The Colonies Reduced./ Its Companion.
Date1768
OriginEngland, London
MediumBlack and white line engraving
DimensionsOH: 8" x OW: 4 3/4"; Top plate H: 3 7/8" x W: 2 3/8"; Bottom plate H: 3 7/8" x W: 3 1/2"
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Object number1960-39
DescriptionThe upper margin reads: "The Colonies Reduced/ Design'd & Engrav'd for the Political Register." Text above lower print reads: "Its Companion."
Label TextDuring the period when the Stamp Act was nominally enforced, English industrial interest were threatened financially by the restrictions placed on colonial trade. Benjamin Franklin, then residing in London as a colonial agent, worked arduously for repeal of the tax, constantly reminding the men in power of the dangers inherent in its continuation. In 1765 he designed a card on which was engraved a picture, "Magna Britannia-Her Colonies Reduced", which he then printed in early 1766. Britannia, all of her appendages (Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, and New England) removed, her ships idle in the harbor, is depicted in a destitute position.
There is nothing to indicate that Franklin may have offered the satire for sale in England; rather, he probably distributed it as a propaganda item to influential government and business leaders. However, by 1768 the work had become well known and was copied with only slight alteration on the same sheet by a second satire, "Its Companion". The two were published in the "Political Register", a magazine founded in 1767 by John Almon, a London bookseller and writer. England's additional problems are described in the second work.
Although the Stamp Act had been repealed by the 1768 date of this work, England’s foreign trade troubles were growing and a satire as this from Franklin remained timely and well worth the effort to reproduce it, particularly for publication in a magazine so dedicated to opposing government policies.
This print was published in the Political Register.
ProvenanceEx collection: H. Dunscombe Colt.
