SHIPBUILDING, NAVAL STORES AND SEAMANSHIP 483 
the American colonies, as they did on Ireland’. Several of 4D: 1689 
the colonial legislatures appear to have given a practical 
consent to the system in principle, and it did not in all 
probability cause any serious injury to individuals. England 
was a convenient market for colonial produce, even- though 
better prices might often have been obtained, if the planters 
had been free to send their tobacco to any European port; 
while the large landed resources of America offered aftractive 
openings to those who were debarred from manufacturing? 
The rules which were imposed, from antagonism to the gave rise co 
. z ’ . comsider- 
French, were much more serious, and it was this side of aie 
the restrictions on their commerce, which raised a sense of ¥"*¢?%"* 
grievance among the colonists. They showed themselves ready, 
on the whole, to refrain from doing any economic injury to 
England herself, but they were not content to let their affairs 
be ruled in accordance with political antagonisms in which 
they did not feel themselves directly concerned. 
223. While so much increased attention was given to While pro- 
discriminating between the commodities in which traffic was Tiding Jor 
carried on, the traditional methods of encouraging maritime er 
power were not neglected, though they were modified on the 
lines which the eighteenth century specially favoured. 
The fishing trades had always been regarded as the great the states- 
. .  menofthe 
school of seamanship; the effort to promote them by in- day main- 
sisting on the observance of fish days had been abandoned, aimed then 
but there were attempts to accomplish the same result, both /ing 
by the formation of companies which were wealthy enough 
to undertake the business on a large scale, and by the 
granting of bounties. The Company of the Royal Fishery 
of England was never very prosperous; it soon expended its 
original capital, and the subscribers of a second stock, in 
1683, were equally unfortunate. A similar attempt was 
made in 1750, the special object being to gain the white 
herring fishery from the Dutch; the cod-fishing was also for Jenny 
to be attempted. It was regarded as a political step of the and co 
first importance, and had been undertaken in response to an 
appeal made in the King’s speech in 1749, Frequent payments 
" See above, p. 376; also below, pp. 525 and 580. 
3 See below, p. 585. 8 Macpherson, 11. 584. 
31-2 
An