Oil, with Hemp, Flax, and Timber, from the Colonies, the Encrease of their Trade will exceed the most sanguine Expectations: The Consumption of these Commodities which they may be able to furnish cannot be estimated at less than a Million a Year: In all they will undoubtedly have a Preference, and in some a Monopoly.

At the same Time that new Branches of Commerce were thus given to them, others which they had before were improved. The Prohibition on the Exportation of American Bar Iron from this Kingdom was taken away by an Act passed in 1765 . . . and a still further Preference was shewn to the Produce of our West-India Colonies, by laying heavy Impositions upon the Indigo, Coffee, Sugar, and Melasses of the foreign Islands imported into North America, while the same Commodities raised in our own, were lightly charged at the most, and some of them entirely free.

Whatever may be the Effects of the Attention thus shewn to the Colonies, the Benefit will be partially felt here, but principally there: To them the Whole is gain; we on the contrary in many Respects sustain a Loss; and if the Interests of the Mother Country could be distinguished from those of the Colonies, it would be difficult to justify the Expence she has thereby incurred; for out of her Revenues, the Bounties upon Hemp, Flax, and Timber must be paid; and on so much of the British Consumption as shall in consequence of this Encouragement be supplied from America, there will be a further Loss of the Duties upon foreign Hemp, Flax, and Timber now imported here: The Duty too upon Whale-Fins must be taken into the Account which is another Deduction, avowedly made with a view to give their Fishery a Preference even to our own; and it is obvious that the Amount of the Whole, though it cannot easily be estimated, must be very considerable.

Were there no other Ground to require a Revenue from the Colonies, than as a Return from these Obligations, it would alone be a sufficient Foundation: Add to these the Advantages obtained for them. by the Peace; and the Debt incurred by a War undertaken for their Defence only; the Distress thereby brought upon the Finances, upon the Credit, both public and private, upon the Trade, and upon the People of this Country; and it must be acknowledged that no Time was ever so seasonable for claiming their Assistance. The Distribution is too unequal, of Benefits only to the Colonies and of all the Burthens upon the Mother Country; and yet no more was desired, than that they should contribute to the Preservation of the Advantages they had Received, and take upon themselves a small share of the Establish

ment necessary for their own Protection: Upon these Principles several new Taxes were laid upon the Colonies: Many of them were indeed, as I have already shewn, rather Regulations of Trade than Funds of Revenue: But some were intended to answer both Purposes: In others the Produce was the Principal Object; and yet even the most productive of all, were of that Kind which is perhaps more tender of Trade than any other: The same Sum could not have been raised with so little Oppression by Impost as by Stamp Duties,' for they do not even effect some Articles of Commerce more than others; they do not even fall upon Men of any particular Denomination: They are heavy upon none because they are paid only occasionally; and they are collected with more Ease to the Subject than any; but a distinction between internal and external Taxes was set up in America, and Occasion was from thence taken to raise Disturbances there, the Particulars and Consequences of which are of such public Notoriety, that it is needless to mention them:

M. Causes of the Revolution, 1776 2

Dean Tucker wrote with considerable force, not to say acerbity, against the demands of the colonists. In the extract here quoted he inquires what the real grievances were that led to the outcry at the time of the Stamp Act, and concludes in no very friendly tone that they were due to the English interference with smuggling, and with the illegal issue of paper money, and to a desire to secure political independence. Tucker was Dean of Gloucester, and a violent and able partisan.

Upon the Whole therefore, what is the Cause of such an amazing Outcry as you raise at present?—Not the Stamp Duty itself; all the World are agreed on that Head; and none can be so ignorant, or so stupid, as not to see, that this is a mere Sham and Pretence. What then are the real Grievances, seeing that the Things which you alledge are only the pretended ones? Why, some of you are exasperated against the Mother Country, on account of the Revival of certain Restrictions laid upon their Trade: I say, a Revival; for the same Restriction have been the standing Rules of Government from the Beginning; though not enforced at all Times with equal Strictness. During the late War, you Americans could not import the Manufactures of other Nations (which it is your constant Aim to do, and

1 It is impossible to speak with Certainty of the Produce of any of the American Taxes. I have therefore throughout followed the usual Calculation, and estimated the Impost Duties at 60,000 l. and the Stamp Duties at 100,000 l. per ann.

2 Four Tracts on Political and Commercial Subjects. By Josiah Tucker (Gloucester, 1776), 132-4, 136-7.

the Mother Country always to prevent) so conveniently as you can in Times of Peace; and therefore, there was no Need of watching you so narrowly, as far as that Branch of Trade was concerned. But immediately upon the Peace, the various Manufactures of Europe, particularly those of France, which could not find Vent before, were spread, as it were, over all your Colonies, to the prodigious Detriment of your Mother Country; and therefore our late Set of Ministers acted certainly right, in putting in Force the Laws of their Country, in order to check this growing Evil. If in so doing they committed any Error; or, if the Persons to whom the Execution of these Laws were intrusted, exceeded their Instructions; there is no Doubt to be made, but that all this will be rectified by the present Administration. And having done that, they will have done all that in Reason you can expect from them. But alas! the Expectations of an American carry him much further: For he will ever complain and smuggle, and smuggle and complain, 'till all Restraints are removed, and 'till he can both buy and sell, whenever, and wheresoever he pleases. Anything short of this, is still a Grievance, a Badge of Slavery, an Usurpation on the natural Rights and Liberties of a free People, and I know not how many bad Things besides.

