From the period of the Revolution in 1688 to the death of Queen Anne, the trade of the plantations had steadily and rapidly increased, employing five hundred sail of vessels, a large proportion of them being engaged in the transport of negroes from the coast of Africa. Though originally a monopoly in the hands of the African Company,[199] private speculation had entered so largely into it that, in 1698, an Act of Parliament gave permission to all the King’s subjects, whether of England or of America, to trade to Africa on payment of a certain per centage to the Company on all goods exported or imported, negro slaves being nevertheless exempted from this contribution. The advocates of free trade considered the exemption a great boon to the colonies, as the competition of the private merchant vessels had greatly reduced the prices of slaves, whereby the British negro colonies had been enabled to undersell their rivals in the general market of the world. This process seems, however, to have had a twofold effect, or to have cut both ways. The keenest partisans for the unbounded liberty of commerce felt no scruple of conscience in depriving the poor Africans, who were only guilty of having black skins and woolly hair, of their liberty, in whatever part of the world they could be found; and on the east coast of Africa, where negroes were cheaper than elsewhere, the competition of the traders of various nations raised the price of human flesh.[200] Although the most hideous cruelties were practised to procure these slaves, the traffic continued to increase and, half a century afterwards, one hundred and fifty vessels were fitted out in one year for the east coast of Africa from the ports of France alone, transporting in the course of that year twenty thousand slaves to the island of St. Domingo. [Sidenote: Newfoundland.] [Sidenote: Usages at the fishery.]