petition was referred to a special committee, who reported that, in New York and New England, beaver hats were manufactured to the number, it was estimated, of 10,000 yearly. … The exports were to the Southern plantations, the West Indies, and Ireland. In consequence of this evidence, and that furnished by the Board of Trade in the same session, an act was passed (5 George II. c. 22) that 'no hats or felts, dyed or undyed, finished or unfinished, shall be put on board any vessel in any place within any of the British plantations; nor be laden upon any horse or other carriage to the intent to be exported from thence to any other plantation, or to any other place whatever, upon forfeiture thereof, and the offender shall likewise pay £500 for every such offence.' … This severe and stringent law continued in force in the Colonies until the Revolution. It aimed at the prostration of one of the oldest and, on account of the abundance and cheapness of beavers and other furs, one of the most profitable branches of industry." _J. L. Bishop, History of American Manufactures, volume 1, chapter 14._ In 1749 an act of Parliament was passed "to encourage the importation of pig and bar iron from his majesty's colonies in America, and to prevent the erection of any mill or other engine for slitting or rolling of iron, or any plateing forge to work with a tilt hammer, or any furnace for making steel in any of the said colonies." "Pig iron was allowed to be imported free to all parts of the kingdom, so as to secure cheap bar iron. But bar iron could not be imported at any port but London, and carried no further than ten miles from that city. This clause was intended to aid the owners of woods. In order to protect the nail trade, all slitting-mills in the colonies were ordered to be destroyed." _J. B. Pearse, Concise History of the Iron Manufacture of the American Colonies, page 121._ ALSO IN: _W. B. Weeden, Economic and Social History of New England, volume 2._ G. L. Beer, Commercial Policy of England toward the Colonies (Col. Col. Studies, volume 3). See, also, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1763 and 1764. {3174} UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:A. D. 1704-1729. The first colonial newspapers. See PRINTING AND PRESS: A. D. 1704-1729. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1748-1754. First collisions with the French in the Ohio Valley.