The Bounty System. 85 



payment for debts.^ Massachusetts, in 1735, passed an act allow- 

 ing the payment of taxes in hemp for two years.- Other sugges- 

 tions were made elsewhere, such as the payment of quit-rents in 

 hemp or tar;^ but in spite of these strenuous efforts by the home 

 government and the local assemblies, the importation of hemp 

 did not increase perceptibly. According to accounts sent to 

 the Board of Trade from the custom house, only 316 hundred 

 weight was brought in between 1712 and 1729.* Nevertheless, 

 the government persisted in their efforts. In 1731, the draw- 

 back on the re-export of foreign unwrought hemp to the plan- 

 tations was disallowed,^ as an indirect encouragement to the 

 American product. The old bounty on hemp expired in 1741, 

 but after a term of years a new bounty was offered on hemp and 

 undressed flax, to continue for 21 years:® £8 per ton for the first 

 7 years ; £6 per ton for the second 7 years ; £4 per ton for the 

 third 7 years. ^ 



Macpherson, who gives statistics of the exportation of naval 

 stores from Carolina, where alone hemp seemed to thrive, for a 

 considerable number of years, mentions no hemp until the year 

 1769, in which 290,095 pounds were sent over. I find no men- 

 tion of exportation from any other colony ; so that even these 

 later extraordinary encouragements which the government of- 

 fered for this commodity, at the time when, as Adam Smith put 

 it, " England was alternately courting and quarreling with the 

 colonies,"^ failed to produce the desired results. 



To sum up the history of the bounty legislation on naval 

 stores, the attempts of the government to stimulate the produc- 



iR. T. Md. Docts., H: 22, D; "Acts of Massachusetts Bay," April, 

 1731, Ch. XVI; B. T. New Eng., W: 64, X: 29; B. T. Proprieties S: 52. 



^Felt, "History of the Massachusetts Currency," p. 92. 



^Memorandum in B. T., North Carolina, B: 14. 



^Reports from the Custom House, B. T. Plants. Gen., P: 14- 



54 Geo. II, c. 28, Sect. 7. 



«January, 1764-1785, 4 Geo. Ill, c. 26. 



'By 26 Geo. Ill, c. 53, passed in 1780; this bounty continued 

 for 21 years. 



'"Wealth of Nations " Vol. II, p. 229. 



