Page:Craik History of British Commerce Vol 2.djvu/189

Rh British-made linen (which, however, was only sixpence on the piece of forty ells) was taken off, as that on the export of corn and woollens had been some years before, on the ground that the said linen manufacture employed many thousands of the poor of the kingdom. In 1721 parliament passed an important act for the encouragement of the trade and manufactures of the kingdom, by which, first, certain bounties were granted upon the exportation of home-made silken stuffs and ribands, and mixed stuffs of silk and grogram, silk and inkle or cotton, and silk and worsted; secondly, all duties whatsoever payable on the exportation of native produce and merchandises were taken off, except only those on alum, lead, tin, tanned leather, copperas, coals, wool-cards, white woollens, lapis calaminaris, skins, glue, coney wool, hare's wool, hair, horses, and litharge of lead; thirdly, all substances used in dyeing, saltpetre only excepted, were allowed to be imported duty free; and, lastly, a reduction was made in the duties on the importation of pepper, mace, nutmegs, and cloves. Half the duty paid on furs was also ordered to be returned on their re-exportation. In 1719 an annual sum of 2000l. per annum out of the revenues of customs and excise in Scotland was allotted for ever to be applied towards the encouragement of the fisheries, and such manufactures and improvements in that country as might most conduce to the general good of the United Kingdom. And in 1726 certain new facilities were given by another act for the importation of salt from England into Newfoundland and the northern parts of America, where, as is recited in the preamble, the river Delaware, the bay and coast of the province of Pennsylvania, and the seas adjoining, had been found to be very commodiously situated for carrying on the fishing trade, and to abound with great quantities of shad, sturgeon, bass, and several other kinds of fish, which might be caught and cured, and made fit for foreign markets, "whereby," it is added, "the trade of Great Britain and the inhabitants of the said province would reap