e both of custom and excise tax,
and for the importation of whale oil and skins so as either directly or
indirectly they will have the whole trade themselves."[7] Evidently the
Council of Trade favored the establishment of a freer trade as against
the monopoly of the merchant companies, believing, it may be, that
London did monopolize trade and that it was "no good state of a body
to have a fat head and lean members." The city authorities, apparently
alarmed at the favorable action of the Council, took immediate action.
On June 19, 1651, the Court of Aldermen instructed Alderman Fowke, one
of its most influential members, in case the Council of Trade came to
an agreement favorable to free trade, to move for a reconsideration in
order that London might have a hearing before the matter was finally
settled.[8] But the hearing, if had, could not have been successful in
altering the determination of the Council, for a few months later, on
December 5, 1651, the Common Council of London, probably convinced that
the Council of Trade was in earnest in its policy and alarmed at the
prospect of losing its trading privileges, ordered its committee of
trade to prepare a petition to Parliament, the Council of State, or the
Council of Trade, asking that London be made a free port. The petition
was duly drawn up and approved by the Common Council, which ordered its
committee "to maintain" it before the Council of Trade.[9] Evidently the
matter went no further. The Council of Trade continued its sittings and
debated and reported on a number of petitions "complaining of abuses and
deceits" in trade, but after 1652 it plays but an inconspicuous part.
Even before that date many questions before it were taken over by the
Council of State and referred to its own committees. Fellmongers and
staplers defended their cause before the higher body and the free trade
difficulty continued to be agitated, at least as far as concerned the
Turkey trade and the Greenland fishing, by the Council committee after
it had passed out of the hands of the lesser body.[10] The period was
one of transition from a monopolized to an open trade, and consequently
to many trade everywhere appeared to be in decay. Remedies were sought
through the intervention of the state and the passing of laws, but the
early period of the Commonwealth was not favorable to a successful
carrying out of so promising an experiment. On October 3, 1653, trade
was reported from Holland as "so