Apparently the conferences were on the point of terminating abruptly within less than a month; for, on the 29th of January, the Scottish commissioners refused to go further until the question of the Navigation Act was settled, and the English refused to act until the whole of the Scottish demands were laid before them. The Scottish commissioners gave in, and presented a document in which their grievances were set forth. The repeal of the Navigation Act was what they chiefly insisted on; but, in addition to this, they complained of the whole of those Acts of Parliament by which free trade between England and Scotland had been abolished, and by which excessive duties had been imposed on Scottish produce. “Thus,” they said, “your lordships have now the full scheme of all that is demanded by us in this treaty. But because what we have given in, relating to the Act of Navigation, was the first in time, and is the greatest obstruction of our trade, and indeed without which our trade cannot be carried on, we still insist upon an answer to it in the first place, and then we shall be willing to proceed to treat on all the rest in order.”[99] After a long delay the English commissioners returned their answer. They refused, in peremptory terms, to allow Scotland to trade with the colonies. The colonies, they said, were founded by Englishmen, and Scotsmen had no right to benefit by them. They were prepared, however, to permit Scotsmen to go and settle as merchants in the colonies; but they refused to allow Scottish ships to carry foreign produce into English ports. “The kingdom of Scotland,” they said, “being wholly independent, and not subject to the Crown of England, we cannot have reasonable security and satisfaction that the said kingdom will keep up, and tie itself, to the strict observation of the restrictions and limitations set down in the Act of Navigation, with relation to this matter.” They offered, nevertheless, to make some concessions, on condition that those Acts of the Scottish Parliament which imposed a tariff hostile to English trade were repealed. If that were done, Scottish ships might import fish into England free of duty, and also tar, hemp, flax, raisins, and grain of any sort, on payment of the duty levied on aliens. They might also import timber into England for six years; and the reason for this concession was frankly stated to be that since the great fire of London there had been a scarcity of wood for rebuilding the city. They also offered to give Scottish ships the right, for six years only, of exporting goods from England, on payment of the same customs as English ships paid.