17 Essays ; 
increase of our trade to those colonies, I refer to the 
accounts frequently laid before Parliament by the 
officers of the customs, and to the custom-house 
books; from which I have also selected one account, 
that of the trade from England, exclusive of Scot- 
land, to Pennsylvania *; a colony most remarkable 
for the plain, frugal manner of living of its inhabit- 
ants, and the most suspected of carrying on manu- 
factures, on account of the number of German 
artisans who are known to have transplanted them- 
selves into that country; though even these, in truth, 
when they come there, generally apply themselves 
to agriculture, as the surest support and most ad- 
vantageous employment. 
By this account it appears, that the exports to 
that province have, in twenty-eight years, increased 
nearly in the proportion of seventeen to one; whereas 
the people themselves, who by other authentic ac- 
counts appear to double their numbers (the strangers 
who settle there included) in about sixteen years, 
* An Account of the Value of the Exports from England to Pennsyl- 
vania in one Year, taken at different Periods, viz. 
In 1723 they amounted only to £15,992 1 
1730 they were 48,592 i 
1737 . y 56,690 7 
1742 : 75,295 4 
1747 82,404 
1752 201,666 = 
1757 . 268,426 oJ 6 
N. B.—The accounts for 1758 and 1759 were not then completed; 
but those acquainted with the North American trade know that the 
increase in those two years had been in a still greater proportion, the 
last year being supposed to exceed any former year by a third; and 
this owing to the increased ability of the people to spend, from the 
oreater quantities of money circulating among them by the war. 
0] 55