902 Deane Phillips 



the Portuguese, and by 1670 the latter had been forced out of practically 

 all the markets north of Cape Finisterre (70). 



EARLY EXPORTATION OF NEW ENGLAND HORSES 



The rapid development of the British sugar islands called for great 

 quantities of supplies to carry on the work of the plantations, and, 

 since the islands had few resources of their own, importations were 

 necessary. Provisions from Ireland, slaves from Africa, shoes and 

 other manufactured goods from Europe, as well as the products of the 

 continental British colonies — the nature of which has already been 

 indicated — all were brought into the islands, and of these supplies 

 horses were a not unimportant item. 



In the earliest days of the sugar industry, trade was still free and 

 the Dutch and the Portuguese seem to have furnished the British islands 

 with as many horses as were needed (71). With the stoppage of this 

 trade by laAV and the increasing development of the plantations, how- 

 ever, recourse was had to England and to New England to supply the 

 demand. During the period between 1649 and 1658 the importations of 

 English -horses were especially numerous. In those years there are 

 recorded in the British Colonial Papers forty-eight different, permits for 

 such shipments, for a total of more than nineteen hundred horses (72). 

 England continued to send horses until as late as 1667 (73), but the 

 levying in 1654 of an export duty of 20 shillings a head (74) cut down 

 the numbers considerably and hastened the shift in the trade by which 

 New England at length became almost the sole source of supply for the 

 islands. In that region there was no export duty except in Massa- 

 chusetts Bay, where it was only sixpence, and the cost of transporta- 

 tion was much less because of the shorter distance, which resulted also 

 in much smaller losses in transit. 



The trade of Massachusetts Bay with the West Indies had already 

 been established before the production of sugar in the British islands 

 had come to be of importance, and so it is only natural that with the 

 rise of the latter industry and the demand for horses the growing 

 surplus of New England animals should receive the advantage of the 

 outlet thus opened. As a result, horses Avere being shipped from 

 Massachusetts ports fully as early as from those of England, and, for 



