them it was a cause of great jealousy and uneasiness, and they used every exertion to render inoperative the legislative enactments which were intended for the encouragement of the manufacture. In 1719 a bill was brought into Parliament with the object of rendering the laws concerning the importation of naval stores from the British American plantations more comprehensive, by admitting from them all sorts of timber: "For whereas in our trade thither, it sometimes happens that the crops of tobacco, sugar, &c., fall short, many ships in that case are obliged to come home to Great Britain bad freighted, and some remain there a whole season, waiting for the next crop." It was therefore imagined by the House of Commons, that if encouragement were given for bringing timber from our plantations, full freight would be secured for our ships, and the demand from our northern colonies, for British manufactures of all kinds, would be greatly increased, and their people diverted from further attempts to become themselves the manufacturers of such productions as could be much more advantageously furnished to them by Great Britain and Ireland. But the colonies were so surprised and disappointed by some clauses in the bill, that rather than submit to them they preferred to forego entirely the benefits it would have conferred upon them, and they were very glad to have it dropped altogether. Such for instance," that none of the plantations should manufacture iron wares of any kinds, out of any sows, pigs, or bars, whatsoever, under certain penalties." By which clause no smith in the plantations might make as much as a bolt, spike, or nail, whereby the colonies must have been brought into a miserable condition, the smith being, above all other trades, absolutely necessary in all employments there; amongst the rest, that of shipbuilding would have been utterly destroyed, although thereby they made a great part of their returns for the British manufactures. The House of Peers added another clause"That no forge going by water, or other work whatsoever, should be erected in any of the plantations, for making sows, pigs, or cast iron, into bar or rod iron." This second clause must have ruined all the iron-works in the colonies to the great loss of their proprietors, and have given the French a fair handle to tempt them into their settlements. Much was said in pamphlets and newspapers in the year 1737, in favour of the importation of iron and hemp from the British American Colonies, as being two articles of the first importance for our navy and mercantile shipping, as well as for numberless other services, and petitions were presented to Parliament for this end by the merchants. 1st. It was computed that England imported annually about 20,000 tons of foreign iron, whereof 15,000 tons were from Sweden, which cost about 150,000l., and was mostly paid for by us in money, as was most of the other 5000 tons brought from Russia, and that our exports of wrought-iron were from 3000 to 3500 tons per annum. 2nd. That the iron of the British colonies is as good as any foreign iron whatever, and, with proper encouragement, might be imported in quantities sufficient to supply all the iron we get from the two nations on whom we are at present dependent for that commodity, without their taking sufficient of our product and manufactures in return; whereas, our own colonies would be entirely paid by our manufactures, the demand for which would thereby be much increased, and 180,000l. per annum would be clearly saved to the nation in the balance of our trade. It was, moreover, computed that England makes annually about 18,000 tons of bar iron; the quantity of which, it was said, we could not increase, by reason of our woods being so far exhausted as to have greatly enhanced the price of cord wood used in the refining of ironstone; and were we to import more pig-iron from America, and make less of it at home, we should be able, with the same quantity of wood we now consume, to make much more bariron at home. 3rd. That nothing is more likely to prevent our American colonies from falling into such manufactures, as must interere with our own, than giving them encouragement to pro duce such rough materials as pig, sow, and bar iron, hemp, &c., as it is well known of what great advantage to this kingdom the bounties on the importation of pitch and tar from thence have been since the year 1703. 4th. That for this end a duty should be laid in our colonies on all iron imported there from Europe. On the other hand, the great and natural opposers of the merchants' petitions were the proprietors of the English ironworks and of the woodlands of England. The promoters of this scheme, for encouraging the importation of iron from our American colonies, proposed that an additional duty should be laid on all foreign bar-iron imported, excepting only such as shall be imported from our American colonies, and to repeal the present foreign duty on all bar-iron which may be hereafter imported from our plantations; but so many jarring interests prevented the legislature at that time from passing any new law on the subject. In the year 1750, an Act, 23rd Geo. II., was passed, for encouraging the importation of pig-iron from the British colonies in America. Every well-wisher to his country reflected with concern