|
|
he humbly conceaves your Lordshipps will not think it reason-
able an experiment should be made as they desire at the cost
of so many Masters and owners of ships and Traders to those
parts, which the said Gentlemen alleadg no other ground for
but the confident affirmacon of many Knowing men (who may
perhaps have a designe of their owne interest in it) and which
though they please to call it a harmless experiment would
hazard the undoing of a multitude of the lesser Traders to
those parts, as was demonstrated in the reasons exhibited to
the Councill Board against that Proposall which he hath ready
to shew to your Lordshipps if required.
To the last Proposall for lessening the quantity of Tobacco
by a stint, and that the same stint day may be imposed upon
Maryland as Virginia.
First he humbly represents to your Lordshipps that if there be
not a notable lessening of Tobacco by such a stint it will be of
little avail to the end pretended, and if there be, it will be very
prejudiciall to his Matie and the present Termes of the Cus-
tomes, by notably lessening the Customes and excise upon
that Commoditie which he hopes will be alone sufficient to put
a stop to this Proposall.
Secondly he cannot see any ground for the pretended great
necessity of lessening the quantity of Tobacco nor do they
make it out by any proofe but onely things of their owne
affirming which he can as easily deny as they affirme, and he
wonders at their saying that Tobacco is brought to so low and
contemptible a Rate that the Planter is no way able to live by
his labour, strugling daily with such inextricable necessities as
may be justly feared will in time make him desperate and
indanger the peace of the Country, when these consequences
of despair and Mutinie, are much more to be feared from the
way they propose of restraining the Planter in Maryland with-
out a Law of the Country, in their liberty, which they conceive
is their Birthright as Englishmen of planting what quantity
they please of that Commodity, which is to be their money to
buy them clothes, tooles, and all other necessaries for their
subsistence, which priviledge and liberty they hope they have
not lost by adventuring their lives and fortunes thither which
hath produced to his Majestie a revenue of above twenty
thousand pound yearly, which is paid in England for the Cus-
tome and excise of the Tobacco which comes from Maryland
alone, and the Planters there are so farre from any such Pov-
erty as those Gentlemen alleadge and from rot being able to
live by their labours that if there be any that live in a poore
manner it is not from the low price of Tobacco, but from their
owne sloth, ill husbandry, and profusely spending their cropps
in Brandewine, and other liquors, it being evident, and Known
|
P. R. O.
Colonial
Papers. Vol.
XVIII, No.
144.
|
|
