This opposition to the trade in Negroes to the Spanish colonies was only one of the several ways in which the colonists manifested their hostility toward the mercantile element in general and the Company of Royal Adventurers in particular. Freedom of trade with all the world seemed very desirable to the planters who regarded the restrictions of the Navigation Acts as gross favoritism and partiality to the rising mercantile class. The monopoly of supplying the colonies with slaves, conferred upon the Company of Royal Adventurers, was most cordially hated on account of the great degree of dependence placed upon slave labor in the plantations. As a result of this conflict of interests the planters early resorted to numerous devices such as the laws for the protection of debtors, to embarrass the company in the exercise of its monopoly. Since the company had received its exclusive privileges by a charter from the crown the English planters in the West Indies soon found that their trouble with the Company of Royal Adventurers brought them also into direct conflict with the king. In this way the planters enjoyed the distinction of being among the first to begin the opposition which later, in the Great Revolution, resulted in the overthrow of James II and the royal prerogative. GEORGE F. ZOOK. FOOTNOTES: [1] These were people of the rougher and even criminal classes of the parent country who, in return for their ocean passage, agreed to work for some planter during a specified number of years, usually seven. [2] C. S. P., Col., 1674-1675, Addenda, p. 86, articles agreed on by Lord Willoughby and Sir George Ayscue and others, January 11, 1652. [3] C. S. P., Col., 1661-1668, p. 14, petitions of merchants and planters, March 1, 1661. [4] C. S. P., Col., 1661-1668, pp. 29, 30, 45, 46, 47, petitions from Barbadoes, May 11, July 10, 12, 1661. [5] _Ibid._, p. 117, minutes of the council and assembly of Barbadoes, December 18, 1662. [6] The pieces of eight were to be accepted at four shillings each, and 2,400 pounds of muscovado sugar were to be accepted in exchange for a slave. [7] Answer of the Company of Royal Adventurers of England ... to the Petition ... exhibited ... by Sir Paul Painter, His Royal Highness (the duke of York) and others to Lord Willoughby, January 10, 1662/3. [8] C. O. 1: 18, ff. 85, 86, Modyford and Colleton to the Royal Adventurers, March 20, 1664. [9] A. C. R., 75: 13, 14, J5. [10] _Ibid._, 75: 20. [11] On January 2, 1665, the company estimated the entire debt which was owing to it in all the plantations at L49,895. S. P., Dom., Charles II, 110, f. 18, petition of the Royal Adventurers to the king. [12] P. C. R., Charles II, 4: 177, 190-192, August 3, 24, 1664. [13] C. O. 1: 19, ff. 234-238, proceedings of the court of admiralty in Barbadoes, June 17, 24, 1665. [14] _Ibid._, f. 232, petition of the Royal Adventurers to Arlington, September 14, 1665.