Indians, traded with them and gradually prepared the way for settlements.

It was a time of hard drinking all over the western world. Out of their apples, the colonists made hard cider; out of their peaches, peach brandy; out of corn and rye, whiskey; out of molasses, the celebrated New England rum; out of barley, ale and beer, and most of it was consumed at home. They also imported gin and whiskey and wines from overseas. They saw some of the dangers of drinking and passed laws to regulate the business and the places of sale.

Colonial Trade

In the near-by West Indies lay rich English colonies, where sugar and other crops were raised by slave labor. The colonists could sell fish and cattle and salt beef and pork to those islands. There was always a good export trade in timber, and especially in tobacco; also in naval stores, that is pitch, tar and turpentine, made particularly in the Carolinas and sent in great quantities to England to be used in shipbuilding.

The money of the colonists was partly the gold guineas and English shillings and half crowns; especially in later times. The silver dollar or "piece of eight," coined by the Spaniards in Mexico was a coin especially valued and to this day is used in the trade with China. Most of the colonies also issued paper money, which was easy to print and pay out and lend but made lots of trouble when the holders wanted to cash it in for specie. At last the British government

forbade any of the colonies to

put out paper notes.

Navigation Acts

Nobody can understand the colonists or their history without knowing something about the system of laws known as the "Navigation Acts" or "Acts of Trade," or "Colonial System." All the European nations looked on the colonies as planted chiefly for the benefit of the home people. At this timeprevious to 1750-the English were becoming the greatest shipping and naval power in the world. Therefore they wanted to control the colonial merchant vessels and have their aid in time of war. The result was a series of laws, added to from time to time, by which colonial trade was restricted as follows:

(1) Trade to and from England had to be carried on in ships built and owned in England or in the colonies.

(2) Importations from other countries had to come through the hands of English merchants, so as to give them a profit.

(3) Many of the exports of the colonies-for instance, tobacco, sugar, and furs, were called "enumerated goods" and could be sent to other countries only through English ports.

(4) Colonists were not allowed to roll iron or to ship certain goods from one colony to another.

(5) The continental colonies were required to buy their sugar and molasses in the English West Indies.

Notwithstanding these laws, there was always plenty of trade with the Spanish, Portuguese, French and Dutch colonies of

the continents and West Indies. The Americans liked to do business for their own profit and not for that of their brethren in England. The most respectable merchants did not hesitate to slip goods in without bothering the custom houses established in the colonies by England. They admitted in general the right of the home country to regulate their trade, but did not expect it to be strictly carried out.

Colonial Spirit

Gradually the colonies became different in spirit from Great Britain. This was due in part to the coming of people other than the English or Scotch races. The colonies all had negro population. That made the labor situation different from that of the home country, where no slavery was allowed.

The main reason for the difference was that men and women of the English race, when put into a new continent, which had to be occupied and cleared in the midst of savage Indians, were certain to change their ways of looking at things.

For instance, land was very dear and hard to get in England; in the colonies

it was so cheap that any strong and active young man might hope to earn a farm in a few years. In England there were sharp distinctions of rank, such as the nobles, the gentry, the merchants, the farmers, the agricultural laborers, the miners. In America there were almost no bearers of titles.

Then the colonists were accustomed to look after themselves much more than the English at home. They went and came, traveled from colony to colony, bought and sold. A few hundred people would go out into the backwoods with their families, carrying few tools, except the ax and plow. They cut the trees, built cabins, cleared land, raised hogs and cattle, running at large; and in a few years, behold they had a well-built, prosperous village with a meeting house and a parson. Thus were created selfreliant, energetic, independent people.

Yet the colonists, whatever their original race, were attached to Great Britain. They aided England in her They read English books, followed English fashions and looked upon themselves as still Englishmen, who had found a better thing in the new world.

wars.

Benjamin Franklin,

The best way to understand the people of that time is to take a man who was born among them, lived among them, and was a leader and an inspirer. By all odds the largest spirit and the greatest force among all Americans from 1492 down to 1750 was Benjamin Franklin. He was born in Boston in 1706, had only two years' schooling, read good books, moved to Philadelphia and there became a journalist, a publisher, a literary man and a statesman. He started a newspaper for himself at 23. He was deputy postmaster general of the colonies and set up the first good post-office system. For almost 60 years

Colonial Statesman

he held some kind of office in his city, or colony, or for the United States.

The book written by Franklin which had most influence on the colonies was "Poor Richard's Almanac," full of good advice and wise saws, such as "Keep thy shop, and thy shop will keep thee,” “A penny saved is a penny earned,” “They that won't be be counselled can't be helped," "One today is worth two tomorrows."

Franklin was interested in the settlement of Pennsylvania and its defence from the Indians. In 1757 he went to England as the agent of the colony of Pennsylvania, and that brought him

among the greatest men of the English nation. He was one of the earliest men to predict that the colonies might grow into "the greatest political structure that human wisdom has ever constructed."

Franklin was what we call a hardheaded, shrewd man in business and public affairs. He knew how to make a good income out of his printing house and he was very successful in inducing people to work together. In addition, he was one of the great scientific men of his time, the first to prove that the lightning and the electric sparks that you get by rubbing a glass rod with a dry cloth are the same thing.

column, I might mark, by a little black spot, every fault I found upon examination to have been committed respecting that virtue upon that day." His autobiography is one of the most entertaining books ever written. He was extremely interested in education and founded the present University of Pennsylvania.

Franklin is a splendid example of a boy who makes the best of his opportunities. As a boy he bought and read many books; as a young man he drew up a sort of "virtue table," which he thus described: "I made a little book, in which I allotted a page for each of the virtues. I ruled each page with red ink, so as to have seven columns, one for each day of the week, marking each column with a letter for the day. I crossed these columns with thirteen red lines, marking the beginning of each line with the first letter of one of the virtues, which line, and in its proper

on

He never dictated to people, he argued with them and brought them to his views. He worked hard when he was poor and growing. He came up to the great opportunities of later life. He was through and through efficient.

Franklin was a simple American and a great statesman. Of his wife and family life he

wrote:

66

She assisted me cheerfully in my business, folding and stitching pamphlets, tending shop, purchasing old linen rags for the papermakers, etc. We kept no idle servants, our table was plain and simple, our furniture of the cheapest. For instance, my breakfast was for a long time bread and milk (no tea), and I ate it out of a two-penny earthen porringer, with a pewter spoon. But mark how luxury will enter families, and make a progress, in spite of principle: being called one morning to breakfast, I found it in a china bowl, with a spoon of silver!"