Subject: Royal Government, pp. 67-69
   Date: Sun, 27 Sep 1998 02:11:51 -0400
   From: "Steven J. Coker" 
     To: SCROOTS-L@rootsweb.com

[...continued]
RAMSAY'S HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
FROM ITS FIRST SETTLEMENT IN 1670 TO THE YEAR 1808.
by David Ramsay, M.D., "Charleston, December 31st, 1808"
1858, by W.J. Duffie, Newberry, S.C.
1959, by The Reprint Company, Spartanburg, S.C. 
Volume I, Chapter IV, pp 67-69

CIVIL HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA.  CHAPTER IV.
Royal Government from 1720 to 1776.

»»»»»»»•«««««««

   The lands which were cultivated in South Carolina, for the first eighty years
after the settlement of the province, were, for the most part, situated on or
near navigable creeks or rivers. The planters who lived fifty miles from the
capital were at little more expense, in sending their provisions and produce to
its market, than those who lived within five miles of it. The town was supplied
with plenty of provisions, and its neighborhood prevented from enjoying a
monopoly of its market. By this general and unlimited competition, the price of
provisions was kept low. While the money arising from them circulated equally
and universally through the country, it contributed, in return, to its
improvement. The planters had not only water carriage to the market for their
staple commodities, but, on their arrival, the merchant again committed them to
the general tide of commerce, and received, in return, the valuable commodities
of every clime.
   The Carolinians all this time received protection to trade, a ready market,
drawbacks and bounties from the mother country. The duties laid on many articles
of foreign manufacture, on their importation into Britain, were drawn back on
their exportation to the colonies. These drawbacks were always in favor of the
consumers, and supplied the provincial markets with foreign goods nearly as
cheap as if they had been immediately imported from the places where they were
manufactured. Besides, upon the arrival of such goods in the country, the
planters commonly had twelve months credit from the provincial merchant who was
satisfied with payment once in the year from all his customers. To the consumers
in Carolina, East India goods, German manufactures, Spanish, Portugal, Madeira
and Fayal wines came cheaper than to those in Great Britain. Coal, salt, and
other articles, brought by way of ballast, have sometimes sold for less in
Charlestown than in London.
   The colonists were also allowed bounties on several articles of produce
exported. For the encouragement of her colonies, Great Britain laid high duties
on such as were imported from foreign countries, and gave the colonists premiums
on the same commodities. The bounties on naval stores, indigo, hemp and raw silk
proved an encouragement to industry, and all terminated in favor of the
planters. The colonial merchants enjoyed perfect freedom in their trade with the
West Indies, where they found a convenient and most excellent market for Indian
corn, rice, lumber and salt provisions. In return they had rum, sugar, coffee
and molasses cheaper than their fellow subjects in the mother country.
   Great Britain laid the colonists under some restraints with respect to their
domestic manufactures and their trade to foreign ports. Though this policy
affected the more northern colonies, it was not prejudicial to Carolina. It
served to direct the views of the people to the culture of lands, which was more
profitable both to themselves and the mother country. Though they had plenty of
beaver skins, and a few hats were manufactured from them, yet the price of labor
was so high that the merchant could send the skins to England, import hats made
of them, and undersell the manufacturers of Carolina. The province also
furnished some wool and cotton, but before they could be made into cloth, they
cost the consumers more money than the merchant demanded for the same goods
imported. It afforded leather, but boots and shoes made from it at home were of
an inferior quality, and often dearer than the same articles imported from
Britain. In like manner, with respect to many other commodities, it was for the
advantage of the province, as well as the mother country, to export the raw
materials and import the goods manufactured. Cultivation was, therefore, the
most profitable employment. It was the interest of such a flourishing colony to
be always in debt to Great Britain, for the more laborers were sent the more
rapidly the colony advanced in riches. If, from an unfavorable season, the
planters were rendered unable to pay for the slaves they had purchased, the
merchants generally indulged them another year, and sometimes allowed them to
increase their debt by addititional purchases. This was often found the most
certain method of obtaining payment. In like manner the merchant had indulgence
from England, the primary source of credit. By these forbearances the planter
preserved, and often increased, his capital, while the difference of interest
between the mother country and the province, amounting at first to five, and
always to three, per cent., was clear gain to the merchants.
   Such was the general course of prosperity with which the royal province of
South Carolina was blessed in the interval between the termination of the
proprietary government in 1719, and the American revolution in 1776. No colony
was ever better governed. The first and second Georges were nursing fathers to
the province. They performed to it the full orbed duty of Kings, and their
paternal care was returned with the most ardent love and affection of their
subjects in Carolina. The advantages were reciprocal. The colonists enjoyed the
protection of Great Britain, and in return she had a monopoly of their trade.
The mother country received great benefit from this intercourse, and the colony,
under her protecting care, became great and happy. In South Carolina an enemy to
the Hanoverian succession, or to the British Constitution, was scarcely known.
The inhabitants were fond of British manners even to excess. They, for the most
part, sent their children to England or Scotland for education, and spoke of
these countries under the endearing appellation of home. They were enthusiasts
for the government under which they had grown up and flourished. All ranks and
orders of men gloried in their connection with the mother country, and in being
subjects of the same king. The laws of the British Parliament, confining their
trade for the benefit of the protecting parent state, were generally and
cheerfully obeyed. Few countries have, at any time, exhibited so striking an
instance of public and private prosperity as appeared in South Carolina between
the years 1725 and 1775. The inhabitants of the province were, in that half
century, increased seven fold. None were indigent but the idle and unfortunate.
Personal independence was fully within the reach of every man who was healthy
and industrious. All were secure in their persons and property. They were also
contented with their colonial state, and wished not for the smallest change in
their political constitution.
   In the midst of these enjoyments, and the most sincere attachment to the
mother country, to their king and his government, the people of South Carolina,
without any original design on their part, were, step by step, drawn into a
defensive revolutionary war, which involved them in every species of difficulty,
and finally dissevered them from the parent state.
  But before we proceed to relate these interesting events, some more early
periods of the history of South Carolina must be surveyed.

[End of Chapter IV.]