THE NAVIGATION ACT AND THE COLONIES 481 
Many restrictions had been imposed to prevent the consump- A-D. 1689 
sion of French goods by the inhabitants of Great Britain? ; 
and to English statesmen it would have seemed intolerable 
that the colonists should be left free to enrich the common 
enemy and her dependencies by their trade. Insistence on 
this policy involved far greater privation on the part of the 
colonists than was imposed upon Englishmen at home. 
There were various branches of trade, with the French 
plantations, which were particularly profitable to the northern 
colonies, not only as consumers but as producers, and these 
were also of advantage to the French plantations. Several 
of the provisions of the English system were devised with 
the object of interrupting these trading connections, since 
they were undoubtedly beneficial to the French islands and 
forded the American colonists opportunities for procuring 
commodities which were prohibited in England. 
The New England seamen were in a particularly favour- 
able position for prosecuting the cod-fishery. In the early 
part of the seventeenth century there had been some fear 
that they would absorb this industry, and render it unprofit- 
able for Englishmen to engage in it at all. It appears that in 
1624 some question had been raised as to the rights of British 
seamen to make voyages for this purpose, or to cut fuel and 
dry their fish upon the American coast’, No definite steps engagedin 
were taken at that time to establish such rights for English- ound 
men on the Atlantic seaboard generally ; they were forced to /iherice. 
be content with their opportunities in N ewfoundland®, The 
colonists had excellent facilities for such fishing, as they 
found profitable, in their own waters. and were chiefly 
with the 
French 
' As drawbacks were granted and large amounts of duty refunded when foreign 
goods were re-exported, the planters obtained German wines and other foreign 
manufactures on easier terms than the inhabitants of Great Britain. A. Smith, 
Wealth of Nations, p. 240; Ashley, Surveys, 319, 
2 Compare the draft bill, which appears to have passed the Commons, but to 
have been dropped in the House of Lords. Hist. M88. Com. rv. Ap. 123, 
8 The status of Newfoundland was long left undefined (Reeves, Law of 
Skipping and Navigation, 1792, p. 123), and the rights of the fishing fleets have 
riven rise to constant dispute. 
4 They were practically excluded from taking fish to the English market by 
(2 C. TL, c. 18, § 5, and found their best market in other European countries or 
‘he French West Indies. On other restrictions on fishing, see Hart quoted by 
Ashley, Surveys. 333.