Among other provisions, the Act opened the African trade to all English merchants who paid a ten per cent levy to the company on all goods exported from Africa. The company was unable to withstand competition on the terms imposed by the Act and in 1708 became insolvent, surviving until 1750 in a state of much reduced activity. In 1709 Charles Davenant published Reflections upon the Constitution and Management of Trade to Africa, in which he "reverted to his normal attitude of suspicion and outright hostility towards the Dutch." This pamphlet advocated renewing the Royal African Company's monopoly on slave trade on the basis that the Dutch competition "necessitated the maintenance of forts, which only a joint-stock company could afford." The company continued purchasing and transporting slaves until 1731, when it abandoned slaving in favour of ivory and gold dust. From 1668 to 1722, the Royal African Company provided gold to the English Mint. Coins made with such gold are designed with an elephant below the bust of the king and/or queen. This gold also gave the coinage its name, the guinea. Members and officials At its incorporation, the constitution of the company specified a Governor, Sub Governor, Deputy Governor and 24 Assistants. The Assistants (also called Members of the Court of Assistants) can be considered equivalent to a modern-day board of directors. James Stuart, Duke of York, the future King James II – Governor of the company from 1660 to 1688; and its largest shareholder Edward Colston (1636–1721), merchant, philanthropist, and Member of Parliament, was a shareholder in the Royal African Company from 1680 to 1692; from 1689 to 1690 he was its Deputy Governor, a senior executive position, the basis on which he is described as a slave trader. Charles Hayes (1678–1760), mathematician and chronologer, was sub-governor of the Royal African Company in 1752, when it was dissolved. Malachy Postlethwayt, director and propagandist of the company. List of notable investors and officials (For a full list of officials and investors in 1672, when the new charter was granted, see: List of Officials and Shareholders in the Royal African Company, 1672) Charles II of England Sir Edmund Andros Sir John Banks Benjamin Bathurst, Deputy Governor of the Leeward Islands Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham Sir Josiah Child Sir Robert Clayton Sir George Carteret Sir Peter Colleton Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of