Preface

PREFACE.

The printing of the Journals of the Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, usually known as Board of Trade Journals, has been undertaken with two objects—to lighten the Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, and so accelerate its progress, and to provide a means of access to the original papers not yet calendared.

As every letter received by the Commissioners was read at a meeting and noted in the Journal with all its enclosures, its place of deposit being indicated by a marginal note, any student interested in a particular subject can by means of the Journal obtain references to every paper on the subject that came before the Board.

It is hoped that the publication of these Journals down to 1782, when the Board was dissolved, may be accomplished in a reasonable time, many years before the Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, can be brought to that date.

The cross references to folios in the Journals have been printed without alteration, as it was considered that the numbers given in square brackets at the top of each page would make these references at least as exact as ordinary page references.

The present volume begins with the Journal marked I, previous Journals being included in the volumes of Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, already published.

H. C. Maxwell Lyte.
Public Record Office,
19 May, 1916.