former body. The death
of the Earl of Sandwich, who lost his life in the naval engagement of
Southwold Bay with De Ruyter, May 28, 1672, may have hastened this
conclusion, and the need of economy, especially manifest in this year,
1672, may have been a further influence. Whatever the causes, as early
as the summer of 1672 the decision was reached, undoubtedly through the
advice of Lord Ashley, now the Earl of Shaftesbury, to reconstitute
the Council, and to issue a new patent which should cover trade as
well as foreign plantations. Evelyn says that the old Council met at
Shaftesbury's house on September 1, 1672, to consider the draft of the
new commission. The form of the commission having been approved, the
warrant was issued to the attorney general on September 16 to prepare
the bill for the King's signature, and on the twenty-seventh the Council
was duly commissioned by writ of privy seal. The membership remained the
same as before, with the single exception that the Earl of Shaftesbury
took the place of the Earl of Sandwich as the president of the board,
with Lord Culpeper as vice-president. When in December of the same year
Sir John Finch was appointed ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, in place
of Sir Daniel Harvey, deceased, Sir William Hickman was constituted
a member of the Council in his stead. As in the case of the former
Council, the Duke of York, Prince Rupert, and the chief officers of
state were authorized to attend and vote but without pay. To their
number were now added the Duke of Ormond, George, Viscount Halifax; Sir
Thomas Osborne, and Sir Robert Long, all of whom, except Long, had been
members of the Council of Trade, while Halifax, who had just returned
from an important mission to France and was rapidly rising to power,
had been a member of the committee of the House of Lords, appointed
in October, 1669, to consider the improvement of trade. Sandwich and
Shaftesbury had both been on the same committee, and it is not unlikely
that the latter was responsible for the remarkable report made by this
committee to the Lords that "some relaxation in ecclesiastical matters
will be a means of improving the trade of this kingdom."[9]

According to its commission, the Council of Trade and Plantations was
"to take care of the welfare of our said Colonies and Plantations and
of the Trade and Navigation of these our Kingdomes and of our said
colonies and plantations," and was to be a council of advice to the
King