Mr. Pitt's proposals with reference to trade with America
Mr. Pitt resigns, and a temporary Act ensues. United States was attended with much greater difficulty. Here was an extensive and flourishing maritime commerce, averaging nearly 3,500,000l. yearly, which had hitherto been open to English and American vessels, indifferently, but which was now, by the operation of our Navigation Laws, confined entirely to the former.[1] It was then that the strength and elasticity of our exclusive system were first severely tested. Mr. Pitt foresaw this serious difficulty so early as 1783 when Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the necessity of immediately introducing a temporary measure to regulate the commercial intercourse with the now independent States of North America. The Bill then actually introduced by Mr. Pitt proposed to allow American vessels to import into our colonies any articles whatever of the growth, produce, or manufacture of the United States, and to export any articles from our colonies to the United States. But, unfortunately, while this wise measure was under the consideration of the House of Commons, the ministry to which Mr. Pitt belonged resigned, and their successors, to save themselves the trouble of passing a Bill of this prudent and necessary character, passed a temporary Act, afterwards renewed from time to time, vesting in the Crown alone the power of regulating the trade with America.
As might have been anticipated, considerable discussion immediately arose with regard to the manner
- ↑ See a review of the 'History of the Navigation Laws of England from the Earliest Times,' by a Barrister, a most able exposition, from the pen (I understand) of Sir Stafford H. Northcote, Bart., now (1875) Chancellor of the Exchequer, published by Ridgway, London, 1849.
