WEBVTT NOTE 37. The Restoration Crisis in New England 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.000 Volume 1, Chapter 37, The Restoration Crisis in New England 2 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:12.000 The restoration of the crown in May 1660 was a fateful event for New England. 3 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:21.000 The destruction of the Puritan Revolution had ended, and the home country could now turn its full attention to the state of the American colonies. 4 00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:27.000 From the royal point of view, the southern colonies were in satisfactory order. 5 00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:32.720 Virginia, always of royal sympathies, had already restored the royal governor Berkeley 6 00:00:32.720 --> 00:00:38.420 to his post and the Calverts had quickly returned to control of Maryland. 7 00:00:38.420 --> 00:00:43.360 But in the North, the New England colonies appeared chaotic. 8 00:00:43.360 --> 00:00:47.000 Not one colony had a royal governor. 9 00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:53.720 All were self-governing and three, Rhode Island, New Haven and Connecticut, didn't even have 10 00:00:53.720 --> 00:00:55.760 a proper charter. 11 00:00:55.760 --> 00:01:00.760 Connecticut and New Haven were completely without a charter, and Rhode Island's perfunctory 12 00:01:00.760 --> 00:01:05.520 charter had been granted by the Commonwealth Parliament and thus could hardly be deemed 13 00:01:05.520 --> 00:01:12.780 valid by the restored Crown. And though Charles II, in his Declaration of Breda, preceding 14 00:01:12.780 --> 00:01:19.000 the Restoration, had pledged religious liberty, none of the Puritan or descending colonies 15 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:23.160 of New England Anticipated Warm Treatment 16 00:01:23.160 --> 00:01:28.760 Neither were the New England colonies reassured by the English condemnation of those implicated 17 00:01:28.760 --> 00:01:36.720 in the death of Charles I. Of those implicated, fourteen, including Henry Vane and Hugh Peter, 18 00:01:36.720 --> 00:01:43.440 were executed. Twenty-five committed to life imprisonment and many others exiled or excluded 19 00:01:43.440 --> 00:01:50.080 from Public Office. Two of the regicides, Wally and Goff, escaped to New England, where 20 00:01:50.080 --> 00:01:55.160 they were protected and became the objects of constant complaint by the English government, 21 00:01:55.160 --> 00:02:00.040 which was convinced that the two were plotting to restore the Commonwealth. The news of the 22 00:02:00.040 --> 00:02:06.440 restoration was indeed received as a calamity in New England, signifying at the least the 23 00:02:06.440 --> 00:02:13.280 end of the Puritan Republic, which had treated these colonies almost as self-governing allies. 24 00:02:13.280 --> 00:02:18.880 The typical of New England's response to the Restoration was the comment of Roger Williams, 25 00:02:18.880 --> 00:02:23.920 The bloody whore is not yet drunk enough with blood of the saints. 26 00:02:23.920 --> 00:02:29.960 But the New England colonies prudently decided to recognize the Restoration government. 27 00:02:29.960 --> 00:02:37.440 Rhode Island in October 1660, Connecticut and New Haven in March and June of 1661, and 28 00:02:37.440 --> 00:02:42.680 Massachusetts trailing them all in August 1661. 29 00:02:42.680 --> 00:02:47.920 The first order of business for the three New England charterless colonies was to preserve 30 00:02:47.920 --> 00:02:54.280 their self-government by obtaining royal charters. Connecticut, one of the three, determined 31 00:02:54.280 --> 00:03:00.320 to seize the occasion to annex some or most of the territory of its neighbors. John Winthrop 32 00:03:00.320 --> 00:03:07.320 Jr. was sent to London as Connecticut's agent to try to annex all of Rhode Island, New Haven, 33 00:03:07.320 --> 00:03:37.320 and even New Netherland to the West, still in the hands of the Dutch. If not all of Rhode Island, then Connecticut at least tried to seize the Narragansett country, about one-third of present Rhode Island, the territory to the southwest of Warwick and west of Narragansett Bay. Winthrop was particularly eager to acquire the Narragansett country as he was a leading partner of the Atherton Company of Massachusetts, speculators whose arbitrary claims to the land were 34 00:03:37.320 --> 00:03:58.320 were backed by Connecticut. This backing was quite understandable. The Atherton Company had been recently formed in 1659 and had engaged in a spurious purchase of the choicest areas of the Narragansett country, near Boston Neck, from the Sakim of the Narragansett Indians. 35 00:03:58.320 --> 00:04:07.320 Winthrop had then proceeded to use his power as governor of Connecticut to add greatly to the possessions of himself and his partners. 36 00:04:07.320 --> 00:04:23.320 In the fall of 1660, Winthrop induced the New England Confederation to order the Narragansett Indians to pay Connecticut a huge fine in Wampum in compensation for various disturbances in the border regions. 37 00:04:23.320 --> 00:04:32.320 The gracious alternative offered the Indians was to mortgage the entire Narragansett country to the Connecticut government. 38 00:04:32.320 --> 00:04:41.320 Captain Humphrey Atherton, a major partner of the Atherton Company, now in turn graciously paid the Indian fine, 39 00:04:41.320 --> 00:04:47.320 provided that Connecticut transfer the mortgage of the Narragansett country to the Company. 