RÉSUMÉ

During the first seventy years of its history the Board of Trade had a somewhat checkered career: at one time it was the source of authority for all ques­tions of colonial policy, its president exercising all the influence of a cabinet minister; at another it was merely an advisory body, whose recommendations were accepted or rejected as the secretary of state saw fit. Because of the periods of impotency and apparent indifference, the Board has frequently been set down as an inefficient bureau which could be ig­nored as an essential factor in colonial history. The foregoing account shows that such is not the case, that for more than one half of the period under considera­tion it was a decidedly active and influential organ of government, and that even during the decadent period it did some effective work.

The Board was no better and certainly but lit­tle worse than other parts of the British govern­ment, and periods of inefficiency in one are con­temporary with similar periods in the other. In each case the cause of bad government must be sought in the personality of the men who were responsible for the conditions. This fact is most clearly illustrated in the history of the Board of Trade, for while its power and influence varied from time to time, the commission usually re-