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"bers. And fhall alfo, fome time before the faid expiration, affign to her Majefty all the
"debts due to them, which debts fhe engages to re-affign, in ten days after, unto trustees,
"for answering the faid old company's debts; and afterward for the benefit of their members.
"And they alfo covenant to refign their charter, in two months after the expiration of the
faid feven years, into the Queen's hands. Whereupon, the new company fhall thencefor-
"ward be cailed, The united Company of Merchants of England trading to the East Indies:
"whofe affairs fhall thenceforth be conducted by their own fole directors, agreeable to their
"charter of the tenth of King William."-The remaining articles are purely temporary, as
indeed fome of the foregoing ones alfo are.
"And,

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Laftly, The Queen promifes, that this indenture fhall be conftrued in the most favourable "fenfe for the advantage of both companies."

Thus, a prudent ftop was put to much contention, on account of thefe two East India Companies.

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Upon advice received by General Codrington, Governor of the Leeward Islands, that war was declared by England against France, he attacked the French part of the island of St. Christopher, and poffeffed himself of it with very little trouble :-ever fince which time that fine ifland has been folely in the poffeffion of Great Britain, having been formally ceded to us by the treaty of Utrecht.

It is poffible that the origin of the prefent great production of the fine rice of South Carolina, might have happened about this time. What the anonymous author of, The Importance of the British Plantations in America, (London, 1701) has faid on this fubject is well worth recording, though he has not given us the exact year of its origin. It is alfo, a feafonable leffon for men never to despair of many more new productions in thofe colonies, and is therefore fubmitted to The honourable Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce.

"A brigantine," fays that author, "from the ifle of Madagascar, happened to put in at "Carolina, having a little feed-rice left, which the Captain gave to a gentleman of the name "of Woodward. From part of this he had a very good crop, but was ignorant for some "years how to clean it. It was foon difperfed over the province, and by frequent experiments "and observations, they found out ways of producing and manufacturing it to fuch great per"fection, that it is thought to exceed any other in value. The writer of this hath feen the "faid Captain in Carolina, where he received a handfome gratuity from the gentlemen of that

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country, in acknowledgement of the fervice he had done that province. It is likewise re"ported, that Mr. Dubois, then Treasurer of the Eaft India Company, did fend to that country a small bag of feed-rice fome short time after, from whence it is reasonable enough "to fuppofe might come those two forts of that commodity, the one called red rice, in con"tradiftinction to the white, from the redness of the inner huik or rind of this fort, although they both clean and become white alike."

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Before this important new production, Carolina was not a little puzzled to fupply her mother-country with merchandize fufficient to pay for all the neceffaries they conftantly wanted from England: that fine grain, we fall fee, has fince been exported in immenfe quantities, as have also been the pitch, tar, turpentine, &c. of Carolina, in no inconfiderable quantities and value.

The neceffity which all maritime trading nations find, of being supplied with naval stores, and more especially England's very great need thereof, as well for the royal navy, as for her

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1703 numerous mercantile fhipping, has often put it in the power of the northern crowns to diftrefs fuch nations as had none of their own. This eminently appeared in the year 1703, from the Tar Company of Sweden, who abfolutely refused to let the English nation have any pitch or tar, although ready money was always paid for it, unless England would permit it all to be brought in Swedish fhipping, and at their own price, and likewife only in fuch quantities as that company should please to permit. This difappointment, as the late ingenious Mr. Gee likewife obferved, in his Trade and Navigation of Great Britain confidered, p. 82, "put the Government and Parliament on the method of allowing of bounties for the raifing of pitch and tar, hemp, flax, and ship-timber, in our North American colonies; as particularly in Carolina, "the fouthernmoft parts of which lying near the latitude of lower Egypt, and the northern"moft nearly with Ancona and Bologna in Italy; at which parts the beft hemp and flax "grow." The firft ftatute of this kind was the act of the third and fourth of Queen Anne, cap. x. For encouraging the Importation of Naval Stores from her Majefty's Plantations in America judicioufly fetting forth, that, under God, the wealth, ftrength, and fafety of the kingdom, fo much depend on the royal navy and navigation thereof, and that the ftores neceffary for the fame being hitherto brought in chiefly from foreign parts, and by foreign fhipping, at exorbitant and arbitrary rates,-which might be provided in a more certain and "beneficial manner from her Majefty's plantations in America, where the vast tracts of land

