136 



their energies in endeavors to induce the ministry to abandon a policy 

 so ruinous to northern industry. The ^^ petty dealers in codfish and mo- 

 lasses " struggled long and manfiilly, but without success. 



The State papers of Massachusetts contain the most earnest remon- 

 strances against the "sugar and molasses acts." In the answer of the 

 Council and House of Representatives to the speech of the governor, 

 in November, 1764, it is said that "our pickled fish wholly, and a. great 

 part of our codfish, are only fit for the West India market. The Brit- 

 ish islands cannot take oW one-third of the quantity caught; the other two- 

 thirds must he lost or sent to foreign plantations, where molasses is given 

 in exchange. The duty on this article will greatly diminish the import- 

 ation hither ; and being the only article allowed to be given in ex- 

 change for our fish, a less quantity of the latter will of course be ex- 

 ported — the obvious effect of which must be a diminution of the fish- 

 trade, not only to the West Indies but to Europe, fish suitable for both 

 these markets being the produce of the same voyage. If, therefore, 

 one of these markets be shut, the other cannot be supplied. The loss of 

 one is the loss of both, as thefishery must fail with the loss of either." These 

 representations cover the whole ground.* 



In the petition of the Council and the House to the House of Com- 

 mons, prepared at the same time, it was urged that the acts in question 

 "must necessarily bring many burdens upon the inhabitants of these col- 

 onies and plantations, which your petitioners conceive would not have 

 been imposed if a full representation of the state of the colonies had 

 been made to j'our honorable House;" that "the importation o[ foreign 

 molasses into this province, in particular, is of the greatest importance, 

 and a prohibition will be prejudicial to many branches of trade, and 

 will lessen the consumption of the manufactures of Great Britain; that 

 this importance does not arise merely, nor principally, from the neces- 

 sity of foreign molasses, in order to its being consumed or distilled within 

 the province," but "that if the trade, for many years carried on for 

 foreign molasses, can be no longer continued, a vent cannot be found 

 for more than one-half of the fish of inferior quality which are caught 

 and cured by the inhabitants of the province, the French not permitting 

 fish to be carried by foreigners to any of their islands, unless to be bar- 

 tered or exchanged for molasses ; that if' there be nn sale offish of inferior 

 quality, it will be imipossible to continue thefishery : the fish usually sent to 

 England will then cost so dear, that the French will be able to undersell 

 the English in all the European markets, and by this means one of the 

 most valuable returns to Great Britain will be utterly lost, and that great 

 nursery of seamen destroyed." Accompanying this petition was a let- 

 ter to the agent of Massachusetts, in England, which closes with the 

 remark, that "we are morally certain that the molasses trade cannot be 

 carried on, and the present duty paid." 



* Mr. Burke, in his " ObservatioDB " on a publication called "The Present State of the Na- 

 tion," in 1769, reviews the course of the ministry, and says that, among the acts relating to 

 America, were "some which lay heavy upon objects necessary for their trade andjislierg." 



The Hon. Josiah Quincy, of Massachusetts, in a speech delivered in the House of Repre- 

 sentatives of the United States, in 180H, on our "foreign relations," enumerated the principal 

 "causes which led to a separation from Great Britain," aad included among them the "essi- 

 loaiTassing our fisheries." 



