The State of the Trade with the Northern Colonies
Printed in The London Chronicle, November 1-3, 1768.
To the Printer of the London Chronicle. Sir,
At a time when our disputes with America make
the topic of much conversation, it may be agreeable to your Readers
to have a clear view of the present state of our trade to and from
the Northern Colonies. Such I now send you, being an
extract from the Custom House books, (by which that trade from
England only, exclusive of Scotland, appears to be far above
Two Millions a year) with some remarks made
thereon by a judicious Merchant of my acquaintance, who gives
reasons for adding another Million to the computation. Our
trade with the Southern Colonies, or West India Island, is not
included in this account.
The political Reader will make his own
reflections on the prudence of our quarrelling with such customers,
about an impracticable right of taxing them, when by long
experience we have found them ready to give voluntarily, upon
requisitions by the Crown, more than we propose to extort from
them. I shall only remark, that the greatest part of our
manufactures sent them, are superfluities and modes, which they use
and follow, because they are the modes of a respected country; and
the rest, though more necessary, are such as they can make
themselves. If we proceed in measures that must in time make us
odious to them, a trade of this kind must fall of course. And as
the bulk of the value of our manufactures arises from the value of
the provision consumed by our manufacturers while employed in
working them, which provision is the produce of the land, and bears
a higher price always in manufacturing countries in proportion as
the consumer can be better paid for his labour; and as the value of
lands depends greatly on the price for which its produce can be
sold; this dispute appears to me equally important to the landed as
to the trading and manufacturing interests. Unwise men are often
most obstinate when they are most in the wrong. Wise men think it
no impeachment of their wisdom, or diminution of their honour, when
they find they have been mistaken or misled, to rectify what they
have done amiss, and change their conduct. This might have been
urged to the last Parliament if they had still continued. But we
are now in a better situation in that respect: We have a new
Parliament, which is a new being, not accountable for the actions
of its predecessor, and may therefore more freely take them into
consideration. I pray devoutly that their deliberations may, by
God’s good providence, be directed to such healing measures, as
will be effectual, in strengthening this Empire by a cordial union
of its parts, and disappointing the at present highly-rais’d hopes
and expectations of our national enemies. The Americans are our
brethren. Let us not grudge them the enjoyment of the rights,
liberties and privileges that belong to them as Englishmen, or
which they have so dearly purchased. Ours are not the less, any
more than my sunshine is diminished by what enters the windows of
my neighbour. I am, Sir your humble servant,
Exports to the Continent of
America from England only, exclusive of Scotland.
Canada |
148,478 |
4 |
2 |
149,539 |
16 |
4 |
251,385 |
12 |
6 |
213,509 |
14 |
9 |
366,573 |
4 |
11 |
Carolina |
194,170 |
14 |
11 |
250,132 |
2 |
0 |
305,808 |
1 |
6 |
334,709 |
11 |
8 |
296,732 |
1 |
4 |
Florida |
9,946 |
3 |
2 |
15,004 |
15 |
7 |
19,888 |
9 |
8 |
38,718 |
14 |
10 |
Georgia |
23,761 |
8 |
10 |
44,908 |
19 |
9 |
18,338 |
2 |
11 |
29,165 |
16 |
9 |
67,268 |
5 |
5 |
Hudson’s Bay |
4,122 |
2 |
9 |
4,393 |
2 |
7 |
3,892 |
11 |
2 |
4,394 |
5 |
5 |
4,631 |
6 |
3 |
New England |
247,385 |
18 |
3 |
258,854 |
19 |
6 |
459,764 |
0 |
11 |
451,299 |
14 |
7 |
409,642 |
7 |
6 |
New York |
288,046 |
16 |
10 |
238,560 |
2 |
1 |
515,416 |
12 |
1 |
382,341 |
11 |
1 |
330,829 |
15 |
8 |
Nova Scotia |
25,071 |
2 |
4 |
16,303 |
13 |
4 |
15,434 |
17 |
0 |
48,211 |
19 |
8 |
14,181 |
6 |
5 |
Pennsylvania |
206,199 |
18 |
8 |
284,152 |
16 |
0 |
435,191 |
14 |
0 |
363,368 |
17 |
5 |
327,314 |
5 |
3 |
Maryland |
417,599 |
15 |
6 |
555,391 |
12 |
10 |
515,192 |
10 |
6 |
383,224 |
13 |
0 |
372,548 |
16 |
1 |
1761 amounts to |
1,554,836 |
2 |
3 |
1,812,082 |
17 |
7 |
2,535,429 |
18 |
2 |
2,230,022 |
15 |
0 |
2,228,450 |
3 |
8 |
which is £2,072,164 7s. 4d. per annum on a medium
of those 5 years by the Custom-House entries and valuation. But as
the New York Merchants proved to their General Assembly in 1764,
from original invoices from Great Britain, that for the three
preceding years they had imported what they were charged £1,500,000
for, while the above Custom-House account for those 3 years makes
it no more than £1,042,023 11s. 0d. and as the
Merchants of Pennsylvania at the same time and on the same occasion
[for repealing the Stamp Act] proved their imports from Great
Britain for said 3 years to be about £1,500,000 also, when the
above account of exports makes it no more than £925,544 8s.
