72 A. D. I 719* 



And the company's allowance from the government for their pro- 

 portion of the above L37,5oo was L26,202 : 13 : 4. Laftly, as 

 L2,5oo,ooo was to L2000, fo was Li, 746, 844 : 8 : 10 (the real aug- 

 mentation of the company's ftock) to L1397 • 9 • 6, the real annual fum, 

 due from the public, for charges of management for the faid additional 

 capital. 



Thus, however, the South-fea company's capital flock was increafed 

 to Li 1,746,844 : 8 : 10 from chriftmas 1718, and their whole annuity 

 to L587,342 : 4 : 5. By this ad alfo the whole South-fea capital was 

 made redeemable, on one year's notice after midfummer 1723, on re- 

 payment of their capital. This tranfaclion with the public unfortu- 

 nately laid a foundation (together with the fad example of the Miffifippi 

 flock) for the madnefs of the fucceeding year 1720, of which we are, 

 by and by, to give an account. In the meantime, in July 171 9, by 

 way of prelude, the South-fea company opened a fubfcription for the 

 fale of L5 20,000 of their flock, (part of the above addition to their ca- 

 pital) which they now fold at the price of 1 14 per cent, whereby they 

 gained L72,8oo. 



A bill was brought into parliament for rendering the laws concern- 

 ing the importation of naval flores from the Britifh American planta- 

 tions more extenfive, by extending it to all forts of timber from thence. 

 For, whereas in our trade thither, it fometimes happens, that the crops 

 of tobacco, fugar, &c. f^ll fhort, many fhips in that cafe are obliged to 

 come home to Great Britain dead-freighted ; and fome remain there a 

 whole feafon, waiting for the next crop ; it was therefor imagined by 

 the houfe of commons, that, if encouragement were given for bringing 

 timber, &c. from our plantations, our fhips would be fure of a cargo ; 

 \\'-hereby the demand from our northern colonies for Britifh manufac- 

 tures of all kinds, would be greatly increafed, and their people divert- 

 • ed from farther attempts at manufactures of their own, interfering with 

 thofe of Britain and Ireland. But the people of the northern colonies 

 were lb furprifed and dilappointed by fome claufes put into that bill, 

 that, rather than they fliould ftand part of it, they were very glad to 

 have it dropped altogether. Such, for inftance, as, that none in the 

 plantations fhould manufacfture iron wares of any kind, out of any fows, 

 pigs, or bars, whatfoever, under certain penalties : by which ckufe, 

 fays an ingenious author, on this occafion," in behalf of the colonies, 

 no fmith in the plantations might make fo much as a bolt, fpike, or 

 nail ; whereby the colonies mufl have been brought into a miferable 

 condition; the fmith being, above all other trades, abfolutely neceffary 

 in all other employments there. Amongfl the reft, that of fhip-build- 

 ing would have hereby been utterly deftroyed, although by that article 

 they make a great part of their returns for the purchafe of Britifh ma- 

 oiufacfLures. The houfe of peers added another claufe, that no forge. 



