PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TTIC.O.
885
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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was increased; the African trade* preserved and extended; the principles of the Act of Navigation preserved and the plan improved; and the trade for bullion rendered free, secure, and perma- nent."+
This Free-port Act was the only important change which took place in the principles of
our colonial system before the declaration of American independence. Some other changes had indeed been made, by the admission of Scotland at the Union, and of Ireland in 1780, to a share in the colonial trade, and by some partial relaxations of the severity of the law giving this country a monopoly of the im- ports and exports of the plantations, but these latter were alterations in detail, not departures from principle. Mr. Burke could still say, "The commercial system was wholly restrictive. was the system of a monopoly. No trade was let loose from that constraint, but merely to enable the colonists to dispose of what in the course of
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your trade you could not take, or to enable them to dispose of such articles as we forced upon them, and for which without some degree of liberty, they could not pay. Hence all your specific and de- tailed enumerations; hence the innumerable checks and counter-checks; hence that infinite variety of paper chains by which you bind to- gether this complicated system of the colonies." Some relaxations had also been admitted in those parts of the law which related to our foreign trade, many of these were made in favour of particular companies, such as the Russian and Turkey Companies; others for the purpose of facilitating the introduction of articles required by our manufactures, as cochineal, indigo, cotton-wool, and other articles. But the first great revolution in the whole system of our Navigation Laws was occasioned by the altered position in which we found ourselves after the recognition of the independence of the United States of America.
The position of these provinces before the War of Independence was of course the same as
• That is to say, the trade with Africa for negroes.
+
Short Account of a late Administration."
Speech on American Taxation.
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that of our other plantations; that is to say, they were bound to import and export in British vessels only; they could import no goods (with
a few exceptions) from any part of Europe except Great Britain; nor could they export the most important articles which they produced
to any foreign countries in Europe. But though thus restricted with regard to foreign trade, they had the liberty of trading freely (of course in British vessels) with the other British colonies in America and the West Indies; and accordingly
a most profitable trade had been carried on with those islands, by which the continental States supplied the West Indians with the lumber which they required for house-building, the staves and other articles for their casks, and the corn, fish, and other provisions, and also the horses and cattle of which they stood in need, affording in return a sure market for the surplus produce of the islands, whether coffee, rum or sugar. The exports from the provinces which afterwards formed the Union to the West Indies averaged 720,000l. per annum, and their imports 420,000l. per annum, in the three years preced- ing the war*.
During the war, all intercourse with the revolted provinces was prohibited; on its termi- nation it became necessary not only to take off the prohibition, but to establish regulations for the future trade between the British dominions and the new Republic; for our old Navigation Laws made no provision whatever for admitting
the ships of a foreign independent country in Asia, Africa, or America, to trade with any British port in the world. Mr. Pitt, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer at the termination of the war, immediately brought in a Bilit for making tem. porary provision for regulating the intercourse with the States. The bill was to allow American vessels to trade with this country on the same footing as the ships of any other foreign State,
but only paying the same duties as British ships. They were also allowed to import into our colo- nies any articles whatever of the growth, produce
• Edwards, vol. ii, p. 488.
A copy of this Bill may be found in Edwards, vol. ii, p. 491, nute.
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