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Abstract
In 1675, King Charles II approved an order to evict all English residents from Newfoundland. To make this decision, government officials, particularly the Committee for Trade and Plantations, engaged in a wide-ranging information collection process to assess conditions in Newfoundland and how to resolve complaints of lawlessness and economic decline. The captain tasked with carrying out the eviction, however, found that the committee’s conclusions were incorrect, and he challenged the evidence underpinning them. This article examines how the committee’s various decisions regarding Newfoundland in 1675 followed a larger change in the role of data collection and analysis in English policymaking.Copyright for articles published in this journal is retained by the author(s), with Acadiensis being granted a non-exclusive licence to each and every right in the work throughout the world. After publication of the work, the author(s) shall have the right to self-archive the work and to reprint the work in whole or in part in books authored by or edited by the author(s) without the payment of any fee. In these other formats, however, the author or authors are required to acknowledge the original publication of the work in the pages of the journal. In the case of any requests to reprint the work, Acadiensis will require a standard permission fee -- to be divided equally between the journal and the author. In the event that such requests are received by the author(s), the author(s) shall direct such requests to the journal.