Necessity, Therefore, And The Example Of Portugal Gave
Birth To The Negro Slave Trade To The Coast Of Guinea And
It is almost
needless to add, that such great numbers of slaves, and also the increase
of white people in
Those islands, soon created a vast demand for all
necessaries from England, and also a new and considerable trade to Madeira
for wines to supply those islands." The immediate consequence of the spread
of the sugar culture in our West India islands was, that the ports of
London and Bristol became the great magazines for this commodity, and
supplied all the north and middle parts of Europe; and the price of the
Portuguese-Brazil sugars was reduced from 8_l_. to 2_l_. 10_s_. per cwt.
The rapid growth of the English colonies on the continent and in the
islands of America, during the seventeenth century, is justly ascribed by
Sir Josiah Child, to the emigration thither, occasioned by the persecution
of the Puritans by James I. and Charles I.; to the defeat of the Royalists
and Scotch by Cromwell; and, lastly, to the Restoration, and the consequent
disbanding of the army, and fears of the partizans of Cromwell. It may be
added, that most of the men who were driven to America from these causes,
were admirably fitted to form new settlements, being of industrious habits,
and accustomed to plain fare and hard work.
The American plantations, as they were called, increased so rapidly in
commerce that, according to the last author referred to, they did, even in
the year 1670, employ nearly two-thirds of all our English shipping, "and
therefore gave constant sustenance, it may be, to 200,000 persons here at
home." At this period New England seems to have directed its chief
attention and industry to the cod and mackerel fisheries, which had
increased their ships and seamen so much as to excite the jealousy of Sir
Josiah Child, who, however, admits that what that colony took from England
amounted to ten times more than what England took from it. The Newfoundland
fishery, he says, had declined from 250 ships in 1605, to eighty in 1670:
this he ascribes to the practice of eating fish alone on fast days, not
being so strictly kept by the Catholics as formerly. From Carolina, during
the seventeenth century, England obtained vast quantities of naval stores,
staves, lumber, hemp, flax, and Indian corn. About the end of this century,
or at the very commencement of the next, the culture of rice was introduced
by the accident of a vessel from Madagascar happening to put into Carolina,
which had a little rice left; this the captain gave to a gentleman, who
sowed it.
The colony of Virginia seems to have flourished at an earlier period than
any of the other English colonies. In the year 1618, considerable
quantities of tobacco were raised there; and it appears, by proclamations
of James I. and Charles I., that no tobacco was allowed to be imported into
England, but what came from Virginia or the Bermudas.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 327 of 524
Words from 170187 to 170699
of 273188
