398 A. D. 1764. 



i-noft enlightened legillator, could wifli to derive from commerce. It 

 gave bread to the induflrious in North America by carrying off their 

 lumber, which mud; otlicrwifc rot on their hands, and their fifli, great 

 part of which without it would be abfoUitely unfalcable, together with 

 their i'pare produce and flock of every kind ; it furniflied the Weft-India 

 planters with thofe articles, without which the operations of their plan- 

 tations mull: be at a fland ; and it produced a fund for employing a 

 great number of induflrious manufadurers in Great Britain ; thus 

 taking off the fuperfluities, providing for the neceffities, and promoting 

 the happinefs, of all concerned *. This trade, however, was almofl: en- 

 tirely ruined by the rigorous execution of the new orders againfl fmugg- 

 ling, and the colledion of the duties in hard iilver, which loon drained 

 the country of any little real nioney circulating in it. And, as if govern- 

 ment had intended to prevent the colonifls from having even the fhadow 

 of money, another ad was palled, in a few days after that for the new 

 duties, declaring that no paper bills, to be thenceforth ifihed, ihould be 

 made a legal tender in payment, and enjoining thofe in circulation to 

 be funk (that is, paid off in hard money) at the limited time. 



North America was not, however, the only quarter of the Britifh do- 

 minions diftreiled by thefe meafures. 



For a long courfe of years the Spanifh colonifls in America had been 

 accuflomed to refort to the neighbouring fettlements to purchafe Eu- 

 ropean goods, the price of which the jealous policy of their own govern- 

 ment rendered mofl opprelfively exorbitant in the courfe of their regu- 

 lar trade. Jamaica had a principal fhare in this beneficial commerce, 

 wherein the Spaniards in their fmall coafting vefTels brought over fome 

 mules and cattle (articles more valuable to the planters than filver or 

 gold) cochineal, indigo, fome medicinal drugs, and gold and filver, 

 coined and uncoined, to the value often or twenty times the amount of 

 their little cargoes. In return they purchafed linens of every kind, ca- 

 licoes, and almofl every article of Bntifla manuiadure, which they car- 

 ried home at the rifk of confifcation and corporal punifhment if deted- 

 ed, and ufually made very great profits, notwithilanding the difadvan- 

 tages attending purchafes at fecond hand, and the heavy expenfes in- 

 feparable from clandeftine trade. 



This trade, fo eminently valuable in fupplying Jamaica and the other 

 iflands with an abundant flock of the pretious metals for their internal 



* The nature and cfFefts of tin's trade are ex- cial fyfleni, of the mother country-. But how could 



plained ir.ore fully in An tjfay on the trade of the it be othenvays in a country fo remote from the 



northern colonics, printed in Pluladclpliid, and re- government, to which it pn.tcflTed allegiance, and 



printed in London, 1764. pon'cfling an extent of coaft, which no chain of re- 



I do not mean to vindicate the Americans from venue crnifers, that cuild be fupported by go- 



the charge of fmiiggling. I know that vail quan- vernmint, would be fufficient to guard with any 



titles of goods were imported in direct violation of kind of effeiSt ? 

 the letter and fpirit of the law, and of the commer- 



I 



