A HARBINGER OF THE REVOLUTION 105 



of 150,000 pounds sterling, besides 90,000 pounds in the 

 treasurer's bills for the reimbursement money, within the 

 last eighteen months. The sources for obtaining this 

 money were through foreign countries by means of the 

 fishery, and would be cut off with the trade to their planta- 

 tion." 1 



Keen interest in the proposed measure was felt in a sis- 

 ter colony as well. The month of January had not passed 

 before a strong remonstrance was issued by the people of 

 Rhode Island setting forth the state of the colony and the 

 effect that the enforcement of the navigation laws would 

 have upon their trade. British manufactures to the value 

 of 120,000 pounds were imported annually into Rhode Is- 

 land for consumption. There were 184 vessels used for 

 foreign voyages, 352 used in colonial carrying trade, which 

 were navigated by 2,200 seamen. The 150 vessels engaged 

 in the trade with the West Indies imported 14,000 hogs- 

 heads of molasses, of which not more than 2,500 hogsheads 

 came from the British islands; in fact, the total molasses 

 product of all the British West Indies would not equal 

 more than two-thirds the amount of molasses annually im- 

 ported into Rhode Island. There were more than thirty 

 distilleries in the colony that had been erected at great 

 expense. ''This distillery is the main hinge upon which 

 the trade of the colony turns and many hundred persons 

 depend immediately upon it for subsistence," they stated 

 in their report. The molasses was distilled into rum, which 

 was sent to Africa where it supplanted French brandies. 

 For thirty years past Rhode Island had sent thither every 

 year eighteen vessels loaded with 1,800 hogsheads of rum 

 and provisions to be sold for slaves, gold dust and other 

 articles. By this means the annual remittances from 

 Rhode Island to England amounted to about 40,000 pounds. 

 The cargoes sent to the French West Indies consisted of 

 i Minot, History of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, II, p. 147. 



