No. 3.

And the principal exports to the said provinces are as follows.

But as it has been always mentioned, the total export might probably amount to at least (per annum)...

Whitehall

Sep 8. 1721

6,152 5 II

21,700 19 9

136,141 13 6

294,886 3

I

431,027 16

7

All which is most humbly submitted.

J. Chetwynd.

P. Doeminique.

M. Bladen.

E. Ashe.

II. EXTRACTIVE INDUSTRIES

A. Products of the Forest, 16501

To the pioneer settler the clearing of the densely wooded land presented a task of overwhelming proportions. While we regard the forests today as a source of wealth which we are beginning to conserve more carefully, to the colonist they were a hindrance to be got rid of as soon and as thoroughly as possible. The author of the tract from which the following extract is taken was trying to persuade settlers to emigrate to America, so he pointed out some of the ways in which the forest products could be turned to account in the process of clearing the land.

The objection, that the Countrey is overgrowne with Woods, and consequently not in many Yeares to bee penetrable for the Plough, carries a great feeblenesse with it. For there are an immense quantity of Indian fields cleared already to our hand by the Natives, which till wee grow over populous may every way be abundantly sufficient, but that the very clearing of ground carries an extraodinary benefit with it, I will make apparent by these following Reasons.

1. If wee consider the benefit of Pot-ashes growne from ten to fifty pound in the Tunne, within these twenty Yeares, and in all probability likely to encrease by reason of interdicting Trade betwixt us and the Muscovite, from whence we used to supply our selves; We shall finde the employment of that very Staple will raise a considerable summe of Money, and no man so imployed can (if industrious) make his labour less than one hundred pound, per annum: For if wee consider that those who labour about this in England give twelve pence the bushell for Ashes, if wee consider to how many severall parts of the Countrey they are compelled to send man and horse before they can procure any quantity to fall to worke upon; if wee consider some of the thriftiest, and wise, and understanding men, sell Wood on purpose for this Commodity, and yet notwithstanding this Brigade of difficulties finde their Adventures and Labours answered with a large returne of profit, wee who have all these things already at our owne doore without cost, may with a confidence grounded upon reason expect an advantage much greater, and clearer profit.

Nor can wee admit in discretion, that a large quantity of those should not finde a speedy Market, since the decay of Tymber is a defect growne universall in Europe, and the Commodity such a necessary Staple, that no civill Nation can be conveniently without it.

1 Virginia. By E. W. Gent (London, 1650). In Force, Tracts and Other Papers (Washington, 1844, 4 vols.), III, no. xl, 13-14.

Nor are Pipestaves and Clapboard a despicable commodity, of which one man may with ease make fifteen thousand yearely, which in the countrey it selfe are sold for 41. in the Canaries for twenty pound the thousand, and by this means the labour of one man will yeeld him 60 1. per annum, at the lowest Market. If all this be not sufficient to remove the incumbrance of Woods, the Saw mill may be taken into consideration, which is in every respect highly beneficiall by this Timber for building houses, and shipping may be more speedily prepared, and in greater quantity by the labour of two or three men, then by a hundred hands after the usuall manner of sawing.

The Plankes of Walnut-trees for Tables or Cubbords, Cedar and Cypresse, for Chests, Cabinets, and the adorning magnificent buildings, thus prepared will be easily transported into England, and sold at a very considerable value.

But that in which there will be an extraordinary use of our woods is the Iron mills, which if once erected will be an undecaying Staple, and of this forty servants will by their labour raise to the Adventurer foure thousand pound yearely: Which may easily be apprehended if wee consider the deerenesse of Wood in England, where notwithstanding this great clog of difficulty, the Master of the Mill gaines so much yearely, that he cannot but reckon himselfe a provident Saver.

B. Naval Stores in South Carolina, 16991

Edward Randolph was sent over to America by the king as a special agent to report on the acts of trade. In this report he urges the encouragement of naval stores in South Carolina.

