Read Online For Love of Country by William C. Hammond - Free Book Online Page B

reviewed today’s agenda with his father and uncle. He didn’t have to relate much about his voyage to the Indies; everyone present realized what was at stake there and the ramifications of the threat posed by Captain Horatio Nelson. The question was, how should the Cutler family respond to that threat? Richard deferred the answer to his uncle.
    â€œOur original assumption,” William picked up the thread, “was that there was no substance to any of this. As Richard pointed out, there is considerable opposition to the Navigation Acts in every British colony and at every level of society. So we chose to do nothing and wait for the storm clouds to blow over, so to speak. Alas, we were wrong. It seems clear, in retrospect, that the Royal Navy intends to follow the letter of the law on this matter, whatever the consequences. Captain Nelson is even now carrying out his threat. There are more British agents on Barbados than ever before, and we are being closely watched in England as well.”
    â€œOur own country is spying on us,” Lizzy said to Katherine, “waiting for us to make a wrong step. And this despite the frightful taxes we are forced to pay each year.”
    â€œExcuse me, Mr. Cutler,” Stephen Starbuck broke in. He stood out among the others by the simplicity of the clothes he wore: a plain-cut white shirt, no waistcoat or neck stock, and a drab pair of black trousers and thick cloth shoes that nonetheless were his Sunday best. He was not a Quaker, although he looked like one. He often reminded Richard of Benjamin Franklin in Paris during the war. Not only was Starbuck as comfortably indifferent to current fashions as Franklin was, he possessed the same acuity of mind that allowed him to fly like an arrow to the heart of a matter. “Exactly what do the British expect to gain from the Acts? Liv has told me some of what Richard just explained, but I don’t understand their purpose.”
    â€œYou are not alone in asking that question, Stephen,” William said. “It’s the old way of doing things: colonies sending raw materials only to the mother country, and the mother country sending manufactured goods only to her colonies. Everyone else is excluded from this internal financial scheme, even, at times”—he pointed to himself—“a country’s own citizens. Of course, for such a system to work properly, a country must have a considerable number of overseas possessions capable of producing raw materials. Which England does, of course. As an English
citizen I strongly disagree with this policy. I favor free trade because free trade serves everyone, from the Exchequer on down. But the concept of free trade is anathema to the Old Guard, who see it as a threat to the natural order of things and therefore to the country’s financial stability. Does this explanation help?”
    Stephen nodded.
    â€œGood. Now then,” William continued, “since American merchants are denied access to British-held islands, we—meaning the Cutler family in England—are forced to purchase or hire British-built ships and man them with British sailors—or at least sailors who we can demonstrate are not American. As long as the Navigation Acts remain in force, we will ship our goods directly from Bridgetown to Britain and her possessions, and on to Europe, while Cutler and Sons in Boston will continue to service our North American customers. To accomplish the latter, we must arrange to transfer cargoes at sea after they leave Barbados. I suggest the islands of the Bahamas as the site for such transfers. There are too many of them for the Royal Navy to patrol effectively, and the navy is known to turn a blind eye to what goes on there.”
    â€œSo we are reduced to smuggling,” Anne muttered.
    â€œYou can look at it that way,” her uncle answered her. “Captain Nelson certainly does. Your father and I, however, prefer to think of it as