Page:Letters from a farmer in Pennsylvania - Dickinson - 1768.djvu/14

[&emsp;8&emsp;] that time, it is permitted to ship, &c. sugars, tobacco, &c. of the growth, &c. of any of your Majesty’s plantations in America, &c. from the places of their growth, &c. to any other of your Majesty’s plantations in those parts, &c. and that without paying custom for the same, either at the lading or unlading the said commodities, by means whereof the trade and navigation in those commodities, from one plantation to another, is greatly increased, and the inhabitants of divers of those colonies, not contenting themselves with being supplied with those commodities for their own use, free from all customs (while the subjects of this your kingdom of England have paid great customs and impositions for what of them hath been spent here) but, contrary to the express letter of the aforesaid laws, have brought into divers parts of Europe great quantities thereof, and do also vend great quantities thereof to the shipping of other nations, who bring them into divers parts of Europe, to the great hurt and diminution of your Majesty’s customs, and of the trade and navigation of this your kingdom;, &c.

The 7th and 8th Will. III. Chap. 22, intituled, “An act for preventing frauds, and regulating abuses in the plantation trade,” recites that, “notwithstanding divers acts, &c. great abuses are daily committed, to the prejudice of the English navigation, and the loss of a great part of the plantation trade to this kingdom, by the artifice and cunning of ill disposed persons;, &c. And whereas in some of his Majesty’s American plantations, a doubt or misconstruction has arisen upon the before mentioned act, made in the 25th year of the reign of King Charles II. whereby certain duties are laid upon the commodities therein enumerated (which by law may be transported from one plantation to another, for the supply of each others wants) as if the same were, by the payment of those duties in one plantation, discharged from giving the securities intended by the aforesaid acts, made in the 12th, 22d and 23d years of the reign of King Charles II. and consequently be at liberty to go to any foreign market in Europe,” &c.

The 6th Anne, Chap. 37, reciting the advancement of trade, and encouragement of ships of war, &c. grants to the captors the property of all prizes carried into America, subject to such customs and duties, as if the same had been first imported into any part of Great-Britain, and from thence exported, &c.

This was a gift to persons acting under commissions from the crown, and therefore it was reasonable that the terms prescribed in that gift, should be complied with---more especially as the payment of such duties was intended to give a preference to the productions of British colonies, over those of other colonies. However, being found inconvenient to the colonies, about four years afterwards, this act was, for that reason, so far repealed, that by another act “all prize goods, imported into any part of Great-Britain, from any of the plantations, were made liable to such duties only in Great-Britain, as in case they had been of the growth and produce of the plantations.”

The 6th Geo. II. Chap. 13, which imposes duties on foreign rum, sugar and melasses, imported into the colonies, shews the reasons thus“Whereas the welfare and prosperity of your Majesty’s sugar colonies in America, are of the greatest consequence and importance to the trade, navigation and strength of this kingdom; and whereas the planters of the said sugar colonies, have of late years fallen into such great discouragements, that they are unable to improve or carry on the sugar trade, upon an equal footing with the foreign sugar colonies, without some advantage and relief be given to them from Great-Britain: before, are calculated to regulate trade, and preserve or promote a mutually beneficial intercourse between the several constituent parts of the empire; and though many of them imposed duties on trade, yet those duties were always imposed with design to restrain the commerce of one part, that was injurious to another, and thus to promote