“C” is for colonial agents

“C” is for colonial agents. The overseas market for rice, South Carolina ‘s principal export was restricted by Parliamentary legislation. How could South Carolina get parliament to pay attention to its particular concerns? The answer was a colonial agent, paid for by the colony’s Commons House of Assembly. The colonial agent regularly reported to the Commons House on matters of interest to the colony. As a result of lobbying by its colonial agent, South Carolina was allowed after 1730 to export its rice to markets south of Cape Finisterre, Spain. Another success was Parliament's passage in 1748 of a bounty on indigo. In 1766 South Carolina’s agent promoted repeal of the Stamp Act on the basis of commercial interests. After 1770, when colonial arguments became more ideologically based, South Carolina’s agent and most other colonial agents sheared away.