Royal Adventurers sold
its Negroes to the Spaniards, he again enforced the payment of the
export tax.[62] Notwithstanding the governor's actions, Modyford
despatched one of his own ships with slaves to Cartagena where it
arrived safely and was well treated by the Spaniards.[63] Modyford was
now more than ever convinced of the possibilities of the trade with
the Spanish colonies, but believing that it could not be conducted
successfully by private individuals, he recommended that it be settled
on the Royal Company.[64]

When the Royal Company learned that the trade in Negroes to the
Spanish colonies offered many possibilities it was very much
interested. A petition was immediately submitted to the king
requesting that, if the Spaniards were allowed to come to Barbadoes
for slaves, the whole trade be conferred on the Royal Company. The
company declared that the planters in the colonies had no reason to
object to this arrangement because they had not engaged in this trade,
and moreover an opportunity was being offered to them to become
members of the company.[65]

The Privy Council was favorable to the company's proposition, and on
March 13, 1663, the king instructed Lord Willoughby to permit the
Spaniards to trade at Barbadoes for slaves notwithstanding any letters
of marque that had been issued against them, or any provisions of the
Navigation Act. He declared that the Spaniards were to be allowed to
import into Barbadoes only the products of their own colonies, and
were not to be permitted to carry away the produce of the English
colonies. The effect of this provision was that in addition to slaves
the Spaniards might obtain any products imported into Barbadoes from
England.[66] The king settled the question of duties on slaves by
ordering that ten pieces of eight on each Negro should be paid by all
persons who exported slaves from Barbadoes or Jamaica to the Spanish
colonies, except the agents of the Royal Company. The company was to
pay no export duties on Negroes especially when the Spaniards had made
previous contracts for them in England.[67]

Probably on account of the export duty on slaves which Willoughby had
levied in 1662, the Spaniards were not anxious to return to Barbadoes.
The company's factors therefore sent one of their ships with slaves to
Terra Firma in order to convince the Spaniards that their desire for a
Negro trade was genuine. On this occasion Lord Willoughby and the
council of the island ex