40 00:04:47.320 --> 00:04:53.880 Company. By treading this path of chicanery and coercion, the Atherton Company managed 41 00:04:53.880 --> 00:05:00.040 to acquire a claim, unrecognized by Rhode Island, to the Narragansett country of Rhode 42 00:05:00.040 --> 00:05:06.460 Island. Only Connecticut jurisdiction, guided by the company's own Winthrop, could guarantee 43 00:05:06.460 --> 00:05:13.940 the land to the company. Connecticut's designs on New Haven were also made clear before Winthrop 44 00:05:13.940 --> 00:05:19.580 Winthrop arrived in London. It had sent an arrogant message to the latter colony in early 45 00:05:19.580 --> 00:05:26.260 1661, asserting our own real and true right to those parts of the country where you are 46 00:05:26.260 --> 00:05:33.540 seated, both by conquest, purchase and possession. Winthrop managed by judicious distribution 47 00:05:33.540 --> 00:05:41.460 of money in London to obtain for Connecticut a royal charter in May 1662. The charter confirmed 48 00:05:41.460 --> 00:05:47.660 Connecticut's powers of self-government and left its political structure intact except 49 00:05:47.660 --> 00:05:54.420 for restricting the franchise completely to freemen of the colony. The royal charter granted 50 00:05:54.420 --> 00:06:02.220 to Connecticut all land west of Narragansett Bay and south of Massachusetts. By this, Rhode 51 00:06:02.220 --> 00:06:09.220 Island territory was reduced to the tiny area of existing settlement, and New Haven colony, 52 00:06:09.220 --> 00:06:15.180 New Haven, whose existence was not even mentioned by Connecticut in its negotiations at London, 53 00:06:15.180 --> 00:06:21.660 was wiped out altogether. It is quite probable that the new English government, in the confusion 54 00:06:21.660 --> 00:06:28.080 of the day, had never heard of New Haven Colony, and that its grant of New Haven's territory 55 00:06:28.080 --> 00:06:35.080 to Connecticut was entirely unwitting. The problem was that New Haven, a fading colony 56 00:06:35.080 --> 00:06:40.760 with an Economy in Decline felt itself too poor to afford the expense of maintaining 57 00:06:40.760 --> 00:06:46.400 an agent in London, and it believed that either Connecticut or Massachusetts, its brothers 58 00:06:46.400 --> 00:06:51.080 in the New England Confederation, would look after its interest. 59 00:06:51.080 --> 00:06:56.760 Very fortunately, Rhode Island did have an agent in London to speak up for its interest. 60 00:06:56.760 --> 00:07:03.940 Dr. John Clark had remained there after Roger Wimses returned to Rhode Island years before. 61 00:07:03.940 --> 00:07:09.740 When Charles II assumed the throne, Clark had urged a new charter for Rhode Island, 62 00:07:09.740 --> 00:07:16.940 stressing its great principle of soul liberty, or freedom of conscience, and shrewdly emphasizing 63 00:07:16.940 --> 00:07:25.300 the similarity of that principle to Charles' views in his Declaration of Breda. 64 00:07:25.300 --> 00:07:30.040 Now as soon as Clark heard of the aggressive Connecticut Charter gained by Winthrop, he 65 00:07:30.040 --> 00:07:35.020 He appealed to the King for a charter and for review of the Connecticut document, which 66 00:07:35.020 --> 00:07:40.320 had injuriously swallowed up one half of our colony. 67 00:07:40.320 --> 00:07:46.340 In response, Edward Hyde Clarendon, the Lord Chancellor, blocked the Connecticut charter 68 00:07:46.340 --> 00:07:52.860 and the dispute raged between Winthrop and Clark, with Winthrop continuing to insist that 69 00:07:52.860 --> 00:07:56.160 the Narragansett lands belonged to Connecticut. 70 00:07:56.160 --> 00:08:02.280 Finally, they submitted the dispute to five arbiters, who awarded the entire Narragansett 71 00:08:02.280 --> 00:08:05.040 country to Rhode Island. 72 00:08:05.040 --> 00:08:10.800 The Pocotuck River was to be the latter's western boundary, as in the original Rhode 73 00:08:10.800 --> 00:08:13.660 Island patent in 1644. 74 00:08:13.660 --> 00:08:19.840 The award also provided, however, that the Atherton Company was free to shift the jurisdiction 75 00:08:19.840 --> 00:08:22.240 over its land to Connecticut. 76 00:08:22.240 --> 00:08:28.040 John Winthrop Jr.'s personal property on Fisher's Island, on the boundary, was also carefully 77 00:08:28.040 --> 00:08:30.040 given to Connecticut. 78 00:08:30.040 --> 00:08:36.760 With Winthrop and Clark both accepting the settlement in April 1663, Winthrop now joined 79 00:08:36.760 --> 00:08:40.400 in support of a royal charter for Rhode Island. 80 00:08:40.400 --> 00:08:48.240 Finally in July 1663, the Crown granted Rhode Island its charter as a self-governing colony, 81 00:08:48.240 --> 00:08:52.160 including the Narragansett land. 82 00:08:52.160 --> 00:08:59.680 Really remarkable in the Charter was the explicit guarantee of religious freedom for Rhode Island. 83 00:08:59.680 --> 00:09:07.240 No person within the set colony was to be any wise, molested, punished, disquieted or 84 00:09:07.240 --> 00:09:13.320 called in question for any differences in opinion in matters of religion and do not 85 00:09:13.320 --> 00:09:16.360 actually disturb the civil peace. 86 00:09:16.360 --> 00:09:22.240 Furthermore, Rhode Island was protected from encroachment by Massachusetts by guarantees 87 00:09:22.240 --> 00:09:25.520 of freedom to trade with the Bay Colony. 88 00:09:25.520 --> 00:09:30.720 In general, the governmental changes made by the new royal charter were minor. 89 00:09:30.720 --> 00:09:35.400 The president's name was changed to governor and the number of assistants or magistrates 90 00:09:35.400 --> 00:09:38.720 expanded from four to ten. 91 00:09:38.720 --> 00:09:45.120 The new charter, however, did cause the removal of the important nullification check on central 92 00:09:45.120 --> 00:09:49.900 General Government Power in Rhode Island, by rescinding the law requiring a majority 93 00:09:49.900 --> 00:09:56.280 of towns to approve the laws of the General Court. Two years later, the Crown restricted 94 00:09:56.280 --> 00:10:01.880 democracy further by requiring that suffrage in Rhode Island, as well as in the rest of 95 00:10:01.880 --> 00:10:07.360 New England, be limited to those with competent estates. 96 00:10:07.360 --> 00:10:12.840 The Narragansett land dispute was far from over. As soon as Winthrop had concluded his 97 00:10:12.840 --> 00:10:19.840 In his agreement with Clark in April, he joyfully sailed for home, convinced that he had outsmarted Rhode Island. 98 00:10:19.840 --> 00:10:29.840 By the agreement, the Atherton Company was recognized as the owners of the Narragansett lands, and it was granted a free choice of jurisdiction. 99 00:10:29.840 --> 00:10:33.840 Winthrop had no doubt which path his associates would choose. 100 00:10:33.840 --> 00:10:41.840 As soon as he landed, Winthrop and his partners voted to shift jurisdiction of the Narragansett country from Rhode Island to Connecticut, 101 00:10:41.840 --> 00:10:44.840 and Connecticut eagerly accepted the gift. 102 00:10:44.840 --> 00:10:57.840 But in the meanwhile, in the course of drafting the Rhode Island Charter, Clark had shrewdly neglected to include any mention of a free option to the Atherton Company. 