HUNT'S

MERCHANTS' MAGAZINE

AND

COMMERCIAL REVIEW.

FEBRUARY, 1854.

Art. I.--COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES.

NO. V.

COMMERCE AND THE FISHERIES LEADING OBJECTS OF THE PLYMOUTH SETTLERS-THEIR ENLARGED IDEAS IN RELATION TO TRADE-AGREEMENT WITH THE ENGLISH MERCHANTS-PROGRESS OF THE COLONY-BRITISH FISHERY AT NEW ENGLAND-VIRGINIA TOBACCO-NEW AMSTERDAM-EFFORT OF THE PLYMOUTH COUNCIL TO ESTABLISH THEIR EXCLUSIVE RIGHT IN THE NEW ENGLAND SEASTHE LACONIA COMPANY-ENGLISH MONOPOLIES-TREATY OF THE PURITANS AND DUTCH-COMPANY OF NEW FRANCE-CLAYBORNE-CONNECTICUT, ETC., ETC.

THE Puritan congregation which migrated from the North of England to Holland in the early part of the reign of James I., had been agriculturists solely, before their removal, but in their new home were obliged to a dependence upon the mechanical arts mainly, which were there in a much more forward state than in England. Some of them, also, in the leading commercial nation of the world, yielded to the temptation of the profits to be acquired in the mercantile profession. In the situation in which they were thus placed, they found, it is true, that their spiritual objects either suffered, or were likely to suffer; but it was not to escape from Commerce and manufactures that they determined on another emigration from Holland to America, but to avoid the too ready inclination, as they regarded it, resulting from these pursuits, and from other circumstances connected with their position, to commingle with the Dutch people, and to reduce their own high moral and religious sentiments to the lower standard there prevailing. In America, it was never any part of their idea to return entirely to their original occupation, but from the first they designed to transplant to that region the practice of the new arts and pursuits which they had learned at Amsterdam and Leyden. The very desire of conserving their peculiar religious principle and social organization taught them the necessity of building up to its support a power of wealth and political strength in the colony they had projected, and they well understood how this end

was best to be accomplished. Hence, Commerce and the arts were cherished among the very foremost objects of the pilgrims. Instead of flying to a wilderness to avoid what has been called the contaminating spirit of trade, they went thither purposely that they might give to that spirit full liberty of exercise, without fear of its introducing them to a too intimate communion with principles, customs, and manners with which, though found connected, they did not consider it to have any legitimate relationship. They designed an exemplification of the fact they were well assured of, although some might doubt it then, as a few affect to do now, that good merchants may be not only fair men, but strict Christians, even after the straitest sect. Had they come directly from their first home to America, at the time the persecution of James drove them out, their views would, likely, have been something more contracted; but their sojourn in Holland furnished an excellent school for men who were to found new states in a wilderness, and, joined with their own former good qualities, made them the most efficient colonists ever sent out by England to any part of the

world.

It was indeed not likely that any people not having an inclination toward mercantile pursuits should at that time project settlements in New England, or indeed within any part of the United States. All the examinations of the country had been made with reference to its commercial capacities. All the published accounts were devoted to the detail of its exchangeable riches, and to speculations upon the profits and magnitude of the trade which might, through colonization, be built up. Such was particularly the case with Capt. John Smith's publications, which furnished by far the most full and accurate description yet made of either Virginia or New England. Of course, intelligent men designing a removal to so remote a country, could not but have consulted the leading authority for some knowledge of its nature; and we are told by the great adventurer himself, that they had met with his book and map upon New England, and had their thoughts directed thither by their examination. The principal topic of this book is the fisheries; and Smith's statements on this point had been confirmed by the voyages, which, though limited in number, had been for some years regularly made to that quarter. Here was one established means of commercial pursuit in America, a good market being certain in Europe for whatever amount of fish might be taken. The idea of the fisheries and the trade therewith connected became then, (as it could not but occur where so little else was known of the country, and this was a resource promising so well,) a leading element in the calculations of the Puritans. It appears, according to Gov. Winslow, that while their agents were in England in 1618, soliciting of James his consent to their emigration to America, he asked them what profit would accrue to England therefrom, and they-showing their ideas at that time-answered in a single word, "Fishing," which James was pleased to declare an honest trade. The fisheries, it is true, were mainly confined to the coast of New England, and the Puritans eventually determined on a region a little to the south; still it was not known how far along the coast the business might be followed, and, at all events, New England was easily within reach from the proposed point. But it is certain, also, that they had entertained serious thoughts of settling in New England. Smith speaks of their settlement there as designed from the first; and it apthat Weston, an English merchant, who had a leading part in the affair, and was one of those who furnished them the means of reaching

pears

America, advised them to settle in New England, with which he kept up a constant intercourse, offering, as the chief reason, the profit to be derived from the fishery and fish trade. Most of the other merchants who assisted them had also been engaged in adventures to that quarter, and were likely to favor their settlement there. It is probable that they unwillingly changed their intended location to a point further south only from the dispute in which the Plymouth Company, from which they would have to obtain their charter, was involved. On being carried to New England, they seem at no time to have had any desire to leave it for the place they had purposed Occupying.

