To the King’s Most Excellent Majesty.

The Answer of the Somers Isles Company to the Petition of Perient Trott and others,

Humbly shows,

1. T H A T it is true, at the first creation of the Company The Somers Isles Company was incorporated in 1615 to manage the colony of Bermuda, and for several years after, they traded in a joint stock A "joint stock" meant all members pooled their capital into a single fund managed by the company, rather than trading individually: That for the convenience of the members of the said Company, the Company gave them leave to trade with their own private stocks; but still they always managed that trade in the Company’s general or Magazine Ships Magazine Ships: Vessels officially designated by the Company to carry all supplies to the colony and bring all produce back, ensuring a monopoly.

2. T H A T the Company have indeed made a By-Law, that no ship should be employed as their Magazine Ship wherein any member of the Company has any share or interest as an owner of it.

3. A N D they have also made another By-Law, that no member of the Company shall trade there with any private ships for tobacco, and freight them there, before the Magazine Ships are fully freighted.

4. A N D the Company do conceive that their By-Laws are according to Law, and beneficial to Trade, and your Majesty’s Customs Import taxes paid to the Crown; and necessary, not only to the well-being, but to the very being of the Company: And this they do not doubt but to prove.

5. T H A T the Magazine Ship is very sufficient to bring home the crop of tobacco in the said Islands, it being seldom, if E V E R, fully freighted; and that Mr. Trott Perient Trott was a prominent shareholder and tobacco merchant who frequently clashed with the Company's restrictive policies has the same liberty with all the rest of