The Forest and Man 35 



latter should grow up into flourishing communities, 

 able to produce enough for their own independent 

 support. The home governments merely wished 

 to get from the colonists certain commodities which 

 could not be produced at home and which would 

 otherwise have to be purchased in foreign countries. 

 Thus, in accordance with this theory, Virginia and 

 other Southern colonies were to supply England 

 with tobacco and indigo ; the middle colonies were 

 to furnish peltry. New England was long con- 

 sidered the most useless of all " His Majesty's 

 plantations," for most of its natural products 

 were of the kind that must come into competition 

 with the products of Great Britain herself. But it 

 was hoped that its forests might furnish the ship- 

 ping of England with those great necessities classed 

 under the name of naval stores : ship timber, 

 masts, spars, tar, pitch, and the like. 



Since English navigation had increased so much, 

 in the time of Elizabeth, the supply of these stores 

 had been a source of constant and anxious care to 

 the government. The British Isles themselves could 

 produce practically none of it. Therefore it had to 

 be procured elsewhere, and the principal sources 

 were Norway and " the East Country," meaning 

 the Baltic provinces. This was considered a very 

 unfortunate circumstance, first because British ex- 

 ports to those countries were small and most of the 

 stores purchased had to be paid for in bullion, 

 but particularly because it made England depend- 

 ent on the good will of foreign governments. Sup- 



