While the territories subject to the Spanish Crown in America abounded with the precious metals, and the mines of gold and silver of Mexico and Peru poured a flood of mineral wealth over Europe,[215] the provinces colonised by Great Britain were destitute of these riches. The soil was, however, capable of affording the still more precious products of rice, corn, sugar, tobacco, indigo, and above all, of cotton. But the New Englanders could not boast of a fertile territory, their soil scarcely growing sufficient to feed its inhabitants. Accordingly they directed their attention to the sea as a source of subsistence, and the business of fishing and navigation afforded a boundless field for their unwearied industry. Thus they constructed vessels not only for their own convenience, but also for sale. These, though inferior to English-built vessels in quality of timber and workmanship, were low-priced and quickly put together. The New Englanders were, moreover, acute merchants, and carried on a considerable trade with Africa; so much so that from their general aptitude for commerce they were known as the “Dutchmen of America.” The provinces of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, with a better soil than that of New England, produced in abundance corn and cattle of all kinds, together with hemp, flax, and lumber, iron, pot and pearl ashes. Their exports of corn and flour brought down from the interior were even then very considerable; they exported, also, live stock, boards, scantling, staves, shingles, and wooden houses framed and ready to set up. These and a multitude of other exports afforded large means of employment to the shipping of New England, while the harbour of New York, one of the finest in the world, presented great maritime facilities to their rising merchant navy. Though Virginia and Maryland had directed their chief attention to the cultivation of tobacco, large quantities of grain were raised in those provinces prior to the revolution. By law their tobacco hitherto could only be exported to Great Britain; but they were now allowed to ship it and their corn, flour, timber, and other produce to the West Indies and elsewhere. North Carolina also grew tobacco, though to a limited extent; but her annual export of pitch, tar, and turpentine, was not less than one hundred and thirty thousand barrels, the larger portion of which was shipped to England. In South Carolina and Georgia (the growth of silk proving unprofitable) rice and indigo became the staple products; but it was not until a later period that these two regions, especially Georgia,[216] became the seat of the vast produce of cotton now employing so large a portion of the merchant shipping of both the European and American States. [Sidenote: Shipping of the North American colonies, A.D. 1769.]