Standing Committee on Trade

Manuscript volume containing Letters Patent of King James I, 1622, addressed to Henry Montague, Viscount Mandeville and several other Lords, Knights and Esquires, appointing them Commissioners on a Standing Committee on Trade. This manuscript would seem to be a contemporary copy of the original document, containing the composition of and the instructions issued to what was practically the first English Board of Trade.

The Privy Council is descended from the curia regis , which was made up of the king's tenants in chief, household officials, and anyone else the king chose. This group performed all the functions of government. About the time of Edward I (reigned 1272-1307), the executive and advising duties of the Curia Regis came to be handled by a select group, the king's secret council, which later came to be called the Privy Council. From the Privy Council there later developed the Cabinet.

Single item.

Access to this collection is unrestricted for the purpose of private study and personal research within the supervised environment and restrictions of the Library's Palaeography Room. Uncatalogued material may not be seen. Please contact the University Archivist for details.

The manuscript was bought from Quaritch in Apr 1908, as an addition to the Goldsmith's Library of Economic Literature.

Collection level description.

Small manuscript quarto. Limp vellum binding with silk ties.

Compiled by Sarah Smith as part of the RSLP AIM25 Project.

Copies may be made, subject to the condition of the original. Copying must be undertaken by the Palaeography Room staff, who will need a minimum of 24 hours to process requests.

There is a printed copy of these Letters Patent in the Goldsmiths' Library (Ref: 510).

There is an account of the Commission in David Macpherson Annals of Commerce, Manufactures, Fisheries and Navigation, ... containing the commercial transactions of the British Empire and other countries, from the earliest accounts to ... January 1801 (London and Edinburgh, 1805).