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lying near the fea, and on navigable rivers, may commodioufly afford great quantities of "all forts of naval ftores, by due encouragement, which may likewife tend to the further em"ployment and increase of English shipping and feamen, and alfo of the trade and vent of the "woollen and other manufactures and product, in exchange for fuch naval ftores, now pur"chafed of foreign countries for ready money-It was therefore now enacted, that whoever shall, in ships and with failors qualified as by the acts of navigation, import from the English plantations in America, the under-named naval ftores, fhall be entitled to the "following bounties, viz.

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"For good and merchantable tar and pitch, per ton of eight barrels
--- rozin or turpentine, per ton

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For hemp, water-rotted, bright and clean, per ton of twenty cwt. "For all mafts, yards, and bowfprits, per ton, of forty feet each ton

£. s. d. 4

3

6

I

I. "Provifo,-That for the particular benefit of the royal navy, the pre-emption or refusal ❝of the faid naval ftores fhall be tendered to the commiffioners of her Majesty's navy, upon landing the fame: and if within twenty days the navy board shall not bargain for the fame, then the proprietors may difpofe of them to their best advantage.

2. "That none within the colonies of New Hampshire, Massachuset's Bay, Rhode Island, "and Providence Plantation, the Narraganfet Country, or King's Province, and Connecticut "in New England; and in New York, and New Jerfey; fhall prefume to cut, fell, or de"stroy any pitch pine trees, or tar trees, not being within any inclofure, under the growth of "twelve inches diameter, at three feet from the earth, on forfeiture of five pounds for each "offence.-Nor,

3. Shall any one wilfully fet fire to any woods or foreft, in which are any trees prepared "for the making of pitch or tar, without first giving notice to the owners thereof, or to a ma"giftrate under the penalty of ten pounds."

This ftatute to be in force for nine years, from the first of January 1705, (old stile).”

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The good confequence of which feasonable law was foon after felt; as these provinces, and also thofe of Carolina, do, even at this time, import into England great quantities of merchantable pitch and tar, fit for moft ufes in the navy. Of late, alfo, good hemp and flax are raised in the faid provinces, where there are fuch immenfe quantities of proper and excellent lands for the raifing of thofe commodities; of which two laft-mentioned articles, Mr. Gee was of opinion, that Ruffia, in the year 1729, exported annually to Great Britain, and other nations, to the value of one million fterling.

Upon this occafion, there were computations laid before the government of the following quantities of foreign pitch and tar, annually confumed in Europe, viz.

1. Britain and Ireland, annually about

2. By Holland, as well for their home-ufe, as for what they export to Spain, Portugal, and up the Mediterranean,

3. By France,

4. By Hamburg, Lubeck, and other German ports,

1000 Lafts.

4000

500

500

In all, 6000 Lafts.

Of which four-fifth parts confifted of tar, and one fifth of pitch. Note, That befides Sweden, from whence they chiefly come, there are confiderable quantities thereof made in Norway, and alfo in Ruffia, brought from Archangel.

By the thirtieth clause of an act of the eighth year of Queen Anne, cap. xiii. the Queen is empowered to apply ten thousand pounds out of the fupplies granted in that feffion of Parliament, “.For the fubfiftence and employment of a number of fkilful people, and for furnishing "of fit utenfils and materials for effectually carrying on the faid good and profitable defigns of "raising such naval ftores from the growths and products of the faid plantations."

By an act of the ninth of Queen Anne, cap. xvii. “One hundred pounds penalty was in"flicted on any cutting down white, or other pine-trees, not private property, in thofe plan"tations, of twenty-four inches diameter, or upwards, twelve inches from the earth. And "the Queen's furveyor-general of her woods in America, fhall mark all fuch trees as fhall be "fit for the royal navy with a broad-arrow, for the ufe of the public."

