Most people would not estimate high enough for the number of ships plying between Virginia and England. As we saw in the last Note, there was about one ship every three days in the early Eighteenth Century.
Ships from Barbados carried goods to England worth 364,000 Pounds Sterling. Jamaica was only slightly behind this at 332,266 Pounds (these are three year totals for 1714 to 1717). Virginia and Maryland (combined) were in third place at 250,994 Pounds. New England, New York, and Pennsylvania, in total, were less than Virginia. Virginia was large, in comparison, because of the value of tobacco. Barbados and Jamaica shipped a lot of sugar and rum to England.
Looking just at New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, and Carolina, the total imports to England were 300,000 Pounds Sterling. Of this, tobacco accounted for slightly for than one-half. What else did England import? By value, the rankings were 35,000 Pounds for pitch and tar. If one adds turpentine, that would be another 17,000 Pounds. At about 20,000 Pounds each, were rice, logwood, and other goods. Skins and furs were 17,000 Pounds. Brown sugar was 10,000 Pounds. Train oil was almost 8,000 Pounds and whalefins were about 4,000 Pounds Sterling.
Of the goods made in England and shipped to the North American Colonies, woolen manufacturers were 147,000 pounds. Nothing else was more than one-quarter of this. The categories of other items were silk, linnens, cordage, gunpowder, leather, brass, iron (this was about 35,000 Pounds), lead and shot, pewter, and other types of goods.
England also shipped goods from other countries, especially linnens, calicoes, East India goods, and iron & hemp.
The total of the exports to the North American colonies was about 431,000 Pounds Sterling while the imports were about 300,000. It was no wonder that cash was hard to come by in the Colonies. It was flowing to England in greater quantities than it was coming back. This was especially true in the New England Colonies. To make up the deficit there, they were permitted to engage in some overseas trading.
The King was advised that he had a good thing going for himself because he benefited from the custom fees for goods coming into England. Much of what England imported from the Colonies was traded to other nations. In 1717, tobacco consumption in England was running about eight million pounds (weight) while seventeen million pounds were being exported to other nations.
In the three-year period, the number of British ships cleared for foreign ports was 5,663, while only 330 foreign ships called in England.
(21 Oct 03)
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.