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English Board of Trade doubted Coxe's proposal to colonize gulf FL

Source: The Southern Frontier #86

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After hearing Coxe in person the Board of Trade drafted its somewhat equivocal representation upon Carolana of December 21, 1699. 36 The promoter's plea that the French must be checked in the West, where they were endeavoring to engross the Indian trade by building forts and trading-houses all the way from Canada to the Mississippi, had made a certain impression. Coxe's doctrine of encirclement, indeed, echoed warnings which the Board was receiving at the moment from all the frontier colonies. But the shrewd mercantilists of Whitehall were after all half-hearted 'imperialists'; they found many objections to the scheme. A colony on the Gulf would be difficult to defend; French Huguenots, especially, would be liable to molestation. There was danger, too, of draining population from the southern colonies. In the interest of British trade was it wise to arouse the jealousy of Spain? The Board, moreover, twas suspicious of stock-jobbery by the Carolana promoters. The multiplicity of plantations was held to promote piracy and illicit trade. Finally, since Coxe's proposals rested 'as much on considerations of State as of Trade,' they were referred without further endorsement to the Crown. How far did the King and Council share these doubts?