Trade, BOARD OF, a department of government more correctly designed 'The Lords of the Committee of Her Majesty's Privy-council appointed for the Consideration of all Matters relating to Trade and Foreign Plantations.' In 1660 Charles II. created two separate councils for Trade and for Foreign Plantations, which in 1672 were consolidated into one. The Board of Trade and Plantations, after being abolished in 1675, and reappointed in 1695, was again abolished in 1782. In 1786 the presently existing department was established by Order in Council, being a permanent committee of Privy-council for the consideration of all matters relating to Trade and the Colonies. The board consists of a president, together with the Lord Chancellor, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the First Lord of the Treasury, the principal Secretaries of State, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Speaker of the House of Commons, and others. But of the latter ex officio members none take part in the work of the board, which is managed by the president and his staff; the staff includes the permanent and parliamentary secretaries, four assistant secretaries, and a chief of the statistical department. The board is now divided into five departments: (1) the statistical and commercial department, (2) the railway department, (3) the marine department, (4) the harbour department, and (5) a financial department. Since 1864 the presidency has always been held by a cabinet minister. Before 1867 there was a vice-president who was a member of the administration, though without a seat in the cabinet.
The functions of the Board of Trade are partly of a ministerial, partly of a judicial kind, and have of late years been greatly enlarged by a variety of statutes. The board is charged with the general superintendence of all matters relating to the mercantile marine. It requires and considers reports made to its inspectors and other officers, and orders returns of various kinds regarding trade and navigation. It is empowered to make regulations regarding the examination and qualifications of applicants for the position of master or mate of passenger-ships. Under the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, it grants licenses to persons to engage or supply seamen or apprentices for merchant-ships, decides on claims for wages, and investigates charges of misconduct and incompetency. It also appoints officers to inquire into and report on the condition of steam-vessels.
The supervision of railways and railway companies, both as to their original formation and their working, constitutes an important part of the duties of the Board of Trade. Railways were first subjected to government control by an act of 1840 which conferred power on the Board of Trade to appoint inspectors of railways, to approve or disallow bylaws, to require returns of traffic, and to decide disputes between connecting lines. Further powers have been added by subsequent acts. In 1846 the increase of these duties, arising from the rapid extension of railways, led to the transfer of this department of the Board of Trade to a separate board created exclusively for the management of railway business; but in 1851 this latter board was abolished, and its powers were retransferred to the Board of Trade. Notices of applications for railway acts with plans are required to be deposited with the board before any bill can be introduced into parliament; and before any railway can be opened for traffic the permission of the board must be obtained on the report of an inspector. On the occurrence of an accident notice must be given to the board, which sends an inspector to inquire into the circumstances, and on his report the board is empowered to take what steps are judged necessary for the security of the public.
Many matters relating to the interests of trade which come before other departments are referred to the Board of Trade for information or advice. Thus there are frequent communications with the Foreign Office regarding the negotiation and working of commercial treaties, and with the Treasury regarding alterations in the customs.
A statistical department of the board was established in 1832, whose province is to collect and publish tables containing classified information regarding the revenues, population, commerce, wealth, and moral and economical condition of the United Kingdom and its dependencies, to prepare a selection from the statistics of foreign countries, and a monthly account of trade and navigation. All applications made to the Queen in Council by companies or private persons for charters of incorporation are referred to the Board of Trade; and among the functions committed to it by statute are the registration of joint-stock companies and copyright designs, and the supervision of proceedings under the Bankruptcy Act, 1883. The board is empowered by several local and personal acts to control the proceedings of the commissioners for regulating the employment of coal-whippers and the discharge of coal-laden vessels in the port of London. In 1853 the Department of Science and Art, which owed its origin to suggestions made in the Second Report of the Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851, and was at first a department of the Committee of the Privy-council on Education, was placed under the control of the Board of Trade; but in February 1856 it was retransferred by an Order in Council to the Education Department. Since 1886 the department issues monthly the valuable Board of Trade Journal, containing extracts from consular reports, customs regulations and changes of tariff, a report on the state of the skilled labour market, and much information of value to the mercantile community.