ABSTRACT
In this chapter I shall suggest that the Revolution of 1688 was a turning-point in economic as well as in political and constitutional history. William’s invasion saved the independence of New England as the Scottish invasion had saved it half a century earlier. A week before James fled, the secretary of the Royal African Company was still, as a routine matter, issuing commissions authorising the seizure of interlopers who had infringed the charter of 1672. With no recorded decision the Company abandoned this claim to enforce its monopoly by coercive measures. Free trade was established by Act of Parliament later; but the real change was recognised to have taken place with the fall of James II. Just as 1640 had brought the end of industrial monopoly, so 1688 saw the end of old-style commercial monopoly. The existence of monopoly exporting companies, even for long-distance trades, was now felt to be a fetter on expansion. Clothiers and representatives of the outports complained that exports were artificially restricted by the
Royal African Company’s monopoly, and joined the ‘Jamaica interest’ in demanding free trade. Interlopers who had been fined by the Company’s courts for infringing its monopoly now demanded compensation. In the event a compromise was reached in 1698, by which African trade was opened to all on payment of a ten per cent duty on exports. In 1712 the trade was finally thrown open without any restrictions. The overthrow of this monopoly made possible the development of Jamaica. The Company delivered 25,000 slaves to Jamaica in fifteen years of peace; free trade delivered 42,000 in the ensuing eleven years, of which seven were years of war.1
