82 Industrial Experiments in Colonial America. 



He says that he never did, and never would, pursue the colonies' 

 interests any further than was consistent with those of Great 

 Britain; that the real objection to renewing the bounty, which 

 the Navy offered as most prevailing with the Treasury, was 

 that the Navy debt was still unprovided for while the bounty 

 had, since the peace as well as in war, multiplied so fast as to 

 amount to £50,000 a year. Some check on this drain of the 

 public treasure was certainly necessary; but his project of re- 

 quiring ships to pay "lights" would remedy all that and reduce 

 the output by more than one-half, without depriving the colo- 

 nies of the encouragement, or threatening the manufacturing 

 interests of the mother-country. 



In view of the continued protests of the merchants against 

 the rules,^ the Navy Board took the various petitions into con- 

 sideration and suggested the following compromise: After the 

 removal of the duties, a premium, continuing for ten years, of 

 (i) £3 per ton on tar from prepared trees ; (2) £1 los. per ton on 

 tar made in the common way (to continue for three years only) ; 

 (3) £1 per ton on pitch ; (4) 14s. on masts ; (5) the removal of 

 the duties on rosin and turpentine. They claimed that the per- 

 sistence of the merchants in their objections to the rules was 

 inconceivable; for Mr. Bridger had tried the experiment, and 

 the tar which he had sent home had been tested and approved 

 at Woolwich.- But although the Bounty Act expired in this 

 year, nothing further was done about its renewal until 1729. 

 when, by 2 Geo. IL, c. 35, Sect. 3, the premiums were continued 

 on the old method, but at a reduced scale : tar, per ton, £2 4s.; 

 pitch, per ton, £1 ; turpentine, per ton, £1 8s. 



Section 2 provided that, "Whereas the inhabitants of the 

 plantations not being experienced in the prescribed methods of 



^Memorial from merchants trading to the plantations, B. T. Plants. 

 Gen., L: 44. Petition of importers and dealers, L: 54. Certificate 

 of good quality of American tar, L: 55. Proof received from one Mr. 

 Carey that it is impossible to make tar from green pines, L: 56. 

 Protest of Bristol merchants against the rules, L: 63. These mer- 

 chants sent in a fresh petition in 1725. 



^Report of the Navy on the merchants' petition, Plants. Gen , L: 61. 



