USA > Massachusetts > Commonwealth history of Massachusetts, colony, province and state, volume 1 > Part 42
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Such resistance furnished ample basis for long lists of charges against the colony on grounds of illegal trading and defeating justice, in which the town of Boston figured most prominently. The Massachusetts government was presently
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ENFORCING ACTS OF TRADE
requested to answer these charges. Governor Bradstreet, who felt compelled to aid Randolph slightly on a few occasions, still denied the charges vigorously. "On the strictest inquiry," he said, "it is found that there has never been £5000 irregu- larly traded, and then the damage is inconsiderable." He blamed Randolph for having been inactive and troublesome, and added justly, "The people here show him little respect, as they look upon him as one that has sought the ruin of the colony by incensing His Majesty and Their Honours against it."
In 1681 Randolph again went to England and preferred twelve charges against Massachusetts, the basis of which was the non-enforcement of the navigation laws. One of the re- sults was the issuance on August 11, 1681, of an Order in Council containing the names of fifteen individuals, repre- senting fourteen vessels against which Randolph unsuccess- fully undertook legal action, summoning these to appear before the Privy Council within four months to answer the charges lodged against them. The records are silent as to whether any of them made an appearance. Meanwhile, Randolph was
commissioned Surveyor of Customs under the royal sign man- ual, and he returned to Boston in October, 1681, better forti- fied and prepared to continue his activities against the colony. As before, he was unable to make headway in the checking of the illegal trade. The principal reason in this case lay in the appointment, during his absence, of two naval officers by the colonial government for the ports of Salem and Boston. Os- tensibly these men were to enforce the navigation laws them- selves. Their real purpose, however, was to prevent a too strict enforcement, and in this they succeeded well.
CHARACTER OF THE ILLEGAL TRADE
Randolph was thus continually foiled in his attacks on the illegal trade. He was more successful, however, in taking action against the colony's charter, and in October, 1684, the charter was quashed through his efforts. Thus Massachusetts, principally because of insistence on a policy of free trade, and on remaining oblivious to Parliamentary enactments relating to trade, lost the documentary basis of her cherished political institutions and became a royal colony. Still, it is doubtful
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whether the colony's interests were seriously injured by these developments.
One of the bitterest invectives against Randolph came from the pen of Increase Mather, who, in A Vindication of New England, said: "This forces us to mention another matter in which that people has been sadly wronged; that is their break- ing the Acts of Navigation. We do then affirm that the Gov- ernment there (in Massachusetts) and the whole body of the people, would rejoyce in the severest execution of those Acts, and lend their utmost help thereunto. There are but a few particular persons that have transgressed in the forbidden Trade, and they mostly such persons, too (if we are not mis- inform'd) as have been at the same time the greatest Accus- ers of the Country. The Country generally declare they never found any benefit by that Smugling; unless it have been a benefit that the man, whom they always accounted their most Implacable Enemy, might get a living by the Bribes of that unlawful trade. "
The agents of the colony, in answer to some of Randolph's charges, maintained (in 1690) that "The Government and people in general have no advantage from irregular trade, but only the offenders, whom they have always been ready to de- tect and punish. It is true that he (Randolph) per- secuted several vessels for irregular trading, but juries would not convict, owing to the defectiveness of the proof. And it is generally understood in the Colony that he did it purposely to bring Odium upon the Government, the better to effect the design in which he was engaged of destroying the Charter. And divers credible persons of New England have affirmed they knew Mr. Randolph notoriously guilty of Brib- ery and Corruption. And that upon that account he lett sev- eral Offenders go unpunished, which we do not doubt but they will be ready to prove if competent time for such purpose be allowed."
While there must always be some doubt as to the real char- acter of Edward Randolph, there probably was a large amount of smuggling and other illicit trade; nor is it likely that Ran- dolph derived any personal profit from connivance in it. The very protestations of innocence on the part of representatives of the colony contain unconscious admissions of numerous vio-
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ILLEGAL TRADE
lations of the Act. Governor Cranfield of New Hampshire gave to the Lords of Trade in August, 1684, a graphic account of how the citizens of Boston gave aid to French pirates and shared in the spoil. In September of the same year, William Dyre, who was temporarily in Boston as royal customs in- spector, recounted his seizure of one large privateer, but in attempting to prosecute the vessel his life was jeopardized.
