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Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
Order by the Privy Council of Great Britain trade between Great Britain and the United States
Great Britain. Privy Council
June 06, 1783
Volume 16, Pages 811-813

STEPHEN COTTREL TO. GOV MARTIN.
[From Executive Letter Book.]

At the Court of St. James, the 6th June, 1783.

Present

The Kings most Excellent Majesty.

Whereas, by an Act of Parliament passed this Session entituled “An Act for preventing certain Enstruments from being required from Ships belonging to the United States of America, & to give to his Majesty for a limited time, certain powers for the better carrying on Trade & Commerce between the subjects of his Majesty’s

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Dominions and the inhabitants of the said United States.” It is among other things enacted, that during the continuance of the said Act, it shall and may be lawful for his said Majesty in Council, by order or orders to be issued and published from time to time, to give such directions, & to make such regulations with respect to duties, drawbacks, or otherwise for carrying on the trade & Commerce between the territories belonging to the crown of Great Britain, and the People & territories of the said United States, as to his Majesty in Council shall appear most expedient & salutary, any law, usage or custom to the contrary notwithstanding: his Majesty doth therefore by & with the advice of his privy Council, hereby order and direct, that pitch, tar, turpentine, indigo, masts, yards and Bowsprits, being the growth or production of any of the United States of America, may (until further order) be imported directly from thence into any of the ports of this Kingdom either in British or American ships, by British subjects or by any of the People inhabiting in and belonging to the said United States or any of them; and that the articles above recited, shall be entered and landed in any port of this Kingdom, upon payment of the same duties as the same are, or may be subject and liable to, if imported by British subjects in British Ships from any British Island or plantation in America, and no other, notwithstanding such pitch, tar, turpentine, indigo, masts, yards & bowsprits, or the ships in which the same may be brought, may not be accompanied with the Certificates or other documents, heretofore required by Law: and his Majesty is hereby further pleased, by and with the advice aforesaid, to order and direct, that any Tobacco, being the growth or production of any of the Territories of the said United States of America, may likewise (until further orders) be imported directly from thence in manner above mentioned, may be landed in this Kingdom and upon the importer paying down in ready money the duty commonly called the old subsidy, such Tobacco may be warehoused under his Majesty’s locks upon the importer’s own bond for payment of all further dues for such Tobacco within the time limited by Law, according to the nett weight and quantity of such Tobacco at the time it shall be landed, with the same allowances for the payment of such further duties, and under the like restrictions & regulations in all other respects, not altered by this order, as such Tobacco is & may
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be warehoused by virtue of any Act or Acts of Parliament in force, and the right Honorable the Lords Commissioners of his Majesty’s Treasury, and the Lords Commissioners of The Admiralty, are to give the necessary directions herein, as to them may respectively appertain.

STEPHEN COTTREL.