number of furnaces be
lessened, that of forges would be increased. This was likewise the plea
urged in divers remonstrances by masters of iron-works, gentlemen,
and freeholders, who had tracts of wood-land in their possession. The
owners, proprietors, and farmers of furnaces and iron forges, belonging
to Sheffield and its neighbourhood, enlarged upon the great expense they
had incurred in erecting and supporting iron-works, by means of which
great numbers of his majesty's subjects were comfortably supported. They
expressed their apprehension, that should the bill pass into a law, it
could not in any degree lessen the consumption of Swedish iron, which
was used for purposes which neither the American nor British iron would
answer; but that the proposed encouragement, considering the plenty and
cheapness of wood in America, would enable the colonies to undersell the
British iron, a branch of traffic which would be totally destroyed,
to the ruin of many thousand labourers, who would be compelled to seek
their livelihood in foreign countries. They likewise suggested, that if
all the iron manufacturers of Great Britain should be obliged to depend
upon a supply of iron from the plantations, which must ever be rendered
precarious by the hazard of the seas and the enemy, the manufactures
would probably decay for want of materials, and many thousand families
be reduced to want and misery. On the other hand, the ironmongers and
smiths belonging to the flourishing town of Birmingham in Warwickshire,
presented a petition, declaring, That the bill would be of great benefit
to the trade of the nation, as it would enable the colonists to make
larger returns of their own produce, and encourage them to take a
greater quantity of the British manufactures. They affirmed, that all
the iron-works in the island of Great Britain did not supply half the
quantity of that metal sufficient to carry on the manufacture; that
if this deficiency could be supplied from the colonies in America, the
importation would cease, and considerable sums of money be saved to the
nation. They observed, that the importation of iron from America could
no more affect the iron-works and freeholders of the kingdom, than the
like quantity imported from any other country; but they prayed that
the people of America might be restrained from erecting slitting or
rolling-mills, or forges for plating iron, as they would interfere with
the manufacturers of Great Britain.

Ma