Many of those points which had occasioned the most violent disputes between our Sovereigns and their Parliaments had been finally decided by the Bill of Rights.  But one question, scarcely less important than any of the questions which had been set at rest for ever, was still undetermined.  Indeed, that question was never, as far as can now be ascertained, even mentioned in the Convention.  The King had undoubtedly, by the ancient laws of the realm, large powers for the regulation of trade; but the ablest judge would have found it difficult to say what was the precise extent of those powers.  It was universally acknowledged that it belonged to the King to prescribe weights and measures, and to coin money; that no fair or market could be held without authority from him; that no ship could unload in any bay or estuary which he had not declared to be a port.  In addition to his undoubted right to grant special commercial privileges to particular places, he long claimed a right to grant special commercial privileges to particular societies and to particular individuals; and our ancestors, as usual, did not think it worth their while to dispute this claim, till it produced serious inconvenience.  At length, in the reign of Elizabeth, the power of creating monopolies began to be grossly abused; and, as soon as it began to be grossly abused, it began to be questioned.  The Queen wisely declined a conflict with a House of Commons backed by the whole nation.  She frankly acknowledged that there was reason for complaint; she cancelled the patents which had excited the public clamours; and her people, delighted by this concession, and by the gracious manner in which it had been made, did not require from her an express renunciation of the disputed prerogative.

The discontents which her wisdom had appeased were revived by the dishonest and pusillanimous policy which her successor called Kingcraft.  He readily granted oppressive patents of monopoly.  When he needed the help of his Parliament, he as readily annulled them.  As soon as the Parliament had ceased to sit, his Great Seal was put to instruments more odious than those which he had recently cancelled.  At length that excellent House of Commons which met in 1623 determined to apply a strong remedy to the evil.  The King was forced to give his assent to a law which declared monopolies established by royal authority to be null and void.  Some exceptions, however, were made, and, unfortunately, were not very clearly defined.  It was especially provided that every Society of Merchants which had been instituted for the purpose of carrying on any trade should retain all its legal privileges.153 The question whether a monopoly granted by the Crown to such a company were or were not a legal privilege was left unsettled, and continued to exercise, during many years, the ingenuity of lawyers.154 The nation, however, relieved at once from a multitude of impositions and vexations which were painfully felt every day at every fireside, was in no humour to dispute the validity of the charters under which a few companies to London traded with distant parts of the world.