103 00:10:57.840 --> 00:11:05.840 Thus, Rhode Island obtained a charter with unconditional jurisdiction over the Narragansett lands. 104 00:11:05.840 --> 00:11:20.840 But if Dr. Clark did a superb job of winning rights for Rhode Island in the turbulent years following the restoration, hapless New Haven suddenly found itself blotted from the map. 105 00:11:20.840 --> 00:11:28.840 Here was a treacherous blow indeed from its neighbor colony and a clear violation of the terms of the New England Confederation. 106 00:11:28.840 --> 00:11:34.840 In addition to treachery without, New Haven was suffering increasing opposition within, 107 00:11:34.840 --> 00:11:39.840 Rebellion against its extreme theocratic and oligarchic rule. 108 00:11:39.840 --> 00:11:47.840 The opposition denounced the severe limitations on suffrage and longed to join the more liberal and prosperous Connecticut. 109 00:11:47.840 --> 00:11:56.840 Francis Brown, for example, denounced the New Haven government and magistrates and refused to obey laws not in conformity with the laws of England. 110 00:11:56.840 --> 00:12:02.840 When news of the royal grant of New Haven to Connecticut arrived in the fall of 1662, 111 00:12:02.840 --> 00:12:09.800 In 1662, Connecticut issued an ultimatum to New Haven Colony to surrender its jurisdiction 112 00:12:09.800 --> 00:12:16.120 to it. The colony refused, but town after town now took advantage of the opportunity 113 00:12:16.120 --> 00:12:22.280 to shift its allegiance from New Haven to Connecticut. First came Southwood on Long 114 00:12:22.280 --> 00:12:29.460 Island and then part or all of Stamford, Greenwich and Guilford. By the end of 1662 the jurisdiction 115 00:12:29.460 --> 00:12:35.900 of New Haven had shrunk to a fraction, to its hard core. Only the towns of New Haven 116 00:12:35.900 --> 00:12:43.160 proper, Milford and Brantford, remained. The core of New Haven, headed by Governor William 117 00:12:43.160 --> 00:12:49.260 Leat and Reverend John Davenport, remained adamant. The free men of the colony voted 118 00:12:49.260 --> 00:12:54.020 to keep its independence and to appeal the decision to the king and asked for a charter 119 00:12:54.020 --> 00:12:59.460 for the Colony. New Haven then took its case to the New England Confederation, charging 120 00:12:59.460 --> 00:13:07.420 Connecticut with gross violation of its terms. In September 1663, the Commissioners of the 121 00:13:07.420 --> 00:13:14.900 United Colonies voted in favor of New Haven and its continued independence. Connecticut, 122 00:13:14.900 --> 00:13:21.060 however, blithely ignored the verdict of the Commissioners and continued to demand unconditional 123 00:13:21.060 --> 00:13:28.300 Submission. New Haven, for its part, took heart in the winter of 1664 when the Crown's 124 00:13:28.300 --> 00:13:34.900 order to the colonies and joining enforcement of the Navigation Acts included New Haven 125 00:13:34.900 --> 00:13:42.420 in its address. This seemed to accord implicit royal recognition of New Haven's autonomy. 126 00:13:42.420 --> 00:13:46.900 Even the defection of the town of Milford to Connecticut could not dampen New Haven's 127 00:13:46.900 --> 00:14:11.900 The King took the first step down the path of ending the right of self-government in New England by sending four commissioners to New England in mid-1664 to try to enforce the navigation laws, settle disputes, and generally began the process of taking over the colonies. 128 00:14:11.900 --> 00:14:36.900 In the meanwhile, in March, the King decided to give to his brother James, the Duke of York, the entire huge area of New Netherland, which England was in the process of seizing from the Dutch, from the Connecticut River all the way south to Delaware Bay, virtually the entire middle area between New England and the southern colonies of Chesapeake Bay. 129 00:14:36.900 --> 00:14:45.900 For good measure, James was also granted all of Central and Eastern Maine from the Kennebec River east to St. Croix on the Canadian border. 130 00:14:45.900 --> 00:14:53.900 The huge grant to the Duke of York startled Connecticut, for all of Long Island now belonged to the Duke. 131 00:14:53.900 --> 00:15:00.900 In 1650, New England had come to an amicable agreement with the Dutch for partitioning Long Island. 132 00:15:00.900 --> 00:15:06.900 3 quarters of the island east of Oyster Bay went to Connecticut or New Haven 133 00:15:06.900 --> 00:15:15.900 and Dutch sovereignty was virtually limited to Long Island areas that now are Nassau County and part of New York City. 134 00:15:15.900 --> 00:15:21.900 Now, suddenly, the Long Island towns had been transferred to the Duke of York. 135 00:15:21.900 --> 00:15:28.900 But far more dangerous was the fact that James was now granted all land west of the Connecticut River. 136 00:15:28.900 --> 00:15:33.900 This meant the virtual eradication of the colony of Connecticut. 137 00:15:33.900 --> 00:15:40.900 All the significant towns in the colony, except New London, were located west of this river. 138 00:15:40.900 --> 00:15:43.900 Its charter thus completely negated. 139 00:15:43.900 --> 00:15:48.900 And being anxious to present the Royal Commission with a fate incomplete, 140 00:15:48.900 --> 00:15:52.900 Connecticut again demanded total submission from New Haven 141 00:15:52.900 --> 00:15:57.900 and sent its agents to that colony to take over the government. 142 00:15:57.900 --> 00:16:01.900 The other colonies also wanted to settle matters as quickly as possible. 143 00:16:01.900 --> 00:16:06.900 The commissioners of the United Colonies reversed their stand in September 144 00:16:06.900 --> 00:16:10.900 and endorsed Connecticut's appropriation of New Haven. 145 00:16:10.900 --> 00:16:13.900 Finally, in November, the royal commissioners agreed 146 00:16:13.900 --> 00:16:18.900 and decided that all the New Haven area belonged to Connecticut. 147 00:16:18.900 --> 00:16:21.900 The blow was final. The Crown had decided. 148 00:16:21.900 --> 00:16:40.900 In December 1664, the New Haven General Court surrendered, but under bitter protest to the last, denouncing the injustice imposed by Connecticut. New Haven Colony was ended, and the towns became part of the considerably more liberal Colony of Connecticut. 