In 1689 a memorial submitted by Governor Sir Edmund Andros to Parliament gave details painstakingly collected bear- ing on the trade of Massachusetts with the European continent direct, " not only for their own consumption, but also supplying therewith most parts of the world, particularly the English Plantations, which according to the Acts of Navi- gation ought to be supplied from Old England, whereby they are enabled to bring those goods fifty percent cheaper to their market there than our Merchants could, which Trade incourages their building some hundreds of ships which are employed in those illegal trades, to the ruin of English Navigation. "
Numbers of other contemporary writers, not all of whom had axes to grind, give good reason for believing that, even during the period from 1675 to 1689, when considerable ef- forts were being made to regularize the New England trade, there was frequent evasion. This violation of the Acts of Trade could not have seemed very iniquitous to the worthy Massachusetts citizens of the time. Certainly it was not in this century due to any refusal to recognize the right of the mother country to regulate trade by means of navigation laws, for such a right was admitted by the heads of the Government, and the General Court took measures designed to aid in the enforcement of the Acts.
The difficulty was that for a generation after the trade of the colony began, no restrictions of any kind were imposed. For half of another generation, after the mercantile theory began to find expression in law, laisser faire was largely prac- ticed. It appeared to the colonists, therefore, that not till they by their own diligent exertions succeeded in developing a profitable carrying trade, did the mother country attempt to participate in the profits without contributing to the trade. Besides this, the environment gave every encouragement to a
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free trade : first, by developing in the inhabitants a spirit of wilfulness and independence; second, by providing, in a broken coast line, containing numerous coves, harbors, and islands, unlimited opportunities for circumventing the few customs authorities of the time. "When all the Laws of Trade were broken, as they were daily," says a contemporary, "no redress could be had, for the persons offending were those chiefly con- cerned with the Government. These innumerable complaints put the King to vaste expense to maintain Persons in several places in Europe, as France, Hamborough, Holland, etc., to detect their Illegal Traders, after by long experience found it impracticable in New England by reason of the largeness of the Country and the many navigable rivers there."
The extent of the irregular trade at any given time in the seventeenth century can only be guessed at, but it must have been considerable. Immediately after Randolph's first visit to Massachusetts, the violations of the Acts were somewhat less flagrant; and Boston merchants, at least, were conscious of restraining influences. The death of Charles II and the Monmouth Rebellion, the readjustments in the reign of James II and the Glorious Revolution, the foreign wars of William III and the new charter of 1691, all played into the hands of the colonists. The prosperity of the colony was very little affected by the ephemeral Dominion of New England, though the speed with which this government dissolved seems to sug- gest less an intolerable hatred of the new political structure itself, than haste to escape from a regime which represented the cause of enforcment of the Navigation Acts.
TRADE EXPANSION AFTER 1675.
The nature of the colonial trade of the latter part of the century was not materially different from that of the reign of Charles I, though there was an increase in the variety of goods imported and exported, and new markets were develop- ing. The most significant change, perhaps, lay in the fact that the trade in fish fell off, to be replaced by other products of the colony, together with articles produced in other main- land colonies in America. The colonial government itself, in answering in 1680 the queries of the Lords of Trade respect- ing trade, said, "They (the people of Massachusetts) have
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few manufactures vendible in foreign parts; the linen and woollen cloths, hats, etc., made there being chiefly used in the country ; their staple commodities are fish, peltry, horses, pro- visions, cider, boards, timber, pipestaves; fish formerly more beneficial for trade with the plantations in America [the south- ern colonies and the West Indies] than now, wherewith their merchants produce sugar, rum, indigo, cotton wool, to- bacco, which they transport usually in their own vessels to England; some pipe-staves and fish to Madeira for wine. There is good timber, tar, pitch, and iron made in the country, though of no great quantity; hemp and flax grow well, but labour is so dear that it cannot be made a commodity to send to other parts; their rigging is sent from England much cheaper than it can be made there."
This account corresponds well with others from very dif- ferent sources. Randolph, in one of his numerous reports, pointed out that, "The commodities of growth, production and manufacture of New England are all the things necessary for shipping and naval furniture in great abundance, as excellent oak, elm, beech, fir, pine for masts the best in the world, pitch, tar, hemp, and iron not inferior to that of Bilboa, clapboards, pipestaves, planks and deal boards, so that his Majesty need not be beholding to other nations for naval stores. Some vessels had been sent as far as to Guinea, Madagascar, and some to Scanderoon, laden with masts and yards for ships."
