USA > Massachusetts > Commonwealth history of Massachusetts, colony, province and state, volume 2 > Part 36
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From the unique original in the British Museum; courtesy of John H. Edmunds, Esq.
BOSTON, 1732-1736
391
AGRICULTURE
stands close to the town, where there is a beacon to alarm the neighborhood in the case of any surprise, is one of the finest prospects, the most beautifully variegated, and richly grouped, of any without exception that I have ever seen. The chief public buildings are three churches; thirteen or fourteen meeting houses; the Governor's palace; the court-house, or ex- change; Faneuils-hall; a linen manufacturing-house; a work- house ; a bridewell ; a public granary ; and a very fine wharf, at least half a mile long, undertaken at the expence of a number of private gentlemen, for the advantage of unloading and load- ing vessels. Most of these buildings are handsome : the church, called King's Chapel, is exceedingly elegant ; and fitted up in the Corinthian taste. There is also an elegant private concert- room, highly finished in the Ionic manner. .
"Arts and sciences seem to have made a greater progress here than in any other part of America. Harvard college has been founded above a hundred years; and although it is not upon a perfect plan, yet it has produced a very good effect. The arts are undeniably forwarder in Massachusetts Bay, than either in Pennsylvania or New York. The public buildings are more elegant; and there is a more general turn for music, painting and the belles lettres. . . . However, Massachusetts Bay is a rich, populous, and well-cultivated province."
AGRICULTURE
Agriculture inevitably played an important part in the life of Massachusetts in the eighteenth century, but it is important to recognize that it was definitely not the basis of the economic growth of the region. Probably the inland counties were relatively self-contained in respect of the primary agricultural products consumed ; but it is certain that the maritime counties, containing 65% of the total population in 1765, were depend- ent upon substantial importations of primary staples such as wheat, pork and even Indian corn. Wheat could not be profit- ably grown in Massachusetts on account of rust, and its culture was well nigh abandoned after 1670. It was regularly im- ported from the other colonies of the seaboard: especially, from Virginia, New Jersey and New York. No region at that time could have been less dependent than Massachusetts upon
392
BUSINESS AND TRANSPORTATION
its direct argicultural production. As in most regions ill- adapted to arable agriculture, livestock was the chief reliance of the farmer. Considerable numbers of horses, cattle and sheep were kept and some swine, though the number of swine was small. The extent of stockraising is best indicated by the valuation returns made by the assessors, but unfortunately we have only fragments of the returns prior to 1767. Totals of livestock are given for 1735 by a contemporary historian and fragments of the valuations of 1760 and 1767 are still available in the Massachusetts Archives, and from them are derived the following figures :
LIVESTOCK IN MASSACHUSETTS (1735-1767)
Popula- tion
Horses 3 years and over
4 years 3 years 1 year and and
and over
over
over
over
Province (1735). 145000 27420
52000 130000
Counties (1767), viz.
Suffolk County. .
17682
2170
2879
8692
18592
354
Essex County ..
43524
3431
4930 13623
26940 1292
Middlesex County
34940
3691
6230 15789
23110 1078
96146
9292 14039 38104
68642 2724
Oxen
Cows
Sheep
Swine 1 year and
The interpretation of these figures is difficult because our modern census figures distinguish different age groups of ani- mals. The census distinguishes sheep of one year and over and neat cattle are distinguished at the age of two years; horses are likewise distinguished at two years; for swine no comparisons are possible as the census gives the total for all ages and there is no means of securing the probable numbers under one year. The probable number of cows three years and over has been computed for the years 1850 and 1900 and proportions per hundred persons have been worked out. These results indicate a relatively large number of livestock.
The larger number of sheep and horses in 1735 than in 1767 can hardly be taken as significant. The counties for which we have valuation returns in 1767 were the most popu- lous counties in the province; and it would therefore be likely that the numbers of livestock would be somewhat smaller
393
LIVESTOCK
than in the thinly-settled inland counties. Assuming, then, that it is not safe to base any conclusions on those differences, it would appear that eighteenth century Massachusetts would occupy an intermediate position between the highly specialized grazing districts of the later period and the districts more largely identified with intensive arable agriculture. The changes in agriculture are indicated by the changing propor- tions of livestock in the North Atlantic group as a whole. The tendencies are still more striking if individual states are distinguished, though the differences are of the same general character.
