according to the entry of the merchant and the place where they were loaded and purchased for if the goods were rated too high, her Royal Majesty must be obliged to take them at that appraisal, and add as much more thereto for the protection of the merchant; it will now, on the contrary, be claimed with indeed, less justice, that the West India Company is at liberty to value the goods as high as it chooses, taking the payment in money or in kind, when the best would be selected whereby all would be converted and drawn to its own profit. ;

Besides, the West India Company could, with so much the less grace claim any duty, inasmuch as it had, heretofore, under grant from her Royal Majesty, a share in this Swedish Company, having also acknowledged it for an absolute and free Company; and, then, ships from the Kingdom, from New Sweden, having sailed and been loaded and discharged here, ofi' and on, were never subjected to, much less paid such duty and hence, so far from there being ;

any right and equity for such imposition, it ought, on the contrary, now to be considered in direct opposition to all right and equity, after the West India Company had surrendered its shares, and her Royal Majesty had bought it out and exclusively acquired those shares herself;

;

HOLLAND DOCUMENTS: IL .147

wherefore nothing similar could now be levied by virtue, and in regard of said purchase: And still so much the less so, inasmuch as this, her Royal Majesty's ship had traded to, and came from, a country wliich her Royal Majesty had rightfully imrchuscd, and obtained possession of, from the right owners; where, previously, her Royal Majesty had found neither ships, commerce, nor trade, but had established them, and had erected her arms there, and thus had, first, reduced every thing to order; and, accordingly, no person there was a subject, nor could any duty reasonably or rightfully be claimed further, this Royal ship ran in here for no other purpose than solely ;