An Economic Awakening: The Rise of a Naval Stores Industry After 1750 gubernatorial complaints concerning the subsidy and the want and destitution in Florida suddenly diminished. Reasons for this phenomenon are not clear, but apparently the Havana Company had adopted a policy urged by Montiano some years before. Directors of the company evidently began to make contracts with English traders in New York and Charleston, and these merchants began calling at Saint Augustine regularly with cheaper, good-quality supplies. [Note 111: interim gov to king 7/13/1752. In this letter the governor describes the arrival of English ships in Saint Augustine with supplies ordered by the Havana Company. The letter indicates that this practice was common.] Since company directors had obtained royal permission to purchase supplies elsewhere, if they were not available in Cuba, they took advantage of this relaxation in trade restrictions to buy low-cost goods in English colonies. They also made contracts calling for delivery of these supplies in English vessels, removing the costs and risks of carrying them to Florida on company ships. (Tepaske GSF)