Origins In 1622, at the end of the Dutch
Twelve Years' Truce,
King James I directed the
Privy Council of England to establish a temporary committee to investigate the causes of various economic and supply problems, the decline in trade and consequent financial difficulties; detailed instructions and questions were given, with answers to be given "as fast as the several points shall be duly considered by you." This would be followed by a number of temporary committees and councils to regulate the colonies and their commerce. The board's formal title remains "The Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of all matters relating to Trade and Foreign Plantations". In 1634,
Charles I appointed a new commission for regulating plantations. It was headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury with its primary goals to increase royal authority and the influence of the Church of England in the colonies, particularly with the great influx of Puritans to the New World. Soon after, the
English Civil Wars erupted and initiated a long period of political instability in England and the resultant loss of productivity for these committees. The instructions to the named commissioners, headed by
Henry Vane the Younger, included consideration of both domestic and foreign trade, the trading companies, manufactures, free ports, customs, excise, statistics, coinage and exchange, and fisheries, as well as the plantations and the best means of promoting their welfare and rendering them useful to England. The act's statesmanlike and comprehensive instructions, along with an October act
prohibiting trade with pro-royalist colonies and the Navigation Act of October 1651, formed the first definitive expression of England's commercial policy. They represent the first attempt to establish a legitimate control of commercial and colonial affairs, and the instructions indicate the beginnings of a policy which had the prosperity and wealth of England exclusively at heart. It was the
Lords of Trade who, in 1675, originated the idea of transforming all of the colonies in America into
Royal Colonies for the purpose of securing English trade against the French. They brought New Hampshire under the Crown, modified Penn's charter, refused a charter to the Plymouth colony, and taking advantage of the concessions of the charters of Massachusetts and New York, created the
Dominion of New England in 1685, thereby transforming all the territory from the
Kennebec to the
Delaware into a single crown colony.
1696 reorganization Mercantile losses during the
Nine Years' War, and the currency crisis that led to the
Great Recoinage of 1696, led to several proposals during the early 1690s for a more effective "council of trade" to advise the government. Reformers like
Charles Davenant pushed for a council in which merchant representatives were seated, with extensive powers to regulate trade. These proposals were vigorously debated in the
3rd Parliament of William III, and became the substrate for partisan jousting, with the Court party proposing a scheme of royally-appointed commissioners, while the Country party pressed for a board appointed by Parliament. The reaction to the
1696 Jacobite assassination plot ensured that the Court plan carried the day, but with only marginally increased powers over the old committee, scrapping more radical reform in deference to politics surrounding the
royal prerogative. The
Lord Chancellor (or
Lord Keeper),
Lord President of the Council,
Lord Privy Seal,
Lord High Treasurer (or
First Lord of the Treasury),
Lord High Admiral (or
First Lord of the Admiralty),
Secretary of State, and
Chancellor of the Exchequer were unpaid
ex officio commissioners, but were not expected to be in regular attendance. Eight paid commissioners, over whom the senior, or "First Lord", presided, carried out the regular work of the commission. Staff appointed to serve the board in 1696 included a secretary, a deputy secretary, some clerks, office keepers, messengers, and a necessary woman; more staff such as a solicitor and a porter were added later. After 1820 the board ceased to meet regularly and the business was carried out entirely by the secretariat. The short name of "Board of Trade" was formalised in 1861. In the 19th century the board had an advisory function on economic activity in the UK and its
empire. During the second half of the 19th century, it also dealt with legislation for patents, designs and trademarks, company regulation, labour and factories, merchant shipping, agriculture, transport, power etc. Colonial matters passed to the
Colonial Office and other functions were devolved to newly created departments, a process that continued for much of the 20th century. The original commission comprised the seven (later eight)
Great Officers of State, who were not required to attend meetings, and the eight paid members, who were required to attend. The board, so constituted, had little real power, and matters related to trade and the colonies were usually within the jurisdiction of the
secretaries of state and the Privy Council, with the board confining itself mainly to colonial administration.
20th century reforms Lloyd George as President (1905–1908) in 1907 In 1905,
David Lloyd George entered the new Liberal Cabinet of
Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman as
President of the Board of Trade. The first priority on taking office was the repeal of the
Education Act 1902. Lloyd George took the lead along with
Augustine Birrell, President of the Board of Education. Lloyd George was the dominant figure on the committee drawing up the bill in its later stages and insisted that the bill create a separate education committee for Wales. The bill passed the House of Commons greatly amended but was completely mangled by the House of Lords. No compromise was possible and the bill was abandoned, allowing the 1902 act to continue in effect. Nonconformists were bitterly upset by the failure of the Liberal Party to reform the Education Act 1902, its most important promise to them, and over time their support for the Liberal Party slowly fell away. According to Martin Roberts, Lloyd George headed a department of 750 experts that was responsible for supervising British industry, commerce and transportation. Using their pool of expertise, he initiated a series of reforms that were quickly endorsed by the Liberal Parliament. One of the first actions was the
Census of Production Act 1906 (
6 Edw. 7. c. 49), which generated a
Survey of production—an up-to-date compendium of detailed statistics necessary for regulating specific industries. The
Merchant Shipping Act 1906 upgraded the minimum working conditions, and the safety protections for both British sailors, and crews of foreign ships that used British ports. The
Patents and Design Act 1907 gave financial protection to British designs to stop unfair foreign copies. In the long term, his most important innovation was the
Port of London Act 1908 creating the Port of London Authority. It merged numerous inefficient and overlapping private companies and gave unified supervision to Britain's most important port. That enabled London to compete more effectively with Hamburg and Rotterdam. Lloyd George also turned his attention to strikes and industrial disputes in shipyards. He was instrumental in settling the serious threat of a national railway strike in 1907. While almost all the rail companies refused to recognise the unions, he persuaded them to recognise elected representatives of the workers who sat with the company representatives on conciliation boards—one for each company. If those boards failed to agree then an arbitrator would be called upon.
Churchill as President 1908–1910 H. H. Asquith succeeded the terminally ill prime minister on 8 April 1908 and, four days later,
Winston Churchill was appointed President of the Board of Trade, succeeding Lloyd George who became
Chancellor of the Exchequer. He continued the reform impulse Lloyd George had launched. One of Churchill's first tasks was to arbitrate in an industrial dispute among ship-workers and employers on the
River Tyne. He afterwards established a Standing Court of Arbitration to deal with future industrial disputes, establishing a reputation as a conciliator. In Cabinet, he worked with Lloyd George to champion
social reform. He promoted what he called a "network of State intervention and regulation" akin to that in Germany. Churchill's main achievements came in 1909. First was the
Labour Exchanges Bill. It set up over 200
labour exchanges with
William Beveridge in charge. The unemployed would come in and be assisted in finding employment. He also promoted the idea of an unemployment insurance scheme, which would be part-funded by the state. Secondly he introduced the
Trade Boards Bill, creating trade boards which investigated the sweated trades and enabled the prosecution of exploitative employers. Passing with a large majority, it established the principle of a
minimum wage and the right of workers to have meal breaks. Churchill introduced the
Mines Eight Hours Bill, which legally prohibited miners from working more than an
eight-hour day.
Sydney Buxton served as president between 1910 and 1914. His main role was passage of numerous specific trade and commerce laws.
Since 1973 From 1973, international trade policy of the United Kingdom was a competence of the
European Economic Community, and later of the
European Union. The board was reconstituted in October 2017, after the UK had voted to
leave the European Union in June 2016. In its most recent iteration in 2017, only privy counsellors can be actual members of the board, while others are appointed as advisers. ==Members==