130 Industrial Experiments in Colonial America. 



an excellent illustration of the effects of restrictive legislation 

 on remote colonies, bent upon their own economic interests. A 

 year or two later, Bridger, the surveyor, informed the Board of 

 Trade of the " dangerous growing manufacture of wool in 

 New England," and the large importation of wool-combs and 

 cards for the purpose, 155 dozen cards having been brought in 

 within three months.^ 



Shortly after the arrival of Bridger's letter, the Board of Trade 

 received a curious proposition from London merchants, which, 

 ridiculous as it was, showed the eagerness of the woolen mer- 

 chants to ward off the decrease in their trade. Their sugges- 

 tion was, to force the planters to clothe their white, black and 

 Indian servants, or slaves, in coarse woolen clotlies of English 

 manufacture, purchased by barter of commodities, such as naval 

 stores, "which," they said, "is no more than the Dutch, French 

 and Spanish do to their plantations."- The Board of Trade an- 

 swered the petitioners, with unusual sense, that this could not 

 be done, unless the assemblies in the several plantations, or 

 Parliament, agreed to pass acts compelling it. They held that 

 the ware and merchandise ought to be recommended by good- 

 ness and cheapness, rather than forced on them by law, " which 

 is the greatest discouragement to trade." " Obtaining such 

 laws," they observed, " seems to meet with general opposition. 

 The petitioners would better apply themselves to encouraging 

 trade by sending over samples of linsey Vi^oolsey, etc. The 

 people have been induced, by proper encouragement, to desert 

 from manufacturing woolens and apply themselves to pitch 

 and tar."" This last statement was a somewhat premature 

 jump at conclusions, inasmuch as the first ship-load of stores, 

 since the passing of the Bounty Act, was only then on the way, 

 with the surveyor's warning that, unless the bounty were al- 

 lowed on their first essay, the people would immediately return 



iMr. Bridger to the Board of Trade, B. T. New Eng., Q: 34. 



^Propositions from Messrs. Bubles, Ashton, Pacey and others, 

 B. T, Plants. Gen., I: 9. 



^Report of the Board of Trade on the merchants' proposition, 

 B. T. Plants. Gen., Entry Bk., D, Dec. 3, 1706. 



