Fishery; and both Fisheries together are almost our whole dependence.

Q. Whether this million Debt has not accrued within these six months?

A. I can't tell how to answer that question. We have exported Goods as usual for the five or six months preceding the Non-Importation Agreement.

Q. Whether considerable fortunes have not been made in this trade?

A. I don't recollect any great fortunes made; that is, I don't remember any person retiring from this trade on having made an easy fortune by it.

Q. Are there more failures in that trade than in any other?

A. I think not; the trade is confined in a few hands; I recollect only one house having stopped payment.

Q. Is it now in fewer hands than formerly it was?

A. By the failure of that House, it is lessened, but not more than that one.

Q. Have not many withdrawn themselves from this trade?

A. Some have considerably.

Q. Where?

A. At Bristol.

Q. Why have they done so?

A. I can give no particular account, why; the Bristol people use to complain of want of remittances.

Q. Would a Merchant withdraw himself from a gaining trade?

A. Certainly not.

Q. Whether quick returns on small profit, are not the life of trade?

A. It certainly is; but we have not had such good fortune with America; but quick returns can't be had in the nature of things from Massachusetts. Bay.

Q. Whether the trade to New England has been increased, or decreasing?

A. Increasing for several years.

Q. Can a trade increase without adequate payments?

A. The payments are adequate, though they come slowly.

Q. Whether trade in a few hands is as beneficial as when it is in more hands?

A. Don't know how to answer this question.

Q. Whether he is acquainted with Mr. Reeve, of Bristol?

A. Yes; he was a North American Merchant, and carried on as large a trade as any house in London.

Q. Was he not ruined by the American trade?

A. He had many bad debts, and therefore could not satisfy the demands on him.

Q. Has he not heard that his misfortunes proceeded from other causes?

A. Has heard so.

Q. Whether the Merchant who gives improper credit must not be ruined by that trade in which he gives such credit?

A. This is the case in every trade in the world.

Q. If the Resolutions of the Congress should be adhered to, will it not equally affect the remittances to the Merchants of Great Britain as this Bill?

A. I don't think so.

Q. Whether the Merchants do not carry on business, as carriers, profitably, though the parties to the trade are losers by it?

A. This question, as to the New England trade, is immaterial, as the Ships in the trade belong generally to the Americans.

Q. What is the annual value of the Exports from Great Britain to New England?

A. About 440,000 or £450,000.

Q. In what manner then is the million of Debt to be paid off in two years?

A. I said it might be done in two or three years, taking in all our resources.

Q. Whether he apprehends that in any trade where credit is given, the whole of the debt can be paid at any one time?

A. I don't well understand this question; I rather think it may be done, but it is not usual.

Withdrew.

Mr. Seth Jenkins. He comes from the Island of Nantucket; there are between five and six thousand inhabitants there, men and boys, employed in the Whale Fishery; they have no other employment there. About twenty families can be maintained from the produce of the Island, which is fifteen miles long, and three broad. There is only one Harbour there, and one hundred and forty Vessels be long to it; one hundred and thirty-two of which are employed in the Whale Fishery, burthen from fifty to one hundred and fifty tons. They belong chiefly to the people called Quakers; nine-tenths of the people on the Island are Quakers. They sail at all seasons of the year for the Whale Fishery; they fish on all parts of the Coast of America, sometimes on the Coast of Africa, and the Coast of Brazils, and even as far as the Falkland Islands. The longest time of a voyage is twelve months; some make two or three trips in a year—I mean those that fish on the Coast of America. The Island is supplied with Corn and other Provisions for their support, from Virginia, Carolina, New-York, Philadelphia, and Connecticut; four sail go in a year to North Carolina, for Provisions and Naval Stores; two or three in the constant trade to New-York, and two in the constant trade to Philadelphia. They bring back Ship-Bread and Flour. The people of this Island receive all their Manufactures from Great Britain, chiefly from London, and pay for them by remittances in Oil. The whole number of the Whale Fishery Ships from North America, is three hundred and nine; they come, forty-eight of them, from Boston Bay, eight from Falmouth, six from Martha's Vineyard, fifty-five from Dartmouth, forty-five from Rhode-Island and Providence, twelve from New-York, three from Connecticut, one hundred and thirty-two from Nantucket.

Q. In case this Bill should pass, and the trade was restrained, and Fishery prevented, what would the inhabitants of Nantucket do?

A. I think these people would be induced to stay at home, in hopes that so severe a law would soon be repealed.

Q. When they could no longer subsist on the Island, what then would they do?

A. They must emigrate to the Continent, and settle there in the best manner they could.

Q. Would they go to Halifax, and settle there?

A. No.

Q. Why do you think so?

A. Because it is a Military Government, and the soil of the country is very bad; and there is nothing to induce them to go there.

Q. Whether you have known any Vessels go from England to the Coast of Africa to fish for Whales?

A. Yes; two or three; but they caught no Fish. I fancy it was because they did not know how. It requires long experience—the Spermaceti Whale Fishery especially.

Q. If the inhabitants of Nantucket are obliged to emigrate to the Continent, and settle there, whether the fishermen would return to the Island again?

A. It is impossible for me to tell.

Q. Whether the inhabitants of the Island don't depend for their subsistence on the Fish they catch on the Coast?

A. Not so much as on those they catch abroad; some from Towns of the Provinces do, but not in general.

Q. How long could they subsist without the Fishery?

A. Perhaps three months.

Withdrew.

Mr. Speaker resumed the Chair.

Sir Charles Whitworth reported from the Committee, that they had heard the Petitioners, the Merchants, Traders, and others, of the City of London, interested in the American Commerce, in support of their Petition by their Agent, and had made a progress in the Bill; and that he was directed by the Committee to move, that they may have leave to sit again.

Resolved, That this House will, to-morrow morning, resolve itself into a Committee of the Whole House, to consider further of the said Bill.

WEDNESDAY, March 1, 1775.

Mr. Rowe, from the Commissioners of the Customs in Scotland, presented to the House, pursuant to their orders,

An Account of all British Plantation Tobacco imported