149 00:16:40.900 --> 00:16:47.900 The most extreme and rigid Puritan theocracy in New England was thus no more. 150 00:16:47.900 --> 00:17:03.900 The Rev. John Davenport, founder and spiritual chief of New Haven, moved to the ministry of First Boston Church, there to end his days in bitter controversy as the foremost and most relentless enemy of the halfway covenant. 151 00:17:03.900 --> 00:17:18.900 As for Branford's zealous minister, Rev. Abraham Pearson, he had led his flock there from South Hampton, Long Island, two decades before, when that town had decided to join the lax rule of Connecticut. 152 00:17:18.900 --> 00:17:35.900 He was not now prepared to give up the strict theocratic ideal, and so he moved his flock once more, this time to found another theocratic settlement in former Dutch territory at New Ark on the banks of the Passaic River. 153 00:17:35.900 --> 00:17:42.900 With New Haven seized by Connecticut, the New England Confederation came to a virtual end. 154 00:17:42.900 --> 00:17:52.900 Although it formally existed for twenty more years, its annual meetings ceased, and it no longer played a significant role in New England affairs. 155 00:17:52.900 --> 00:18:03.900 The Massachusetts Bay Colonies authorities, with their old self-governing charter, had good reason, meanwhile, to fear the onset of the Restoration. 156 00:18:03.900 --> 00:18:11.420 Already a British command had forced Massachusetts Bay to slacken its persecution of the Quakers. 157 00:18:11.420 --> 00:18:14.340 What further encroachments might follow? 158 00:18:14.340 --> 00:18:19.420 King Charles, for his part, was determined to bring his most recalcitrant and independent 159 00:18:19.420 --> 00:18:21.380 colony to heel. 160 00:18:21.380 --> 00:18:27.100 Its virtual independence, its widespread flouting and evasion of the recently passed navigation 161 00:18:27.100 --> 00:18:33.260 acts, its oligarchic rule by a Puritan theocracy, its grabbing of the New Hampshire and Maine 162 00:18:33.260 --> 00:18:38.180 and Settlements could only infuriate an Anglican monarch. 163 00:18:38.180 --> 00:18:46.920 In mid-1662, the King confirmed the Massachusetts Charter but vaguely and ominously stressed 164 00:18:46.920 --> 00:18:53.580 the invalidity of all laws contrary to the laws of England. 165 00:18:53.580 --> 00:19:00.540 More substantively, the King ordered Massachusetts to permit the use of the Anglican Book of 166 00:19:00.540 --> 00:19:07.740 of Common Prayer, and to grant the franchise to all freeholders of competent estate, whether 167 00:19:07.740 --> 00:19:14.660 or not they were members of a Puritan Church. By this last command, of course, the King 168 00:19:14.660 --> 00:19:21.440 struck at the heart of theocratic rule in Massachusetts. Massachusetts was able to obey 169 00:19:21.440 --> 00:19:29.180 the letter of this demand, but not the substance. In place of restricting voting to Church members, 170 00:19:29.180 --> 00:19:35.380 The Bay Colony substituted the requirement that each non-member must obtain confirmation 171 00:19:35.380 --> 00:19:41.980 from the local minister, the town selectman and the general court itself that he was orthodox 172 00:19:41.980 --> 00:19:48.700 in religion, a gauntlet that no one was able to run. 173 00:19:48.700 --> 00:19:53.880 Eventually King Charles saw his opportunity to take the first fateful step for bringing 174 00:19:53.880 --> 00:20:00.880 in Massachusetts to Heal. In 1664 he sent an expedition under Colonel Richard Nichols, 175 00:20:00.880 --> 00:20:08.360 a veteran royalist, to America to conquer and seize New Netherland from the Dutch. Nichols 176 00:20:08.360 --> 00:20:16.200 was to remain to govern New Netherland, now renamed New York, as the Duke of York's deputy. 177 00:20:16.200 --> 00:20:21.040 The King took the opportunity to name Nichols as head of a four-man commission to subdue 178 00:20:21.040 --> 00:20:28.320 New New Netherland and to inspect, regulate and settle disputes in New England. 179 00:20:28.320 --> 00:20:34.960 Here was the first intrusion of English authority on New England. 180 00:20:34.960 --> 00:20:42.040 Both Massachusetts and the King saw the Commission correctly, the entering wedge of British rule 181 00:20:42.040 --> 00:20:48.200 and the end of self-government, as well as the overthrow of the Puritan oligarchy in 182 00:20:48.200 --> 00:20:49.920 Massachusetts. 183 00:20:49.920 --> 00:20:54.500 And neither was Massachusetts reassured by the fact that one of the royal commissioners 184 00:20:54.500 --> 00:21:01.080 was Samuel Maverick, a former Boston merchant and veteran rebel against Massachusetts tyranny 185 00:21:01.080 --> 00:21:07.080 and a signer of the child petition. Maverick was a man eager to wreak vengeance against 186 00:21:07.080 --> 00:21:13.600 his old enemy. Professor Oliver Chitwood points out that in this emerging fight between the 187 00:21:13.600 --> 00:21:37.600 The people stood to lose regardless of the outcome. If the king won, the rights covered by the charter would be lost to the colony as a whole. On the other hand, if the oligarchy won, it would be strengthened in its position and the old policy of intolerance and limited suffrage would continue. 188 00:21:37.600 --> 00:21:54.600 Apparently Chitwood does not see the other side of the coin, for upon either outcome the people also stood to gain self-government and freedom from imperial rule on the one hand, liberation from theocracy on the other. 189 00:21:54.600 --> 00:22:01.600 The Commission came armed with two sets of royal instructions, public and secret. 190 00:22:01.600 --> 00:22:10.600 The public instructions were to hear complaints, settle disputes between the New England colonies, and enforce the Navigation Acts. 191 00:22:10.600 --> 00:22:14.600 They also conveyed the King's good intentions to Massachusetts. 192 00:22:14.600 --> 00:22:27.600 The secret instructions, however, were to press for the election of more amenable deputies and magistrates who would approve the idea of a royal governor in Massachusetts. 193 00:22:27.600 --> 00:22:31.260 Nichols himself was the king's preference for this post. 194 00:22:31.260 --> 00:22:36.900 The king also instructed the commissioners to insist upon religious toleration in New England, 195 00:22:36.900 --> 00:22:40.480 especially of course for Anglicans. 