2 Jan 1718/19. The Commissioners at the Board of Trade received a copy of a letter to the Governors of the Plantations concerning the war with Spain. Also, on this date the Commissioners sent Commissions for trying pirates in the Plantations. [Special people were appointed for this purpose.]
On this same date, Mr. Gee and Mr. Astell, the latter a merchant interested in the trade of naval stores, outlined to the Commissioners their views on the possibilities of obtaining timber, iron, pitch, tar, potash, and hemp from the American Plantations, instead of from the Baltic countries.
5 Jan 1718/19. Sir Charles Wager, one of the Lords of the Admiralty, and Mr. Ackworth, Surveyor of the Navy, attended the Commissioners and discussed the encouragement to be given to raise the production of iron, mast timber, hemp, pitch, tar, turpentine, and potash in the Plantations. The Commissioners decided to consider the matter further.
8 Jan 1718/19. Sir Dudley and Mr. Pultney, Commissioners of H.M.'s Customs, discussed further the proposals for reducing the Custom's duty on naval stores from the Plantations.
13 Jan 1718/19. The Commissioners and representatives of the Admiralty considered further the question of naval stores.
20 Jan 1718/19. With representatives of the Exchequer, Customs, Treasury, and Admiralty, the Commissioners continued their examination of proposals for encouraging the increased importation of naval stores from the Plantations into Britain. It was decided to recommend that the import duties on Plantation timber be entirely removed, those on hemp be reduced, and those on pitch and tar be left unchanged, with stricter safeguards against fraud. Two days later they approved a clause, added in the House of Commons to an Act of Parliament, to introduce stricter examination of pitch and tar. [There was no mention of iron as this was not being imported at the time.]
22 Jan 1718/19. All of the people just recently mentioned discussed the encouragement to be given to the importation of iron and hemp from the Plantations into Britain, and the measures required to deter the colonies from establishing their own iron manufactory for the production of consumer goods for their own use.
[People were considering giving some encouragement to iron production, IF procedures were set into place to prevent the "colonials" from manufacturing iron goods for the consumer own market there. Britain was willing to import iron to satisfy their national needs (replacing the iron purchased from the Baltic countries), but only if the Plantations did not produce consumer goods. There was an awareness that iron could be produced in the Plantations, but the tone of the comments was that none was being produced yet. This point is also proven in other ways. So, when the First Colony left Germanna at the beginning of 1719 (NS), which is the time under discussion, there was an awareness that Virginia could produce iron, but none had been produced yet. The first iron furnace remained to be built in Virginia.]
(06 Sep 00)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.