and that the petitioners have great reason to believe, from the best informations they can obtain, that on the balance of this extensive commerce, there is now due from the colonies in North America, to the said city only, 2,000,000_l._ sterling and upwards; and that by the direct commerce with the colonies, and the circuitous trade thereon depending, some thousands of ships and vessels are employed, and many thousands of seamen are bred and maintained, thereby increasing the naval power and strength of Great Britain;
and that, in the year 1765, there was a great stagnation of the commerce between Great Britain and her colonies, in consequence of an Act for granting and applying certain stamp duties, and other duties, in the British colonies and plantations in America, by which the merchants trading to North America, and the artificers employed in the various manufactures consumed in those countries, were subjected to many hardships;
and that, in the following year, the said Act was repealed ... upon which repeal, the trade to the British colonies immediately resumed its former flourishing state;
and that in the year 1767, an Act passed for granting certain duties in the British colonies and plantations in America, which imposed certain duties, to be paid in America, on tea, glass, red and white lead, painters’ colours, paper, pasteboard, millboard and scaleboard, when the commerce with the colonies was again interrupted;
and that in the year 1770, such parts of the said Act as imposed duties on glass, red and white lead, painters’ colours, paper, pasteboard, millboard and scaleboard, were repealed, when the trade to America soon revived, except in the article of tea, on which a duty was continued, to be demanded on its importation into America, whereby that branch of our commerce was nearly lost;
and that in the year 1773, an Act passed, to allow a drawback of the duties of customs on the exportation of tea to His Majesty’s colonies or plantations in America, and to empower the Commissioners of the Treasury to grant licences to the East India Company, to export tea, duty free;
and by the operation of those and other laws, the minds of His Majesty’s subjects in the British colonies have been greatly disquieted a total stop is now put to the export trade with the greatest and most important part of North America, the public revenue is threatened with a large and fatal diminution, the petitioners with grievous distress, and thousands of industrious artificers and manufacturers with utter ruin....”