NAVAL STORES BECOME CHEMICALS 



Royal Navy, Queen Elizabeth, with a flourish of her 

 goosequill pen, encouraged the production of pitch, 

 rosin, and turpentine to become the first export business 

 of the American colonists and gave these products of 

 the Southern pine forest their nickname of "naval 

 stores." 



That brash soldier of fortune whose bewhiskered 

 head was saved by Pocahontas, was a great braggart, 

 but he never set up to be either scholar or economist. 

 Nevertheless, in 1609, he foresaw clearly the troubles 

 hiding in this business of making naval stores. From 

 birth this enterprise needed the stimulus of royal favor; 

 during the past thirty years it has repeatedly required 

 the beneficent attentions of the United States Govern- 

 ment to keep it healthy. 



Those shrewd English merchants, the Honorable 

 Gentlemen of the Worshipful London Company, who 

 financially backed the colony at Jamestown, optimis- 

 tically hoped to find gold; but realistically, they planned 

 to develop a substantial trade in raw materials. Accord- 

 ingly, they sent over eight Poles and Germans, skilled 

 in making wood tar and pitch, glass and potashes, and 

 continually exhorted their manager on the spot, Cap- 

 tain John Smith, to ship them profitable cargoes. When 

 they pressed the point, the doughty Captain wrote the 

 treasurer in London, setting forth his views on these 

 industrial enterprises, in no uncertain language: 



"But if you rightly consider what an infinite toil it 

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