Office. The docket reads: "A Commission with instructions
annexed establishing a Counsell of Trade, for Keeping a control and
super-inspection of his Majesty's Trade and Commerce." From another
source we learn that the Council was to take into consideration "the
Conditions of your Maj^{tyes} Plantations abroad, in order to the
improvement of Trade and increase of Navigation, and for the further
encouragement of yo^{r} Maj^{tyes} Subjects in their Trade and Commerce
both at home and abroad."[36] A second commission was issued on April
13, 1669, "directed to the same persons in the same form & with the
same powers and instructions ... with a confirmation of all Acts done
in pursuance of the said late commission in election of officers and
otherwise."[37] The clerical secretary was Peter du Moulin, though Dr.
Benjamin Worsley seems to have had some official position on the board.
The members of the Council were as follows: Duke of York, Prince Rupert,
Lord Keeper, Lord Privy Seal, Duke of Buckingham, Duke of Albemarle,
Duke of Ormond, Earl of Bridgewater, Earl of Ossory, Earl of Anglesey,
Earl of Carlisle, Earl of Craven, Earl of Lauderdale, Lord Arlington,
Lord Berkeley of Stratton, Lord Holles, Lord Ashley, Sir Thomas
Clifford, Sir George Carteret, Sir John Trevor, Sir William Morrice, Sir
William Coventry, Sir Thomas Osborne, Sir Thomas Littleton, Sir Henry
Blount, Sir George Downing, Sir Andrew Riccard, Sir William Thompson,
Silas Titus, William Garroway, Henry Slingsby, Thomas Grey, John Birch,
William Love, Esq., Benjamin Worsley, Doctor of Physic; John Buckworth,
Thomas Papillion, John Page, Josiah Child, Thomas Tyte, Benjamin Albyn,
and John Shorter. In 1669 were added the Earl of Devonshire, Earl of
Sandwich, Viscount Halifax, and George, Lord Berkeley, making forty-six
members in all.[38] This is an extraordinary body of men to be engaged
in pulling the wool over the eyes of the King, and though Professor
Ashley is inclined to view North's account with approval, we doubt if
it will stand the test of examination. Professor Ashley's further belief
that from this Council emanated the document called "A Scheme of Trade,"
is capable of satisfactory disproof, since but few of the signers of
that document were members of the Council and the date when it was
issued, November 29, 1674, was after the Council as a separate body had
been abolished.[39]

The Council lasted from 1668 to 1672 and during that time it did
nothin