By an act of the twelfth of Queen Anne,, cap. ix. "the before-mentioned law was renewed, "and the fame bounties are allowed for naval ftores brought from Scotland :" though to little or no purpose hitherto; although it be true, as the laft-named ftatute remarks, "That there "is in feveral parts of Scotland great store of pine and fir-trees, fit for mafts, and for the ma"king of pitch, tar, rofin, and other naval stores." But the act itself affigns the true reafon why they cannot be easily or cheaply brought to England, viz. "Because the lands and woods "which may yield fuch naval ftores, are moftly in parts mountainous and remote from navi"gable rivers." This the York-Buildings Company experienced, to their coft, fome years after this time the timber they felled in fome of thofe woods, at a great expence, being left to rot on the ground, the carriage of it to the nearest places of navigation being found impracticable; which will probably ever be the cafe with refpect to Scotland, notwithstanding the bounties allowed by that act, or any larger bounties to be reasonably granted.

The Czar of Ruffia, Peter the Great, having conquered from Sweden the fine provinces of Livonia, Ingria, and Carelia, formed a grand project in this year 1703, for opening a free and new communication between Ruffia and the Baltic Sea.-His great genius had difcovered, that certain islands at the mouth of the river Neva, at the bottom of the Finland Gulph, VOL. III. might

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1703 might be fo fortified, as to prove to Ruffia of equal benefit for war or for commerce: hence fprung up the fort of Cronflot, now a commodious haven for his fhips of war, by which all fhips muft pafs.

That Prince alfo viewed the adjacent country with fatisfaction; and, in fhort, determined to erect a new metropolis and emporium at the mouth of the river Neva, from whence he might more commodiously awe his enemies of the north, and alfo open a naval communication, from the Baltic, with the reft of Europe, by a much fhorter and fafer courfe than from Archangel. He confidered also, that by erecting a royal city and port there, though in the fixtieth degree of north latitude, he fhould acquire a greater influence, by means of his navy, in the Baltic, and even in the Northern and German oceans. He therefore brought thither a vaft number of labourers and artificers from all parts of his vaft empire, with implements, materials, tools, &c. many thousands of whom are faid to have perished through cold, hunger, and distempers, in that damp place, which gave him little concern: yet, in the end, he furmounted all obftacles.-And having, through his defpotic fway, obliged his nobility, merchants, artizans, &c. to erect and inhabit houfes in this new city; and, by encouragements, to get many fea-faring people, &c. from Livonia, and other parts, to fettle in it, he gave it the name of St. Petersburgh, which very foon became a large and populous city.

It was objected by the people of Wologda, a city in fifty-nine degrees of north latitude, that fhould their handicrafts be removed from that city, where three German merchants alone employed upwards of twenty-five thousand perfons, in dreffing of hemp and flax, for the Archangel market, their provifions at Petersburgh would come much dearer, and fo they fhould lofe their trade :-Yet the Czar over-ruled even this point.

Mr. De Dieu, the Dutch refident with the Czar, in the year 1720, acquaints his principals, that Petersburgh might then contain about three hundred thousand fouls; a thing scarcely credible to be effected in thefe modern times, and much more refembling the power of the ancient oriental monarchs than any modern potentate. Here he cftablished his admiralty, his mathematical schools, his royal academies, founderies, &c. and his docks are at Cronflot, fifteen or twenty miles lower down; alfo his powder-mills, paper-mills, &c. where also there is a good town built, and where he established rope-walks, anchor-fmiths, &c. At this new city of St. Petersburgh were likewife eftablished manufactories of woollen, linen, &c. and every ufeful art for the improvement of the trade and navigation, as well as the general knowledge of his people; obliging them alfo to fend their children thither for that end.-And, in confequence of thefe vaft schemes, and of his poffeffing the fine port of Revel in Livonia, we have, fince the building of Peterburgh, feen that moft unufual, and abfolutely new fight, of a Ruffian fleet triumphant in the Baltic Sea, obliging the fleets of their opponents there, to flrelter themfelves under the cannon of their fortreffes..