But, my good Friend, be assured, that these are Restraints, which neither the present, nor any future Ministry can exempt you from. They are the standing Laws of the Kingdom; and God forbid, that we should allow that dispensing Power to our Ministers, which we so justly deny to our Kings. In short while you are a Colony, you must be subordinate to the Mother Country. These are the Terms and Conditions, on which you were permitted to make your first. Settlements: They are the Terms and Conditions on which you alone can be entitled to the Assistance and Protection of Great-Britain;

So much as to your first Grievance; and as to your second it is, beyond Doubt, of a Nature still worse. For many among you are sorely concerned, That they cannot pay their British Debts with an American Sponge. This is an intolerable Grievance, and they long for the day when they shall be freed from this galling Chain. Our Merchants in London, Bristol, Liverpool, Glasgow, &c. &c. perfectly understand your many Hints and Inuendoes to us, on this Head. But indeed, lest we should be so dull as not to comprehend your Meaning, you have spoken out, and proposed on open Association against paying your just Debts. Had our Debtors in any other Part of the Globe, had the French or Spaniards proposed the like (and surely they have all at least an equal Right) what Name would you have given to such

Proceedings? But I forget: You are not the faithless French or Spaniards: You are ourselves: You are honest Englishmen.

Your third Grievance is the Sovereignty of Great-Britain; For you want to be independent: You wish to be an Empire by itself, and to be no longer the Province of another. This Spirit is uppermost; and this Principle is visible in all your Speeches, and all your Writings, even when you take some Pains to disguise it. "What! an Island! A Spot such as this to command the great and mighty Continent of North-America! Preposterous! A Continent, whose Inhabitants double every five and twenty Years! Who, therefore, within a Century and a Half will be upwards of an hundred and twenty Millions of Souls! Forbid it Patriotism, forbid it Politics, that such a great and mighty Empire as this, should be held in Subjection by the paltry Kingdom of Great-Britain! Rather let the Seat of Empire be transferred; and let it be fixt, where it ought to be, viz. in Great America!"

II. NON-IMPORTATION AS A MEANS OF PRESSURE

A. Unfavorable Balance of Trade of the Northern American
Colonies, 1700-17731

The following table, compiled by Lord Sheffield, shows clearly one of the reasons for the discontent aroused in New England by the stricter enforcement of the navigation acts. The northern colonies, many of whose products were denied access to English markets, had been compelled to develop a trade with the West Indies, with southern Europe, and to a small extent with Africa. With the profits from this trade they had been able to purchase English manufactures. How great this commerce was may be judged from this table, where the excess of exports in the northern colonies alone is given as £30,000,000 for the period 1700 to 1773. When this trade was interrupted by the enforcement of the navigation acts, and especially when the trade to the West Indies was cut off, the northern colonies were deprived of the means of purchasing English manufactured goods.

None of the colonies to the north of Maryland have ever had a balance in their favour by their imports from and exports to Great Britain; but on the contrary, a large balance against them, which they had no means of discharging but by a foreign and circuitous 2 commerce. By this commerce (except the value of the ships built for

1 Observations on the Commerce of the American States. By Lord John Sheffield (2d edition, London, 1784), 246–7.

2 Whatever diminution there may be of their circuitous trade, we shall gain, and with the benefit of freight, all the profit connected with a more extensive navigation.

the British merchants, the amount of which cannot possibly be ascertained) they must, since the year 1700, have obtained from other countries, and remitted to this, upwards of thirty millions sterling in payment for goods taken from hence, over and above the amount of all their own produce and fisheries remitted directly. By foreign is meant the trade to the West Indies, Africa, and all parts of Europe, except Great Britain.

Balance or excess of exports to, and of imports from, the American States from 1700 to 1773:

B. Non-importation Agreements in Boston and New York, 17682

In order to protest against the Stamp Act the merchants of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, and Pennsylvania in 1765 united in a non-importation agreement, by which they bound themselves not to import British goods. Because of the loss of trade British merchants petitioned Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act,

1 There should be added to the value of exports to America, between 2 and 300,000l. sent to Africa annually for the purchase of slaves, which were chiefly imported by our merchants into the revolted provinces. The real exports of England, then, to those provinces would be 1,531,206 l. instead of 1,331,206 1., the average annual export of ten years to the American States, as in the annexed Tables, and as the whole imports from those states into England were only valued at 743,560 l., they must have been bad paymasters indeed, or have had as much foreign and circuitous trade for their exports as they had directly with Great Britain, to be enabled to pay 20 s. in the pound.

2 An Historical and Chronological Deduction of the Origin of Commerce. By Adam Anderson (London, 1789), IV, 118-119.