A. D. 1783. II 



rican oak, a large proportion of the vefTels belonging to the different 

 ports of Great Britain were built in America *» 



It is true, that Britain no longer poflefTed the exclufive trade with 

 America, as it was fecured by law. But the advantages of that trade, 

 which were undoubtedly very confiderable, had, through ignorance or 

 prejudice, been moft enormoufly exaggerated, when the rage for colo- 

 nization was in its full force. It was then the creed of our political 

 fpeculators, that every man exported to America was as valuable to this 

 country as two men remaining at home. About fixty years ago fome 

 of them, flill more fanguine and vifionary, inlifled, that the labour of 

 one man in the plantations was worth as much to this country as that 

 oifour men at home : and, having eflimated the population of the pro- 

 vince of Virginia at 500,000 fouls, of which 120,000 were faid to be 

 whites, they took it for granted, that every white man, woman, and 

 child, in Virginia produced by the confumption of Britifh produce and 

 manufadures £12, or at a low valuation at leafl j^io, a-year to this na- 

 tion f ; whence it followed, that the white people of that one colony- 

 were worth an annuity of at leaft ^1,200,000 to Great Britain, befides 

 about ;^ 1 5 0,000 for tools, &c. expended by the negroes. And, what 

 crowned the whole, it was faid to be impoflible, that the trade of Ame- 



* How far the Britifli-built vefTels had already fuperfeded the American, will appear from the fol- 

 lowing 



Comparative vieiv of the filpplng, employed in the foreign trade of Britain at the commencement, and 

 at the end, of the late war, as they appear in the Regifiers of the underwriters at Lloyd's coffee-hoife, dif- 

 tingui/hing the Britifh from the American-buill, 



Veffels, meafuring in tannage,^ 



By the Regifter of 1775, comprehending the {hipping 

 of the three preceding years, and of part of 1 775, there 

 were 



Britifli-built ..... 3i9o8 605,545 



American-built .... 2,311 373,618 



6,219 979>2C3 



By the Regifter of 1783, comprehending the flu'pping 



of that and the two preceding years, there were 



Britifh-built - . - - 35848 708,346 



American-built ... i>334- 225,439 



5,182 933.785 



Thus there appear to have been ... 1,037 veffels, meafuring 45>+7f' 



tuns, lefs, employed in the foreign trade of Britain at the conclufion of the war, than there were be- 

 fore the commencement of it. None of that deficiency was in the Britilh (liipping, which, though 

 nominally decreafed by 60 veffels, was in reality increafed by 102,801 tuns ; the tunnage, and not the 

 number of veffels, being the real comparative meafure of fhipping : whereas the American (hipping 

 had faUen off 977 in number and 148,179 in tunnage. To compenfate the deficiency pf 45,478 tuns, 

 it may be obferved, that there were at this time about (,00O veffels of private property employed by 

 government as tranfports and in other branches of the pubhc feivice ; which, if we average them at 

 only 100 tuns (and fome of them meafured above 500), would more than doubly make up the defi- 

 ciency, when their difcharge from the public fervice returned them to their proper employment in the 

 fervice of commerce. 



For this Comparative vievif and the other remarks I am indebted to the diligent refearch of Mr. 

 Chalmers. \_See his Opinions on American independence, p. 104.] 



f Is the annual labour of four men in Britain worth only ^fio or jf 12 ? 



B 2 



