THE \\IIALK I-'ISMKRY. 137 



"The effort to bring about the desired compromise coiititmed, as Mr. Adams had judged it 

 would, all the succeeding fall and winter. In January, 1786, Bowdoin wrote to Adams, in reply 

 to a letter from him, that the navigation act of Massachusetts had been so modified as to be only 

 operative against Great Britain, and copies of the repealing act had been sent to the executives of 

 the other States in order to secure harmony of action upou this point. In regard to the effect the 

 existing English laws would have upon the interest which is under consideration here, he wrote : 

 'It is very true, their encouragement of their whale fishery, by suffering the alien duty on oil to 

 depress ours, will increase their shipping in this branch, increase their seamen, and, in several 

 other ways, be advantageous to them. To a person tharHoeks no further, it would appear that this 

 was good policy ; and the goodness of it would be inferred from the advantages arising. But when 

 he should extend his view, and see how that stoppage of the American whale fishery, by depriving 

 the Americans of so much capital a means of paying for the woolen goods they used to take ot 

 Britain, must, at the same time, occasion the American demand to cease, or be proportionately 

 diminished, not to mention the risk of a change or deviation of the trade from the old channel, he 

 will calculate the national profit and loss that arises from that stoppage. 



'"Three thousand tons of oil was the usual annual quantity produced by the whalemen at 

 Nantucket, all of which was shipped to England, at an average price of 35 per ton, making about 

 105,500. The whole of which went to pay for and purchase a like amount of woolens and other 

 British goods ; nine-tenths of the value of which are computed to arise from the labor of the manu- 

 facturer, and to be so much clear gain to the nation. The other tenth, therefore, being deducted, 

 gives the national gain arising from the industry of the Nantucket whalemen, and the capital 

 employed in that business, namely 94,500, without the nation's paying a shilling for the risk of 

 insurance, or any other risk whatever. 



"'On the change of trade, pursuant to the new regulations, the British merchants must 

 employ a large capital in the whale fishery, whose products we vrill suppose equal to that of the 

 Nantucket, 105,(iOO. They will have made an exceeding good voyage if the whole of that sum 

 should be equal to one-half of the cost of the outfits ; though, from many of the vessels not meeting 

 with fish, and from a variety of accidents to which such a voyage is subject, it probably would not 

 be a quarter. The whole of the product goes towards payment of the outfits and charges of the 

 voyage, and a large sum must be advanced for the second voyage, &c. 



'Now, although this mode of commerce would be productive of some national benefits, yet, 

 considered in a comparative view with the benefits arising from the former mode, they would be 

 found of little importance. A like comparison maybe made with other branches of commerce, 

 particularly the British West Indian, and the result will be found the same. For the sake, then, 

 of gaining pence and farthings, Britain is sacrificing pounds by her new regulations of trade. She 

 has a right to see for herself; but, unhappily, resentment and the consequent prejudices have so 

 disordered her powers of vision that it requires the skillful hand of a gqod._polilicl_optician to 

 remove the obstructing films. If she will not permit the application of your couching instruments, 

 or, if applied, they can work no effect, the old lady must be left to her fate, and abandoned as 

 n curable.'* 



"Adams, viii, :iii:!-4 In his reply to Mr.Bowdoin, under date of May 9, 1786, Mr. Adams, after expressing 

 surprise that such reasoning as his (Bowdoin's) has no eflect on the English cabinet, writes: 'Mr. Jenkinson, an old 

 friend of the British empire, is still at his lahors. He is about establishing a bounty upon fifteen ships to the south- 

 ward, and upon two to double Cape Horn, for spermaceti whales. Americans are to take an oath that they mean to 

 settle in England before they are entitled to tbe bounty.' In September, 17*5, Mr. Adams writes to Mr. Jefferson 

 from London (viii, 414): ' The whalemen, both at (ir.-cnlaml and the southward, have been unsuccessful, and the 

 (>ri<T of .sprriii;:<vti oil has risen above 50 per ton.'" 



