Excerpt from Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series: America and West Indies, 15 May, 1696 31 October, 1697; Preserved in the Public Record Office The affairs of Trade and Plantations were in no pleasing condition in May, 1696. As Burke truly said, British trade had suffered beyond example from the depredations of French cruisers, as also from piracy which, as shall presently be seen, was not wholly confined to the French. Diminished trade of course brought with it diminished revenue, which was doubly serious in view of the disorder of British finance. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.