The Bounty System. 59 



a profitable investment to devote national capital to the en- 

 couragement of such products as the government would other- 

 wise be obliged to purchase from foreign powers and pay for in 

 gold and silver. Joshua Gee, who a few years later gave the 

 government the benefit of his views on economic policy, 

 strongly advocated such expenditure, bringing forward as an 

 example, the attention and pains which the Russian Czar, Peter 

 the Great, devoted to developing the economic and industrial 

 resources of his kingdom by a careful personal investigation of 

 the industries of other nations, and by paying workmen to go to 

 foreign countries to learn the best methods of the day.^ Though 

 someu^hat niggardly in the matter of outlay, the Board of Trade 

 had already gone so far as to send a commission to America 

 to gather information about the prospects of supplying the navy 

 from thence, and to instruct the planters in the methods of pro- 

 duction in vogue in the north countries.- 



They had also made inquiries, from time to time, of the navy 

 contractors and the merchants trading to the plantations, with 

 regard to the prices of colonial, as compared with Swedish, tar, 

 and the relative expense of transportation. From the statistics 

 sent in by the experts consulted, as they appear in the records, it 

 is not easy to make an accurate comparison of the differences, 

 because the reports do not in all cases state whether the price is 

 given in New England money or in pounds sterling, or whether 

 the estimate refers to goods delivered in England or at the place 

 of shipment. Further, the capacity of the Swedish and the 

 American barrel dififered, the former containing from thirty to 

 thirty-two gallons, while the New Englanders reckoned only 

 from eight to nine gallons to their barrel. By piecing together 

 these statistics, however, some idea can be got of the dififerences 

 of price upon which the Board based their opinion of what 

 premium would be necessary to counteract the expenses of 

 production and transportation, so that the merchants might 



1" Gee's Memorial," B. T. Plantations General, Bundle L, No. 24. 

 2Cf. Part I, Ch. I, p. 9. 



