THE WEALTH OE NATIONS.

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comprehended timber fit for masts, yards, and bow-sprits;hemp, tar, pitch, and turpentine. The bounty, however, ofone pound the ton upon masting-timber, and that of sixpounds the ton upon hemp, were extended to such as shouldbe imported into England and Scotland . Both these boun-ties continued without any variation at the same rate, till theywere severally allowed to expire; that upon hemp ou thefirst of January, 1741, and that upon masting-timber at theend of the session of parliament immediately following the24th June, 1781.

The bounties upon the importation of tar, pitch, and tur-pentine, underwent, during their continuance, several altera-tions. Originally that upon tar was four pounds the ton;that upon pitch the same; and that upon turpentine,three pounds the ton. The bounty of four pounds the tonupon tar was afterward confined to such as had been pre-pared in a particular manner; that upon other good, clean,and merchantable tar was reduced to two pounds four shil-lings the ton. The bounty upon pitch was likewise reducedto one pound ; and that upon turpentine to one pound tenshillings the ton.

The second bounty upon the importation of any of the ma-terials of manufacture, according to the order of time, wasthat granted by the 21 Geo. II. chap. 30., upon the importa-tion of indigo from the British plantations. When the plan-tation indigo was worth three-fourths of the price of the bestFrench indigo, it was by this act entitled to a bounty of six-pence the pound. This bounty, which, like most others, wasgranted only for a limited time, was continued by several pro-longations, but was reduced to fourpence the pound. It wasallowed to expire with the end of the session of parliamentwhich followed the 25th March, 1781.

The third bounty of this kind was that granted (muchabout the time that we were beginning sometimes to courtand sometimes to quarrel with our American colonies) by the4th Geo. Hi. chap. 26., upon the importation of hemp, or un-dressed flax, from the British plantations. This bounty wasgranted for twenty-one years, from the 24th June, 17(54, tothe 24th June, 1785. For the first seven years it was tohe at the rate of eight pounds the ton, for the second at sixPounds, and for the third at four pounds. It was not ex-tended to Scotland , of which the climate (although hemp issometimes raised there, in small quantities and of an inferior