The early settler entered upon his work of raising the supply for his family and neighbors with the knowledge of a sure and easy disi)osal of the sur])lus of his crop. There is no doubt that in a coasting trade much was sent both north and south, to Rhode Island and Boston and the Carolinas, direct from the villages of the County, but the vast bulk of what it had to sell went through New York City, the port of entry, to the mother country and various other lands at greater

17U

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

or less distances. At first, wheat, barley, rye, peas and Indian corn were exported, but afterward live stock, hemp, flax, apples, onions, tobacco, cheese,^ pickled oysters prepared, and then other articles, as tar, bacon, butter, candles, linseed oil, inferier cloths and, for a short time, hats.

During the war between France and England, in the reign of Queen Anne, when there was a great scarcity of provisions in Europe, the farmer of the New York colony received a high price for his wheat, and was much encouraged. This effect was far from satisfactory to his kinsman beyond the seas. In that selfishness which borders on nervous jealousy, and which would suppress all industries that conflict with its own, the colonial planter and merchant found his enemy in his own household.

This petty interference was carried still farther, in the discouragement of even what was not known in the commercial dealings of the mother country. The trade with foreign ports and the production of what might be carried directly to the stranger and even to the fellow colonist was ordered to be discontiiiued. The blindness and injustice of such a policy is obvious. Gov. Clinton, seeing the stupidity of this proceeding, in a letter to the home government, asks, " May not a Colony ... of Freemen who consume a vast quantity of the Manufectures of Great Britain, tho' this Colony raise no staple which can be imported directly into Great Britain, be more useful to her than a Colony which raises a considerable staple imported into Great Britain, and this Staple is entirely raised by the hands of Slaves, who consume very little or none of the Manufactures of Great Britain." ?- This narrow course with a people described by Dr.