CHAPTER VIII. The Commercial Relations of the Colonies. HE annihilation of French power in America was the sig ΤΗ nal to put in force, with exasperating exaction, those Acts of Trade which related to colonial commerce with foreign peoples alien to the British crown.' The destruction of the French power had several important results: the northern colonies were relieved from a pressure which had cemented their connection with England; the part their troops had taken had taught them their capacity for self-defence, and the immigration that came with peace was rapidly augmenting the natural increase of population everywhere. As these results of the war made themselves felt, the importance of the colonies became greater, the people It was hard parting with a free open trade to all parts of the world which the Massachusetts carried on before the present charter. The principal Acts of Parliament were made many years before, but there was no custom-house established in the colonies, nor any authority anxious for carrying those acts into execution. It was several years after the new charter before they were generally observed." Hutch., "Hist. Prov. of Mass. Bay," ed. 1767, ii, 447. The first charter was from Charles I. present charter," here alluded to, was that of William and Mary, 1691. See note, this chapter, post. The " 2 "Dans les guerres dont nous venons de parler, les hommes de colonies et d'opinions différentes combattirent souvent côte à côte, oubliant à l'heure du péril toute haine ou jalousie anciennes. Ils connurent leur force en convoquant des assemblées, en levant et en entretenant des troupes. Ne recevant ni secours, ni conseils de l'Angleterre aux moments les plus difficiles, ils apprirent ainsi à penser et à agir en dehors de la tutelle de la mère-patrie. Par la connaissance de leurs droits, les idées democratiques prirent racine chez eux et ils apirerent à la liberté. "La manière dont les officiers anglais se conduisaient envers les troupes coloniales, se moquant ouvertement de la tournure gauche et embarrassée des recrues, contribua aussi à affermer l'union des colons. Beaucoup d'officiers américains expérimentés avaient été remplacés par de jeunes subalternes anglais, mais cela ne put empêcher Washington, Gates, Montgomery, Stark, Arnold, Morgan, Putnam, et une foule d' autres, de faire leur education militaire, et d'apprendre même, ainsi qu' ils le montrèrent lorsque le temps en fut venu, à were emboldened to assert rights heretofore unrecognized, and their air of self-reliance strengthened the suspicion, which had always existed at home,' that they were ready to demand their independence as soon as the natural course of development, now no longer to be ignored, would enable them to do so. So long as the presence of the French overawed the frontier, so long these colonies were unable to set up for themselves; but, that compression removed, and with their hands strengthened by immigration, the danger of insubordination became manifest to England, and she determined to forestall such a catastrophe by clipping the wings that seemed to her already fluttering for flight. To do this, no expedient appeared so effectual as one which would strengthen the home government at the same time that it weakened the colonies. Were, however, a law enacted for that purpose, its antagonism to colonial interests would be so apparent that resistance might be provoked by the very act, and the government might thus find on its hands the worst of all evils, a rebellion, which would not only withhold what was expected to be gained, but which would risk the enjoyment of what was already in possession. Nothing, on the contrary, could be more reasonable than that existing laws should be enforced, and these, happily, were at hand. As early as the time of Richard II., in order to foster the creation and maintenance of a navy, it had been enacted by Parliament, that none of the king's liege people should ship any merchandise out of or into the realm, except in the ships of the king's ligeance, on pain of forfeiture." This act was afterward repealed, or became obsolete, and, though one or two attempts were made to establish it, it was not until the time of the Commonwealth, that the policy of England concerning the carrying-trade of the ocean was settled and distinctly proclaimed in what are known as the Navigation Acts and the Acts of Trade. These embodied a policy which had for its object the supremacy of the British flag on the high seas, the aggrandizement of the carryingcombattre les reguliers anglais." Nolte, “Hist. des États-Unis d' Amérique,'' chap. xix, 216. The treatment of the provincial officers and soldiers by the British officers during that war made the blood boil in my veins." "Life and Works of John Adams," ix, 592. 1 See Appendix D. trade by England, and the absolute control and direction of the commerce of her colonies. The Navigation Acts were intended to regulate the commerce of Great Britain with foreign peoples, while the Acts of Trade were designed more particularly for the regulation of the internal and colonial trade: both together constituted the system by which England, as a commercial power, sought her prosperity The discovery of America and the doubling of the Cape of Good Hope gave the signal to the great powers to scramble for the rest of the globe. The scene presented was like that at the loot of a Chinese palace. All had but one object, booty: the rights of the weak were disregarded, every one looked out for himself, and, even when so loaded down with spoil as to be incapable of grasping more, each quarrelled with his neighbor about what he had. Spain and Portugal, with their inherent greed of territory, acquired the greatest share of land, but Holland, whose spirit was a commercial one, contented herself with what in the end proved to be still more valuable, the trade. The Dutch went everywhere, and spurred by the lust of gain, pushed their voyages into every sea and anchored in every port. Their commerce grew so rapidly