By the erection of this new city, the port of Archangel, in the White Sea, to which formerly there ufually reforted yearly above one hundred fhips, chiefly English, Dutch, French, Hamburgers, &c. is fince confiderably declined in its commerce; its former cuftoms having by fome been reckoned to amount to one hundred thousand pounds flerling annually. Riga alfo, and Narva, will probably be more and more impaired in their commerce, if Petersburgh continues to flourish, as this laft-named city is fo commodioufly fituated for the transportation of Ruffian merchandize, by the river Neva, and the great lakes Ladoga and Onega, as well as by landcarriage, into and from the interior parts of the Ruffian empire, from whence, and from Livonia, &c. that city is well fupplied with whatever it has nced of..

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Thus, this modern empire may boaft of more than either the Grecian or Roman empire could, viz. of its dominions ftretching, fouth-weftward, from the Hyperborean ocean to the Baltic fea; from the Baltic to the Euxine and Cafpian feas, fouthward, and, eastward, even to the confines of the vaft empire of China; a very great part of which territories have been acquired within little more than two hundred years paft; and fome of the best parts of it by the fame great Czar Peter; as, particularly, the noble and most fertile province of Livonia, fo commodiously fituated for commerce, as well in refpect of its bays, ports, lakes, and rivers, as for a communication with the Ruffian inland provinces, and with Lithuania, for its excellent ftaple commodities of the best hemp in Europe, of pot-afhes, timber of many forts, iron, fteel, flax, corn, cavear, wax, honey, &c. Petersburgh, however, is attended with fome great inconveniences, from its watery fituation, and the overflowing of the river Neva.

Befide these achievements and improvements of the Czar Peter, he caufed a canal to be dug between the river Veronefe, or Woronitz, and another small one falling into the great river Volga, whereby a communication was to be opened between the latter and the river Don, the one falling into the Cafpian, and the other into the Black Sea: it was performed by Captain John Perry, an Englishman, who likewife, by that great Prince's order, had partly finished. a much more confiderable work, being a grand canal cut between the Volga and the Don, nearer the mouth of those two huge rivers; but the taking of Azoph from him by the Turks, as elsewhere related, put a stop to that vast design.

The almost unparalleled tempeft which happened in November 1703, more especially round the fouthern coafts of Great Britain, was undoubtedly a great calamity, not only by reafon of the deftruction of many fine Englifh fhips of war, but of a great number of merchant ships, and their valuable cargoes, as well as of the lives of a confiderable number of commanders, officers, and failors; and was, without doubt, fome obftruction to the increafe of the nation's wealth. Nevertheless, it appears by Dr. D'Avenant's report to the commiffioners of accounts, in the year 1712, part i. p. 43, who was then infpector-general of the cuftoms, that England's exports in this fame year, to all parts of the world, amounted to fix millions fix hundred and forty-four thousand two hundred and three pounds; of which fum there was exported to Holland alone, two millions four hundred and feventeen thousand eight hundred and ninety pounds, being above one-third of our whole exports. We have, in our Introduction, accounted for the vastnefs of our exports to Holland; and, upon the whole, the number of great ships we and the Dutch took this fame year at Vigo, and the treasure we brought home from thence, befide what was destroyed, might nearly counterbalance the lofs England fuftained by the said storm.

In this fame famous year, John Methuen, Efq. concluded, on the part of the Queen of Great Britain, a famous, though concife treaty of commerce with Peter, King of Portugal, much to the benefit of both nations, viz.

Article I. "The King of Portugal, on his part, ftipulates, both in his own name, and "thofe of his fucceffors, to admit for ever hereafter into Portugal, the woollen cloths, and "the reft of the woollen manufactures of the Britains," (thefe are the very words of this treaty, as printed in the fourth volume of Treaties of Peace and Commerce, in the year 1732) "as "was accustomed till they were prohibited by the laws; nevertheless, upon this condition : "II. That her Royal Majesty of Great Britain shall, in her own name and that of her "fucceffors, be obliged for ever hereafter to admit the wines of the growth of Portugal into "Britain: fo that at no time, whether there fhall be peace or war between the kingdoms of C 2 66 Great

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