Other products of the colony included pork and corn, sent principally to Virginia, and wool, marketed largely in France. Such furs as were secured for market usually went to Eng- land, where the market was good and constant; and aided in keeping down the balance against the colony. Among the furs and pelts, beaver, bear, moose and deer skins figured most prominently. Still another group of exports were sent to the West Indies : horses, beef, pork, butter, cheese, flour, oat- meal, peas, and biscuit.
As for imports Massachusetts was no longer dependent on the mother country for supplies of staple foods. Trade with the Canary Islands, Spanish peninsula and southern France included wines of various sorts, brandy, fruits, oils, silks, laces, and linens. From England, Scotland, Ireland, and
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northern Europe came linens, serges, bays, kerseys, and stock- ings : largely a trade in fabrics. Trade in iron products ap- pears to have fallen off since the establishment of various iron works within the colony. Edward Randolph was rather im- pressed with this iron manufacture, and spoke of it in more than one of his reports, though he took pains to add that no guns were cast within the colony. Practically the whole supply of salt, as of other condiments, was imported. Salt came principally from the Dry Tortugas; this was "clear and white as alum, very sharp and much stronger than ordinary bay salt." The price, moreover, was reasonable, 10s the hogshead at Boston. The West Indies continued to supply sugar, molas- ses, indigo, cotton-wool, logwood and Brazil-wood;" and when they traded with Jamaica, as they do sometimes, they bring home pieces of eight, plate, and pigs of silver." Much of the latter, incidentally, was for a time made into the famous pine tree shillings. This expedient was resorted to because of the exceeding scarcity of coin in the colony during the latter part of the century, due to the unfavorable balance of trade with England.
The trade in human beings within the province of Massa- chusetts was small, and the shippers of the colony in the seven- teenth century appear to have had little or nothing to do at this period with the importation of negroes into the southern colonies. In 1638, the Desire, of Salem, brought back from this first trading voyage from Massachusetts to the West Indies, a cargo of cotton, tobacco, salt, and the first negro slaves to be imported into New England. For nearly fifty years thereafter no considerable number of slaves were imported. In 1678 "one small vessel arrived after twenty months' voyage from Madagascar with 40 or 50 ne- groes, mostly women and children, who were sold for 10 1.,
15 1., 20 1. Now and then 2 or 3 negroes are brought from Barbadoes and other English plantations and sold for about 20 1. apiece, so that there may be in their gov- ernment [Massachusetts] about 120, and, it may be, as many Scots bought and sold for servants in the time of the war with Scotland." The demand for such human labor was small ex- cept for household purposes, hence the traffic either in negro
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slaves, paupers, prisoners of war or redemptioners, failed to catch hold till the eighteenth century.
THE PORTS AND PROSPERITY OF THE COLONY
As the colony of Massachusetts owed its first prosperity to maritime enterprises, so the sea engaged much of the activities of the colony. Of the twenty-two towns in the commonwealth in 1685, well over half were located on tide water; others which had no shipping of their own shared directly in the re- turns from commercial employment. This salt water naturally reflected the employment of the inhabitants and the demands of utility. By the third quarter of the seventeenth century all of them presented scenes of bustle and activity along the water front such as would have been found in many a thriving Eng- lish port. The characteristic structures forming the sky-line were eloquent at once of the nature and the volume of trade. In any typical seaport, stood rows of warehouses, large, un- painted structures, fully enclosed which housed and protected the more valuable articles of commerce. Interspersed with these were open sheds for the temporary housing of cargoes, or for facilitating loading and unloading operations. Else- where were counting houses, fish drying sheds, and even resi- dences, arranged with little reference to probable future growth of the port. In the more convenient and sheltered coves were shipyards, engaged in the construction of new vessels or the cleaning and repairing of those in service. Everywhere were wharves and docks, some obviously de- signed for local use, and others connected with the trade to distant ports. Here lay piles of lumber of all descriptions ; long masts destined for the use of the King's navy; boards and planks of all sizes; heavy beams; barrels and staves for many destinations. On neighboring wharves were piles of kegs, boxes and bales of all descriptions, the labels of which bespoke their foreign origins. The harbors themselves dis- played scenes of animation and interest. Anchored here and there were vessels newly-arrived from distant ports, with sails furled and crews awaiting opportunity to discharge their car- goes. Other vessels, towed by longboats containing several rowers would be taking advantage of favorable wind and tide
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to depart on their voyages which would take them out of sight of land for weeks or months.
