No More Learning

At Boston, the subscription rolls filled
rapidly.
1 Bos. Post-Boy, Oct . 26, Nov. 2, 23, 1767; also Boston Town Records,
1758-1769, pp. 220-225. This list was typical of a great many others,
and was as follows: "Loaf Sugar, Cordage, Anchors, Coaches, Chaises
and Carriages of all Sorts, Horse Furniture, Men and Womens Hatts,
Mens and Womens Apparel ready made, Household Furniture, Gloves,
Mens and Womens Shoes, Sole Leather, Sheathing and Deck Nails,
Gold and Silver and Thread Lace of all Sorts, Gold and Silver But-
tons, Wrought Plate of all Sorts, Diamond, Stone and Paste Ware,
Snuff, Mustard, Clocks and Watches, Silversmiths and Jewellers Ware,
Broad Cloaths that cost above los. per Yard, Muffs Furrs and Tippets,
and all Sorts of Millenary Ware, Starch, Womens and Childrens Stays,
Fire Engines, China Ware, Silk and Cotton Velvets, Gauze, Pewterers
"hollow Ware Linseed Oyl, Glue, Lawns, Cambricks, Silks of all Kinds
for Garments, Malt Liquors & Cheese. "
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? I0g THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
The Boston agreement faithfully reflected the general
opinion of the community in favor of a retrenchment of
expenses. Nevertheless, it did not escape without criticism.
There were those who objected to the boycott of only cer-
tain enumerated articles and declared that all British im-
ports should be included; furthermore, they urged that all
persons who failed to sign the agreement should be boy-
cotted. Others felt that at least all the dutied articles
should have been placed on the blacklist. 1 The chief ob-
jection was the failure of the agreement to provide against
the drinking of tea, one of the dutied articles.
Efforts were at once made to remedy this oversight.
The newspapers teemed with articles urging the ladies,
in spite of the silence of the agreement, to abandon the use
of "the most luxurious and enervating article of Bohea
Tea, in which so large a sum is spent annually by the
American colonists. " 2 A clever bit of verse, which went
the rounds of the press of the commercial provinces, con-
cluded with this appeal to the ladies:
Throw aside your Bohea and your Green Hyson Tea,
And all things with a new fashion duty;
Procure a good store of the choice Labradore,
For there'll soon be enough here to suit ye;
These do without fear, and to all you'll appear
Fair, charming, true, lovely and clever;
Though the times remain darkish, young men may be sparkish,
And love you much stronger than ever. 8
"A Countryman" wrote piteously that in recent years he
had found the expenses of living higher than ever before;
1" Pelopidas" and "A Friend to Britain and her Colonies," quoted
by AT. Y. Journ. , Nov. 19, Dec. 3, 1767.
1 Bos. Post-Boy, Nov. 16, 1767. Vide quotations from the Boston
press in the -V. Y. Journ. , Nov. 12, 26, Dec. 10.
* Bos. Post-Boy, Nov. 16, 1767; N. Y. Gas. & Post-Boy, Nov. 26;
Pa. Journ. , Dec. 3.
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? COMMERCIAL REFORM
for " there is my daughters Jemima and Keziah, two hearty
trollups as any in town, forenoon and afternoon eat almost
a peck of toast and butter with their Tea; and they have
learned me and their mother to join them. " On the auth-
ority of his doctor he held tea responsible for many modern
complaints; " for you never used to hear so much of such
strange disorders as people have now a days, tremblings,
appoplexies, consumptions and I don't know what all. " 1
Early in December, 1767, a large number of the ladies
agreed that they would use no foreign teas for a year
beginning on the tenth of that month. 2 One tart dissent
was entered to these proceedings. The fair writer expati-
ated on the depravity resulting from " hard drinking," and
then asked " where the Reformation ought to begin, whether
among the Gentlemen at Taverns & Coffee Houses where
they drink scarcely any Thing but Wine and Punch; or
among the Ladies at those useful Boards of Trade called
Tea Tables, where it don't cost half so much to entertain
half a dozen Ladies a whole Afternoon, as it does to entertain
one Gentlemen only one Evening at a Tavern. " *
The committee appointed by the town to propose meas-
ures for employing the poor reported in due time in favor
of the establishment of the manufacture of duck (or sail)
cloth, hitherto imported from Russia. This material could
be made from either flax or hemp and thus held an advan-
tage over linen. The committee proposed that the project
be financed by public subscription; and they were author-
ized by the town to go ahead. Four months later, they had
succeeded in collecting less than one-half of the amount
1 Bos. Gas. , Aug. 29, 1768. "Trahlur" in Bos. Post-Boy, Nov. 30,
1767, held the same view of modern ailments.
