Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/264

 *dustry of the people of England, Scotland, restored to the blessings of domestic peace, was making rapid progress. The value of her exports, which during the war had in 1782 fallen to 653,709l., reached 1,007,635l. in 1785. Her shipping also represented a satisfactory result. Scotland, like England, had now commenced a successful career of shipping business, and, however the colonial war may, for a few years, have retarded the onward progress of the now united nation, its subsequent advance was steady and prosperous, and is now astounding.

With regard to the rate of wages paid to sailors in England and Scotland in 1784, no better authority can be quoted than Dr. Adam Smith, who says in his great work that, "the lottery of the sea is not altogether so disadvantageous to the sailor, as compared with the soldier. Common sailors more frequently obtain some fortune and preferment than common soldiers; and the hope of those prizes is what principally recommends the trade Their wages are not greater than those of common labourers at the port which regulates the rate of seamen's wages. As they are continually going from port to port, from all the different ports of Great Britain, their monthly pay