on the nature of the British trade with Sweden, from which kingdom we imported more iron and steel than all the other countries in Europe. For this article a great balance was paid in ready money, which the Swedes again expended in purchasing from the French and other mercantile states those necessaries and superfluities with which they might have been as cheaply furnished by Great Britain. In the meantime, our colonies were restricted by severe duties from taking advantage of their own produce, in exchanging their iron for such commodities as they were under the necessity of procuring from the mother country. This restriction was not only a grievance upon our own settlements, but also attended with manifest prejudice to the interest of Great Britain, annually drained of great sums, in favour of a nation from whom we derived no advantage in return. Whereas, the iron imported from America must of necessity come in exchange for our own manufactures. The Commons having appointed a day for taking this affair into consideration, carefully examined into the state of the British commerce carried on with Sweden, as well as into the accounts of iron imported from the plantations of America; and a committee of the whole House having resolved, that the duties on American pig and bar-iron should be repealed, a bill was brought in for that purpose. "That pig-iron, made in the British colonies in America, may be imported duty free, and bar-iron into the port of London; no bar-iron so imported to be carried coast wise, or to be landed at any other port, except for the use of his Majesty's dockyards; and not to be carried beyond ten miles from London." The Act, however, contained the following clause:-"That from and after the 24th day of June, 1750, no mill or other engine for slitting or rolling of iron, or any plating forge, to work with a tilt hammer, or any furnace for making steel shall be erected, or, after such erection, continued in any of his Majesty's colonies of America." * And the governors of the colonies were ordered to transmit, for the information of government, an account of all slitting mills, plating forges, and furnaces for making steel; and this return was accordingly made in the ensuing year. This precaution being taken, that the colonies might not interfere with the manufactures of their mother country. During the progress of this bill, which made its way through both Houses, and obtained the Royal assent, the tanners in and about the town of Sheffield, in Yorkshire, represented, that if the bill should pass, the English iron would be undersold, consequently, a great number of furnaces and forges would be discontinued; in that case, the woods used for fuel would stand uncut, and the tanners be deprived of oak bark sufficient for the continuance and support of their occupation. They, nevertheless, owned, that should the duty be removed. from pig-iron only, no such consequence could be apprehended, because, should the number of furnaces be lessened, that of forges would be increased. This was likewise the plea * Four mills or engines for slitting or rolling iron, one not in use. urged in divers remonstrances by masters of iron-works, gentlemen, and freeholders, who had tracts of woodland in their possession. The owners, proprietors, and farmers of furnaces and iron forges, belonging to Sheffield and its neighbourhood, enlarged upon the great expense they had incurred in erecting and supporting iron-works, by means of which great numbers of his Majesty's subjects were comfortably supported. They expressed their apprehension that, should the bill pass into a law, it could not in any degree lessen the consumption of Swedish iron, which was used for purposes to which neither the American nor British iron would be suitable; but that the proposed encouragement of the manufacture of iron in America, considering the plenty and cheapness of wood, would enable the colonies to undersell the British iron-a branch of traffic which would be totally destroyed-to the ruin of many thousand labourers, who would be compelled to seek their livelihood in foreign countries. They likewise suggested, that if all the iron manufacturers of Great Britain were to depend upon a supply of iron from the plantations, which must ever be rendered precarious by the hazard of the seas and the enemy, the manufactures would probably decay for want of materials, and many thousand families be reduced to want and misery. On the other hand, the ironmongers and smiths belonging to the flourishing town of Birmingham, in Warwickshire, presented a petition, declaring that the bill would be of great benefit to trade, as it would enable the colonists to make larger returns of their own produce, and encourage them to take a greater quantity of the British manufactures. They affirmed, that all the iron-works in Great Britain did not make half the quantity of the metal sufficient to carry on the manufacture; that, if this deficiency could be supplied from the colonies in America, the importation from Sweden would cease, and considerable sums of money be saved to the nation. They observed, that the importation of iron from America could no more affect the iron-works and freeholders of the kingdom than the like quantity imported from any other country; but they prayed that the people of |