8d. we may fairly conclude the exports to said American
Colonies was full £3,000,000 per ann. during the above 5 years.
This difference between the London Custom-House
account, and those of the Merchants of New York and Pennsylvania,
is owing in a great measure to the Scotch Exports being in the
latter and not in the former account, which is confined to England
only; to the Custom-House of London account still adhering to the
same valuation of goods that was made soon after the Revolution, at
which time it began to be preserved; whereas many of them are one
third dearer now than they were then; to the premium of Insurance,
Factors Commissions, and all other charges attending the packing,
shipping, &c. being in the Merchants account, and not in that
of the Custom-House; and to erroneous entries made by the Factors
in England, they being left to enter more or less, just as they
please, of goods they ship not subject to any duty or drawback upon
exportation; so that the London Custom-House account serves no
other purposes than to shew the sort of goods exported to or
imported from every country; and as it is kept upon the same
principles or estimates as at the time it commenced, to shew
whether your Exports and Imports encrease or decrease upon the
whole trade, or to any country in particular.
Imports from the Continent of
America to England only, exclusive of Scotland.
Canada |
32,079 |
9 |
6 |
26,856 |
13 |
5 |
44,669 |
9 |
5 |
39,034 |
4 |
2 |
46,982 |
12 |
3 |
Carolina |
181,695 |
10 |
3 |
282,366 |
3 |
6 |
341,727 |
12 |
7 |
385,918 |
12 |
0 |
293,587 |
7 |
8 |
Florida |
294 |
3 |
4 |
684 |
8 |
4 |
2,113 |
7 |
7 |
Georgia |
6,522 |
17 |
7 |
14,469 |
18 |
4 |
31,325 |
9 |
4 |
34,183 |
15 |
8 |
53,074 |
16 |
7 |
Hudson's Bay |
12,119 |
14 |
5 |
8,567 |
10 |
1 |
9,272 |
9 |
2 |
10,654 |
10 |
1 |
10,199 |
17 |
6 |
New England |
41,733 |
17 |
6 |
74,815 |
1 |
1 |
88,157 |
1 |
9 |
145,819 |
0 |
1 |
141,733 |
4 |
11 |
New York |
58,882 |
6 |
5 |
53,988 |
14 |
4 |
53,697 |
10 |
4 |
54,959 |
18 |
2 |
67,020 |
11 |
8 |
Nova Scotia |
1,144 |
6 |
5 |
4,312 |
9 |
10 |
32 |
19 |
3 |
164 |
2 |
1 |
1,433 |
9 |
4 |
Pennsylvania |
38,091 |
2 |
2 |
38,228 |
10 |
2 |
36,258 |
18 |
1 |
25,148 |
10 |
10 |
26,851 |
3 |
1 |
Maryland |
415,709 |
10 |
9 |
642,294 |
2 |
9 |
559,408 |
15 |
1 |
505,671 |
9 |
9 |
461,693 |
9 |
4 |
1761 amounts to |
787,978 |
15 |
0 |
1,145,899 |
3 |
6 |
1,164,844 |
8 |
6 |
1,202,238 |
11 |
2 |
1,104,689 |
19 |
11 |
which is £1,081,130 3s. 7d ½ per annum on a medium
of those five years, by the Custom-House entries of England only,
which are exact as to the quantity and sorts of goods, as they all
are subject to duties or bounties; but, like the exports, the value
of them is estimated upon the rule laid down at the commencement of
the Custom-House Ledger of London: which as to naval stores,
indigo, dyeing wood, tobacco, &c &c. must be greatly too
high, and for beavers and furs of all kinds, and the oil of fish,
much too low for the prices those articles bear now, compared with
what they did in those days. Thus, upon the face of the Exports and
Imports to those colonies, into and from England only, according to
these Custom-House accounts, they have an annual balance of near a
million against them. And if upon the whole, some being too low and
other articles too high, the account of the value of the import is
near what it sells for, and the Merchants accounts of the Imports
from Great Britain into Pennsylvania and New-York are just, of
which there can be no doubt, they being taken from original
invoices, and we follow the like proportionate rule for the other
colonies, compared with the London Custom-House account, the
northern colonies have then an annual ballance against them, upon a
medium of those five years, of about two millions of pounds,
besides what it may be in Scotland; which they endeavour to pay in
ships they sell here, by freights their ships make from the West
Indies to Great Britain, by the profit of their circuitous trade
with foreign colonies; with Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Africa,
from whence come their remittances in silver, gold, bills of
exchange, dying wood, &c. But as all their methods of
remittance fall short of a sufficiency to make ready pay for the
amount of their demand from Great Britain, they are therefore
constantly in debt to her, and that too very largely: but for that
debt, after six or nine months, they pay by agreement and the
custom of the trade, legal interest, which increases the balance
against them, so that besides the profits of our trade with them,
large sums are drawn from them annually as interest only.
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