Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin Volume I Part 12

Signed, GEORGE WAs.h.i.+NGTON, _President of the United States_.

WRITINGS OF FRANKLIN.

_The Examination of Dr. Franklin before the British House of Commons, relative to the Repeal of the American Stamp-act._[18]

1766, Feb. 3. Benjamin Franklin, Esq., and a number of other persons, were "ordered to attend the committee of the whole House of Commons, to whom it was referred to consider farther the several papers relative to America, which were presented to the House by Mr. Secretary Conway, &c."

_Q._ What is your name and place of abode?

_A._ Franklin, of Philadelphia.

_Q._ Do the Americans pay any considerable taxes among themselves?

_A._ Certainly, many, and very heavy taxes.

_Q._ What are the present taxes in Pennsylvania, laid by the laws of the colony?

_A._ There are taxes on all estates, real and personal; a poll tax; a tax on all offices, professions, trades, and businesses, according to their profits; an excise on all wine, rum, and other spirits; and a duty of ten pounds per head on all negroes imported, with some other duties.

_Q._ For what purposes are those taxes laid?

_A._ For the support of the civil and military establishments of the country, and to discharge the heavy debt contracted in the last war.

_Q._ How long are those taxes to continue?

_A._ Those for discharging the debt are to continue till 1772, and longer if the debt should not be then all discharged. The others must always continue.

_Q._ Was it not expected that the debt would have been sooner discharged?

_A._ It was, when the peace was made with France and Spain. But a fresh war breaking out with the Indians, a fresh load of debt was incurred; and the taxes, of course, continued longer by a new law.

_Q._ Are not all the people very able to pay those taxes?

_A._ No. The frontier counties all along the continent having been frequently ravaged by the enemy, and greatly impoverished, are able to pay very little tax. And therefore, in consideration of their distresses, our late tax laws do expressly favour those counties, excusing the sufferers; and I suppose the same is done in other governments.

_Q._ Are not you concerned in the management of the _postoffice_ in America?

_A._ Yes. I am deputy postmaster-general of North America.

_Q._ Don't you think the distribution of stamps _by post_ to all the inhabitants very practicable, if there was no opposition?

_A._ The posts only go along the seacoasts; they do not, except in a few instances, go back into the country; and if they did, sending for stamps by post would occasion an expense of postage, amounting, in many cases, to much more than that of the stamps themselves. * * * *

_Q._ From the thinness of the back settlements, would not the stamp-act be extremely inconvenient to the inhabitants, if executed?

_A._ To be sure it would; as many of the inhabitants could not get stamps when they had occasion for them, without taking long journeys, and spending perhaps three or four pounds, that the crown might get sixpence.

_Q._ Are not the colonies, from their circ.u.mstances, very able to pay the stamp duty?

_A._ In my opinion there is not gold and silver enough in the colonies to pay the stamp duty for one year.

_Q._ Don't you know that the money arising from the stamps was all to be laid out in America?

_A._ I know it is appropriated by the act to the American service; but it will be spent in the conquered colonies, where the soldiers are; not in the colonies that pay it.

_Q._ Is there not a balance of trade due from the colonies where the troops are posted, that will bring back the money to the old colonies?

_A._ I think not. I believe very little would come back. I know of no trade likely to bring it back. I think it would come from the colonies where it was spent directly to England; for I have always observed, that in every colony, the more plenty the means of remittance to England, the more goods are sent for and the more trade with England carried on.

_Q._ What number of white inhabitants do you think there are in Pennsylvania?

_A._ I suppose there may be about one hundred and sixty thousand?

_Q._ What number of them are Quakers?

_A._ Perhaps a third.

_Q._ What number of Germans?

_A._ Perhaps another third; but I cannot speak with certainty.

_Q._ Have any number of the Germans seen service as soldiers in Europe?

_A._ Yes, many of them, both in Europe and America.

_Q._ Are they as much dissatisfied with the stamp duty as the English?

_A._ Yes, and more; and with reason, as their stamps are, in many cases, to be double.

_Q._ How many white men do you suppose there are in North America?

_A._ About three hundred thousand, from sixteen to sixty years of age?

_Q._ What may be the amount of one year's imports into Pennsylvania from Britain?

_A._ I have been informed that our merchants compute the imports from Britain to be above 500,000.

_Q._ What may be the amount of the produce of your province exported to Britain?

_A._ It must be small, as we produce little that is wanted in Britain. I suppose it cannot exceed 40,000.

_Q._ How, then, do you pay the balance?

_A._ The balance is paid by our produce carried to the West Indies (and sold in our own islands, or to the French, Spaniards, Danes, and Dutch); by the same produce carried to other colonies in North America (as to New-England, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Carolina, and Georgia); by the same, carried to different parts of Europe (as Spain, Portugal, and Italy). In all which places we receive either money, bills of exchange, or commodities that suit for remittance to Britain; which, together with all the profits on the industry of our merchants and mariners, arising in those circuitous voyages, and the freights made by their s.h.i.+ps, centre finally to Britain to discharge the balance, and pay for British manufactures continually used in the provinces, or sold to foreigners by our traders.