196 00:22:40.480 --> 00:22:45.200 Upon the commissioner's arrival in July 1664, 197 00:22:45.200 --> 00:22:49.640 Massachusetts delivered a ringing reply to their pretensions. 198 00:22:49.640 --> 00:22:56.860 Massachusetts enemies had evidently persuaded this king to send a commission that could on its own discretion 199 00:22:56.860 --> 00:23:02.620 revoke the colonist's fundamental right of self-government, a right granted in their patent. 200 00:23:03.580 --> 00:23:09.340 In addition to these arguments from principle, the royal commissioners were subjected to personal 201 00:23:09.340 --> 00:23:17.340 denunciation in the colony. One of the commissioners, the ambitious Sir Robert Carr, was accused of 202 00:23:17.340 --> 00:23:22.380 keeping a mistress, while Colonel George Cartwright was suspected of being a papist. 203 00:23:22.380 --> 00:23:27.920 First, in the puritan climate of Massachusetts Bay, it was difficult to know which crime 204 00:23:27.920 --> 00:23:31.120 was deemed the More Highness. 205 00:23:31.120 --> 00:23:35.880 The Commission proceeded first to the rapid accomplishment of its top priority mission, 206 00:23:35.880 --> 00:23:38.060 the conquest of New Netherland. 207 00:23:38.060 --> 00:23:43.940 The Commissioner's next step, according to their instructions, was to outflank Massachusetts 208 00:23:43.940 --> 00:23:49.500 by bringing the weaker New England colonies into submission before confronting their most 209 00:23:49.500 --> 00:23:52.500 and the Most Difficult Task, Massachusetts Bay. 210 00:23:52.500 --> 00:23:57.500 Accordingly, their first step in early 1665 was Plymouth, 211 00:23:57.500 --> 00:24:02.500 where the commissioners demanded that the franchise no longer depend on religious opinion 212 00:24:02.500 --> 00:24:08.500 and that there be religious liberty, at least for orthodox Christians. 213 00:24:08.500 --> 00:24:12.500 In contrast to Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth quickly succumbed, 214 00:24:12.500 --> 00:24:16.500 thus greatly weakening the theocratic and oligarchic rule. 215 00:24:16.500 --> 00:24:23.180 The King warmly commended Plymouth for its ready compliance, but not without a pointed 216 00:24:23.180 --> 00:24:26.020 reference to her errant sister. 217 00:24:26.020 --> 00:24:31.460 Your carriage seems to be set off with the more luster by the contrary deportment of 218 00:24:31.460 --> 00:24:35.200 the colony of the Massachusetts. 219 00:24:35.200 --> 00:24:40.880 The next step was to settle the still raging boundary dispute over the Narragansett country. 220 00:24:40.880 --> 00:24:47.180 The Commission was granted power to override any previous royal charter. Connecticut and 221 00:24:47.180 --> 00:24:53.260 the Atherton Company were still actively claiming the land. The Crown had advised the Commissioners 222 00:24:53.260 --> 00:24:58.720 to take the Narragansett country away from both Connecticut and Rhode Island and to make 223 00:24:58.720 --> 00:25:06.220 it a direct royal province with the Atherton claim continuing in force. At the end of March, 224 00:25:06.220 --> 00:25:12.180 The commissioners rendered their decision, amending their instructions significantly. 225 00:25:12.180 --> 00:25:17.420 For although the Narragansett country was indeed awarded directly to the Crown and called 226 00:25:17.420 --> 00:25:23.200 King's Province, the commissioners decided to compensate Rhode Island for the loss by 227 00:25:23.200 --> 00:25:29.220 authorizing it independently to govern the province in the King's stead. 228 00:25:29.220 --> 00:25:34.300 Moreover, they were convinced by Rhode Island's demonstration of the fraudulent nature of 229 00:25:34.300 --> 00:26:04.300 The Commissioners therefore boldly vacated the arbitrary Atherton claim and ordered the company proprietors off the territory. Sir Robert Carr, however, demonstrated his buccaneering vent by asking the Crown to grant him title to a large tract of the best Narragansett grazing land. Winthrop, however, managed to persuade Nichols, who had not been present, 230 00:26:04.300 --> 00:26:31.300 The Commissioners' Other Major Impact on Rhode Island was, as we have seen, the compulsory narrowing of suffrage to those of competent estates. Rhode Island needed no prodding, of course, to agree with what they already had, permission for all the Orthodox to have churches of their own choosing. 231 00:26:31.300 --> 00:26:37.300 Apart from the Atherton decision, the Commissioner's rulings were quite satisfactory to Connecticut. 232 00:26:37.300 --> 00:26:41.300 We've already seen the Commissioner's role in the liquidation of New Haven. 233 00:26:41.300 --> 00:26:50.300 The Commissioners were told by Connecticut that it already met the requirements of giving the right to vote to all men of competent estates, 234 00:26:50.300 --> 00:26:59.300 even if not church members, and of permitting full religious liberty to those of orthodox belief and civil lives. 235 00:26:59.300 --> 00:27:05.500 While it was true, however, that Connecticut had been far more democratic than Massachusetts 236 00:27:05.500 --> 00:27:10.540 in granting the vote to non-church members, it had hardly permitted full religious freedom 237 00:27:10.540 --> 00:27:12.660 to non-Puritans. 238 00:27:12.660 --> 00:27:17.540 In return for their ready compliance with the Commissioner's request, Connecticut and 239 00:27:17.540 --> 00:27:23.480 Rhode Island were, like Plymouth, favored with a message from King Charles complimenting 240 00:27:23.480 --> 00:27:26.140 them on their good behavior. 241 00:27:26.140 --> 00:27:31.420 Their business with the southern New England colonies speedily and satisfactorily concluded, 242 00:27:31.420 --> 00:27:37.740 the commissioners turned their attention to their major problem, Massachusetts Bay. 243 00:27:37.740 --> 00:27:43.900 Confronting the Massachusetts general court in May 1665, the commissioners soon realized 244 00:27:43.900 --> 00:27:50.140 that this colony would be winning no good conduct medals from the king. 245 00:27:50.140 --> 00:27:55.300 The commissioners put forth their demands, that they propose to act as an appeals court 246 00:27:55.300 --> 00:28:25.300 for Massachusetts Cases. That, as the other colonies had done, Massachusetts adopt an oath of allegiance to the King, that it grant full religious liberty to Anglicans, and that it observe the Navigation Acts. The commissioners also demanded that Massachusetts really eliminate its prohibition against voting by non-church members. Led by Governor Richard Bellingham, Massachusetts flatly refused. 