North Carolina Naval Stores
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North Carolina became one of the world's most productive places for naval stores in 1700's. Naval stores are items that are used for creating and sustaining wooden ships. The reason that North Carolina had such a presence in the naval industry is due to the longleaf pine that was found up and down the coastal region of North Carolina. The longleaf pine was important to the naval industry because of its sap that can be yielded to make tar, pitch and turpentine. The longleaf pine forest, which was important for naval stores, is from thirty to eighty miles wide, and extends from North Carolina to the Gulf of Mexico(Dix & Edwards, 1856, p.338). Many Old World countries were running short on supplies and needed the resources the New World could provide. This need for goods pushed open new markets in North Carolina. According to Walbert (n.d), "Clearly, England needed a new source of naval stores, and it turned to its North American colonies. To encourage the American naval stores industry, Parliament passed a law in 1705 that required the British Navy to pay inflated prices for tar, pitch, turpentine, rosin, hemp, and masts from British colonies." North Carolina's coastal plains were covered in the longleaf pine, and the Parliament bill created a great new economy for North Carolina. by the 1770's, 70 percent of the tar exports from North America came from the region of North Carolina(Wlbert, n.d.). Many of the cities that we know today on the North Carolina coast, grew from naval ports, such as Brunswick and Wilmington. Great prosperity was made from the longleaf pine; however, just like many things in the Columbian Exchange, that soon declined. According to Walbert (n.d.), "The longleaf pine made North Carolina’s naval stores industry possible, but today the longleaf pine has nearly vanished from the landscape. It’s difficult to imagine just how vast the pine forests once were."