A Source-Book of English Social History

by M. E. Monckton Jones

A PETITION FOR RECONCILIATION, 1775

(Callender, Economic History of U.S., pp. 155-57. Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates, XVIII, p. 168)

Mr. Alderman Hayley said he had a petition from the merchants of the city of London concerned in the commerce to North America ... setting forth—

“That the petitioners are all essentially interested in the trade to North America, either as exporters or importers, or as vendors of British and foreign goods for exportation to that country; and that the petitioners have exported, or sold for exportation, to the British colonies in North America, very large quantities of the manufactures of Great Britain and Ireland, and in particular, the staple articles of woollen, iron and linen, also those of cotton, silk, leather, pewter, tin, copper and brass, with almost every British manufacture; also large quantities of foreign linens and other articles imported into these kingdoms, from Flanders, Holland, Germany, the East Countries, Portugal, Spain and Italy, which are generally received from those countries in return for British Manufactures; and that the petitioners have likewise exported, or sold for exportation, great quantities of the various species of goods imported into this kingdom from the East Indies, part of which receive additional manufacture in Great Britain; and that the petitioners receive returns from North America to this kingdom directly, viz., pig and bar iron, timber, staves, naval stores, tobacco, rice, indigo, deer and other skins, beaver and furs, train oil, whalebone, beeswax, pot and pearl ashes, drugs and dyeing woods, with some bullion, and also wheat flour, Indian corn and salted provisions, when, on account of scarcity in Great Britain, those articles are permitted to be imported;

and that the petitioners receive returns circuitously from Ireland [for flax seed, etc., exported from North America] by bills of exchange on the merchants of this city trading to Ireland, for the proceeds of linens, etc., imported into these kingdoms from the West Indies; in return for provisions, lumber and cattle, exported from North America for the use and support of the West India Islands, by bills of exchange on the West India merchants, for the proceeds of sugar, molasses, rum, cotton, coffee or other produce, imported from those islands into these kingdoms; from Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Flanders, Germany, Holland and the East Countries by bills of exchange or bullion in return for wheat flour, rice, Indian corn, fish and lumber, exported from the British colonies in North America, for the use of those countries;

and that the petitioners have great reason to believe, from the best informations they can obtain, that on the balance of this extensive commerce, there is now due from the colonies in North America, to the said city only, 2,000,000l. sterling and upwards; and that by the direct commerce with the colonies, and the circuitous trade thereon depending, some thousands of ships and vessels are employed, and many thousands of seamen are bred and maintained, thereby increasing the naval power and strength of Great Britain;

and that, in the year 1765, there was a great stagnation of the commerce between Great Britain and her colonies, in consequence of an Act for granting and applying certain stamp duties, and other duties, in the British colonies and plantations in America, by which the merchants trading to North America, and the artificers employed in the various manufactures consumed in those countries, were subjected to many hardships;

and that, in the following year, the said Act was repealed ... upon which repeal, the trade to the British colonies immediately resumed its former flourishing state;

and that in the year 1767, an Act passed for granting certain duties in the British colonies and plantations in America, which imposed certain duties, to be paid in America, on tea, glass, red and white lead, painters’ colours, paper, pasteboard, millboard and scaleboard, when the commerce with the colonies was again interrupted;

and that in the year 1770, such parts of the said Act as imposed duties on glass, red and white lead, painters’ colours, paper, pasteboard, millboard and scaleboard, were repealed, when the trade to America soon revived, except in the article of tea, on which a duty was continued, to be demanded on its importation into America, whereby that branch of our commerce was nearly lost;