SAIL AND THE STREAM 279 



in the Barbadoes, called for traders. In the north likewise the 

 English colonials on the mainland of New England showed 

 a sudden spurt of growth, especially at sea — at the expense 

 of the neighboring maritime provinces of Newfoundland and 

 Nova Scotia, where the west country fishing interests were 

 strong enough to prevent settlement by Englishmen. The civil 

 wars in England gave New England a chance gradually to 

 shift the center of power on the fishing Banks to the colonies 

 themselves, for America possessed the natural home ports. 

 More than this, the future Yankees had learned by hard neces- 

 sity the art of manning and handling their ships with a new 

 efficiency that was still foreign to the English. 



At the end of the century the war between England and 

 France in Europe, and the colonies and the French in Amer- 

 ica, came to an end with the Treaty of Ryswick. This would 

 have left the American colonies in a bad way if their commerce 

 had not been so well founded. The French claimed Nova 

 Scotia and all the surrounding waters, and began running 

 out all but their own nationals; New Englanders were told 

 to keep south of the Kennebec. The stubborn commercial 

 interests in England pursued the shortsighted policy of mo- 

 nopoly so far in Newfoundland that they very nearly wrecked 

 the fishing there by establishing the visiting fleet ''admirals," 

 who not only took command over the inhabitants but actually 

 burned and destroyed their property. Boston at this time 

 had an active fleet of close to 200 seagoing vessels fishing the 

 Banks in spite of the French, and was developing a great trade 

 with the Barbadoes. New England merchants, vending their 

 cured cod to Bilbao, reckoned a fifty percent return on their 

 money. 



We can see why the British colonies were outstripping the 

 mother country. First, their warfare with the French was 

 casual and not too destructive of commercial development. 

 Secondly, the home ports were near the Banks and allowed 