My Lords, I did formerly present Your Lordships with proposals for supplying England with Pitch & Tar, Masts & all o Naval Stores from New England. I observed when I were at York in Sept. last, abundance of Tar brot. down Hudson's River to be sold at New York, as also Turpentine & Tar in great quantities from the Colony of Connecticut, I was told if they had encouragement they could load several Ships yearly for England. But since my arrival here I find I am come into the only place for such commodities upon the Continent of America; some persons have offered to deliver in Charlestown Bay upon their own account 1000 Barrels of

1 A Sketch of the History of South Carolina. By W. J. Rivers. (Charleston, 1856), 445-6.

Pitch and as much Tar, others greater quantities provided they were paid for it in Charles Town in Lyon Dollars passing here at 5o. pr. piece, Tar at 85. pr. Barrel, and very good Pitch at 12o. p'. Barrel, & much cheaper if it once became a Trade. The season for making those Commodities in this Province being 6 mos. longer than in Virginia and more Northern Plantations; a planter can make more tar in any one year here with 50 slaves than they can do with double the number in those places, their slaves here living at very easy rates and with few clothes.

C. Shipbuilding in Massachusetts, 1607-17241

There are many references in contemporary writings to the growth of shipbuilding in New England during the colonial period, but nowhere do we find a description of this industry. Thus we read in Rev. William Hubbard's quaint General History of New England, written about 1680, that "the people of New England at this time [1646] began to flourish much in building of ships and trafficking abroad, and had prospered very well in those affairs," but no further details are given. The following extract brings together much of the available information on this subject. The author was a captain in the United States navy.

Undoubtedly the first vessel of size sufficient to navigate the ocean, launched from the shores of New England, was "a faire pinnace of thirty tons," called the Virginia, which, according to Strachey, was built by the Popham colony at the mouth of the Kennebec in 1607, thirteen years before the landing of the pilgrims at Plymouth, and which made a successful voyage across the Atlantic the same year.

Twenty-four years after this, on the 4th of July, 1631, was launched the Blessing of the Bay, the first vessel built in the colony of Plymouth. . .

Ten years later, viz., Jan. 24, 1641, Edward Banks launched at Plymouth a bark of 40 or 50 tons, estimated to cost £200, and which is recorded as the first vessel of size built in that colony. Hence the Blessing of the Bay must have been of less tonnage.

The importance of ship-building to the colony, immediately following the launch of Bang's vessel, received the attention of the pilgrim fathers, and accordingly on the 4th of October, 1641, the same year that witnessed her launch, we find them enacting the following law:

1 Early Ship-building in Massachusetts. By George Henry Preble. In The New-England Historical and Genealogical Register and Antiquarian Journal (Boston, 1869), XXIII, 38-41; XXV, 15-16, 127.

"Whereas the building of ships is a business of great importance for the common good, and therefore suitable care ought to be taken that it be well performed, according to the commendable course of England and other places: It is therefore ordered by this court and the authority thereof; that when any ship is to be built within this jurisdiction, or any vessel above thirty tons, the owner, or builder in his absence, shall before they begin to plank, repair to the governor or deputy governor, or any two magistrates, upon the penalty of ten pounds, who shall appoint some able man to survey the work and workmen from time to time as is usual in England, and the same so appointed shall have such liberty and power as belongs to his office.

"And those viewers shall have power to cause any bad timber, or other insufficient work or material to be taken out and amended at the charge of them through whose default it grows." 1

These vessels were all ships of size for those days, though they would be but the merest cockle-shells of our times. We of the present generation cannot realize the little cock boats in which navigators traversed the ocean between two and three centuries ago. Could the navigators of those days revisit the earth, they would be amazed at the improvements in size, construction, comfort and security of the ships of our time. Hume relates that, in 1582, of twelve hundred and thirty-two vessels belonging to the kingdom of Great-Britain, but two hundred and seventeen were over eighty tons burthen. A vessel of forty tons, he says, was considered a large vessel, and in 1587 there were not five vessels in all England whose size exceeded 200 tons. Only one of the vessels which composed the squadron of Columbus, in 1492, had a deck, and the remainder, according to Irving, were not superior to the smallest class of modern coasting vessels. On his third voyage, when coasting the gulf of Para, Columbus complained of the size of his ship, it being nearly 100 tons burthen. The Mayflower, which in 1620 brought over the Pilgrim fathers, was but 180 tons, and the Half Moon, as the boat in which Henrick Hudson discovered New-York bay in 1609 was called, was but 80

tons. .

In 1676, there had been, according to Hutchinson, constructed in Boston and its vicinity, and then belonged to ports in its neighborhood:

1 Ancient Laws and Charter of Massachusetts Bay, published by order of the General Court, ed. of 1814, p. 189.