1 AT. Y. Journ. , Dec. 14, 1767.
1 Bos. Eve. Post, Dec. 28, 1767; also Newport Merc. , Dec. 14.
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? I10 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
that was necessary for making a beginning. Further efforts
were unproductive; and the project was given up. 1
Reports filled the newspapers with reference to the in-
crease and perfection of local manufactures. From grind-
stones and precious stones to shoes and shalloons, the gamut
of praise was run. The man who made the paper which the
Boston Gazette was printed on stated that the people of the
province were so intent on saving rags for his mills that he
now received more tons than he formerly did hundreds. 2
The theses of the graduates at Harvard were printed "on
fine white Demy Paper manufactured at Milton" and the
men received their degrees garbed in homespun. * By 17/0
a leading newspaper of the town, declared that: "The ex-
traordinary and very impoverishing custom of wearing
deep Mourning at Funerals is now almost entirely laid
aside in the Province. " *
The Boston plan spread rapidly to other towns of the
province. By the middle of January, 1768. the names of
twenty-four towns had been published, which had voted to
conform to the Boston agreement. 8 Salem alone was re-
corded as having refused to co-operate. " At a town meet-
ing on December 22, 1767, Boston had unanimously voted
instructions to her representatives in the General Court,
recommending bounties for the establishment of domestic
1 Bos. Town Recs. (1758-1769), pp. 226-227, 230-232, 239-240, 240-250.
1 Bos. Post-Boy, Jan. 18, 1768; Bos. Gas. , Jan. 25.
1N. Y. Journ. , Aug. 4, 1768.
4 Bos. Gas. , May 7, 1770.
* Abington, Ashburnham, Bolton, Braintree, Brookfield, Charlestown,
Dartmouth, Dedham, Eastham, Grafton, Harwich, Holleston, Kingston,
Leicester, Lexington, Middleborough, Milton, Mendon, Newton, Ply-
mouth, Roxbury, Sandwich, Spencer, Truro. Bos. Post-Boy, Nov. 23,
Dec. 14, 1767; Bos. Gas. , Jan. 11, Mch. 28, 1768; N. Y. Journ. , Dec, 3,
24, 1767, Jan. 28, 1768; Prov. Gas. , Dec. 26, 1767.
? Bos. Eve. Post, Dec. 21, 1767.
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? COMMERCIAL REFORM m
manufactures, and suggesting a petition to Parliament for
the repeal of the recent duties. 1 On February n, 1768, the
Hm1s^ of Renre. sentatives adopted the famous circular letter
to the other assemblies on the continent, suggest1ng concerted
opposition in the way of constitutional discussions and peti-
tions. In the latter days of the month, other resolutions
were passed, reciting the decay of trade and pledging the
support of all the members against the use of foreign super-
fluities and in favor of Massachusetts manufactures. 2 The
House also sent resolutions of protest against the Town-
shend Acts to the king.
Two other New England provinces followed in the wake
of Boston. The letter of the Boston selectmen, announcing
the non-consumption agreement and suggesting like meas-
ures, convinced towns outside of Massachusetts of The wis-
dom of pursuing a similar course. JThe people of Rhode
Island were in particularly hard straits, due to the dimin-
ished j>ronts ot rum product1on and the tallmg-ott ol the
carrying" trade. 1 rrovidence, the second port of Rhode
Island, was the first town to act . At a town meeting on
December 2, 1767, largely attended by merchants and per-
sons of wealth, a more stringent agreement was adopted
than that of Boston. In place of a resolution of mere non-
consumption, it was agreed not to import, after January I,
1768, a list of articles which exceeded the Boston list by
twelve items. The agreement contained a pledge against
the use of any teas, chinaware or spices, a resolution against
expensive mourning, and one favorable to wool and flax
production. The compact was to be enforced by a dis-
1 Bos. Post-Boy, Dec. 28, 1767; also Bos. Town Reel. (1758-1769"), pp.
227-230.
