if wanted for British men-of-war. The first law was enacted under the
Commonwealth in 1651. The whole series was repealed under Victoria in
1849. Exceptions were often made, especially in time of war; and there
was some opposition to reckon with at all times. But, generally
speaking, and quite apart from the question of whether they were wise or
not, the British government invariably looked upon these navigation laws
as a cardinal point of policy down to the close {69} of the wars with the
French Empire and the American Republic in 1815.

The first laws only put into words what every sea-power had long been
practising or trying to practise: namely, the confining of all sea
trading to its own ships and subjects. They were first aimed at the
Dutch, who fought for their carrying trade but were crushed. They
operated, however, against all foreigners. They forbade all coastwise
trade in the British Isles except in British vessels, all trade from
abroad except in British ships or in ships belonging to the country
whence the imported merchandise came, all trade between English colonies
by outsiders, and all trade between the colonies and foreign countries,
except in the case of a few enumerated articles. The manning clauses
were of the same kind. Most of the crew and all the officers were to be
British subjects--an important point when British seamen were liable to
be 'pressed' into men-of-war in time of national danger.

The change of rule in 1763 meant that Canada left an empire that could
not enforce its navigation laws and joined an empire that could.
Whatever the value of the laws, Canadian shipping and sea trade continued
to grow under them. In the eighteenth century {70} there was little
internal development anywhere in America; and less in Canada than in what
soon became the United States. People worked beside the waterways and
looked seaward for their profits. Elias Derby, the first American
millionaire, who died in 1799, made all his money, honestly and legally,
out of shipping. Others made fortunes out of smuggling. An enterprising
smuggler at Bradore, just inside the Strait of Belle Isle, paved his
oaken stairs with silver dollars to keep the wood from wearing out; and
he could well afford to do so.

The maritime provinces of Nova Scotia (then including New Brunswick) and
Prince Edward Island had been gradually growing for a quarter of a
century before the United Empire Loyalists began to come. Ha