[51] _Massachusetts Archives_, XXXV, folio 61.
The ill-defined connection between privateering and piracy was fully recognized in those days and characterized publicly by the clergy. In 1704 when Rev. Cotton Mather preached his "Brief Discourse occasioned by a Tragical Spectacle in a Number of Miserables under Sentence of Death for Piracy," he remarked that "the Privateering Stroke so easily degenerates into the Piratical; and the Privateering Trade is usually carried on with an Unchristian Temper, and proves an Inlet unto so much Debauchery and Iniquity."
Another strong influence that led to insecurity on the high seas and eventually to outright piracy was the operation of the English Navigation Acts. European nations were in agreement that the possession of colonies meant the exclusive control of their trade and manufactures.
In 1696, Col. Charles Lidgett, a New England merchant, in "Some Considerations Offered to the Board of Trade," wrote that "all the American Colonies are generally esteemed according to the Conveniency and benefit they bring to England, their Mother."[52] Lord Chatham wrote, "The British Colonists in North America have no right to manufacture so much as a nail for a horse shoe," and Lord Sheffield went further and said, "The only use of American Colonies, is the monopoly of their consumption, and the carriage of their produce."[53]
[52] _Cal. State Papers, Am. and W. I._ (1696-1697), 84.
[53] Viscount Bury, _Exodus of the Western Nations_, London, 1865.
English merchants naturally wished to sell at high prices and to buy colonial raw materials as low as possible and as they were unable to provide a market for all that was produced, the Colonies were at a disadvantage in both buying and selling. By the Acts of Navigation certain "enumerated articles" could be marketed only in England. Lumber, salt provisions, grain, rum and other non-enumerated articles might be sold within certain limits but must be transported in English or plantation-built vessels of which the owners and three-fourths of the mariners were British subjects. Freight rates also advanced, as other nations, notably the Dutch, had previously enjoyed a good share of the carrying trade.