Philadelphia reaps the greatest profits from its trade to the West Indies. For thither the inhabitants ship almost every day a quantity of flour, butter, flesh and other victuals; timber, plank and the like. In return they receive either sugar, molasses, rum, indigo, mahogany, and other goods, [[50]]or ready money. The true mahogany which grows in Jamaica, is at present almost all cut down.
They send both West India goods, and their own productions to England; the latter are all sorts of woods, especially black walnut, and oak planks for ships; ships ready built, iron, hides and tar. Yet this latter is properly bought in New Jersey, the forests of which province are consequently more ruined than any others. Ready money is likewise sent over to England, from whence in return they get all sorts of goods there manufactured, viz. fine and coarse cloth, linen, iron ware, and other wrought metals, and East India goods. For it is to be observed that England supplies Philadelphia with almost all stuffs and manufactured goods which are wanted here.
A great quantity of linseed goes annually to Ireland, together with many of the ships which are built here. Portugal gets wheat, corn, flour and maize which is not ground. Spain sometimes takes some corn. But all the money, which is got in these several countries, must immediately be sent to England, in payment for the goods which are got from thence, and yet those sums are not sufficient to pay all the debts.
But to shew more exactly, what the town and province have imported from [[51]]England, in different years, I shall here insert an extract from the English custom-house books, which I got from the engineer, Lewis Evans, at Philadelphia, and which will sufficiently answer the purpose. This gentleman had desired one of his friends in London to send him a compleat account of all the goods shipped from England to Pensylvania in several years. He got this account, and though the goods are not enumerated in it, yet their value in money is calculated. Such extracts from the custom-house books have been made for every North-American province, in order to convince the English parliament, that those provinces have taken greater quantities of the goods in that kingdom, ever since they have turned their money into bills.
I have taken the copy from the original itself, and it is to be observed that it begins with the christmas of the year 1722, and ends about the same time of the year 1747. In the first column is the value of the foreign goods, the duty for which has already been paid in England. The second column shews the value of the goods manufactured in England and exported to Pensylvania. And in the last column these two sums are added together, but at the bottom each of the columns is cast up. [[52]]
But this table does not include the goods which are annually shipped in great quantities to Pensylvania from Scotland and Ireland, among which is a great quantity of linen.
The Value of the Goods annually shipped from England to Pensylvania.
| The Year, from one Christmas to another. | Foreign Goods for which the duty has already been paid, & which therefore only req.receipts. | English manufactured Goods. | The Sums of these two preceding columns added together. | ||||||
| l. | s. | d. | l. | s. | d. | l. | s. | d. | |
| 1723 | 5199 | 13 | 5 | 10793 | 5 | 1 | 15992 | 19 | 4 |
| 1724 | 9373 | 15 | 8 | 20951 | 0 | 5 | 30324 | 16 | 1 |
| 1725 | 10301 | 12 | 6 | 31508 | 1 | 8 | 42209 | 14 | 2 |
| 1726 | 9371 | 11 | 6 | 28263 | 6 | 2 | 37634 | 17 | 8 |
| 1727 | 10243 | 0 | 7 | 21736 | 10 | 0 | 31979 | 10 | 7 |
| 1728 | 14073 | 13 | 3 | 23405 | 6 | 2 | 37478 | 19 | 11 |
| 1729 | 12948 | 8 | 5 | 16851 | 2 | 5 | 29799 | 10 | 10 |
| 1730 | 15660 | 10 | 11 | 32931 | 16 | 6 | 48592 | 7 | 5 |
| 1731 | 11838 | 17 | 4 | 32421 | 18 | 9 | 44260 | 16 | 1 |
| 1732 | 15240 | 14 | 4 | 26457 | 19 | 3 | 41698 | 13 | 7 |
| 1733 | 13187 | 0 | 8 | 27378 | 7 | 5 | 40585 | 8 | 1 |
| 1734 | 19648 | 15 | 9 | 34743 | 12 | 1 | 54392 | 7 | 10 |
| 1735 | 18078 | 4 | 3 | 30726 | 7 | 1 | 48804 | 11 | 4 |
| 1736 | 23456 | 15 | 11 | 38057 | 2 | 5 | 61513 | 18 | 4 |
| 1737 | 14517 | 4 | 3 | 42173 | 2 | 4 | 56690 | 6 | 7 |
| 1738 | 20320 | 19 | 3 | 41129 | 5 | 0 | 61450 | 4 | 3 |
| 1739 | 9041 | 4 | 5 | 45411 | 7 | 6 | 54452 | 11 | 11 |
| 1740 | 10280 | 2 | 0 | 46471 | 12 | 9 | 56751 | 14 | 9 |
| 1741 | 12977 | 18 | 10 | 78032 | 13 | 1 | 91010 | 11 | 11 |
| 1742 | 14458 | 6 | 3 | 60836 | 17 | 1 | 75295 | 3 | 4 |
| 1743 | 19220 | 1 | 6 | 60120 | 4 | 10 | 79340 | 6 | 4 |
| 1744 | 14681 | 8 | 4 | 47595 | 18 | 2 | 62214 | 6 | 6 |
| 1745 | 13043 | 8 | 8 | 41237 | 2 | 3 | 54280 | 10 | 11 |
| 1746 | 18103 | 12 | 7 | 55595 | 19 | 7 | 73699 | 12 | 2 |
| 1747 | 8585 | 14 | 11 | 73819 | 2 | 8 | 82404 | 17 | 7 |
| Total. | 343,789 | 16 | 0 | 969,049 | 1 | 6 | 1,312,838 | 17 | 6 |
[[53]]
The whole extent of the Philadelphia trade may be comprehended from the number of ships, which annually arrive at and sail from this town. I intend to insert here a table of a few years which I have taken from the gazettes of the town. The ships coming and going in one year, are to be reckoned from the twenty fifth of March of that year, to the twenty fifth of March of the next.