WE the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament Assembled, having taken into our Con­sideration the State of the Trade of this Kingdom, Do find, That besides many other Disadvantages and Difficulties it now lies un­der, An Act of Parliament, that hath lately Received Your Majesties Royal As­sent in Your Kingdom of Scotland, for Erecting a Company Trading to Africa and the Indies, is likely to bring many great Prejudices and Mischiefs to all Your Majesties Sub­jects, that are concerned in the Wealth or Trade of this Nation; and therefore in all Duty to Your Majesty, and the Care we ought to have of this Kingdom, We do humbly Represent to Your Majesty, that the said Act does provide, ‘That all Ships, Vessels, Merchandize, Goods, and other Effects whatsoever belonging to that Company, shall be free from all manner of Restraints, or Prohibitions, and of all Customs, Taxes, Ses­ses, Supplies, or other Duties Imposed or to be Imposed by Act of Parliament, or otherwise, for the Space of One and Twenty Years: And father, that the said Company, whole Members, Officers, Servants or others belonging thereto, shall be free both in their Persons, Estates and Goods Employed in the said Stock and Trade, from all manner of Taxes, Sesses, Supplies, Excises, Quartering of Soldiers Transient or Local, or Levying of Soldiers, or other Impositions, during the space of One and Twenty Years.’

By reason of which great Advantages Granted to the Scots East India Company, and the Duties and Difficulties that lie upon that Trade in England, a great part of the Stock and Ship­ping of this Nation will be carried thither; and by this Means Scot­land be made a Free Port for all East India Commodities; and consequently these several places in Europe, which were Sup­plyed from England, will be Furnished from thence, much Cheaper than can be done by the English: And therefore this Nation will lose the Benefit of Supplying Foreign parts with those Commodities, which hath always been a great Article in the Ballance of our Foreign Trade: Moreover, the said Commo­dities will unavoidably be brought by the Scots into England, by Stealth, both by Sea and Land, to the vast prejudice of the English Trade and Navigation, and to the great Detriment of Your Majesty in Your Customs. And when once that Na­tion shall have settled themselves in Plantations in America, our Commerce in Tobacco, Sugar, Cotton-Wool, Skins, Masts, &c. will be utterly lost, because the Priviledges of that Nation, Granted to them by this Act, are such, That that Kingdom must be the Magazine for all those Commodities, and the English Plantations and the Traffick thereof lost to us, and Exportation of our own Manufactures yearly Decreased.

Besides these, and many other Obstructions that this Act will unavoidably bring to the general Trade of this Nation ‘Another Clause in the said Act, whereby Your Majesty Promises to Interpose Your Authority, to have Restitution, Reparation, and Satisfaction made for any Damage that may be done to any of the Ships, Goods, Merchandize, Persons or other Effects whatsoever belonging to the said Company, and that upon the Publick Charge;’ Does seem to Engage Your Majesty to Employ the Shipping and Strength at Sea of this Nation, to Support this New Company, to the great Detriment even of this Kingdom.

All which great Prejudices, Inconveniencies and Mischiefs a­rising by the said Act, we in all Duty and Faithfulness lay before Your Majesty.