PROPORTION OF LIVE STOCK PER 100 PERSONS (1735, 1767, 1850, 1900)
Cows 3 years and over
Sheep 1 year and over
Horses (over 3 years)
Province 1735
36
90
18
3 Counties 1767
38
72
9
Census of 1850:
(age not specified)
Total U. S.
38
111
22
North Atlantic
22
88
13
South Atlantic
79
120
29
North Central
33
147
26
South Central
60
103
37
Mountain
800
234
20
Census of 1900 :
(probably 3 years and over)
Total U. S.
32
52
18
North Atlantic
14
12
7
South Atlantic
16
16
8
North Central
35
38
28
South Central
43
23
19
Mountain
72
548
38
The valuation returns afford some clue to other aspects of the uses of land, but the returns for 1767 unfortunately record products rather than the acreages under the different classes of crops. Returns for two towns in 1760 give both acreage and
394
BUSINESS AND TRANSPORTATION
produce so that the acreage of tillage and of grass cut for hay can be computed without serious error.
USE OF LAND IN FARMS, 1760 AND 1767
Cut for
Cut for Meadow hay
Rated as Pasture
Total
(1760)
Milton
339
129
785
464
2074
3791
Chelsea
185
48
334
62
2267
2896
Counties
(1767)
Norfolk
Essex
Middlesex
42,000
35,000 59,000 192,000 328,000
It is not possible to estimate the acreage of orchards from the production of cider, so that no figure can be given for the counties enumerated in 1767, though there is no ground to suppose that the proportionate acreage would be very different from that of the two towns specifically enumerated. With such rough computation only outstanding features can safely be emphasized. The large extent of pasture is clear beyond any doubt, and the very substantial acreage devoted to forage as distinct from food crops can hardly be exaggerated in these figures. With only a tenth of the land rated for the property tax levied on tilled land, one must assume that the arable land constituted a distinctly minor element in the farm. We seem to be dealing with a type of mixed farming in which the tillage crops are reduced to a bare minimum and the livestock is treated as the primary concern of the enterprise. Probably the land cut for English hay was ploughed up from time to time and changed off with the other arable. One could not assume that the meadows were ploughed at all, or planted with any variety of artificial grass. There was a small amount of hay cut on the salt marshes in Norfolk and Essex Counties but the importance of this type of forage was confined to a small number of towns.
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY LAND SYSTEM
The land system of Massachusetts and New England generally presents some sharp contrasts to conditions in the other colonies. In Massachusetts the feudal concept of land
Locality
Arable
Orchard Engl. hay
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY LAND SYSTEM 395
tenure was entirely abandoned. All titles were presumed to be freehold titles based directly or indirectly upon grants from the Crown and wholly free from all feudal incidents. In many instances titles passed by way of the colonizing company to groups of town proprietors and thence to the individual.
The township and its proprietors is perhaps as distinctive as the absence of all feudal tenure. For various reasons, partly social, partly military, there was little or no individual pioneering along the unsettled frontier. Towns were settled as units, and the promotion of towns was a kind of business enterprise in itself, particularly as the eighteenth century wore on. The entire area of the township was granted to a number of individuals who were incorporated as the proprietors of the town. They thus held in their corporate capacity the title to all the land. The detail of sale and allotment to settlers in the town was largely at their discretion.
The original settlers commonly received stated allotments, in proportion to buildings erected and land cleared. No attempt was made to allot to individuals the total area of the township, and thus large areas of undivided land remained under the jurisdiction of the town proprietors for considerable periods of time. Portions of this undivided land were used as pasture by the inhabitants of the village and such fields came to be called "Common Lands."
