Interest in Colonial Resources. 3 



Clifford's Inn, who, in 1632, wrote a discourse on the "New 

 EngHsh Canaan," in which an entire chapter is devoted to a 

 detailed description of the trees of New England. There are 

 two sorts of oaks, he observes, excellent for ship or house build- 

 ing, besides ash for oars and staves ; and there are pines in in- 

 finite store in some parts, of which may be made rosin, pitch 

 and tar, "which are such useful commodities that if we had 

 them not from other countries in amity with England our Nav- 

 igation would decline. Then how great the commodity of it 

 will be to our Nation to have it from our owne, let any man 

 judge." Here is a very early appearance of the argument so 

 emphatically urged by later writers in favor of importing naval 

 stores from the American plantations instead of depending on 

 the northern crowns for supplies. The writer notes that the 

 spruces which abound in the north have been approved by 

 workmen in England as more tough than those they have out 

 of the East Country — "they are big enough to make masts for 

 the biggest ship that sayles on the maine Ocean, Avithout piec- 

 ing, which is more than the East Country can afford; and seeing 

 that navigation is the very sinneus of a flourishing Common- 

 wealth, it is fitting to allow the spruce tree a principall place in 

 the catalogue of commodities."^ 



By 1653, the government had begun to take a more active 

 interest in the encouragement of American products. The 

 Council of State in this year informed the Governors and Com- 

 missioners of the United Colonies of New England that they 

 had taken into consideration "the need the Government has 

 for tar, masts, deals, etc., and how they may remove all possible 

 obstructions to the importation of the same from the planta- 

 tions."^ A ship was, at the same time, sent to New England for 

 10,000 barrels of tar and other commodities. An entry in the 

 Colonial Records, dated November 17, 1653, shows an item of 



^"Tracts and Qther Papers Relating to the Colonies in North 

 America." Vol. II, No. 5. 



^The Council of State to the Governors and Commissioners of the 

 United Colonies of New England, Calendar of State Papers, Vol. 119, 

 Sect. 202. 



