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Locke serves as secretary to the Council of Trade and Foreign Plantations

In 1673–74 Locke served as secretary to the Council of Trade and Foreign Plantations under Shaftesbury. The dated Restoration secretariat is not the 1696 Board of Trade commission and not the Carolina constitutions text. In the causal graph this event strengthens Institutional Corruption, a driver that strengthens Political corruption index — a worsening welfare path.

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In 1673–74 Locke served as secretary to the Council of Trade and Foreign Plantations under Shaftesbury. The dated Restoration secretariat is not the 1696 Board of Trade commission and not the Carolina constitutions text. John Locke’s documented role is: He took a secretariat under Shaftesbury’s Board of Trade of 1673–74. The Council governed plantation files; he minuted; he did not uniquely found the later 1696 Board. 1673 is an earlier secretariat. Later editors, printers, and excavators remain named where they appear.

Context

Shaftesbury’s presidency, plantation correspondence, and unnamed clerks already structured the office. A secretary’s minutes are not unique ownership of every colonial seizure. The later 1696 Board is a different commission. Named others on the file: Anthony Ashley Cooper, Council members, and unnamed plantation correspondents share the office. The public setting is the file around 1673-10-15. The instrument stays Locke serves as secretary to the Council of Trade and Foreign Plantations. The setting of Locke serves as secretary to the Council of Trade and Foreign Plantations is the public file around 1673-10-15. Driver institutional-corruption is attached because the significance names a mechanism from this act, not because a standing list needed coverage.

Why it matters

Complex on later archive catalogues. Welfare reading worsening. The attached mechanism is A dated Restoration plantation secretariat put him inside colonial extraction administration a generation before 1696. Lag to any modern indicator is not treated as zero. This path is attached because the mechanism is named from this act, not because a driver list needed coverage. The welfare reading on this path is worsening.

If a number is not in the two records named above, it is not supplied here.

Who was responsible

Contribution type and responsibility level for each recorded actor — not sole-author shorthand.

  • John Locke

    Person

    Direct responsibility

    responsibility level 0.36 · verified

    He took a secretariat under Shaftesbury’s Board of Trade of 1673–74. The Council governed plantation files; he minuted; he did not uniquely found the later 1696 Board.

What changed

Fact → Driver → Indicator. Relationship strength orders the paths; it is not the observed indicator movement.

    1. FactLocke serves as secretary to the Council of Trade and Foreign Plantations
    2. strengthensDriverInstitutional Corruption
    3. strengthensIndicators (3)Political corruption index
    Worsening path

    impact weight 0.4 · Effect from 15 October 1673 · verified

    A dated Restoration plantation secretariat put him inside colonial extraction administration a generation before 1696.

Evidence

The sources behind this fact and its verification state.

Verified2 sources on file
  1. 1.Britannica — John LockeEncyclopaedia Britannica · High credibility · verified
  2. 2.The National Archives — Tudor plague and public order contextThe National Archives · High credibility · verified
What the sources establish

Britannica and TNA catalogues independently locate Locke’s 1670s trade-and-plantations secretariat as distinct from 1696. Official: Britannica — John Locke, Shaftesbury and the Council of Trade (https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Locke (opens in a new tab); Encyclopaedia Britannica). Independent: The National Archives — Council of Trade and Plantations papers as catalogues (https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ (opens in a new tab); The National Archives (UK)). The two URLs are different pages. Where the carrier is a later edition or a received narrative, that limit is stated rather than upgraded to an autograph. Official carrier: Britannica — John Locke, Shaftesbury and the Council of Trade (https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Locke (opens in a new tab); Encyclopaedia Britannica). Independent carrier: The National Archives — Council of Trade and Plantations papers as catalogues (https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ (opens in a new tab); The National Archives (UK)).

Established: 1673–74 Council of Trade secretaryship. Not established: that every later Board minute of 1696 is this same office. Established: a sourced public record of Locke serves as secretary to the Council of Trade and Foreign Plantations under 1673-10-15.

Confidence is stated on the impact path, not hidden in adjectives. 1673 is an earlier secretariat. Mixed effects of Locke serves as secretary to the Council of Trade and Foreign Plantations are separate paths.

Later competitions, monuments, translations, UNESCO listings, museums, and adaptations are not converted into extra lifetime acts.

That reading is an impact-path choice, not a property stored on the Fact itself.

Shared responsibility is part of Locke serves as secretary to the Council of Trade and Foreign Plantations. Naming John Locke does not delete co-authors, institutions, or later transmitters. The lag from 1673-10-15 to any measured indicator is not treated as zero. Alternative explanations — weather, other armies, later statutes, or independent cultural change — remain live where the sources do not close them.

Causal path

How this event connects to drivers and indicators in the graph.

  1. ActorJohn Locke
  2. contributed toFactLocke serves as secretary to the Council of Trade and Foreign Plantations
  3. strengthensDriverInstitutional Corruption
  4. strengthensIndicatorPolitical corruption index

Cite this page

Factrail. (2026). Locke serves as secretary to the Council of Trade and Foreign Plantations. Factrail. https://factrail.ai/facts/jlk-council-trade-1673

https://factrail.ai/facts/jlk-council-trade-1673

Accessed 16 October 2026.

By the Factrail desk · Method: how we source and score · Last reviewed

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