244 HISTORY OF THE [BOOFC. 11. 



But it must be noted, that a considerable part of 

 the cotton, indigo, tobacco, mahogany, dye-woods, 

 and miscellaneous articles, included in the preceding 

 account, is the produce of the foreign West Indies 

 imported into Jamaica, partly under the free-port law, 

 and partly in small British vessels employed in a con- 

 rtaband traffic with the Spanish American territories, 

 payment of which is made chiefly in British manufac- 

 tures and negroes; and considerable quantities of bul- 

 lion, obtained by the same means, are annually remit- 

 ted to Great Britain, of which no precise accounts 

 can be procured.* 



The general account of imports into Jamaica will 

 stand nearly as follows; viz. 



* The preceding account having been made up for 1787, it may reason- 

 ably be supposed that the island has greatly increased its produce in the 

 ^pace of ten years j and, it is true, that at this period (1797) the amount 

 of its exports, according to their marketable value, would greatly ex- 

 ceed that of 1787, perhaps nearly one third j but it is conceived, that the 

 difference arises more from an advance of price in the several articles, 

 than from any excess in the quantity produced, coffee excepted. This 

 increase of price has been chiefly owing to the destruction of most of the 

 French islands, particularly St. Domingo; the British planters, on the 

 other hand, have to set against it the increase of their internal taxes, for 

 the support of a war establishment (besides additional insurance, freight, 

 and other charges) to an amount never before known : those of Jamaica, 

 in particular, have been subject to burthens to which this augmentation 

 in the value of their exports was by no means commensurate. See note 



