476 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



still managed to maintain themselves, but only at the cost of 

 frequent collisions with the king's officers. 



The effect upon the fisheries, caused by the renewal of the 

 navigation laws of 1764, is well set forth in the petition of the 

 common council of Massachusetts to the House of Commons 

 for their abrogation. It recites that the importation of mo- 

 lasses from the West India Islands is of the greatest import- 

 ance, not merely because it is a valuable and useful commodity, 

 but, " If the trade, for many years carried on for foreign 

 molasses can no longer be continued, a vent cannot be found 

 for more than one-half the fish of inferior quality which are 

 caught and cured by the inhabitants of the province, the 

 French not permitting fish to be carried by foreigners to 

 any of their islands unless to be bartered or exchanged for 

 molasses ; that if there be no sale of fish of inferior quality, 

 it will be impossible to continue the fishery ; the fish usually 

 sent to England will then cost so dear that the French will 

 be able to undersell the English in all the European markets." 

 Thus it will be seen that the fisheries, which formed the 

 basis of New England commerce, and which may be said to 

 have been the very life-blood of all its commercial enterprise, 

 had a most intimate relation to the causes that soon brought 

 about the dismemberment of the empire. 



The final act of Great Britain in its policy toward New 

 England, and which at last brought on the war, was aimed 

 directly against the fisheries, its purpose being to starve the 

 rebellious colonists into submission by destroying their most 

 important industry. Pending the discussion of the bill in 

 the English Parliament " to restrain the trade and commerce 

 of the provinces of Massachusetts Bay and New Hampshire, 

 the colonists of Connecticut and Rhode Island and Providence 

 plantation, in North America, to Great Britain, Ireland, and 

 the British Islands in the West Indies ; and to prohibit such 

 provinces and colonies from carrying on any fisheries on the 

 banks of Newfoundland or other places therein to be men- 

 tioned, under certain conditions, and for a time to be limited," 

 an examination of witnesses from Massachusetts by a com- 

 mittee of Parliament elicited the statements that the enforce- 



