New York City: Call for Informers, 1753
“WHEREAS we have great Reason to believe. there has been for some Time lately carried on, a clandestine illegal Trade, by some of the Traders of this Place, to Holland and other Parts: THESE are therefore to give this publick Notice, That whoever will inform the Collector of his Majesty’s Customs, with what may come to his Knowledge, in relation to such Practices, shall, besides all proper Protection and Encouragement, of which I have his Excellency’s Leave to assure them; be entitled to, and receive one third of all Forfeitures, upon Condemnation, and their Names, if desired, concealed. Altho’ it cannot be imagined, that any Information of this kind, can be thought odious, when the Trade of Great-Britain, the Interest of the fair Trader, and the general Character of the Merchants of this Place are so nearly concern’d; such Practices tending only to inrich [sic] a few Individuals at their Expence. Archibald Kennedy. March 5th, 1753.”
—New York Mercury, 12 March 1753
TMT: Archibald Kennedy, Sr. (1685-1763) had served as customs collector in New York since 1722. Kennedy believed that British restrictions on North America’s trade harmed the empire and only served metropolitan interests. See: Milton M. Klein, “Archibald Kennedy: Imperial Pamphleteer,” in Some Eighteenth-Century Commentators, vol. 2 of Lawrence H. Leder, ed., The Colonial Legacy, 2 vols., New York, 1971.
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