247 00:28:25.300 --> 00:28:45.300 Each one of these royal demands. Massachusetts Charter, it further declared, gave the Bay Colony absolute power to make laws and administer justice. Therefore, any appellate activity by the Commission would be an intolerable breach of Massachusetts' rights. 248 00:28:45.300 --> 00:28:58.300 The commissioners angrily retorted that they were the direct agents of the king, the very royal authority responsible for the charter. Does Massachusetts deny the authority of the royal commission? 249 00:28:58.300 --> 00:29:11.300 Massachusetts answered in a masterpiece of evasion and pseudo-humility that it was beyond its capacity or function to pass on the validity of the commission. 250 00:29:11.300 --> 00:29:24.300 The commissioners decided to take the bull by the horns and set themselves up as an appellate court in the house of Captain Thomas Breeden to hear grievances against Massachusetts. 251 00:29:24.300 --> 00:29:39.300 But the general court moved swiftly, proclaiming by the sound of the trumpet outside the Breeden house that this action was a breach of the royal charter and Massachusetts' rights and could not gain the general court's consent. 252 00:29:39.300 --> 00:29:46.540 Defeated and frustrated, the commissioners left Boston. But with this warning of things 253 00:29:46.540 --> 00:29:52.540 to come, the king did not grant away his sovereignty over you when he made you a corporation. When 254 00:29:52.540 --> 00:29:57.800 his majesty gave you power to make wholesome laws and to administer justice by them, he 255 00:29:57.800 --> 00:30:04.380 parted not with his right to judge whether the laws were wholesome. It is possible that 256 00:30:04.380 --> 00:30:10.180 The Charter that you so much idolize may be forfeited until you have cleared yourself 257 00:30:10.180 --> 00:30:17.980 of those many injustices, oppressions, violences, and blood for which you are complained against. 258 00:30:17.980 --> 00:30:22.740 With Colonel Richard Nichols returning to New York to take up his post as governor, 259 00:30:22.740 --> 00:30:29.500 the other commissioners proceeded northward to try to disrupt Massachusetts' rule over 260 00:30:29.500 --> 00:30:33.260 the New Hampshire and Maine settlements. 261 00:30:33.260 --> 00:30:38.780 Beyond obtaining a few signatures on a petition to the King for relief from Massachusetts 262 00:30:38.780 --> 00:30:45.500 rule, the commissioners accomplished little in the New Hampshire towns, even though accompanied 263 00:30:45.500 --> 00:30:50.660 by agents of the proprietary claimant to New Hampshire, Robert T. Mason. 264 00:30:50.660 --> 00:30:55.820 The towns of Portsmouth and Dover, in fact, sent for some Massachusetts magistrates to 265 00:30:55.820 --> 00:30:59.740 emphasize their solidarity with Massachusetts. 266 00:30:59.740 --> 00:31:04.740 This was not surprising because New Hampshire was dominated by an oligarchy of Massachusetts 267 00:31:04.740 --> 00:31:12.300 merchants, for example, Valentine Hill and the Waldron family, who had moved to the Piscataqua 268 00:31:12.300 --> 00:31:16.380 to engage in the flourishing timber and fish trade. 269 00:31:16.380 --> 00:31:21.500 The oligarchy was either appointed by the Massachusetts General Court or elected by 270 00:31:21.500 --> 00:31:24.580 a highly limited franchise. 271 00:31:24.580 --> 00:31:30.140 A dozen petitioners from Portsmouth complained to the Commission that under Massachusetts 272 00:31:30.140 --> 00:31:36.900 five or six of the richest men of this parish have ruled and ordered all offices, both civil 273 00:31:36.900 --> 00:31:43.660 and military, at their pleasure, and none durst make opposition for fear of great fines 274 00:31:43.660 --> 00:31:50.800 or long imprisonment. In particular, the opposition attacked the theocratic Puritan rule and pleaded 275 00:31:50.800 --> 00:31:55.320 for the right to worship as Anglicans and for the right to vote. 276 00:31:55.320 --> 00:32:00.660 The greatest fire of the petitioners was leveled at Dover's Puritan Minister, Reverend Joshua 277 00:32:00.660 --> 00:32:01.660 Moody. 278 00:32:01.660 --> 00:32:06.200 The petitioners also asked for a union of New Hampshire with Maine, where the settlements 279 00:32:06.200 --> 00:32:09.000 had similar problems. 280 00:32:09.000 --> 00:32:15.480 If some merchants were privileged members of the New Hampshire oligarchy, so also merchants 281 00:32:15.480 --> 00:32:22.960 Merchants like Francis Champernown headed the petition and merchants like Pinchon and Bradstreet 282 00:32:22.960 --> 00:32:28.880 defended the petitioners in the Massachusetts court, but all to no avail, for as soon as 283 00:32:28.880 --> 00:32:35.560 the commissioners left, the Massachusetts authorities began to arrest the leading petitioners 284 00:32:35.560 --> 00:32:36.920 and complainants. 285 00:32:36.920 --> 00:32:44.080 Thus, the Portsmouth distiller Abraham Corbett was hauled into court to answer for his tumultuous 286 00:32:44.080 --> 00:32:48.880 and Seditious Practices Against His Government. 287 00:32:48.880 --> 00:32:53.560 Pickings were more fruitful for the Commission, however, in the Maine towns, which had been 288 00:32:53.560 --> 00:33:00.360 seized by Massachusetts only a decade before and where the preponderance of anti-Puritan 289 00:33:00.360 --> 00:33:04.640 settlers and fishermen kept resentment high. 290 00:33:04.640 --> 00:33:10.880 Finding Maine discontented with Massachusetts' rule, the Commissioners proceeded to organize 291 00:33:10.880 --> 00:33:16.160 as an independent government at York for the eight main towns. 