GROUP IV. REVOLUTIONARY RECORDS: 1763-1783. 1. COLONIAL MERCHANTS AND CAPTAINS. O! ye unborn inhabitants of America! ... When your eyes behold the sun after he has rolled the seasons round for two or three centuries more, you will know that in Anno Domini 1758, we dreamed of your times. From an old Almanac for 1758.107 From observers of colonial trade and life at the close of the French and Indian War, we take the following notes of trade and life: In the Southern Colonies. [Charleston, S.C.] has very regular and fair streets, in which are good buildings of brick and wood; . . . besides a strong fort. . . made to defend the town.... They have a considerable trade both to Europe and the West Indies, whereby they become rich. . . . All enjoy at this day an entire liberty of their worship; . . . they have a well-disciplined militia. . . . The merchants of Carolina are fair, frank traders. The gentlemen seated in the country are very courteous, live very noble in their houses, and give very genteel entertainment to all strangers and others that come to visit them.108 The trade of [Virginia] . . . is... extensive. Tobacco is the principal article of it.... They ship also for the Madeiras, the Streights [Gibraltar], and the West-Indies, . . . grain, pork, lumber and cyder; to Great Britain, bar-iron;... the Virginians. . . can scarcely bear the thought of being controuled by any superior power. Many of them consider the colonies as independent states, not connected with Great Britain, otherwise than by having the same com ... mon king, and being bound to her by natural affection. They think it a hardship not to have an unlimited trade to every part of the world.... However, . . . they never refuse any necessary supplies for the support of the government when called upon, and are a generous and loyal people. . . . From Colchester we went. . . to Mount Vernon. This place is the property of Colonel Washington, and truly deserving of its owner. The house is most beautifully situ ated upon a high hill on the banks of the Potowmac; and commands a noble prospect of water, of cliffs, of woods, and plantations. . . . In the Middle Colonies. The trade of Pensylvania is surprisingly extensive, carried on to Great Britain, . . . the Madeiras, Lisbon, Cadiz, Holland, Africa, the Spanish Main; . . . their exports are provisions of all kinds, lumber, hemp, flax, . . . iron, furs, and deerskins. . . . The Germantown thread-stockings are in high estimation; . . . the Irish settlers make very good linens: . . . there are several other manufactures, [such as] of beaver hats, . . . superior in goodness to any in Europe. The Pensylvanians. . . are great republicans, and have fallen into the same errors in their ideas of independency as most of the other colonies. . . . However, they are quiet, and concern themselves but little, except about getting money. . . . New York.. contains be tween two and three thousand DUTCH COLONIAL HOUSE. They export chiefly grain, flour, pork, skins, furs, pig-iron, lumber, and staves. . . . They also, as well as the Pensylvanians, had erected several slitting mills, to make nails, etc. But this is now prohibited [by Parliament], and they are exceedingly dissatisfied at it.109 The inhabitants . . . have a considerable trade with the Indians, for beavers, otter, raccoon skins, with other furs, and are supplied with venison and food in the winter and fish in the summer by the Indians, which they buy at an easy rate. . . . In New England. 110 [In Rhode Island,] their mode of commerce is this; they trade to Great Britain, Holland, Africa, the West Indies, and the neighbouring colonies; from each of which places they import the following articles; from Great Britain, dry goods; from Holland, money; from Africa, slaves; from the West Indies, sugar, coffee, and molasses; and from the neighboring colonies, lumber and provisions: and with what they purchase in one place, they... [pay] in another. 4 Thus, with the money they get in Holland, they pay their merchants in London; the sugars they procure in the West Indies, they carry to Holland; the slaves they fetch from Africa they send to the West Indies, together with lumber and provisions, which they get from the neighbouring colonies: the rum that they distil they export to Africa; and with the dry goods, which they purchase in London, they traffick in the neighbouring colonies. By this kind of circular commerce they subsist and grow rich.110 There are above three hundred vessels, such as Sloops, Schooners, . . . and Ships, ... that belong to this Colony [Rhode Island]; . . . We are a vast advantage to England in the Consumption of her Manufactures, for which we make returns in new Ships, Whale Oil and Bone (which grows in the Whale's Mouth) and Dry Fish;..." 111 [Those of Massachusetts] carry on a considerable traffick, chiefly in the manner of the Rhode-Islanders, [exporting] salt-fish and vessels. Of the latter they build annually a great number, and send them, laden with cargoes of the former, to Great Britain, where they sell them.112 The Irish orator, Burke, in one of his speeches on America, said of the New England whale fishery: ... As to the wealth which the Colonies have drawn from the sea by their fisheries, what in the world is equal to it?... Look at the manner in which the people of New England have of late carried on the Whale-Fishery. Whilst we follow them among the tumbling |