Of the several ports, Boston easily took the lead. "In- vironed it is with the brinish floods," said a contemporary, "saving one small isthmus, which gives free access to the neighbor towns by land on the southside; on the northwest and northeast, two constant fairies are kept for daily traffique thereunto. The chief edifice of this city-like towne is crowded on the sea-banks and wharfed out with great industry and cost, the buildings beautiful and large, .
whose continuall inlargement presages some sumptuous city. The wonder of this moderne age, that a few years should bring forth such a great matters by so meane a handfull!" "Three miles from Boston," wrote Edward Randolph to the Lords of Trade, "on an island is a castle with 38 guns and a battery of six, commanding the entrance to the channel; none can sail out of Boston without sending the Governor's pass to the Captain for which 10s. is paid, or 14s. if it is a Bill of Health."
Besides Boston, "the mart town of the West Indies," the principal commercial towns of the colony at this period were Charlestown and Salem, with "a little trade for country people at Newbury and Ipswich." Salem was in most respects a smaller replica of Boston. In 1683 the towns of Marblehead, Beverly, Gloucester, Ipswich, Rowley, Newbury, and Salis- bury were annexed to the port of Salem by the colonial gov- ernment, and it was decreed that this port and Boston should be the two lawful ports of the colony, where "all ships shall lade or unlade any of the plantation enumerated goods, or other goods from foreign ports, and nowhere else, on penalty of confiscation of such ship with her goods and tackle as shall lade or unlade elsewhere." Partly on this account, Salem be- came the second most important town in the colony, in size, in shipbuilding, and in trade of all kinds.
No reliable statistics exist to enlighten the student as to the quantity of the import and export trade of the colony toward the close of the first half century of growth. A partial gauge is furnished by one John Hull, of Boston, who records in his diary that in the year 1664 one hundred ships came into Bos .. ton harbor, "our own and strangers, and all loaded home."
.
DOSTON TOWN HOUSE.
. BUILT 165.7 .-
CONTA
From a print in the Bostonian Society by K. G. Rea
PROBABLE APPEARANCE OF THE FIRST TOWN HOUSE
7 William Aspawal
Wiliam Coodir Han
85 Witham bros
Es Edward Belcher
D. Robert Harding
86 Withany Taingoff
E. Wirim Bronlog
82 Garent Bourne
5
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Do Edward Fair send
T John Underhill
W William Cheesebrough
x Wiam Blackstone.
B Edward Gibbons
Gues Firma-
WEST HILL
11 Revd John Wilson
26 Samue Cole
Ad Dann Biggs
41 James brown
45 William thuesen
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SC Robert: Scott:
73 Zaccheye Joswerft
FIELD NEAR COLBRON'S
BENDELL S
ST
COVE
53
CORN HILL
Planof BOSTON
-showing- EXISTING WAYS AND OWNERS or December 25, 1630 - Compiledby - GEORGE LAMB
From a series of maps compiled by George Lamb (1903) in the Bostonian Society PLAN OF BOSTON AS IT WAS IN 1630
BLACKSTONES
POINT
86 Hobert Walker.
02 John Cromwell
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PORTS AND PROSPERITY
This gives some basis for evaluating one of Randolph's cus- tom-house returns to the Lords of Trade in 1688. This statement, which is perhaps the best index to volume of trade, records that within the period from March 25 to September 29, 1688, there cleared from the port of Boston 7 ships bound for London, 1 for Fayal, 2 for Madeira, 1 for Holland, 11 for Bilboa, 1 for the Canaries, 1 for Portugal, 1 for Cadiz, 84 for Barbadoes, Jamaica and the other West India Islands, and 32 for other North American colonies. Almost all of these vessels had been built within the colony. The number of vessels trading to the other English colonies on the main- land would make this coastal trade appear out of proportion to the other, were it not for the statement that most of these were small craft, of 30, 20, 10, and one even of 7 tons measurement.
Vessels entering the port of Boston during the same period numbered 37 from the American mainland colonies, 89 from the West Indies, 21 from England, 2 from Madeira, 4 from Fayal, and 1 from Ireland; a total of 154. The number of arrivals and departures thus roughly balanced each other, and the destinations in the one case, and the ports of sailing in the other, furnish a fair idea of the character of the trade as a whole and the approximate importance of the various ar- ticles of trade.