In the early stages of settlement most of the inhabitants of the town were original settlers and their descendants: no problem could arise as to common rights; but in the latter part of the seventeenth century many of the towns came to include numbers of inhabitants who were not recognized as having any direct right to a share in the property held by the asso- ciated proprietors. Thus arose a distinction between Com- moners and Non-Commoners, between the proprietors of the town and the inhabitants of the town, between the meetings of the proprietors and the town meetings. The settlement and adjustment of these growing class distinctions was one of the most difficult social problems of the eighteenth century.
Although striking similarities can be established between the problems of the New England towns and the peasant villages of the old world, it is unsafe to attempt specific or detailed comparisons. The Commons of the New England towns
396
BUSINESS AND TRANSPORTATION
were, after all, somewhat different from the open field Com- mons and the Common waste of the English villages. The difficulties in the old world grew out of feudal tenure; the problems of the New England towns were a complex phase in the development of private property. In New England arable land seems not at any time to have been subject to common cultivation, though there were some grazing privileges after the harvest had been gathered.
The New England Commons were not at any time regarded as a permanent institution, but rather a temporary expedient designed to meet the circumstances of the frontier; and they were in many cases reduced in size or obliterated. So far as we have any record, the process of the division of the Common holdings is absolutely continuous. The area of many of the towns, however, was so large that considerable quantities of land remained available for use as pasture until late in the eighteenth century; and such Commons did not entirely dis- appear until the nineteenth century.
PROPRIETORS AND COMMONERS
Class conflicts between Proprietors and Non-Commoners began to appear in the late seventeenth century; the later and poorer settlers were seldom recognized as having any rights over the pastures. In many instances this discrimination was of no great significance, because such settlers were too poor to have any cattle to put out to pasture. The matter became acute only as such settlers accumulated sufficient means to feel con- scious of the limitations of their position. Recognition of the problem appears in several forms. Plymouth Colony in 1682, and Massachusetts Bay in 1698, authorized the organization of the proprietors as a corporate body distinct from the town. Statutes were passed in 1713 and finally in 1753 defining in detail the position, rights, and duties of the town proprietors. These regulations defined the problem. The Non-Commoners joined issue very sharply because they took the ground that all inhabitants of the town had actual rights to the undivided land. In effect, the proprietors recognized this position; and in most towns persons owning a house and some cleared arable land, were admitted to the body of proprietors.
397
FOREST PRODUCTS
The most striking evidence of the essentially liberal policy of some proprietors is to be found in the Salem Records. In 1702 all cottagers in that town having rights prior to 1661 were admitted as Commoners; and in addition all freeholders having a dwelling house erected prior to 1702 were admitted as Commoners .. A subsequent vote included in the group of proprietors all householders up to November 22, 1714; and there are grounds to presume that subsequent settlers were admitted to the body of Commoners after they had made a farm. Sixty acres were alloted for the use of the poor and for Non-Commoners, so that no villager would be without means of pasturing his cows. In Salem, the work of the proprietors in allotting land, admitting new members to the group, and making rules for the use of the undivided fields, extended throughout the eighteenth century. It is likely that the in- clusive policy adopted at Salem was typical for the province as a whole. Acute conflict between the proprietors and other residents in the town seems to have been confined to a rela- tively small number of cases. Difficulties at Haverhill, New- bury, Duxbury and Billerica have been studied in detail; and it seems safe to say that there were no other instances in which strife went so far, though it is likely that friction existed in other towns.
FOREST PRODUCTS
The major part of New England was covered with forests at the time of settlement, so that lumbering operations were an indispensable feature of the preparation of the land for general agriculture. Lumbering came to rank with fishing as an im- mediate source of money income to the settlement; and for two full centuries the forests played a large part in the eco- nomic life of Massachusetts and the other New England states. Forest products found a number of distinctive outlets. Con- siderable quantities of lumber were required for the housing of the population; for the larger timbers the hardwood was used, whereas the boards, clapboards and shingles were made from pine.
