y bills of exchange and bullion obtained by the
colonists for articles of their produce, not required for the British
market, and therefore exported to other places.

"That from the nature of this trade, consisting of British manufactures
exported, and of the import of raw material from America, many of them
used in our manufactures, and all of them tending to lessen our
dependence on neighbouring states, it must be deemed of the highest
importance in the commercial system of this nation. That this commerce,
so beneficial to the state, and so necessary to the support of
multitudes, then lay under such difficulties and discouragements, that
nothing less than its utter ruin was apprehended without the immediate
interposition of Parliament.

"That the colonies were then indebted to the merchants of Great Britain
to the sum of several millions sterling; and that when pressed for
payment, they appeal to past experience in proof of their willingness;
but declare it is not in their power at present to make good their
engagements, alleging that the taxes and restrictions laid upon them,
and the extension of the jurisdiction of the Vice-Admiralty Courts,
established by some late Acts of Parliament, particularly by an Act
passed in the 4th year of his present Majesty, for granting certain
duties in the British Colonies and Plantations in America, and by an Act
passed in the 5th year of his Majesty, for granting and applying certain
stamp duties, etc., in said colonies, etc., with several regulations and
restraints, which, if founded in Acts of Parliament for defined
purposes, they represent to have been extended in such a manner as to
disturb legal commerce and harass the fair trader, and to have so far
interrupted the usual, former and most useful branches of their
commerce, restrained the sale of their produce, thrown the state of the
several provinces into confusion, and brought on so great a number of
actual bankruptcies that the former opportunities and means of
remittances and payments were utterly lost and taken from them.

"That the petitioners were, by these unhappy events, reduced to the
necessity of applying to the House, in order to secure themselves and
their families from impending ruin; to prevent a multitude of
manufacturers from becoming a burden to the community, or else seeking
their bread in other countries, to the irretrievable loss of the
kingdom; and to preserve the strength of this nation entire, its
co