394 [Assembly 



Among the chief causes which lead to that great event m our his- 

 tory, the revolution, was the restriction imposed, upon our commerce 

 and manufactures, by the British Government. It is her peculiar po- 

 licy yet with her colonies, as well as with our own and other nations. 

 It might not be amiss to allude to some few of these oppressive acts. 

 Tliat the colonies should not be permitted to manufacture even a hob- 

 nail, Avas not the mere idle remark of an English statesman, for as 

 early as 1699, Parliament declared that "no wool, yarn, or wool- 

 len manufactures of their American plantations, should be ship- 

 ped thence, or even ladened, in order to be transported to any place 

 whatever." 



In 1719, Parliament resolved " that the creating manufactures in 

 the colonies, tended to lessen their dependence on Great Britain." 

 In 1737, Parliament directed the Board of Trade to inquire and re- 

 port " with respect to the laws made, manufactures set up, or trade 

 carried on detrimental to the trade, navigation, or manufactures of 

 Great Britain." The next year the board made their report. In it 

 they say — " New England, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, 

 Pennsylvania, and in the county of Somerset, in Maryland, they had 

 fallen into the manufacture of woollen and linen cloth." Also "brown 

 Holland, for w^omen's wear, which lesseft the importation of calicoesP 

 Also " some linen and cotton for ordinary shirtings and shifts for the 

 French and Spaniards." 



They had also " erected six forges (one of which w^as in South 

 Carolina,) and nineteen furnaces ;" — also "New-York and New- Jersey 

 manufactured great quantities of hats, of which the company of hatters 

 in London have complained." In 1732, an act passed Parliament 

 " to prevent the exportation of hats from the Colonies." By this act 

 no master could have more than two apprentices and who should serve 

 seven years. No negro could be taught a trade. The lading a horse 

 or cart for exporting hats or manufactured articles was a heavy penalty. 

 In 1750, Parliament prohibited the erection or continuance of any mill 

 or other engine for rolling or slitting iron, or any plating forge, or any 

 furnace for steel, under a penalty of two hundred pounds, and more- 

 over declared them a public nuisance, which the Governors of all the 

 Colonies were required to abate, within thirty days, under a penalty 



