TORY SENTIMENTS 603 
Pitt was able to carry his commercial treaty with France; AD 0 
there was a very considerable reduction of tariffs on each ’ 
side, though the increased facilities for intercourse were not 
favourably received by some of the manufacturers in either 
country. Despite the temporary irritation which was caused, 
however, the trade with France expanded greatly!; and con- 
sumers in each country felt the advantage of the increased 
intercourse. 
The attitude taken by various critics, towards the policy 
of the Navigation Acts, was closely associated with this view 
as to the nature of the chief advantage derived from trade. 
These measures were ostensibly intended to increase the 
shipping and develop the maritime power of the country, 
but they tended to limit the quantities of goods imported, 
and thus to diminish the receipts from customs and to raise 
prices to the consumers of foreign goods®. The benefit which 
accrued to the shipping of the country was problematical. 
Cecil had pronounced against the policy; and during the 
Restoration period, the Navigation Act seriously interfered 
with the provision of stores for the navy; it was a doubtful 
boon, and constant efforts had been made by the advisers of 
Charles II. to set it aside, or to obtain the Parliamentary re- 
laxation of some of its prohibitions. There had never been 
much success in enforcing it, so far as the American colonies 
were concerned, but in 1796 the attempt to do so was 
definitely abandoned; and the rule that all goods from 
America should be imported in British ships was relaxed 
in favour of the United States. The great expansion of 
American trade which took place at this time amply justified 
the views of Dean Tucker¢, who had argued that no com- 
mercial advantage was to be gained from maintaining a 
political control over the plantations in America. The 
interest of the consumer of American produce® asserted 
i It is an incidental proof of the industrial progress of England that, whereas 
in the seventeenth century French commodities had been so fashionable here, at 
the end of the eighteenth English manufactures were much sought after in France. 
t See Vol. 1. p. 490. 8 37 Geo. I11. c. 97. Leone Levi, 160. 
) The True Interest of Britain set forth in regard to the Colonies, 1776, 
pp. 50—53. 
8 The fact that raw cotton was now coming from the States would render the 
manufacturers of cotton goods glad of the relaxation. 
Wi Tes 
lazing the 
Navigation 
Adets,