80 Industrial Experiments in Colonial America. 



were insisted upon, Russian prices would immediately rise to 

 what they had been before the plantation trade had lowered 

 them, and the nation would again be forced to pay high rates in 

 ready money. The price of the best Finland tar at that date 

 was compared with plantation prices.^ 



Finland tar, per barrel, (first cost) ^ 0-4-Q 



Freight 4 



Freight, packing, etc 3 



Total ^o-ii-o 



American tar, per barrel (first cost) £ 0-7-0 



Freight in peace 8-0 



Leakage, etc 3-0 



Premium 1-6 



Total ^0-19-6 



The comparison shows that the American price had been re- 

 duced to about the normal price of north country tar in 1703; 

 while competition had forced Russian prices down so that Fin- 

 land tar was still cheaper than American; but as the merchants 

 pointed out, the chief utility of the plantation importation was 

 to prevent the rise of prices by monopoly. Sweden must have 

 been watching the effects of the English naval stores legislation 

 with keen interest, for, by the treaty with Russia at the close of 

 the Baltic war in 1721, she had regained Finland, and was only 

 waiting for an opportunity to recover her lost trade in pitch and 

 tar.^ Any relaxation by the British government of their en- 

 couragement of colonial stores would react in favor of Swedish 

 importation, and the hopes of Sweden were apparently justified 

 by the fact that the mere rumor of an opinion expressed in cer- 

 tain quarters in England that the renewal of the bounty act, 

 which would expire in 1725, was inexpedient, caused the price 

 of Finland tar to rise at once to fourteen shillings per barrel.^ 



IB. T. Plants. Gen., L: 58. 



^'Memorial of Mr. Godin, Dec. 22, 1724, B. T. Plants. Gen., L: 59. 



«Ibid. 



