Colonial Trade Quotes
Hong Kong was not always a successful city or colony. In 1844 the British were thinking of swapping it for a better colony. However, in a rare combination of synergistic development of a colony, the great strengths of the Chinese and that of the English combined to make Hong Kong one of the best and well developed cities in the world. Few imperial colonies turned out as well.
See {641497} for a quote from the Grenville speech. Fox, a conservative on most issues was an absolute radical on the issue of America. To aggravate the hawks in parliament, he used to dress in the colors of George Washington’s uniform to show his support once the war broke out.
The actor and many others refused to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee investigations into alleged communist activity and was blacklisted by the move industry for over a decade. See {588759} and {588760}.
Ironically America bought the Louisiana Territory from the French, and the French traded Canada to England for Guadalupe. These are probably the two worst real estate deals ever made by a nation—and it was the same nation in both cases.
Wilkes was a strong advocate for the American cause—so much so that some in Parliament tried to deny him his seat in Parliament for his disloyal point of view.
This was one of the first and is considered the best of the Colonial arguments against taxation without representation. The argument here about exports also affected other commodities—see {636866}. Despite this, Dulany is not well known in American history because when the Revolution finally came he was a loyalist.
We are so used to hearing the freedom seeking reasons for the American Revolution that we overlook the more selfish and venal motives. This quotation shows that the large merchants of the colonies had banded together in an illegal conspiracy trust and monopoly and managed to keep many British competitive products out of the colonies. The British, for equally venal reasons, began to enforce the laws in favor of free trade. Many large American merchants were getting huge profits (and American consumers paying more) from their protectionist illegal monopoly. A Revolution would de facto assure that monopoly for many years to come, so they became supporters—patriots—of the American Revolution. As the Revolution drew closer, the Americans made efforts to protect the protectionism and monopoly of some of the richest Americans. See {636861}.
The American colonists were not allowed to sell their tobacco or other commodities directly to foreign nations. They could only sell them to English merchants who in turn would sell them to foreign markets. Thus, the large profits on American tobacco were made by English merchants and not by American farmers or merchants.
The American Colonies were very diverse culturally, educationally, sociologically and economically as the States are in modern times. Despite the intellectuals of Boston, most of New England at the time of the Revolution was much less sophisticated than New York and Philadelphia.
He was asking for permission to issue more paper currency.
This was an expression of concern from the merchants of Rhode Island to England regarding curtailing aspects of the slave trade. Ironically, this Remonstrance is one of the first documents objecting to the management of America’s affairs by England when America had no representation. Therefore it played a part in the process which culminated in the American Revolution and freedom from England. And yet the subject was not freedom at all but just the opposite—the prerogative of maintaining the slave trade. Note that the appeal to the Board of Trade was not couched in ethical or political argument but as a mercantile argument—Rhode Islander’s would import less British goods.
