Launchpad Republic

3European and Colonial Foundations

Royal grants had been around for hundreds of years, and monarchies across Europe had used proprietary charters to accomplish a variety of purposes. But Elizabeth I had gone too far. She had already issued hundreds of patents to generate revenue and reward favorites, even if the recipient had no experience in the designated field. When the queen allowed the grants to be challenged in court in 1601, the lawyers lined up.¹

Three years earlier, she had issued a patent for the manufacture and distribution of playing cards to Edward Darcy, a “Groom” in her Privy Council. Elizabeth claimed that playing cards were promoting idleness and needed to be limited with a monopoly charter. But the choice of Darcy was clearly a reward for loyalty, as he lacked expertise in the area.

When a London merchant named Thomas Allein flouted the grant and imported his own cards, Darcy sued. Allein himself was a member of the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers, an early guild that engaged in its own restraint on competition. But to many observers a merchant‐driven trade guild differed fundamentally from a royally issued monopoly. Allein won the case, an early victory in the long struggle to free commerce from government direction.

Edward Coke, a renowned barrister, was then England's attorney general, having previously served as Speaker of the House of Commons, and he litigated the case on behalf of the state. Yet he had a long history supporting artisans and guild ...