By 1698 Governor Bellomont was able to say of Boston alone, "I believe
there are more good vessels belonging to the town of Boston than to all
Scotland and Ireland." Thereafter the business rapidly developed, until in
a map of about 1730 there are noted sixteen shipyards. Rope walks, too,
sprung up to furnish rigging, and presently for these Boston was a centre.
Another industry, less commendable, grew up in this as in other shipping
centres. Molasses was one of the chief staples brought from the West
Indies, and it came in quantities far in excess of any possible demand
from the colonial sweet tooth. But it could be made into rum, and in those
days rum was held an innocent beverage, dispensed like water at all formal
gatherings, and used as a matter of course in the harvest fields, the
shop, and on the deck at sea. Moreover, it had been found to have a
special value as currency on the west coast of Africa. The negro savages
manifested a more than civilized taste for it, and were ready to sell
their enemies or their friends, their sons, fathers, wives, or daughters
into slavery in exchange for the fiery fluid. So all New England set to
turning the good molasses into fiery rum, and while the slave trade throve
abroad the rum trade prospered at home.

Of course the rapid advance of the colonies in shipbuilding and in
maritime trade was not regarded in England with unqualified pride. The
theory of that day--and one not yet wholly abandoned--was that a colony
was a mine, to be worked for the sole benefit of the mother country. It
was to buy its goods in no other market. It was to use the ships of the
home government alone for its trade across seas. It must not presume to
manufacture for itself articles which merchants at home desired to sell.
England early strove to impress such trade regulations upon the American
colonies, and succeeded in embarrassing and handicapping them seriously,
although evasions of the navigation laws were notorious, and were winked
at by the officers of the crown. The restrictions were sufficiently