nducted its business with eminent
success. Its membership was occasionally changed, though as a rule the
work fell upon a comparatively small number of men who were in frequent
attendance. After the fall of the Stuarts, King William continued the
same policy, appointing a new Council Committee and resisting all
attempts of Parliament to interfere.

Parliament, however, determined to obtain control of the management of
colonial affairs, and as early as 1694 made an effort in that direction.
Acting evidently under the influence of the merchants of London, who
resented the fact that affairs of this character should be entrusted
to "courtiers without experience," it took into consideration the
appointment of a separate board, whose members should be chosen by
itself. The first bill was thrown out by Parliament, but the matter was
brought up at the next session in December, 1695. Strenuous efforts were
made by a few of the leading out-ports, such as Bristol, to obtain,
through their members in Parliament, a representation on the proposed
board, in order to overcome "the growing greatness of London." During
December and January the matter was debated with great heat in the
House, and Bristol went so far as to send up a special delegation to
lobby in its behalf. The proposal was defeated by the King's opposition
to this attempt to encroach upon his prerogative, and a compromise was
effected, in which the out-ports played no part. Influenced by the
determination of the majority in Parliament, William issued a commission
on May 15, 1696, to a separate Board of Trade and Plantations, the
membership of which was, however, to be controlled by the Crown.

Of the history of the Board of Trade, thus established in 1696, little
need be said here. The board passed through many vicissitudes in its
life of nearly eighty-seven years. It enjoyed its greatest repute during
the first fifteen years of its existence, falling into the hands of
inferior officials and placemen during the era of Walpole and the first
years of the supremacy of Newcastle. Granted new powers in 1752, it rose
again to a position of prominence which it held for fourteen years, and
it reached a climax in 1765, when it was made a ministerial executive
office of government, as were the Secretary's office and the boards of
the Admiralty and the Treasury, possessing full authority and complete
jurisdiction in all matters relative to its own department. This
position of inde