INSTRUCTIONS

INSTRUCTIONS, issued to every royal governor on his departure for the colonies, delineated the specific powers established in the governor's commission. They were most often prepared in the king's name by special committees of the Privy Council or, subsequent to its organization in 1696, the Board of Trade, in consultation with English merchants, other royal officials, and colonial agents. Royal governors received instructions on every facet of colonial administration, including colonial councils and assemblies, finances, the courts, military matters, trade, navigation, commerce, and religious establishment.

A newly appointed governor sometimes had the opportunity to make suggestions about his own instructions. The Board of Trade also consulted royal commissioners, including those of the Admiralty, the Treasury, and the Customs. English merchants wielded considerable influence in the drafting of instructions. Merchants who objected to colonial legislation had only to petition the Board of Trade, which, in keeping with mercantilist interests, disallowed laws "prejudicial to the trading interests of Great Britain." Colonists objected to those trade-based instructions that seemed frequently to represent British interests at the expense of the colonists. Such instructions, however, were issued to nearly all of the royal governors until the American Revolution.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Labaree, Leonard Woods. Royal Government in America. 2d ed. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1964.

———, ed. Royal Instructions to British Colonial Governors, 1670–1776. New York: D. Appleton-Century, 1935.Reprint, New York: Octagon Books, 1967.