e king had not allowed his
royal prerogative to be interfered with and the company's charter was
regarded as intact. Theoretically the victory was all in favor of the
company, but on account of the losses which it was incurring in the
Anglo-Dutch war, it was impossible for the company to furnish a
sufficient supply of Negroes to Barbadoes, that is, if Lord
Willoughby's heated protests can be trusted.

Speaking of the general prohibitions on their trade, the governor
exclaimed, May 12, 1666, that he had "come to where itt pinches, and
if yor Maty gives not an ample & speedy redress, you have not onely
lost St. Christophers but you will lose the rest, I (aye) & famous
Barbadoes, too, I feare." In bitter terms he spoke of the poverty of
the island, protesting that anyone who had recommended the various
restraints on the colony's trade was "more a merchant than a good
subject." The restriction on the trade to Guinea, he declared, was one
of the things that had brought Barbadoes to its present condition; and
the favoritism displayed toward the Royal Company in carrying on the
Negro trade with the Spaniards had entirely deprived the colonial
government of an export duty on slaves.[21]

The decision of the company to issue licenses to private traders did
not allay the storm of criticism that continued to descend on the
company from Barbadoes. The new governor, as his brother had done,
urged a free trade to Guinea for Negroes, maintaining that slaves had
become so scarce and expensive that the poor planters would be forced
to go to foreign plantations for a livelihood.[22] He complained that
the Colletons, father and son, the latter of whom was one of the
company's factors, had helped to bring about this critical
condition.[23] On September 5, 1667, representatives of the whole
colony petitioned the king to throw open the Guinea trade or to force
the company to supply them with slaves at the prices promised in the
early declaration, although even those prices seemed like a canker of
usury to the much abused planters.[24]

Following these complaints Sir Paul Painter and others submitted a
petition to the House of Commons in which they asserted that an open
trade to Africa was much better than one carried on by a company. They
maintained that previous to the establishment of the Royal Adventurers
Negroes had been sold for twelve, fourteen and sixteen pounds per
head, or 1,600 to 1,800 pounds of sugar, whereas now the company w