* These resolutions passed by a vote of eighty-one to one. Bos. Gas. ,
Feb. 20, 1768; also N. Y. Journ. , Mch. 10.
1 E. g. , vide "A Friend to this Colony," Prov. Gas. , Nov. 14, 1767.
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? II2 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
countenancing, " in the most effectual but decent and lawful
Manner," of any person who failed to sign or conform to
these regulations. A few weeks later, the subscription rolls
were reported to be filling rapidly. 1
Two days after the action of Prnvidepc. e. a town meeting
at Newport adopted an agreement of non-consumption,
modeled very closely on that of Boston, save that it was to
become effective one month later. Mourning resolutions
were also adopted. 2 In the following two months, the
Newport agreement was concurred in by other Rhode Island
towns, including Middletown, Little Compton and Tiverton. 1
"Liber Nov-Anglus," writing in the Connecticut Jour-
nal, December 25, 1767, was one of the first to urge the
Boston agreement on the people of Connecticut . The
larger towns soon began to take action, Norwich leading
the way. In the subsequent weeks, non-consumption agree-
ments, patterned more or less after the Boston plan, were
adopted by town meetings at New London, Windham,
Mansfield and New Haven.
4 In both Rhode Island and
Connecticut, the newspapers gave abundant evidence of the
wide drinking of "Labradore or Hyperion tea," and of
increased activity in the production of homespun. 5 The
Newport Mercury inserted, free of charge, all advertisements
of Rhode Island textiles.
Owing perhaps to the fact that the movement in New
England was engineered by town meetings, it did not spread
1 Prov. Gas. , Nov. 14, 28, Dec. 5, 12, 1767; Newport Merc. , Dec. 14.
* Newport Merc. , Nov. 30, Dec. 7, 1767; Prov. Gas. , Dec. 12.
* Newport Merc. , Jan. 25, Feb. 29, 1768.
4Prov. Gas. , Dec. 26, 1767; N. Y. Journ. , Feb. 11, Mch. 17, 1768;
Bos. Gas. , Feb. 15, Mch. 28; Newport Merc. , Feb. 15.
5 Newport Merc. , Dec. 7, 1767, Jan. 11, 18, 25, 1768; New London
Gas. , Dec. 18, 1767; N. H. Gas. , Mch. 11, 1768; N. Y. Joum. , Jan. 28,
Feb. 18.
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? COMMERCIAL REFORM
m its present form to any of the other commercial provinces,
where those potent agencies of local opinion did not exist.
The interest of the people at New York and Philadelphia
was aroused, however. "A Tradesman," writing in the
New York Journal, December 17, 1767, asked pertinently
why the example of Boston had not been followed by New
York. "Are our Circumstances altered? " he asked. "Is
Money grown more plenty? Have our Tradesmen full
Employment? Are we more Frugal? Is Grain cheaper?
Are our Importations less? " On December 29, 1767, a
public meeting was held, and a committee was appointed to
report on a plan for retrenching expenses and for employing
local tradesmen and the deserving poor. At a meeting on
February 2. 1768, the report of the committee was approved,
and instructions were given for carrying it into execution. 1
Contemporary records do not reveal the nature of the New
York plan; but it is probable that it did not include an
agreement of non-consumption. A public meeting, held at
Philadelphia to discuss the action of Boston, did not ven-
ture further than to vote an expression of sympathy for that
city. 2
By the beginning of spring, 1768, it was apparent to all
interested that the sumptuary regulations of the New Eng-
land towns would fail to secure relief from the hard times.
The non-mercantile elements of the population were not, as
yet, sufficiently co-ordinated or self-conscious to secure
obedience to their mandates; and the merchants hesitated
to lend their support until they had assurance that their
brethren down the coast would unite in the measure. 3
1 N. Y. Journ. , Jan. 23, 28, Feb. 4, 1768.
1 Dickinson, Writings (Ford), vol. i, pp. 400-410.
1" Few of the trading part have subscribed," wrote Andrew Eliot,
of Boston, with reference to the agreement on Dec. 10, 1767. 4 M. H. S.
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? THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
Without such an understanding, they felt that their own
self-denial would have no other result than to deliver up
their customers to their competitors at New York and
Philadelphia. Meantime, importations continued as before,
though in somewhat lessened degree.
