The total value of the articles exported, as American produce, during the year 1770, from the Colonies, now the United States, including those exported from other Provinces, and from New-Foundland, Bahama, and Bermuda, was £3,356,159 10 2 As little was exported from the other Provinces and the islands, except fish from New-Foundland, the value of the exports from the Colonies, now the United States, in that year, must have been, at least, three millions sterling, or about thirteen and a half millions of dollars. The value of imports from Great-Britain into the Colonies, for several years previous to 1775, was different in different years, in consequence of those disputes, which led to a separation, and of the nonimportation agreements entered into among the Colonists. The annual value of imports, on an average of six years, ending with 1774, of British manufactures, was The value of other articles, on an average of the same period, was Making for both £2,216,970 515,066 £2,732,036* It is difficult also to ascertain the amount of tonnage employed in the trade of the Colonies, and particularly the amount owned by the Colonists themselves. The amount of tonnage entered from January 5th, 1770, to January 5th, 1771, was three hundred thirty-one thousand six hundred and forty-four, and the amount cleared, three hundred fifty-one thousand six hundred and eighty-six. It will be observed, that the amount is taken from the custom-house books, and includes the entry of the same vessel, two or three times, or as often as the voyages were in the course of the year, and repeated although the tonnage as registered is generally less than the real amount, yet the tonnage as entered and cleared is probably much above its real amount. The tonuage of * See report of the Lords of the committee of privy council, for trade, in Acheson's collection of reports and papers, on the navigation and trade of Great-Britain. vessels built in the Colonies in the years 1769, 1770, and 1771,* was as follows, viz. Of this amount, a little more than one half was built in Massachusetts and New-Hampshire. The trade of the Colonies was no doubt highly beneficial to Great-Britain, and was made more so, as she conceived, by her system of colonial policy; and while she confined herself to the regulation of the external trade of the Colonies, the Colonists acquiesced, though many of those regulations were considered by them, as injurious and oppressive. But when Parliament not only imposed internal taxes upon the Colonies, without their consent, but declared, that they had a right to bind them in all cases whatsoever, this led to a resistance on their part, which finally ended in a separation. Some account of the footing on which the trade of the United States was placed with Great-Britain, and her dependencies, subsequent to the peace of 1783, will be given hereafter. See Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, vol. 3, p. 570. TABLE No. I. An account of the value, in sterling money, of the imports of the several Provinces under-mentioned in the year 1769.* *The above account of imports and exports is taken from Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, Vol. 3d, pages 571-2. 2,623,412 6 3 TABLE No. I.-CONTINUED. An account of the value, in sterling money, of the exports of the several Provinces under-mentioned in the year 1769. Connecticut, 2,567 4 5 40,431 8 4 96 11 3 550,089 19 2 113,382 8 8 50,885 13 0 66,324 17 5 1,313 2 6 231,906 17 New-Jersey, 759,961 5 0 Virginia, North-Carolina, South-Carolina, 405,014 13 1 72,881 Georgia, 82,270 2 3 614 2 2,531 16 5 747.910 TOTAL, 1,531,516 8 6552,736 11 3 120,278 5 1 (2,852,441 & 4 TABLE No. II. at the ports of exportation, during the year 1770.* An account of the principal articles exported from all the British Continenmuda, with the places to which they were sent, and their official value, tal Colonies, including the islands of New-Foundland, Bahama, and Ber It is to be rably under the real amount. the prices are rated by the official valuation, and consequently are consideBritain, as also in the subsequent one of the exports of the whole Colonies, all the Colonies, who have since withdrawn their allegiance from Greatremembered, that in the account I have given of the trade of to errors which I saw, but had no means of correcting. are of no use in a general view, but their value is retained in the totals. ular numbers, owing partly to the omission of the fractional parts, and partly attentive reader may find some disagreements between the totals and the partic• In this account I have omitted the fractional parts of the quantities, which The |