The Virginia Gazette

Extract from the Votes of the House of Commons.

Fovis 3 Die Martij, 1736.

A Petition of the Merchants and Ironmongers of this Kingdom, in Behalf of themselves and many others, trading to his Majesty's Plantations in America, was presented to the House, and read; setting forth, that there are Premiums settled by Acts of Parliament, upon the Importation of Tar, Pitch, Turpentine, Hemp, Masts, Yards and Bowsprits; but not any Encouragement upon the Importation of Iron into this Kingdom from our American Colonies, where it is capable of being produced, in every respect equal in Goodness to the best Iron from Sweden, from which and other foreign Countries are annually imported into Great-Britain upwards of Twenty Thousand Tons, the greatest Part of which is paid for in ready Money; and that the Inhabitants of the British Colonies having already erected several Furnaces and Forges for the making of Bar Iron, Great Britain may in a course of Years be supplied, and rendered independent of any foreign Country, for a Commodity so essential to the Support of our Navigation; but that it is to be feared, if some Encouragement be not given for the Importation of it into Great Britain, that they will be induced to work up the said Iron themselves, to the great Decay and Prejudice of the Iron Trade in this Kingdom, which at this Time employs more People, especially of the poor laborious Sort, than any other Trade, that of the Woollen Manufacture only excepted; and therefore praying the House to take the Premises into Consideration, and to give such Encouragement for the Importation of Bar Iron, Pigs and Sows, from America; and to lay such a Restraint on their Manufacturing, as to the House shall seem reasonable.

And the Question being proposed, that the said Petition be referred to the Consideration of a Committee;

And a Debate arising in the House thereupon:

Ordered,

That the Debate be adjourned until this Day sevennight.

Veneris, 4 Die Martij, 1736.

A Petition of sundry Iron Masters and Ironmongers in the County of Lancaster, on Behalf of themselves, and many others concerned in the Iron Trade, was presented to the House, and read; setting forth, that the Inhabitants of New-England have, within these few Years, erected several Forges and Slitting Mills, and do annually make a great deal of Bar Iron, and manufacture the said Iron into Axes, Nails, and sundry other Species, and do now not only supply themselves with a great Part of their Nails, and other Iron Ware, but export great Quantities to many other of his Majesty's Plantations, to the great Decay and Prejudice of the Iron Trade in this Kingdom, which at this Time employs more People, and especially of the poor laborious Sort, than any other Trade, that of the Woollen Manufacture only excepted; and that unless their Slitting Mills are destroyed, and some Stop put to their Manufacturing, our Trade must soon be utterly ruined, and great Numbers of People employed in the making and manufacturing Iron, will unavoidably be deprived of the Means of their Subsistence; and therefore praying the House to take the Case of the Petitioners into Consideration, and to grant them such Relief, as to the House shall seem reasonable.

Which Petition (together with several others, presented to the House on the 7th of March, of the same Purport) was order'd to lie upon the Table, until the adjourned Debate upon the Question proposed for referring to a Committee the Petition of the Merchants and Ironmongers before recited, be resumed.