292 00:33:16.160 --> 00:33:20.480 The commissioners were armed with a royal letter commanding the surrender of the main 293 00:33:20.480 --> 00:33:29.220 towns to the jurisdiction of Ferdinando Gorgias, grandson and heir of the previous proprietor, 294 00:33:29.220 --> 00:33:34.460 and John Archdale accompanied the commission as an agent of Gorgias to see that the order 295 00:33:34.460 --> 00:33:36.800 was carried out. 296 00:33:36.800 --> 00:33:42.040 Going further east to the Duke of York's new province, east of the Kennebec River, 297 00:33:42.040 --> 00:33:48.080 now central and eastern Maine, the commissioners then organized a government under the Duke 298 00:33:48.080 --> 00:33:55.380 of the few scattered inhabitants and named the territory Cornwall. Before disbanding, 299 00:33:55.380 --> 00:34:01.400 the commissioners sent their report to the Crown in December 1665. In it they attacked 300 00:34:01.400 --> 00:34:08.160 Massachusetts, intransigence, and recommended revocation of the Bay Colony Charter. They 301 00:34:08.160 --> 00:34:13.880 also recommended direct royal government for New Hampshire and Maine and praised the cooperative 302 00:34:13.880 --> 00:34:20.040 attitude of other New England colonies. The Commissioner's report, however, proved to 303 00:34:20.040 --> 00:34:28.860 be ill-fated. One ill omen, none of the Commissioners arrived home with the report. Maverick settled 304 00:34:28.860 --> 00:34:35.860 The Dutch had naturally taken umbrage at England's sudden seizure of New-Netherland at a time when the two countries were at peace, and in the ensuing war with the Dutch, England bore the brunt of the situation. 305 00:34:58.860 --> 00:35:05.380 for heavy losses and expenses, especially as the French entered on the side of the Dutch. 306 00:35:05.380 --> 00:35:10.660 A great plague also devastated London and southern England, and later in the year a 307 00:35:10.660 --> 00:35:16.600 great fire destroyed two-thirds of the housing of London. Furthermore, clamor was rising 308 00:35:16.600 --> 00:35:22.460 against the King's Lord Chancellor, the despotic Earl of Clarendon, soon to be ousted and 309 00:35:22.460 --> 00:35:29.220 to Flee into Exile. With all the turmoil in England, Charles decided to let the Massachusetts 310 00:35:29.220 --> 00:35:36.340 matter go for the time being. In April 1666, he asked Massachusetts to send an agent to 311 00:35:36.340 --> 00:35:43.500 England to answer the Commissioner's charges. Massachusetts brusquely replied that it had 312 00:35:43.500 --> 00:35:51.260 already given all its explanations to the Commissioners and now had nothing to add. 313 00:35:51.260 --> 00:35:57.700 The Bay Colony did, as a sweetener, send to the Crown for the Royal Navy a gift of two 314 00:35:57.700 --> 00:36:05.700 large expensive masts worth about 2,000 pounds from the New Hampshire forest. 315 00:36:05.700 --> 00:36:10.700 Massachusetts' refusal had not been decided upon without opposition. 316 00:36:10.700 --> 00:36:16.740 Leading citizens of a few Massachusetts towns counseled obedience to the King's order. 317 00:36:16.740 --> 00:36:22.340 Of the Boston petitioners against defiance, the overwhelming majority were a. merchants 318 00:36:22.340 --> 00:36:28.820 and b. non-freeman, and hence non-voters and non-puritan church members. 319 00:36:28.820 --> 00:36:34.780 Thus, the council of caution came largely from the groups most prominent in strong opposition 320 00:36:34.780 --> 00:36:39.380 to the rule of the existing oligarchy. 321 00:36:39.380 --> 00:36:44.380 Despite the defiance of Massachusetts, the king now dropped the matter and pursued the 322 00:36:44.380 --> 00:36:46.560 colony no further. 323 00:36:46.560 --> 00:36:53.080 At home, the hated Earl of Clarendon fell from power in 1667 to be succeeded by the 324 00:36:53.080 --> 00:37:01.120 Cabal Ministry, in which Anthony Ashley Cooper, later Earl of Shaftesbury, was the most influential 325 00:37:01.120 --> 00:37:06.880 official on colonial affairs. And since Lord Ashley was himself an active proprietor of 326 00:37:06.880 --> 00:37:14.120 the New Carolina Grant, it was to his interest to minimize world interference in the colonies. 327 00:37:14.120 --> 00:37:19.400 Several fellow colonial proprietors like the Duke of York, furthermore, were interested 328 00:37:19.400 --> 00:37:25.400 more in exploring their own proprietary claims than in bringing the colonies to heel. 329 00:37:25.400 --> 00:37:30.120 The Massachusetts government had triumphed for the short run. 330 00:37:30.120 --> 00:37:34.200 Even the one victory of the commissioners over Massachusetts Bay, the separation of 331 00:37:34.200 --> 00:37:38.180 Maine, turned out to be short-lived. 332 00:37:38.180 --> 00:37:45.100 In the Anglo-Dutch war, support for Massachusetts in Maine increased out of fear of the Indians 333 00:37:45.100 --> 00:37:50.380 friendly to the French and French Catholic missionaries. Also realizing that England 334 00:37:50.380 --> 00:37:56.140 in the wake of war and the fall of Clarendon was in no mind to intervene, Massachusetts 335 00:37:56.140 --> 00:38:02.500 in the spring of 1668 took steps forcibly to reincorporate the Maine towns into the 336 00:38:02.500 --> 00:38:32.500 The Bay Commonwealth Four leaders of the General Court went to York and there reimposed Massachusetts rule on Maine. Massachusetts now ruled triumphant without a single defeat at the hands of the crown. One of the most far-reaching actions of the first years of the restoration was a series of navigation acts by which England imposed mercantilist restrictions on its empire. Attempting to 337 00:38:32.500 --> 00:38:37.860 To eliminate the more efficient Dutch shipping from the American trade for the benefit of 338 00:38:37.860 --> 00:38:46.380 the London merchants, the Puritan Parliament in 1650-51 had prohibited foreign vessels 339 00:38:46.380 --> 00:38:49.060 from trading with America. 340 00:38:49.060 --> 00:38:54.620 Goods to and from the colonies could only be carried on English or colonial ships or 341 00:38:54.620 --> 00:38:58.580 on ships of the home country of growth or manufacture. 342 00:38:58.580 --> 00:39:05.040 British imports and exports from England were limited to English ships alone. 343 00:39:05.040 --> 00:39:11.540 As part of the restoration compromise, Charles II continued to gratify the London merchants 344 00:39:11.540 --> 00:39:17.700 and passed a series of navigation acts in 1660-63. 345 00:39:17.700 --> 00:39:23.380 Part of the Commissioner's instructions, indeed, was to see to the enforcement of these acts. 346 00:39:23.380 --> 00:39:29.660 The new Navigation Acts drastically restricted and monopolized American colonial trade to 347 00:39:29.660 --> 00:39:32.820 the detriment of the colonies. 