144	Perspectives in American History-

indices show healthy rates of growth in these decades, though we
lack a good series for fish and shipbuilding. English exports to the
thirteen colonies were 4.6 times as much in 1772-1774 as they
had been in 1737-1739, while those to New England alone had in-
creased 3. 73-fold (real values).34 All indications are that the coastal
trade of Massachusetts as a whole was growing throughout the
century'.33 Yet, Boston's own commerce did not fully participate
in this growth. Its tonnage cleared out in 1754-1755 was hardly
higher than it had been in 1714-1717, though by 1772 it had in-
creased about 60 percent over its 1754 level. (A more marked in-
crease could be shown if we used the inward tonnage.)36

Paradoxically, then, while Boston's population stagnated after
1740, its commerce and that of Massachusetts Bay continued to
grow, if somewhat irregularly. Whatever retardation Boston's sea-
born commerce experienced in the 1740*5 and early 1750'$ was
amply compensated for thereafter. Analytically, Boston seems ^to
have been affected by a combination of temporary misfortunes and
more lasting structural change. The start of the British- Spanish war
in 1739 probably affected Massachusetts more than any other con-
tinental colony, for Spain was such an important market for New
England fish. With the loss of this market, Boston's merchants
would have lost part of the wherewithal to purchase European
goods; at the same time, owing to the severe winters and bad har-
vests in western Europe in 1739-1741, the cereal-exporting colonies
to the southward were earning unprecedentedly large balances in
Europe and the means thereby to make their own purchases directly
in Britain without going through Boston. Jpnce the merchants of
New York, Phil.-idelpliiq, and ekewViprghad expandedthe CoTi-
nerrion^ rif"~f'cc'"y fi~ğr i/-qm'r4r|g g/^^-jc fjjtvfflv in Britain, it wastb
prove almost impossible to force them to give up these efficient

34. John J. McCuskcr, "The Current Value of English Exports, 1697 to 1800," Wil-
liam and A/iiry Quarterly, 3d ser., zS (1971), 624-625. The better-known official values
(from Whirworth) can be found in U. S. Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics oftiie
United States (Washington, D.C., 1960), P- 757-

35. Klingaman, "Food Surpluses and Deficits," pp. 563-565.

36. U. S. Historical Statistics, p. 759.