British Policy in the Illinois Country, 1763-1768

by Clarence Edwin Carter

[147] Gage to Shelburne, Jan. 17, 1767, B. T. Papers, Vol. 27, Pa. Hist. Soc. Lib.

[148] Gage to Shelburne, Dec. 23, 1766, B. T. Papers, Vol. 27, Pa. Hist. Soc. Lib. Johnson to Gage, Jan. 29, 1767, Johnson MSS, Vol. XIV, No. 35. Gage to Shelburne, Feb. 22, 1767, B. T. Papers, Vol. XXII, Pa. Hist. Soc. Lib. Gage to Johnson, Jan. 25, 1767, Johnson MSS, Vol. XIV, No. 28. George Phym to Johnson, Apr. 15, 1768, Johnson MSS, Vol. XXV, No. 109. Gage to Dartmouth, May 5, 1773, Pub. Rec. Office, A. & W. I., Vol. 128. Gage wrote in 1766 that skins and furs bore a price of ten pence per pound higher at New Orleans than at any British market. Gage to Conway, July 15, 1766, Pub. Rec. Office, A. & W. I., Vol. 122.

[149] Gage to Conway, July 15, 1766, Pub. Rec. Office, A. & W. I., Vol. 122.

[150] Gage to Shelburne, Dec. 23, 1766, B. T. Papers, Vol. XXVII, Pa. Hist. Lib.

[151] Ibid., Feb. 22, 1767, B. T. Papers, Vol. XXII, Pa. Hist. Soc. Lib.

[152] Gage to Shelburne, Feb. 22, 1767, B. T. Papers, Vol. XXII, Pa. Hist. Soc. Lib.

[153] Ibid., "As long as Skinns and Furrs bear a high price at New Orleans they will never be brought to a British Market. The Indian Trade in general from the observations I have made, will always go with the stream, and the whole will either go down the St. Lawrence or Mississippi Rivers." Gage to Johnson, Jan. 25, 1767, Johnson MSS, XIV, No. 28. "I am entirely of your opinion concerning the Trade, &c. by way of the Mississippi whilst the Traders find better markets at New Orleans." Johnson to Gage, Jan. 29, 1767, Johnson MSS, Vol. XIV, No. 35. Also Johnson to Gage, Feb. 24, 1767, Johnson MSS, XIV, No. 67. "So long as New Orleans is in the hands of another power, the whole produce of the western country must center there. For our merchants will always dispose of their peltry or whatever the country produces, at New Orleans where they get as good a price as if they were to ship them off." Phym to Johnson, Mobile, April 15, 1768, Johnson MSS, Vol. XXV, No. 109. "The Traders from these Colonies say it will answer to carry Goods down the Ohio, but that it will not answer to return with their Peltry by the same route, as they can get to Sea at so much less expense, & greater expedition by means of Rapidity of the Mississippi, and pretend that they have Ships at New Orleans to transport their Peltry to England." Gage to Shelburne, Jan. 17, 1767, B. T. Papers, Vol. XXVII, Pa. Hist. Soc. Lib. "The Peltry gained by the Traders from Canada, whether on the Mississippi or on the Ouabache we may be satisfied generally goes down the St. Lawrence River to Quebec: it has been the usual track of those Traders from the beginning, & there is no reason to suspect the contrary now. But the British Traders at the Ilinois who carry their Goods above three hundred miles by land before they have the convenience of Water or Carriage cannot afford to return the same way, with the produce of their Trade." Gage to Hillsborough, Nov. 10, 1770, Pub. Rec. Office, A. & W. I., Vol. 126. That this state of affairs continued through most of the period is evident from the following: "The Trade of the Mississippi, except that of the upper parts from whence a portion may go to Quebec, goes down that River; and has, as well as everything we have done on the Mississippi, as far as I have been able to discover tended more to the Benefit of New Orleans than of ourselves. And I conceive it must be the case, as long as the Commodities of the Mississippi bear a better price at New Orleans than at a British Market." Gage to Dartmouth, May, 5, 1773, Pub. Rec. Office, A. & W. I., Vol. 128.

[154] It is necessary to ascertain the cost of maintaining the military establishments and the Indian department in the West, and the amount of peltries imported into England. I already have some figures on this but not enough upon which to base any statement.

[155] Beer, British Colonial Policy, 222.

[156] Hutchins, Remarks on the Country of the Illinois, MS in Pa. Hist. Soc. Lib. Hutchins gives an account of the exports from Illinois from Sept. 1769 to Sept. 1770. In that year 550 packs of peltries were sent from Illinois, while from the Spanish side 835 packs were exported. Wilkins, the commandant at Fort Chartres at this time, makes a somewhat higher estimate, but the two agree in essentials.