Without royal approval, however, there was a limit to the amount of trading that could be done, and the crown favored the regular commerce of the fleets and New Spain. Throughout the Habsburg period Florida was licensed to send no more than two frigates a year to Seville or the Canaries, and a bare 2,000 to 3,000 ducats’ worth of pelts. [Note 34: Joseph de Prado 12/30/1654; cedula to Gov. Marques Cabrera 3/22/1685; Gov. Salinas 8/19/1619.] The English who colonized in North America suffered no such handicaps. As early as 1678, four ships at a time could be seen in the Charles Town harbor; at St. Augustine the colonists would have been happy to receive one a year from Spain. [Note 35: Gov. Hita Salazar 10/30/1678.] (Bushnell KC)