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