Scotland had not suffered from the Navigation Act of 1651, which forbade foreign ships to import goods into England, or to trade with the colonies, or even to visit them without special leave. This statute was passed, in the words of Blackstone, “to punish our rebellious colonies, and to clip the wings of the Dutch.” It kept the colonial trade in the hands of England, and increased the value of English shipping. The terms of the Union during the Commonwealth had exempted Scotland from its provisions. But now the Union was at an end, and Scotland was once again a separate kingdom. The Parliament of England proceeded to pass a new and even more stringent Navigation Act, which inflicted a deadly blow upon the trade of Scotland.[93]
Sir George Mackenzie traces the origin of this, and other laws hostile to Scottish commerce, to the fact that Clarendon and other English politicians were piqued by the way in which Lauderdale prided himself on having induced the king to withdraw the army from Scotland against their advice. “This excessive boasting,” he says, “that he had prevailed in this over Hyde, Middletoun, and all the English, did somewhat contribute to renew the old discords which had formerly been entertained between the two nations; and occasioned the making of those severe Acts, whereby the Parliament of England debarred the Scots from freedom of trade in their plantations, and from enjoying the benefit of natives in the privilege of shipping.”[94]
The new law was so rigorous that no goods nor produce, of any country, could be imported into the colonies except from England or Wales. Irish goods could not go from Ireland, nor Scottish goods from Scotland. Moreover, the most important products of a colony could enter England, or another colony, only on payment of duty. English ships alone were allowed to carry goods to and from the colonies. The sugar, the tobacco, the cotton, in fact all the most useful produce of the colonies, could be shipped to England only, and could not enter an English port except in an English vessel. Nor could goods be imported into England from the continent of Europe except in English ships, or in ships belonging to the country which actually produced them.
This monopoly, under which the colonies could trade with England alone, was a grievance to the colonies. They, however, had at least the privilege of trading with England. But to the colonial trade of Scotland the Navigation Act was ruinous.
Other laws, hostile to the industries of Scotland, were enacted. On some Scottish goods duties were paid equal to, or above, their value. On others a duty was charged very much greater than the duty levied on the same articles when they came from abroad. For instance, the duty on Scottish salt was sixteen times that imposed on foreign salt. Linen imported from Scotland was now so heavily taxed that it hardly paid the producer to bring it into England. In Northumberland and Cumberland heavy customs were levied on horses which came from Scotland; and, on the plea that a great part of the richest pasture land in England would fall in value if the graziers of Scotland were allowed to find a free market in England, Parliament was induced to cripple one of the most important branches of Scottish industry by imposing a fine of two pounds for every head of cattle which crossed the border between the 24th of August and the 20th of December.[95] And there were many other enactments framed for the purpose of excluding Scottish merchants, whose operations were further embarrassed by a law under which all goods sent from Scotland to England must pass through either Berwick or Carlisle.[96]
The commercial freedom which had been enjoyed during the period of the Commonwealth had quickened the commercial instincts of the Scottish people, and had given them some idea of what their country might become if they were permitted to extend their traffic to the colonies, those highly-favoured regions of the earth from which so large a portion of the wealth of England came. The recent Union had been attended by circumstances which were humiliating; but for many of these compensation had been found in the prosperity which the Union had brought along with it. The sudden change which the Restoration had produced was, therefore, bitterly resented; and the Scottish merchants persuaded the Estates to retaliate by passing a Navigation Act for Scotland, similar to the English Act, and by imposing heavy duties on English goods.[97] But retaliation could not put Scotland in the same position as England; and at length, after repeated complaints and demands, an Act was passed under which commissioners from the two countries were to meet and confer on the subject of a commercial treaty.[98]
In January 1668 the commissioners met. The Scotsmen demanded that Scotland should enjoy the privilege of trading to the English colonies which was granted, by the Act of Navigation, to the Irish and to the Welsh, and that they should be allowed to bring in goods as freely as the English, with no other restrictions than those laid on Ireland and Wales. They were willing to give assurances that goods transported from English colonies would be brought to England, except the small quantities which were consumed in Scotland. A number of papers, containing these and other demands, were presented by the Scottish commissioners, and to these the English commissioners returned written answers.
Apparently the conferences were on the point of terminating abruptly within less than a month; for, on the 29th of January, the Scottish commissioners refused to go further until the question of the Navigation Act was settled, and the English refused to act until the whole of the Scottish demands were laid before them. The Scottish commissioners gave in, and presented a document in which their grievances were set forth. The repeal of the Navigation Act was what they chiefly insisted on; but, in addition to this, they complained of the whole of those Acts of Parliament by which free trade between England and Scotland had been abolished, and by which excessive duties had been imposed on Scottish produce. “Thus,” they said, “your lordships have now the full scheme of all that is demanded by us in this treaty. But because what we have given in, relating to the Act of Navigation, was the first in time, and is the greatest obstruction of our trade, and indeed without which our trade cannot be carried on, we still insist upon an answer to it in the first place, and then we shall be willing to proceed to treat on all the rest in order.”[99]