These and other fragmentary records, make it clear that the colony's trade was large almost from the beginning, and that it grew rapidly during the century, not excepting the pe- riod of attempted enforcement of the navigation laws. This activity contributed largely to the prosperity of Boston and Salem, a prosperity reflected not only in an ever-growing mer- chant marine but in the growth of the towns themselves. Bos- ton, toward the end of the century, is described as having cobbled streets and many fine residences, a third of which were of brick, the rest of stone and timber. Among other evidences of wealth, is a statement of the officers of the colonial govern- ment to the Lords of Trade in 1680. "There are two or three merchants," says this account, "worth 18,000 1. apiece; he is counted a rich man who is worth 1000 1."
Here, at least, was accumulated enough capital and wealth to breed a strong spirit of self-reliance and independence.
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TRADE AND SHIPPING
Here were enough vested interests to brave the King's wrath and to neutralize the effectiveness of his cherished Naviga- tion System. In all of these respects, Massachusetts was well fitted to play a leading part in the affairs of the mainland colo- nies in the next century, and, in order to escape the tightening coils of the English mercantile system, was prepared to sever the political ties with the mother country.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. BOOKS
[See also bibliographies following Chapters i (England) ; viii (Sis- ter Settlements) ; x (Social) ; xv (Economic Organization) ; xvii (Con- troversies with England) ; xviii (External) ; xx (Crises) ; and the Gen- eral Bibliography at the end of Volume V.
ACTS OF THE PRIVY COUNCIL OF ENGLAND, Colonial Series .- Vols. I, 1613-1680, and II, 1680-1720 (London, 1908). One of the. basic documentary sources for the history of English attempts to regulate the colonial trade.
ANDREWS, Charles McLean .- Colonial Self-Government, 1652-1689 (American Nation Series, Vol. V; N. Y., Harpers, 1904) .- A schol- arly treatment of the period, with considerable attention to trade and the Navigation Acts, and well documented.
BEER, George Louis .- Commercial Policy of England towards the Ameri- can Colonies (Columbia University Studies, Vol. III, No. 2; N. Y., 1893) .- An excellent study of the English mercantile system.
CALENDAR OF STATE PAPERS, Colonial Series, America and West Indies .- (Edited by W. Noël Sainsbury; Vols. V, 1661-1668, VII, 1669-1674, IX, 1675-1676, X, 1677-1680, XI, 1681-1685, XII, 1685-1688, XIII, 1689-1692; London, 1860-1895) .- The most fruitful source for the commercial history of the period.
CHANNING, Edward .- A History of the United States (6 vols., to 1926, New York, Macmillan, 1905-1926) .- Volume II, Chapters ii, iii, and vi contain interesting, though brief, comments on the effects of the New England smuggling trade.
COFFIN, Joshua .- A Sketch of the History of Newbury, Newburyport, and West Newbury from 1635 to 1845 (Boston, Drake, 1845) .- Largely in the form of annals, based on town and county records, containing frequent allusions to trade and shipping.
DOYLE, J. A .- English Colonies in America (5 vols., N. Y., Holt, 1889- 1907) .- Volume III deals with the trade of Massachusetts and its relation to the annuling of the charter. A scholarly work.
DRAKE, Samuel G .- History and Antiquities of Boston, 1630-1670 (Bos- ton, Luther Stevens, 1856) .- Contains interesting extracts from seven- teenth century writings.
ENGLISH, Philip .- Manuscripts (As yet unprinted letters and financial accounts preserved in the Essex Institute, Salem, Mass) .- The private papers of a Salem merchant at the close of the seventeenth century.
HEWINS, William A. S .- English Trade and Finance chiefly in the Seventeenth Century (London, Methuen, 1892) .- A fair survey of the period, with considerable attention to the colonial trade.
HILL, Andrew Hamilton .- The Trade and Commerce of Boston, 1630- 1890 (Boston, 1895) .- Contains pertinent quotations from early diaries and printed historical accounts.
HURD, D. Hamilton .- History of Essex County, Massachusetts (2 vols., Phila., Lewis, 1888) .- A thorough piece of work from authentic con- temporary sources, throwing much light on the seventeenth century trade of Salem.
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