History of Westchester County, New York, Vol. I
The disturbance of Trade which was consequent on the political differences, had already i)rodnced great distress, in Great Britain, among those whose lives and labors and properties were employed in the manufacture of goods si)ecifically intended for tiie American market; and, at the same time, the Merchants, in that country, and those who had given credits, commercial or financial, to the Colonists, in America, were anxiously considering in what way, if at all, since entire commercial non-intercourse, except that which was surrei)titi()us and corrupt,' had been ordered by the Parliament as well as by the Continental Congress, they were to receive payment of what was due or becoming due to them -- anxieties which were not removed by the aristocratic and " patriotic "debtors," in some of the Colonics, at least, whence remittances had been entirely susj)ended and where the Courts of Justice were not permitted to assist in the collection of debts.
In New York, at the time of which we write, as far as the great body of the Colonists in the rural Counties were concerned, there does not appear to have been any noticeable change -- the farmers had not been disturbed in their labors, during 1774; and the surplus of their ])roductions, which had found early markets, had undoubtedly been disposed of at those better than ordinary prices which are known to have prevailed, in consequence of the increased demand which had been i)roduced, early in the Autumn, by the approaching embargo. In the City, the suspen-