348 00:39:32.820 --> 00:39:41.900 The Navigation Act of 1660-61, one, restricted all colonial trade to English ships, English 349 00:39:41.900 --> 00:39:47.900 and American, that is ships built, owned and manned by Englishmen. 350 00:39:47.900 --> 00:39:52.900 2. Excluded all foreign merchants from American trade 351 00:39:52.900 --> 00:40:02.900 and 3. Required that certain enumerated colonial articles be exported only to England and English colonies. 352 00:40:02.900 --> 00:40:09.900 We have already seen the havoc caused in the southern colonies by tobacco being made one of the enumerated goods. 353 00:40:09.900 --> 00:40:14.900 Among the others were sugar, cotton wool and various dyes. 354 00:40:14.900 --> 00:40:21.960 The second important navigation act was the Staple Act of 1663, which provided that all 355 00:40:21.960 --> 00:40:27.740 goods exported from Europe to America must first land in England. 356 00:40:27.740 --> 00:40:33.100 Only a few colonial imports were exempt from this prohibition—salt, servants, various 357 00:40:33.100 --> 00:40:38.100 provisions from Scotland, and wine from Madeira and the Azores. 358 00:40:38.100 --> 00:40:44.820 The Staple Act meant that English ships and merchants would monopolize exports to America. 359 00:40:44.820 --> 00:40:51.260 While English manufacturers selling to America would be privileged by extra taxes being levied 360 00:40:51.260 --> 00:40:55.780 at English ports on foreign exports to the colonies. 361 00:40:55.780 --> 00:41:00.900 The enumerated articles provision ensured that these staples would be exported only 362 00:41:00.900 --> 00:41:05.260 by English merchants and in English ships. 363 00:41:05.260 --> 00:41:09.740 The English seizure of New Netherland was partly designed to complement the Navigation 364 00:41:09.740 --> 00:41:15.340 Act by crushing the Dutch freight trade with the New World. 365 00:41:15.340 --> 00:41:20.420 The immediate impact of these acts on New England merchants and New England economy 366 00:41:20.420 --> 00:41:22.980 was not great. 367 00:41:22.980 --> 00:41:28.820 New England imports were largely manufactured goods from England anyway and thus were not 368 00:41:28.820 --> 00:41:30.620 greatly affected. 369 00:41:30.620 --> 00:41:35.180 And the restrictions such as the enumerated articles and the prohibition of direct imports 370 00:41:35.180 --> 00:41:39.580 of wines from the Canary Islands were simply ignored. 371 00:41:39.580 --> 00:41:51.580 Massachusetts merchants blithely continued to ship enumerated articles direct to European ports, for example, tobacco to Holland, and to import goods direct from Europe. 372 00:41:51.580 --> 00:42:05.580 The New England merchants were happily able to save the South from immediate devastation at the hands of the Navigation Acts by first importing southern tobacco to Boston and then exporting it direct to foreign countries. 373 00:42:05.580 --> 00:42:13.580 In this way, the South for a time was enabled to avoid the drastic burden of the Navigation Acts. 374 00:42:13.580 --> 00:42:18.580 The distracted English government did not attempt to enforce any of these restrictions 375 00:42:18.580 --> 00:42:23.580 until the Anglo-Dutch Wars were over in the mid-1670s. 376 00:42:23.580 --> 00:42:28.580 The position of the merchants was backed fully by the Massachusetts General Court 377 00:42:28.580 --> 00:42:35.580 which declared that it simply was not subject to the laws of England any more than we live in England. 378 00:42:35.580 --> 00:42:41.580 On this issue, the Boston merchants and the Puritan theocracy were allied, 379 00:42:41.580 --> 00:42:45.580 the former to prevent British restrictions on their trade, 380 00:42:45.580 --> 00:42:50.580 the latter to keep England from interfering with the Puritan regime in Massachusetts. 381 00:42:50.580 --> 00:42:56.580 Indeed, the Massachusetts merchants, able to avoid the restrictions of the Navigation Acts, 382 00:42:56.580 --> 00:43:04.180 were also able to take advantage of the provisions driving out their efficient Dutch competitors. 383 00:43:04.180 --> 00:43:10.040 The London merchants, having used governmental power to crush Dutch competitors, suddenly 384 00:43:10.040 --> 00:43:17.520 found to their dismay the Massachusetts merchants outcompeting them in marketing colonial products 385 00:43:17.520 --> 00:43:23.520 in Europe, in shipping and in supplying the colonies with imported manufacturers, including 386 00:43:23.520 --> 00:43:35.520 The King's revenue was of course diminished by direct trade with Europe because the taxes levied at English ports were avoided. 387 00:43:35.520 --> 00:43:50.520 The most flourishing trade in New England during the Dutch Wars of the 1660s and 1670s was the essentially uneconomic supplying of war contracts to provision the English attempts at conquest. 388 00:43:50.520 --> 00:43:58.340 Inquest, Massachusetts major provisions were naval stores, especially MAST, channeled through 389 00:43:58.340 --> 00:44:04.000 Portsmouth, New Hampshire. This became the biggest business seen in New England up to 390 00:44:04.000 --> 00:44:10.440 that time. Once again, London merchants were the key entrepreneurs in this trade, using 391 00:44:10.440 --> 00:44:17.520 their influence to obtain government war contracts. The most favored Massachusetts merchants were 392 00:44:17.520 --> 00:44:21.280 were those with connections to the London contractors. 393 00:44:21.280 --> 00:44:26.920 The leading New England MAST supplier was Peter Liget, but the Massachusetts MAST industry 394 00:44:26.920 --> 00:44:33.800 was able to flourish largely because it was highly competitive and not centrally organized. 395 00:44:33.800 --> 00:44:40.760 In 1670, for example, Richard Wharton was able to obtain for his company a ten-year monopoly 396 00:44:40.760 --> 00:44:47.080 of the supply of naval stores, including MAST in Massachusetts and Plymouth. 397 00:44:47.080 --> 00:44:52.880 But the endeavor quickly failed because the grant of privilege was impossible to enforce. 398 00:44:52.880 --> 00:44:59.080 Once again, the market process was able to dissolve even a monopoly created by government 399 00:44:59.080 --> 00:44:59.720 privilege.