Not a little lumber for house building was exported to the West Indies and sometimes to the Azores and Canaries. Massachusetts proper probably furnished small contributions
398
BUSINESS AND TRANSPORTATION
to this type of export in the eighteenth century ; but the control of Maine gave Massachusetts large supplies of these types of lumber for export. Shipbuilding afforded the most import- ant single outlet for forest products ; the hardwoods furnished high-grade material for frames and primary planks, while the pines afforded materials for the smaller planks, masts, and spars. Tar, oakum and rigging could not be supplied in suffi- cient volume to meet the requirements of shipbuilding in New England, so that a full third of the materials utilized in ship construction were brought in from the outside. Barrel staves, commonly of oak, furnished an important item of export to the West Indies and to South Europe. Such products could be made out of the smaller wood and as supplies of sound oak were not abundant in either the West Indies or South Europe, such staves were in great demand to meet the needs of the sugar, wine, and olive oil trade. The staves were ex- ported knocked down, to be made into hogsheads and casks at their destination.
Potash is a product closely associated with early stages in the exploitation of forest products; and it seems certain that small quantities of potash were prepared in the province from an early date. The methods of production, however, were crude and the colonial potash was so far inferior to the Rus- sian and Scandinavian products that it was not an important resource for the colonists until the latter part of the eighteenth century. Substantial efforts were made to improve the pro- cesses of production, and also to provide for inspection to prevent adulteration and fraud; but it seems likely that large exports did not begin until after 1760.
ROYAL REGULATION OF THE FORESTS
The development of the forests became subject to some of the characteristic restrictive measures of the mother country. Such restrictions had two objects: the reservation of the large pines for masts; and the production of naval stores such as tar, pitch, and turpentine. The policy was never well thought out, nor at any time effectively enforced. It took form during a period of diplomatic tension between Great Britain and Sweden, and was maintained thereafter without change,
399
SHIPBUILDING
despite the difficulties of enforcement in the colonies and despite the arrangement of commercial relations with Sweden on a basis which gave Great Britain a larger and cheaper supply of naval stores than could have been secured from the colonies even at the best. The net result was to irritate the colonists beyond measure, without securing significant bene- fit for the mother country.
The reservation of the great pine trees for masts was the most acute single problem. The Royal Navy had a genuine need for the very large trees, as the Scandinavian forests were no longer able to supply the largest sizes. New England was an almost unique source of supply for such large mast timbers throughout the eighteenth century. The Crown set up the theory that it might reserve for the navy all trees above a certain measure standing on land that had not been taken into private use. The Crown asserted further, that it did not regard the undivided lands of townships as taken into private use. The colonists treated this claim as an unjustifiable at- tempt to enforce feudal theories of land holding to their dis- advantage, and they insisted that all lands granted to town proprietors were, in fact, private property and thus entirely beyond the control of the Crown.
Despite the appointment of a surveyor of woods, the Royal officials found it very difficult to compete with the lumbermen, who took especial pleasure in sawing the biggest trees into clapboards and shingles, in which form their size was no longer recognizable. For planks and boards, activities were confined to trees that remained just inside of the prohibitive sizes. The tactless attempts to carry out these restrictive measures brought out for the first time serious divergencies in concepts of constitutional rights, which ultimately led to the Revolution.
SHIPBUILDING
Shipbuilding experienced notable vicissitudes in the course of the eighteenth century. The years 1700-1740 were a period of great activity, especially in Boston where more than half the total tonnage was built. The next twenty years were marked by a substantial decline in the total volume of ship- building. More ships too were built in the smaller towns, and
400
BUSINESS AND TRANSPORTATION
the activity at Boston suffered a serious decline. The industry revived in the decade of the '60's, and by the close of the cen- tury had reached new levels of prosperity.
NUMBER AND TONNAGE OF NEW SHIPS
BOSTON
MASSACHUSETTS
Date
No.
Tons
No.
Tons
1710
21
1530
56
3520
1738
41
6324
(15800)
1749
15
2450
1769
(2700)
137
8013
1770
149
7274
It is commonly supposed that shipbuilding was widely dif- fused along the coast in the early period, and this is true to the extent that ships were built at times in many small places. However, the number of ships built in these smaller places, was not very large, nor was there continuous activity. In many instances several years would elapse between the building of one small craft and the next.
