty-six
others, forming the Governor and Company of the Royal Fishery of Great
Britain and Ireland, and George Duke, "late Secretary to the Committee
of Trade," was recommended by the King as its secretary.[24]

This account of the debate in the Council upon the fishery question
is important not only because it gives an interesting glimpse of the
Council at work, and the only glimpse that we have at any length of
its procedure, but because it illustrates a phase of mercantilism in
the making. It shows, also, the intensity of the rivalry that existed
between England and Holland, and furnishes an admirable example of one
of the causes of that rivalry, the Dutch predominance in the fishing
business.[25] The Council frequently appealed to the methods employed
by the Dutch as a sufficient argument to support its contention, and
when objections were raised against the universal corporation it
answered, "You destroy the essence of a Corporation by lymitting it,
And if you lymitt it, no man will venture their Stocke, and the mayne
reason why the Dutch employ not only their Stocke but their whole
families in the fisheries, is because their corporation is perpetual."

How much longer the Council of Trade continued its sessions it is
impossible to say. Its last recorded action is a report, dated July,
1664, which contained its opinion upon the question of trade with
Scotland, a matter soon to be taken up by the higher authorities.
It is probable that, as in the case of the Council of Plantations, its
sessions were suspend