136 



their energies in endeavors to induce the ministry' to abandon a policy 

 so ruinous to northern industry. The '■^petty dealers in codfish and mo- 

 lasscs^^ struggled long and manfully, but without success. 



The State papers of Massachusetts contain the most earnest remon- 

 strances again>t tlie "sugar and molasses acts." In the answer ot" the 

 Council and House of Iteprescntalives to the speech of the governor, 

 in November, 17G4, it is said that "our pickled Hsh ivholhj, and a. great 

 2Jart of our codfish, are only fit for the West India market. The Brit- 

 ish islands cannot take off one-third of the quantity canght ; the other two- 

 thirds mnst he lost or sent to foreign plantations, where molasst^s is given 

 in exchange. The dnty on this article will greatly diminish the import- 

 ation hither ; and being the only article allowed to be given in ex- 

 change lor our fish, a less quantity of the latter will of course be ex- 

 ported — the obvious effect of which must be a diminution of the fish- 

 trade, not only to the West Indies but to Europe, fish suitable f()r both 

 these markets , being the produce of the same voyage. If, therefore, 

 one of these markets be shut, the other cannot be supplied. The loss of 

 one is the loss of both, as thefishcry must fail with the loss (f either.'''' These 

 representations cover the whole ground.* 



In the petition of the Council and the House to the House of Com- 

 mons, prepared at the same time, it w^as urged that ihe act-; in question 

 "must necessarily bring many burdens upon the inhabitants of tliese col- 

 onies and plantations, which your petitioners conceive would not have 

 been imposed if a full representation of the state of the colonics had 

 been made to 3'our honorable House;" that "the importation 0*1 foreign 

 molasses into this province, in particular, is of the greatest importance, 

 and a prohibition will be prejudicial to many branches of trade, and 

 will lessen the consumption of the manufactures of Great Britain; that 

 this importance does* not arise merely, nor principally, from the ne('es- 

 sity ot foreign molasses, in order to its being consumed or distilled within 

 the province," but "that if the trade, for many years carried on for 

 foreign molasses, can be no longer continued, a vent cannot be found 

 for more than one-half of the fish of inferior quality which are caught 

 and cured by the inhabitants of the province, the French not permitting 

 fish to be carried by foreigners to any of their islands, unless to be bar- 

 tered or exchanged for molasses; that if there he no sale offish ofinfrior 

 quality, it icill he impossible to continue the fishery : the fish usually sent to 

 England will then cost so dear, that the French will be able to undersell 

 the English in all the European ma-kets, and by this means one of the 

 most valuable returns to Great Britain will be utterly lost, and that great 

 nursery of seamen destroyed." Accompanying this petition was a let- 

 ter to the agent of Massachusetts, in England, Avhich closes with the 

 remark, that "we are im^rally eertain that the molasses trade cannot be 

 carried on, and the present duty paid." 



* Mr. Burte, in his "Observations" on a publication called "The Present State of the Na- 

 tion," in 1709, reviews the covu-kc of tht^ ministry, and says that, among tb.e acts relating to 

 America, were "some xrlnclilaij licarij upon objects necessiinj for tlirir trade andjislienj" 



The Hon. Josifih Qiiiiicy, of Massacluisetrs, in a speech delivered in the House of Repre- 

 Bentatives of the I'uited States, in IHOS, on our "foreicja relations," enmnerated tho priuuipaJ 

 "causes which led to a separation from Great IJiitaiu," and included among them the "-esa- 

 barrassing our fisheries." 



