and given a monopoly of American trade. This company was very active,
sending in four years 15,430 Negroes to Brazil,[3] carrying on war with
Spain, supplying even the English plantations,[4] and gradually becoming
the great slave carrier of the day.

The commercial supremacy of the Dutch early excited the envy and
emulation of the English. The Navigation Ordinance of 1651 was aimed at
them, and two wars were necessary to wrest the slave-trade from them and
place it in the hands of the English. The final terms of peace among
other things surrendered New Netherland to England, and opened the way
for England to become henceforth the world's greatest slave-trader.
Although the Dutch had thus commenced the continental slave-trade, they
had not actually furnished a very large number of slaves to the English
colonies outside the West Indies. A small trade had, by 1698, brought a
few thousand to New York, and still fewer to New Jersey.[5] It was left
to the English, with their strong policy in its favor, to develop this
trade.


12. ~Restrictions in New York.~[6] The early ordinances of the Dutch,
laying duties, generally of ten per cent, on slaves, probably proved
burdensome to the trade, although this was not intentional.[7] The
Biblical prohibition of slavery and the slave-trade, copied from New
England codes into the Duke of York's Laws, had no practical
application,[8] and the trade continued to be encouraged in the
governors' instructions. In 1709 a duty of £3 was laid on Negroes from
elsewhere than Africa.[9] This was aimed at West India slaves, and was
prohibitive. By 1716 the duty on all slaves was £1 12½_s._, which was
probably a mere revenue figure.[10] In 1728 a duty of 40_s._ was laid,
to be continued until 1737.[11] It proved restrictive, however, and on