Note 50 — Chapter I

The expression is Governor Bernard's in January, 1764 (Frothingham's Rise of the Republic, 123, note). The consequences of breaking up the West India trade by the enforcement of the navigation laws, and its influence upon the minds of the commercial colonies, will more fully appear in the following facts. The sugar colonies, being cultivated by slaves, afforded an insufficient market for English manufactures. Consequently, the large ships which were needed to bring off sugar and molasses were obliged to proceed thither without profitable freight. But the Northern colonies, and New England in particular, could supply the islands with the commodities they needed,—cattle, horses, lumber for buildings, casks for sugar and molasses. A cargo of these commodities sent to the islands was exchanged for sugar and molasses, which were brought to New England; or for bullion, which, with a cargo of sugar, was carried to Old England. The freight money and bullion were exchanged for British merchandise, which was brought to New England, thus making a profitable double voyage. With her advantages of position and of profitable freight, New England also became the carrier of the sugar of the French islands to Spain.