and and that the island might have freedom
of trade except in Negroes.[50] His desires for a free trade were
denied, but the Privy Council agreed to consult with the Royal Company
and to recommend that it be obliged to furnish Jamaica with a
sufficient supply of Negroes.[51]

There is no evidence that the Privy Council called the company's
attention to Modyford's request, nor is there any indication that it
endeavored to send very many Negroes to Jamaica. Modyford attended to
a plantation which the company had bought in Jamaica[52] and he sold a
few slaves to the Spaniards,[53] but all the company's affairs in the
aggregate really amounted to little in that island. There was a
continual call for a greater supply of Negroes than the company
sent.[54] Two ledgers used by the factors show that 690 Negroes were
sold in 1666 and in the following year,[55] 170. Although this number
was inadequate to meet the colony's needs, it is doubtful whether the
company sent any slaves to Jamaica after 1667.

Under these circumstances Modyford lost interest in the company's
affairs and therefore it resolved, April 6, 1669, to dispense with his
services. Modyford had received a pension of three hundred pounds per
year up to Michaelmas, 1666, but after that time the company's
financial condition no longer warranted this expense. The company does
not seem to have been displeased with Modyford because it requested
that he use his good offices as governor to assist it in every
possible way. At the same time the services of the other factor, Mr.
Molesworth, were discontinued and he was requested to send an
inventory of the company's affairs.[56]

Modyford thus free from his connection with the company probably
represented the desires of the Jamaica people in a more unbiased
manner. On September 20, 1670, he enumerated a number of needs of the
island and asked Secretary Arlington that licenses to trade to Africa
for Negroes be granted free of charge or at least at more moderate
rates. For this privilege he declared that security could be given
that the slaves would be carried only to Jamaica. The Royal Company
itself could not complain when it realized how much this freedom of
trade would mean toward the prosperity of Jamaica, and thus ultimately
to the entire kingdom.[57] Modyford admitted that the Anglo-Dutch war
had been a great hindrance to Jamaica's prosperity but that the lack
of Negroes since 1665 had been a much greater obstruction.[