Whale Products in Commerce. 99 
in the encouragement of trade between the American 
colonies and the mother country. And the colonies 
themselves in many instances placed obstacles in the way 
of inter-colonial trade, while trade with England was 
directly favored. 
When the trade first began, what were the markets and 
how important were the movements of whale products 
is impossible to say. Starbuck says? that the oil from 
Long Island was sent to Boston and to Connecticut 
ports at an early date, and that this trade was for many 
years an almost constant source of trouble between the 
settlers at the eastern end of Long Island and the colonial 
authorities of New York. Among the first of the many 
arbitrary laws passed by the New York governors and 
councils was an act requiring all oil for export to be 
cleared from the port of New York. And an act dated 
1684 imposed a duty of ten per cent on all whale products 
exported from New York ports to any outside ports, 
except directly to England or to the West Indies.* It is 
obvious enough that this act was directed against the 
trade with Boston and Connecticut ports, but history 
says that it was not successful in accomplishing the 
desired end. It is valuable, however, as indicating that 
by 1680 at least, both home and foreign trade in whale 
products had become important enough to be regarded as 
an element of commerce and worthy of legislative control. 
Little has been preserved in the records to reveal the 
conditions of the trade during the latter part of the 
seventeenth century and the opening decades of the 
eighteenth century. But from the meager references 
available it appears to have undergone hardly any 
changes, except that of increasing importance and value. 
Whale oil was the chief product of the fishery in these 
early days. Sperm whaling was not begun until about 
? Starbuck, p. r4. 
* Starbuek, p. 15. 