And as well as profiting by Commerce and manufactures, it was the design of the Puritans to do so in the most enlarged sense. They had no exclusive ideas on this point. The guardianship of a peculiar form of religion and society did not in the least indispose them to a general contact with mankind. It might be supposed, that fleeing from what they considered the vices and errors of the Dutch, they would design, for the very object of carrying out the intention of their removal, to cut off correspondence with Holland. But, on the contrary, they earnestly desired from the outset to maintain intercourse with that country. If Holland had not been deemed a suitable home for them, yet, for a time, it had been their selected abode, as affording them a better security and a wider privilege than was to be found in any other part of Europe. If Holland had modes not congenial with their system, and vices which threatened to submerge the principles of their youth, they could not but gratefully remember the toleration there accorded to them-the entire freedom of thought, and of all they claimed in speech and in action. They had lived there long enough, too, to form pleasant relations with many of the Dutch people, which they would not now totally interrupt. The character of the Puritans, likewise, had become known, understood, and respected in Holland, and nowhere could they stand on so favorable relations for trade as with the Dutch merchants. As for the influences they had deprecated, the width of the Atlantic was sufficient to separate them therefrom. The little corrupting element which might be transported among bales, barrels, and boxes, would be ineffectual upon their remote society. Nay, even with the Dutch so near as New York, the Puritan colony, when six years founded, established a commercial treaty, although the offer was prompted by the weakness of the former, and to secure their perpetual neighborhood, seriously advised them, as the means of avoiding the expulsion or conquest which did afterward occur, to effect a purchase of the territory, or some acknowledgment of their right from the English government. With the English, too, for reasons akin to those influencing them in regard to Holland, but yet stronger, they earnestly desired a constant and enlarged communication; and, in short, their desire from the outset was to extend their commercial intercourse to all nations, and to admit all nations to their ports who might be disposed to trade with them. Their ideas indeed on this point were entirely in advance, not of that age only, but of ours also. What the effect of their plan, had they been allowed to carry it into full operation, would have been upon America, upon England, and upon the world-what the effect of the restraint persistently imposed by the mother government upon this desire was toward these all-what the influence still remaining of that unwise policy is upon each of them, we are hereafter to exhibit.

The Puritans easily effected an arrangement with the Virginia Company,

who readily favored them, for a grant within the territory held by that association. But the king was with great difficulty prevailed upon to wink at their heresy, with the proviso of their being quiet and industrious in America. The sagacious monarch would have made them forever Dutch, robbing his kingdom of the fine colonial empire they would develop, and perhaps giving it to a rival whose power still equaled, and whose wealth far exceeded that of Britain. Unable to provide for the expense of their removal to, and early wants in America-a burden so weighty in the case of all the other colonies attempted-the Puritans formed an agreement with some London merchants, which, though very severe, they acceded to, as it left them free in point of faith and civil rights. These merchants undertook to furnish the needed means, relying for repayment upon the success mainly of the fisheries and trade. The contract, indeed, especially stipulated that the colonists should themselves engage in the fisheries, and employ others also therein. Until the debt should be liquidated, it was provided that the colonists should throw the produce of their labor in common stock, for the benefit of the creditors. This was a system which could not operate well, and had before much repressed the growth of Virginia.

Two vessels were at first obtained, one being bought, the other hiredthe MAYFLOWER, of 180 tons, and the Speedwell, of 60 tons-the latter being intended to enable the emigrants to comply at once with the stipulation in regard to the fishery. Proving unfit, however, for the voyage, the Mayflower alone came. Arrived at Cape Cod, they found whales so abundant they would have gone to whaling, and could have stored their vessel with £4,000 worth of oil, had they possessed means and implements. Had they been so provided, their whole enterprise might have ended in a fortunate whaling voyage. At all events, the formation of the colony by them would have been greatly endangered. Luckily, they could not supply the want, and so were obliged to look about at once for a place upon which to locate their settlement. Some advocated a place which they called Cold Harbor, as affording superior advantages for both the whale and cod fishery. But, finally, a site inside of Cape Cod promontory was selected, and here was the new PLYMOUTH founded, one hundred years after the conquest of Mexico by Cortez, and one hundred and twenty-seven years after the founding of the first Spanish colony in America, at the Island of St. Domingo. Their charter was of no use to them here, the region being without the limits of the Virginia Company-but that was no real misfortune. It is said the captain of the Mayflower was bribed by the Dutch to carry them to the north of the Hudson River, where they had contemplated settling; but, if there was any bribery in the case, it strikes us that it was quite as likely made by the very merchants who had furnished them with the means of passage, and some of whom were certainly anxious to have them settle within New England.

In the spring the colonists first met the Indians, and paid them for the corn which they had found buried in the sand. Their intercourse was conducted through Samoset, an Indian, who had been acquainted with the English fishermen at the coast of Maine, and had learned to speak the language through this intercourse. A treaty was formed with Massasoit, Sachem of the Wampanoags, the leading tribe of that region, which was preserved inviolate for fifty years. A trade was established, in which for supplies of corn, fish, furs, and skins, they gave the Indians knives, scissors, needles, &c., the articles that were really of most utility to them.