glish goods. Not
only was the doing without these a benefit to domestic industries, but
buying them was a direct aid and maintenance to the oppressor. He said:
"If our people will, by consuming such commodities, purchase and pay for
their fetters, who that sees them so shackled will think they deserve
either redress or pity? Methinks that in drinking tea, a true American,
reflecting that by every cup he contributed to the salaries, pensions,
and rewards of the enemies and persecutors of his country, would be half
choked at the thought, and find no quantity of sugar sufficient to make
the nauseous draught go down."[29]

[Note 29: See also letter to Marshall, April 22, 1771, _Works_, x.
315.]

In this connection he was much "diverted" and gratified by the results
of the Stamp Act, and especially of the act laying the duty on tea. The
gross proceeds of the former statute, gathered in the West Indies and
Canada, since substantially nothing was got in the other provinces, was
L1500; while the expenditure had amounted to L12,000! The working of the
Customs Act had been far worse. According to his statement, the
unfortunate East India Company, in January, 1773, had at least
L2,000,000, some said L4,000,000, worth of goods which had accumulated
in their warehouses since the enactment, of which the chief part would,
in the natural condition of business, have been absorbed by the
colonies. The consequence was that the company's shares had fallen
enormously in price, that it was hard pressed to make its payments, that
its credit was so seriously impaired that the Bank of England would not
help it, and that its dividends had been reduced below the point at and
above which it was obliged to pay, and heretofore regularly had paid,
L400,000 annually to the government. Many investors were painfully
straitened, and not a few bankruptcies ensued. Besides the loss of this
annual stipend the treasury was further the sufferer by the great
expense which had been incurred in endeavoring to guard the American
coast against smugglers; with the added vexation that these costly
attempts had, after all, been fruitless. Fifteen hundred miles of shore
line, occupied by people unanimously hostile to the king's revenue
officers, presented a task much beyond the capabilities of the vessels
which England could send thither. So the Dutch, the Danes, the Swedes,
and the French soon established a thriving contraband trade; the
American housewives were ha