224 A. D. 1740. 



' wife all fea-apprentices for the firfl three years of their apprentice- 

 * fhip.' [13 Geo. II, c. 17.] 



It was about this time, or perhaps fomewhat earlier, that the manu- 

 fadure of tin-plates, or more properly of thin plates of iron tinned 

 over, (which foreigners term white-iron) was brought to fuch perfedion 

 in England, after having been long loft or negledled, that now very 

 little of it was imported from foreign parts : our own being now made 

 of a finer glofs or fkin than that made beyond fea, the later being ham- 

 mered, and ours being drawn under a rolling-mill. This improvement 

 is a confiderable benefit to the nation in the general annual balance of 

 trade ; there being a very great quantity of this article confumed in 

 Britain, Ireland, and the plantations, for a great variety of ufes. And 

 though the duty on foreign tinned-plates is thereby funk, yet the em- 

 ployment given to our own manufadturers, and the money kept at home 

 which was formerly paid for this commodity from Hamburgh, greatly 

 over-balances the lofs of the cuftoms thereon. It was indeed long jull- 

 ly wondered at, that England, which had the beft tin in Europe, and iu 

 the greateft quantity, and had iron enough for the purpofe, fhould have 

 fo long continued to pay fuch great fimis to foreign nations for what we 

 might long fince have made of our own. 



The bounty of 20/" per ton on fhips employed in the whale fifhery 

 was continued to the 25th of December 1750 ; and an additional bounty 

 of iq/'per ton was granted on whale-fifhing fliips to continue during 

 the war with Spain only : during which time alfo it was enaded, that 

 no harpooneer, line-manager, boat-fteerer, or feaman, in that fifliery 

 fliould be imprefied from the faid fervice. [13 Geo. II, c. 28.] This 

 ftatute Ihews the fenfe the legiflature had of the benefits accruing to the 

 public by the whale fifhery. 



The Turks now began to eftablifli regular pofts for the carriage of 

 letters throughout their dominions, after the manner of Chriftendom, 

 which they hoped would be very advantageous to their commerce, and 

 iikewife to the fultan's revenue, greatly impaired by the late wars with 

 the emperor and with Ruffia. 



It appeared by the information of perfons of worth concerned in 

 the two Britifh tobacco colonies of Virginia and Maryland, that about 

 200 Britifh fhips were annually and conftantly employed in that trade, 

 viz. about 80 or 90 fail for Virginia, and about iTO to 120 for Mary- 

 land: that the Ihips trading thither from the out-ports of Great Britain 

 were generally of a lefTer burden than were thofe from the port of 

 London: and that of about 30,000 hogflieads of tobacco, annually im- 

 ported from thofe two colonies into Great Britain, 18,000 were brought 

 home in the London fliips. Alfo that this computation was exclufive 

 of the veiTels employed by thofe two colonies in their trade with our 

 other Britifh colonies in America and the Weft-Indies. 



