72 Industrial Experiments iii Colonial America. 



Nothing further seems to have been done about the matter 

 until 171 5, when Colonel Vauglian presented some "consider- 

 ations on the province of New Hampshire " ^ — the chief source 

 of the mast supply — in which he recommended that the im- 

 portation of masts and other stores be encouraged by the re- 

 moval of the duty. The Board consulted several merchants 

 as to the annual supply which could be expected from the plan- 

 tations, and as to the best means of encouragement. Mr. Cum- 

 mings computed that about 150,000 deals and planks, 100,000 

 hogshead, and 100,000 barrel staves might be imported an- 

 nually; larger timber he thought too bulky to be profitable. He 

 held that the only way to encourage importation would be to 

 remove the duty and allow twenty shillings for every ship-load." 

 Samson and Sheafe estimated that 30,000 deals could be pro- 

 duced ill New England, beyond the Navy contracts and besides 

 a supply for New England and the other plantations, if encour- 

 aged by the removal of the duty. They gave as the first cost 

 of one-and-a-quarter-inch boards, in New England, 50 shillings 

 per hundred (1000 feet), and the freight 4 pounds per hun- 

 dred.^ In view of the enormous increase in price which such a 

 rate of freight occasioned, certain merchants petitioned that 

 the proposed bill for taking ofT the duty from timber be passed 

 if possible during the present session of Parliament (the spring 

 of 1715).'' 



This was not accomplished, and in January of the following 

 year a further memorial was received from the merchants, in 

 which they petitioned that "All duties payable inwards on tar, 

 pitch, rosin, turpentine, potash, hemp, flax, plank, boards, 

 masts, oares, staves, and all other sorts of wood (except that 

 used for dyeing and drugs), from any of the plantations, be 

 taken ofif; second, that whereas the difference of freight be- 

 tween the plantations and the East Country was as 15 to 45, a 

 bounty equivalent thereto should be given to the importer, and 



iCol. Vaughan, to the Board of Trade, B. T. New Eng. V: 44. 

 ^Memorial from Mr. Cummings, B. T. New Eng. V: 46. 

 ^Calculation by Samson and Sheafe, B. T. New Eng. V: 47. 

 ^Memorial from merchants, B. T. New Eng. V: 58. 



