1830.] Increase of Consumption and Revenue. 661 



By an attentive examination of this table, it will be perceived that the 

 price has, at various periods, had a very material effect in promoting 

 or retarding consumption. For instance, in 1806, 1807, and 1808, 

 during the prevalence of comparatively low prices, the consumption be- 

 came greater than at any former period, being about 2,650,000 cwts: 

 To assist the West India planter, who at that period of the war had 

 enormous charges of freight, insurance, and for supplies, to pay, the use 

 of sugar was allowed in the distilleries, the effect of which, and of the 

 impulse given to consumption by the previous low prices, was to raise it to 

 an average of nearly 3,000,000 cwts. (in 1810 it being actually 3,489,312 

 cwts.), but the price during 1813, 1814, and 1815, having been raised 

 by speculation to nearly 100*., the consumption, notwithstanding the 

 continued use of sugar in the distilleries, fell off more than one-third, being 

 in 1815, the year after it was excluded, only 1,888,965 cwts. 



Since that period the price, it will be perceived, has been gradually 

 lowering, while the quantity retained for consumption in the United 

 Kingdom has risen to the unprecedented extent of 3,750,000 cwts. ; and, 

 notwithstanding the great distress of the West India planter, and the 

 privations sustained during the last two years by the lower order of con- 

 sumers, the government has continued to exact, during these years, the 

 same rate of duty, amounting, on an average, to about five millions ster- 

 ling on this article alone. Of this sum, Ireland, be it observed, with her 

 numerous population, pays only about 400,000/. per annum a twelfth ! 

 a sure proof that the price, of which the duty constitutes so serious a 

 part, still keeps it out of the reach of the middling and lower orders 

 there. 



When we further state, that, at the peace of 1814, the planter was 

 receiving an average price (exclusive of the duty) of 60*. to 65s. for 

 sugar which he is now obliged to sell for 23,?. or 24*., the difference of 

 his situation, and the extent of his difficulties, will be more intelligibly 

 understood. Out of this trifling sum he has to pay 8*. or 10*. for freight, 

 commission, and other charges on the sale, so that he is only receiving 

 for sugars of middling quality, such as are- retailed for 6d. or ^d. the lb., 

 about three halfpence the pound, and on the lowest qualities scarcely one 

 penny, whilst the government continue to exact on all sorts, even that 

 which is of the lowest quality. 27*. per cwt. The colonist is thus 

 doomed to see his property and means yearly diminishing, whilst, at the 

 same time, he is taunted with enjoying a monopoly of the home market, 

 and told that this country pays him about a million and a half to keep 

 up the system of slavery, a sum, by the by, nearly as great as that which 

 he receives altogether for the whole value of his sugar ! Can the gross 

 injustice of this system of unmitigated taxation be more clearly mani- 

 fested? 



But, it is not the planter alone that suffers by this state of our West 

 India colonies ; many annuitants, minors, and others, who depend upon 

 these possessions for the means of subsistence, are reduced to poverty 

 and great distress by this situation of affairs ; while numerous mort- 

 gagees, trustees, executors, and others, are placed in situations of great 

 difficulty and embarrassment. 



The British planter, while he has the mortification to see himself 

 approximating to a state of ruin, contrasts his situation with that of the 

 planter in the United States, in Cuba, and in Brazil ! He sees them 

 rapidly increasing the cultivation of their sugar estates, enjoying all the 



