The Havana Company vigorously opposed the king’s plan as a useless expense. In September, 1744, its directors claimed that it would be difficult both to keep the trading post adequately supplies and to compete with the cheaper goods that the English offered the Indians. Only with a subsidy could the store succeed, but even then the Spaniards needed a larger garrison in Apalache to keep the Indians in line. The directors of the company also suggested that the initial stock of supplies for the tienda be sent from the mother country rather than from Cuba. In Spain the king accepted some of the company’s counter proposals. On May 14, 1745, he ordered Montiano to send a military contingent to supplement the garrison in Apalache. At the same time the monarch ordered the governor at Saint Augustine to bear the costs of establishing the new store and to provide the initial stock of goods laid down by his cedula of 1744. He insisted also that prices of goods sold in the trading post meet the competition of English goods. (Tepaske GSF)