70 Industrial Experiments in Colonial America. 



a special appropriation for the payment of the bounty, instead of de- 

 pending upon the convenience of the Navy Board.)' 



(2) That the act be extended in time, on account of wars and other 

 discouragements. 



(3) That all stores should be taken off their hands at the following 

 rates above the premium: 



Tar at 18 shillings per bbl., or ^10 i6s. per last. 

 Pitch at 18 shillings per bbl., or £6 12s. per last. 

 Rosin at 16 shillings per bbl. 



(4) That suitable convoys be provided. 



(5) That all stores be sealed by the surveyor, and that certificates be 

 given of their fitness to be accepted for the boanty. (The object of the 

 last request was to prevent loss of freight, in case the stores were re- 

 jected after transportation.) 



The export of pitch and tar from New England continued to 

 decrease, but the occupation of the people with the Indian Wars 

 may have accounted for this in a large measure. The act would 

 have expired in 1714, and Bridger wrote to urge its renewal, in- 

 sisting that when peace was made, the people would undoubt- 

 edly make large quantities of pitch and tar.- The Board seems 

 to have been satisfied on the whole with the working of the 

 bounty act, for in their "Report on Naval Stores," presented to 

 the Privy Council in the spring of 171 1, they expressed their 

 judgment that plantation tar might now be sold as cheaply as 

 that from the North Countries; and, even if dearer, it was to the 

 interest of the nation to have it from America, since it could be 

 paid for in woolens and other manufactures, instead of in 

 money. The former objections to the burning quality of 

 American tar had been removed, and traders said that it was 

 now as good and fit for rope as that from Stockholm.^ The act 

 was accordingly renewed, in 1714, for eleven years,* but no 

 change was made in the method of paying the premiums. The 



'Cf. also, Banister's "Essay on the Trade of New England." B. 

 T. New Eng., V: 9. 



^Report of Board of Trade, B. T. Plants. Gen. Entry Bk. D., 

 March 21, 1711. 



^Ibid. 



*i2 Anne, c. 9. 



