Hunt for White Gold

Chapter Forty-Five





Taken from the Navigation Acts.

Pertinent to England and her colonies

with regards to foreign trade.



For the increase of the shipping and encouragement of the navigation of this nation wherein, under the good providence and protection of God, the wealth, safety, and strength of this Kingdom is so much concerned. Be it enacted by the King’s most Excellent Majesty, and by the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority thereof, that from and after the first Day of December, 1660, and from thence forward, no goods or commodities whatsoever shall be imported into or exported out of any lands, islands, plantations, or territories to His Majesty belonging or in His possession of His Majesty, His heirs, and successors, in Asia, Africa, or America, in any other ship or ships, vessel or vessels whatsoever, but in such ships or vessels as do truly and without fraud belong only to the people of England or Ireland, dominion of Wales or town of Berwick upon Tweed …



… And be it enacted, that no alien or person not born within the allegiance of our Sovereign Lord the King, His heirs and successors, shall from and after the first day of February 1661, exercise the trade or occupation of a Merchant or Factor in any the said places.




Blackbeard snorted through his rum and tossed the paper back to Ignatius. ‘Aye. That’s what pirates are for. I’ve grown wealthy on the fact. America trades only with England. Piracy would be gone overnight if it were otherwise.’

Ignatius folded away the transcript with a smile to his ignorant companion. ‘It is true. A gentleman here must pay three times the price for a hat than he would in London. For he can buy it from no other place. It is almost a public service that you and your kind perform, Teach.’ He saluted him with his glass.

They were in Ignatius’s study, alone, waiting both for the clock on the mantle to chime for luncheon and for the call from the harbour that the Shadow was at anchor.

Ignatius eased back in his leather chair, taking in the tall crimson-coated pirate that had governors at his hand. ‘Do you not see however, Teach, that these colonists must grow tired, frustrated, at shipping everything they produce through England? They have no free will to create a trade with any other European nation. They must purchase everything from the motherland. And sell their produce only to the motherland at a price set by a King they have never seen.’

Teach shrugged. ‘I have never seen the King. I trades with who I please and he stays out of my pockets.’

‘But the motherland produces what? Cheese and cloth,’ he scoffed. ‘Yet it suckles from this land some of the most valuable commodities in this world: rice, coffee, sugar, even cotton soon enough if it takes. And by the time it comes back, the man who sowed it gets one third to call his own.’

Teach dragged a chair from the wall to sit on. For two days now he had endured Ignatius’s conversation, that never meandered to women or to cards, the libation as dry as caked mud and feathers.

‘I care not for Parliament’s botherings, Ignatius. Just for me own neck and those of me men.’

‘Ah, but if just one governor of just one colony could have the secret of the production of true porcelain things could change. Not a thing that must be grown and reaped, not a ship built from the oak of her land. A product. Unique and respected. Craved throughout the world. More valuable than gold. Things would change.’ He sighed. Some fulfilment was lost on Teach beaming proudly across him. ‘But it is no matter: you, Teach, do not have the letters.’

Teach licked at the last of the rum on his lips and looked back to the bottle on the commode. ‘Aye, but as I said, Devlin surely does. And he comes for his man. I believe that in securing Palgrave when none could I had the best bargaining. But that Irish patroon had beat me to it.’

Ignatius said nothing on the matter. Blackbeard’s eyes revealed sufficiently that such a compliment to Devlin’s ability wounded the pirate’s ill-earned pride.

‘It was fortunate for me that I had put both of you to the task. Although in truth I did not suppose that the pirate Devlin could outdo the great and terrible Blackbeard.’ His gentle insult was softened by his hand gesturing to the green bottle for Teach to help himself.

Teach rose and strode across the room. ‘But I came to you, Ignatius,’ he poured four fingers’ worth from the bottle. ‘In deference. My relations with Governor Eden hold me in good stead for best price for your letters,’ he raised his glass respectfully. ‘And for the dispatching of Devlin if you wills it. No blood on your hands as it were.’

Ignatius did not return the raising of glass. ‘I do not need your assistance in either matter, Teach.’ He looked out the window to his secluded high-walled garden, indifferent to the murderer within his walls. ‘You may think that you are in a room in a colonial house in the council of Charles Town, a town that is sworn to kill you, and that you have friends in valued positions on your side.’ He swung his grey eyes back to Edward Teach. ‘But you are in my world, and you are waiting for me to let you remain alive within it.’

Teach sank his rum, his eyes staring over the rim of the glass to the man at the desk beyond. The blood pulsed behind his eyes and his fingers gripped white against the rummer as Ignatius looked back at him in sympathy for his ineptitude.

The silent commune between them broke off as Ignatius’s office door burst open and his servant gasped an apology for not knocking. ‘Begging your pardon, Mister Ignatius sir, Mister Teach, but the pirate ship you described, Mister Teach, is in the harbour, sir. A boat is coming to the wharf!’