17
Reeves, writing in 1792, says that there seemed then no distinction of meaning between "plantation" and "colony." Plantation was the earlier term; "'colony' did not come much into use till the reign of Charles II., and it seems to have denoted the political relation." (p. 109.) By derivation both words express the idea of cultivating new ground, or establishing a new settlement; but "plantation" seems to associate itself more with the industrial beginnings, and "colony" with the formal regulative purpose of the parent state.
18
The Navigation Acts of 1651, 1660, 1662, and 1663, as well as other subsequent measures of the same character, can be found, conveniently for American readers, in MacDonald's Select Charters Illustrative of American History. Macmillan, New York. 1899.
19
Reeves, History of the Law of Navigation, p. 162.
20
For instance, in 1769, eighteen hundred and forty vessels passed the Sound in the British trade. Of these only thirty-five were Russian. Considerably more than half of the trade of St. Petersburg with Europe at large was done in British ships. Macpherson, vol. iii. p. 493.
21
Opinion of Chief Baron Parker, quoted by Reeves, pp. 187-189.
22
Chalmers, Opinions on Interesting Subjects of Public Law and Commercial Policy Arising from American Independence, p. 32.
23
Ibid., p. 55.
24
A French naval historian supports them, speaking of the year 1781: "The considerable armaments made since 1778 had exhausted the resources of personnel. To remedy the difficulty the complements were filled up with coast-guard militia, with marine troops until then employed only to form the guards of the ships, and finally with what were called 'novices volontaires,' who were landsmen recruited by bounties. It may be imagined what crews were formed with such elements."—Troude, Batailles Navales, vol. ii. p. 202.
25
Raynal, Histoire Philosophique des deux Indes, vol. vii. p. 287 (Edition 1820). Raynal's reputation is that of a plagiarist, but his best work is attributed to far greater names of his time. He died in 1796.
26
Reeves, pp. 430-434.
27
Macpherson, vol. iv. p. 10.
28
Macpherson, Annals of Commerce, vol. i. p. 485-486.
29
Bryan Edwards, West Indies, vol. ii. p. 450.
30
Officially, Statute of 15 Charles II.
31
Reeves, p. 50.
32
Chalmers, Opinions on Interesting Subjects, p. 28.
33
Bryan Edwards, West Indies, vol. ii. p. 443-444 (3d Edition).
34
Works of John Adams, vol. viii. p. 228.
35
Compare with Sheffield, Observations on the Commerce of the American States (Edition February, 1784), p. 137, note; from which, indeed, these figures seem to have been taken, or from some common source.
36
Coxe's View of the United States of America, Philadelphia, 1794, p. 330.
37
Works of John Adams, vol. viii. p. 341. Adams says again, himself: "It is more and more manifest every day that there is, and will continue, a general scramble for navigation. Carrying trade, ship-building, fisheries, are the cry of every nation."—Vol. viii. p. 342.
38
From an official statement, made public in 1784, it appears that in the year 1770 the total trade, inward and outward, of the colonies on the American Continent, amounted to 750,546 tons. Of this 32 per cent was coastwise, to other members of the group; 30 with the West Indies; 27 with Great Britain and Ireland; and 11 with Southern Europe. Bermuda and the Bahamas, inconsiderable as to trade, were returned among continental colonies by the Custom House.—Sheffield, Commerce of the American States, Table VII.
39
Chalmers, Opinions, p. 73.
40
Ibid., p. 18.
41
Macpherson, vol. iii. p. 317.
42
Report of Committee of Privy Council, Jan. 28, 1791, pp. 21-23.
43
Ante, p. 31 (note).
44
Bryan Edwards, West Indies, vol. ii. p. 486.
45
Chalmers, Opinions, p. 133.
46
See, for instance, the Colden Papers, Proceedings N.Y. Historical Society, 1877. There is in these much curious economical information of other kinds.
47
A comparison of the figures just quoted, as to the British West Indies, with Sheffield's Table VII., indicates that the trade of the Continent with the foreign islands about equalled that with the British. The trade with the French West Indies, "open or clandestine, was considerable, and wholly in American vessels."—Macpherson, vol. iii. p. 584.
48
Sheffield, Commerce of the American States, p. 108.
49
That is, for the navy.
50
Macpherson, Annals of Commerce, vol. iii. p. 472.
51
Macpherson, vol. iv. p. 11. The great West India cargo of 1772, an especial preserve of the Navigation Act, was carried to England in 679 ships, of which one-third were built in America.
52
"The contraband trade carried on by plantation ships in defiance of the Act of Navigation was a subject of repeated complaint." "The laws of Navigation were nowhere disobeyed and contemned so openly as in New England. The people of Massachusetts Bay were from the first disposed to act as if independent of the mother country."—Reeves, pp. 54, 58. The particular quotations apply to the early days of the measure, 1662-3; but the complaint continued to the end. In 1764-5, "one of the great grievances in the American trade was, that great quantities of foreign molasses and syrups were clandestinely run on shore in the British Colonies."—p. 79.
53
American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. i. p. 82.
54
American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. i. p. 121.
55
Commerce of the American States (Edition February, 1784), pp. 198-199.
56
Works of John Adams, vol. viii. p. 290.
57
Washington's Correspondence, 1787, edited by W.C. Ford, vol. viii. pp. 159, 160, 254.
58
Report of the Committee of the Privy Council, Jan. 28, 1791, p. 20.
59
Chalmers, Opinions, p. 32.
60
Jurien de la Gravière, Guerres Maritimes, Paris, 1847, vol. ii. p. 238.
61
Canada, Newfoundland, Bermuda, etc.
62
American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. i. p. 303.
63
p. 288.
64
Coxe, View of the United States, p. 346.
65
Reeves, p. 381. Nevertheless, foreign nations frequently complained of this as a distinction against them (Report of the Committee of the Privy Council, Jan. 28, 1791, p. 10).
66
Bryan Edwards, West Indies, vol. ii. p. 494 (note).
67
Coxe's View, p. 318.
68
American State Papers, Foreign Affairs, vol. i. p. 301. Jefferson added, "These imports consist mostly of articles on which industry has been exhausted,"—
69
Works of John Adams, vol. viii. p. 333.
70
Works