The basis for an appeal for a non-importation plan of a
wider geographical scope was supplied by "XhteiLflttecs
from a Farmer in Pennsylvania," which were published
serially in the newspapers of the various provinces during
December, 1767, and through the first two months of
1768. 1 The author, in language more legalistic than bucolic,
reminded the Americans of the success of the legislative
petitions and non-importation agreements in effecting the
repeal of the Stamp Act. and exhorted them to revive those
agencies of protest. These articles were read everywhere
and helped to prepare the public mind for the mercantile
opposition of the next few years.
The Boston merchants now took active steps to bring
about a non-importation league of the leading ports. The
body of the merchants were moved by the necessity of com-
al reform; but individuals were not unmindful of the
-/V 1act that a. suspension'nf rrane yTM'M ^naMf. ^p^Tt^v ,-Uo"
. ^G^/'*-' ])riAAA out their old stock at monopoly prices. 2 At the instigation
0 I <f of Captain Daniel Jviaicom, a notorious smuggler, and a few
others, the merchants and traders gathered at the British
Coffee-House on the evening of March 1, 1768 " to consult
on proper Measures relative to our Trade under its present
Embarrassments. " 1 At this and several subsequent meet-
Co/If. , vol. iv, p. 418. The leaders of the non-consumption movement
consist "chiefly of persons who have no property to lose," declared "A
Trader" in the Bos. Eve. Post, Oct. 12, 1767.
1 The text has been reprinted in Dickinson, Writings (Ford), vol. i,
pp. 305-406.
1 Bos. Post-Boy, Sept. 28, 1767.
1Bos. Gas. , Feb. 29, 1768. "This may be said to b<< the first Move-
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? COMMERCIAL REFORM 115
ings, an agreement was drawn up and adopted, which
pledged all merchants who should sign it, to refrain for
one year from importing merchandise from Great Britain
(save such as was absolutely necessary for the fisheries) in
case the merchants at New York and Philadelphia should
take like action. This conditional agreement was circulated
about Boston and was almost universally signed by the
merchants. The merchants of Salem, Marblehead and
Gloucester concurred in the same measure. 1
Events now awaited the action of the merchants at New
York and Philadelphia. At the former port, several meet-
ings of the merchants and traders were held early in April
to consider the matter. About the middle of the month,
an agreement was adopted to import no goods shipped from
Great Britain after October 1, 1768 until the Townshend
duties should be repealed, provided that Boston should
continue and Philadelphia adopt similar measures by the
second Tuesday of June. 2
ment of the Merchants against the Acts of Parliament," Governor Ber-
nard told Hillsborough in a letter of Mch. 21, 1768. Bos. Eve. Post,
Aug. 21, 1769.
1 The chief facts concerning this agreement of Boston and the other
towns may be found in: 4 M. H. S. Colls. , vol. iv, pp. 350-351; M. H.
S. Mss. , 9r L, p. 37, 70-74; Bos. Gas. , Feb. 29, Mch. 7, 1768; Bernard
to Hillsborough, Bos. Eve> Post, Aug. 21, 1769. The merchants of
Portsmouth, N. H. , refused'to accede to this agreement. Brit. Papers
{"Sparks Mss. "), vol. i, pp. 7-8.
1 N. Y. Gas. & Merc. , Apr. 18, 1768; N. Y. Journ. , June 28, 1770. The
terms of this agreement had not been formulated without considerable
difference of opinion. Some of the more radical merchants wished to
include the Quartering Act with the Townshend duties as the object
of the non-importation. But this proposal was rejected by the major-
ity. Others insisted that the Boston plan of immediate non-importation
should be followed, for the six months' interval would enable unscru-
pulous men to enlarge their orders and defeat the purpose of the
agreement. This again met with little favor. Article by " G" in ibid. ,,
Apr. 21, 1768.
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? 1 I6 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
The agreement was signed by every merchant and trader
in New York, save two or three unimportant ones, within
less than two days. Another outcome of the conferences
of the merchants was the formation of the New York
Chamber of Commerce, with the avowed purpose of en-
couraging commerce and industry and of procuring better
trade laws. 1 The Committee of Merchants at Boston were
informed of the New York agreement; and an answer was
returned that, although the Boston merchants considered the
New Yorkers mistaken in not stopping trade 1mmediately,
nevertheless, for the sake of unanimity, they would accept
their proposal.