the whole story? MA 1785

[JBW]

I'd give a nickle to know how this all cam,e about. I post here if only because question of -- how soon did US import [Ketland especially] gun-locks after the Revolution. If we got 3000 assorted arms by 1785 ------

A Bargain to be sold by order being a consignment at Joseph and William Russell’s store in Providence, 140 Chests containing about 3000 excellent new BRITISH MUSKETS with Bayonets, well sorted and suitable for every purpose, in as good Order as they came first out of the Maker’s hands, and will be sold together or in such Parcels as may suit the Purchasers for only THREE DOLLARS a Piece. N. B. Each chest contains from 20 to 28 Muskets; about 600 of the above are neat Fowling Pieces [Boston Gazette, 21 February 1785].

[nord]

Jim,

The power of money. It tends to overshadow the little things like revolution. And for all the horrors, the blood spilled, and lives destroyed, our little spat with England was more a family dispute or disagreement than anything else. Too may things binding us together to really cut ties.

Same again for 1812. We'd shoot at one another. We'd build navies to fight on our inland seas. Each side would take some punches and when the war ended it was pretty much back to business as usual. England needed what we had and our consumers wanted what England produced.

The world really hasn't changed much over all history.

[Mark Elliott]

Great observations.   I guess it is good that humans have short memories when it comes to unpleasantness, but it might also be useful to remember that not much good comes from most wars.     

[PPatch]

Agreed Wayne. But war is like an underground fire, it is always smoldering beneath the surface, ready to flare. And as far as war goes I side with Major General Smedley Butler and his declaration that "War is a racket." Personally I think man loves war too much. I am NOT being political here.

[JV Puleo]

That is a very good question. The Ketlands probably weren't active exporters in their own right until after 1792. I suspect this was a shipment of guns purchased in England (or elsewhere) and shipped through a neutral port, like Lisbon or Amsterdam, in a British vessel and trans-shipped in an American flag vessel. Arms exports to America were not authorized by the Privy Council until 1792 so some sort of subterfuge probably took place. That is a very large shipment and the prices are quite low which leads me to think they weren't really "new" or that they were very cheap commercial guns. In 1812 the price of the cheapest Ketland export fowler was 17 shillings which I think comes close to the $3.00 these guns were being sold for... so they had to have been purchased for much less than that.

They might also have come from Ireland. I'm not certain what the legal ramifications of that were but Ireland still had its own Parliament in 1785 and was not officially part of "Great Britain" until 1804. Whether Privy Council regulations applied there is a good question for someone more knowledgeable than I am in the complexities of British Government at the time. Interestingly, the Ketlands are known to have exported a large number of muskets to Ireland in 1785... one has to wonder if this was the same shipment. There was a later shipment to Ireland, also a large quantity, that attracted the attention of the government as I have some of the correspondence relating to it.

Were it not that the Boston Customs House burned to the ground in 1842, we could look this shipment up and find out exactly where it came from, who consinged it and who it was shipped to.