These vessels, too, represented low levels of craftsmanship and still lower levels of honesty in the selection of materials. Lumber that was really unfit for shipbuilding was put into some of these vessels; and as there was no inspection such practices passed unnoticed. Systematic inspection of ship timber and lumber was provided at Boston in the course of the seventeenth century and the quality of vessels built in the Boston yards was notably higher. It is possible, therefore, that the low repute of vessels built in the colony was partly due to the careless workmanship of the contractors working in the small yards up and down the coast. Vessels built in Plymouth County in the North River yards, are cited as illus- trations of the worst practice.
The costs of building in the colonies were relatively low. Towards the close of the period it was said that vessels could be built and equipped in New England for about eight pounds per ton; in the Middle Colonies for eight pounds, ten shillings; in the Carolinas for ten pounds, ten shillings. In England it is difficult to get accurate figures ; but it seems that compara- ble costs in the yards on the River Thames were sixteen
401
COD FISHERIES
pounds, five shillings per ton. The local yards in England showed costs about one pound per ton less than the Thames River yards.
The history of American shipbuilding has commonly made much of the development of the schooner in New England in the eighteenth century. This development is, properly speak- ing, a change in methods of rigging the vessels, which proved to be an especially useful modification for the conditions of navigation along the Atlantic seaboard. Circumstantial stories exist of the invention of the schooner at Gloucester; unfortu- nately they seem to be wholly devoid of foundation, despite the fact that they have been widely circulated for more than fifty years. Morris has shown that the developments of methods of rigging were continuous in European and Ameri- can waters in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth cen- turies. No single changes occur at any moment which are worthy of being described as an invention; nor is the Ameri- can development sharply distinguished from the European, until a relatively late date. The great vogue of what we now call the schooner rig must be ascribed to its peculiar adaptation to local conditions. The word "schooner," which the legends were at such pains to explain, cannot be accounted for.
COD FISHERIES
The development of fisheries seems to be dependent in great measure upon the location of the shipbuilding industry. Apart from casual fishing in coast waters, the location of the fishing banks is a matter of less importance than the possibility of constructing vessels at low cost. The more important branches of the fisheries have commonly been carried on at an appreci- able distance from the home port. Three fairly distinct branches can be distinguished in the history of American fishing. The cod fishery is the oldest, and on the whole by far the most important. Whale fishing is of very large im- portance at particular periods, but this occupation was subject to notable fluctuations and only at rare moments did it ap- proach the cod fishery in general importance. Mackerel and other small fish play a subordinate part throughout all the earlier history.
402
BUSINESS AND TRANSPORTATION
The cod fishery was one of the factors in the early settle- ments at Massachusetts Bay and Cape Ann, and furnished notable resources to all the Massachusetts settlements during the colonial period. This enterprise afforded employment to large numbers of relatively small vessels so that it constituted, in fact, a market for lumber and lumber products from the beginnings of the settlement. It employed a considerable number of men and thus contributed materially to the prosper- ity of several of the coast towns; and as almost the whole products of the fishery were exported, they played a large part in the export balances of the colony.
The best grades of fish were sent to southern Europe whence the returns were brought home partly in salt and wine, but chiefly in specie or bills of exchange. The low grades of fish were sent to the West Indies as food for the slaves, and the returns were ultimately brought home in rum and sugar. On account of the advantages of trade with the French and the Dutch Islands, the fish were frequently sold in the British Islands for specie, which was then taken to the French and Dutch Islands and laid out in sugar and molasses. The Eng- lish Islands were thus drained of specie by the American trade, though little of that specie ever got beyond the foreign sugar islands. Except for the returns from the sales of negroes brought to the West Indies from Africa, only modest amounts of money seem to have come to the seaboard colonies from that quarter.
Although the cod fishery had been important during the seventeenth century, it increased significantly in volume after the Treaty of Utrecht, which gave new privileges to the American fishermen with respect to landing in French terri- tory off the Grand Banks. Hence a striking development, from 1713 until the '30's. Marblehead grew rapidly in im- portance and became the chief center of the cod fishery. Gloucester, though beginning to be significant, was distinctly subordinate to its near neighbor. The French and Indian Wars interfered seriously with the development of the cod fishery, so that a significant revival occurred only after the Peace of Paris of 1763.
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