A. D. 1760. 343 



ceeds of that culture, the excefs of which is not a lofs to the nation, 

 but the real amount of the net profits coming into the pockets of the 

 proprietors, and giving a very comfortable demonftration how much 

 the amount of the produft is more than the prime coft. In other words, 

 the outward cargoes are the feed, and the inward cargoes are the harvejl. 

 Neither is the balance, ftated as due to the iflands, remitted to them to 

 increafe their flock of circulating money. A part of it is paid, as inte- 

 reft or difcharge of debts, to capitalifts at home, to whom many of the 

 plantations are deeply mortgaged. Another part (and, 1 hope, the 

 largefl) refls with the proprietors, of whom a very confiderable number 

 are merchants refiding in Great Britain, and many of the others alfo 

 refide in England, living on the balance of their plantation produce, 

 which, if not entirely exhaufted in their expenditure, is laid out in pur- 

 chafes at home, or in improving the Weft-India plantations, and thus 

 in either way adding to, and by no means deducting from, the national 

 opulence. 



The fame reafoning will alfo hold good with the trade to Hudfon's 

 bay, and feveral others, wherein the excefs of the imports is the real 

 profit, and a continuation of favourahle balances would in a few years 

 ruin the trade. In fome branches of bufinefs the goods exported are 

 merely the charges of trade, as is the cafe in all fiflieries : for example, 

 if a large fum appeared as the amount of goods carried to Greenland, 

 and none at all brought from it, it is evident, that the apparent y^Tw/r- 

 able balance is a dead hfs, and that the adventurers, befides the goods 

 fliipped, and entered as exported, lofe alfo the wages and provifions of 

 the feamen, and the wear and tear of their fliips ; whereas in luch trades 

 the excefs of the imports above the exports (or, if any body pleafes to 

 call it fo, the mifavourable balance) fhews the amount of the national 

 gain. 



There is another kind of deceptive inference to be drawn from the 

 cuftom-houfe entries, if not duely guarded againft. It is necellary to 

 advert, that the exports to fome countries conftitute the prime coft of 

 cargoes to be Ihipped off from them to a third country. Thus the wines 

 of Madeira are fent to the Britilh fettlemcnts in the Eaft and Weft In- 

 dies, and, even if intended for Britain, are often carried by the circuitous 

 route of thofe diftant regions, before they are brought home. The bulk 

 of the cargoes from Africa confifts of the miferable natives, who are 

 fold in the Weft-Indies ; and the proceeds arc generally remitted to 

 Great Britain in bills of exchange, which do not appear at all in the 

 cuftom-houfe books. And in like manner moft of the cargoes, carried 

 from Newfoundland and the adjacent countries, conliftoffilh, which 

 never come to Great Britain, but are fold in Spain, Portugal, and other 

 Roman catholic countries, and their proceeds alfo brought liome in 

 bills of exchange. ■• 