and to such an extent, that they secured a proportion of the carrying trade as never before had been concentrated in the hands of one people, and soon became to the whole world what the Venetians had been to the Mediterranean. Antwerp took the place of Venice, and as commerce went on gathering in their hands, the Dutch continued to thrive as their neighbors declined. France had no merchant service worth mentioning. Spain and Portugal saw their commerce shrink, not by reason of the fierceness of Dutch competition only, but in consequence of their overweening disposition toward adventure instead of trade, and from the restrictions by which they themselves hampered their colonial traffic. The Thames was nearly bare of merchantmen, the galleons deserted the Adriatic, whose ports harbored nothing greater than feluccas, and from the Scheldt to the Hudson, and from the Hudson to Java and Japan, the lugger ploughed the waves unchallenged. To extend her trade, to protect her convoys, to keep what she had, to get more, to expel intruders, and to drive off her rivals, Holland created and kept afloat a navy which soon became the terror of the seas, not so much for what it actually did (for instinct, interest, and circumstance all disposed the Dutch toward peace), but for what it could do, and what the least provocation might incite it to do. All nations in this way became tributary to her, and the wealth of Holland rose with her tides. With those tides it also ebbed. Of all the people that brought tribute to this little publican, none approached the receipt of customs with so bad a grace as England. Her territory consisted of islands, and inasmuch as she could neither come nor go unless upon the ocean, she was absolutely dependent upon the waves. In them was her sustenance and her wealth, upon them she beheld her natural field of action, and there, to say the least, she should meet the other maritime powers upon an equality. Yet, for generation after generation, she was compelled to sit with folded hands and see, passing her very doors, the wealth of the world on its way to pay toll to a handful of people who lived in a swamp, and whom she could crush could she only have the opportunity. That opportunity, however, rarely presented itself, and when it did come, it came at such times and in such shapes that she could never take advantage of it. Sometimes it was her own dissensions, sometimes her lack of means, sometimes the popular indisposition to weaken a Protestant power, but, be it what it may, there was always something which prevented her profiting by the occasion. In the meantime Holland grew richer and richer. At last, when England was rent by civil strife and in a predicament so sorry as to render her an object of insult to the domineering Dutch; just at the time when it could be least expected of her to rise and resent affront, and when, perhaps, she herself did not seriously contemplate such an act, just at that time she took the step which henceforth wrought such a wonderful change in the destiny of herself and of her rival. In a few years the carrying-trade of Holland declined, her magnificent fleet was brought to its destruction, the commerce of the world was transferred from the Dutch to the English shipping, the supremacy of the ocean was shifted from the decks of Van Tromp to those of Blake, and England was started upon a career of prosperity which at last made her mistress of the seas. All this was accomplished by an act of Parliament, which, THE NAVIGATION ACT. 189 passed during the Commonwealth, was re-enacted and continuously enforced after the Restoration.1 It provided simply, that thenceforward no goods, the produce of Asia, Africa, or America, should be imported into England or exported out of it, but in vessels belonging to the people of England, and that no goods, the produce or manufacture of any part of Europe, should be imported unless in English ships, or ships of the country where such goods were produced or manufactured, and that, of these English ships, the master and three fourths of the mariners should be English, under penalty of forfeiture of ship and cargo. This, the old act of Richard II. in spirit, was enlarged and strengthened from time to time by others having the same object. The effect of these Navigation Acts was, to place the commerce of England in English ships, to call back English mariners from foreign decks to their own, to give English capital employment in English bottoms, and to make England the sole staple, or distributing centre, of the colonies. Thus nothing could be brought to England by foreigners, except what she herself could not supply, and as nothing could go to the colonies unless from or through English hands, so neither could any thing be exported thence but through the same channel. The absolute control of her colonial commerce being taken by England into her own hands, the supply of her markets by foreign vessels was cut down to the root, and the world was given to understand that what England wished of its traffic she would take, but what she could or would not have, it might keep. Inasmuch as, at that time, the Dutch were almost the sole carriers, they were the ones most to be injured, and the English Navigation Act was naturally interpreted by them to mean the sheer annihilation of Holland as a great maritime power. They therefore struggled hard before submitting to the inevitable effect of this legislation, but the English held the line firmly, and the prize of maritime supremacy was at last landed upon their decks. What led the English to take this sudden step after waiting motionless so long, is doubtful. Some say that a disposition to The acts passed by the legislature of the Commonwealth were not recognized as laws after the Restoration, inasmuch as they had not the assent of the crown. Where is Downing's statute? British policy has suppressed all the laws of England, from 1648 to 1660. The statute book contains not one line."-John Adams, Life and Works," x, 330. ་་ |