British Colonial Papers, c17th and c18th.

The English and British governments, being agents of both bureaucracy and imperialism, and these two things being far from separate, produced a considerable amount of paperwork concerning their empires. Various collections and calendarisations have been made of this:

British History Online has, in fully transcribed and free to view text, the 41 volumes of the Calendar of State Papers Colonial covering America and West Indies, 1574 – 1739, and the 5 volumes of the Calendar of State Papers Colonial covering the East Indies, China and Japan, 1513 – 1634.

British History Online also has the 14 volumes of the Journals of the Board of Trade and Plantations, 1704 – 1782, again fully transcribed.

The Acts of the Privy Council, Colonial series, are to be found on Hathi Trust, Internet Archive and Google Books:

Vol. 1, 1613 – 1680: Hathi Trust. Internet Archive.

Vol. 2, 1680 – 1720: Google Books. Hathi Trust.

Vol. 3, 1720 – 1745: Google Books. Hathi Trust.

Vol. 4, 1745 – 1766: Google Books. Hathi Trust.

Vol. 5, 1766 – 1783: Google Books.

Vol. 6, 1676 – 1783: Google Books. Hathi Trust.

There are also various volumes of material relating to colonial governance, many collected together by U.S. scholars.

British Royal Proclamations relating to America, 1603 – 1783: Internet Archive; Gutenberg.

Proceedings and debates of the British parliaments respecting North America (6 vols): Hathi Trust.

A useful bibliographic volume, though the documents are now to be found at the National Archives in Kew, rather than the P.R.O.

List of reports and representations of the Plantation councils, 1660-1674, the Lords of trade, 1675-1696, and the Board of trade, 1696-1782, in the public record office: Internet Archive; Library of Congress.