12 A. D. 1783. 



rica, which, it was (perhaps ignorantly) aflerted, took off at leaft one half 

 of our mamifaBures *, fhould ever fail us, or that it fhould not continue 

 to become more and more advantageous. An eafy anfwer to thefe 

 flourifhes of rhetoric is furnirtied by the cuflom-houfe books, and by 

 more authentic enumerations of the people of Virginia. By the former 

 we find, that the merchandize, exported to Virginia and Maryland to- 

 gether, never amounted to ^^300,000 in any year before 1749, and was 

 under ^^200,000 fo late as 1 745 f ; and about that time, it was very fel- 

 dom that the exports to any other of the provinces equaled thofe to 

 Virginia and Maryland. Now, if we take the exports to Virginia only 

 fo high as /^200,ooo, and divide that fum by 120,000, the affumed 

 number of white people, we fliall find the confumpt of each of them to 

 be only f^xw^: a^, reckoning nothing for the negroes; and to that 

 amount, and no further (fuppofing the calculation not over-rated) each 

 of thofe inhabitants of Virginia encouraged the produdive induftry of 

 the inhabitants of Great Britain. The number of the people of Vir- 

 ginia in 1750 was reckoned to be 254,545 of all ages and colours ; and 

 even in the year 1782 they were eflimated by the congrefs at only 

 400,000, though that number was apparently under the truth. So the 

 importance afcribed to Virginia on account of its population mull be 

 reduced to about one half, and on account of the confumption of the 

 individuals to one fixth. Great Britain, to be fure, enjoyed other ad- 

 vantages from the monopolized importation of the tobacco of Virginia, 

 as alio of the produce of the other colonies, efpecially the fouthern ones, 

 in Britilh velFels, and moreover by the remittances proceeding from the 

 circuitous trade of the northern ones. But all thefe, rating them at the 

 highell polfible eftimate, could never make the average value to this 

 country of the labour of an individual in America equal to the average 

 value of the labour of one man at home J. 



* The decennial averages, ftruck by Lord Shef- ♦ lefs. Had the emigrants been retained at home> 



field, (how, that the exports from England to all « whofe progeny now (1784) form a people of 



the provinces, which now compofe the United ' nearly two millions, in a climate no ways fupe- 



ll.T.es, between the years 1 740 and 1 750 were only ' rior, and in moft parts inferior, to that of Britain 



about ;^8 12,647 a-year. In thofe years the trade ' and Ireland : had the lands at home, which ftill 



of Scotland to America was not near fo great as ' continue wafle, been gives them on condition of 



it became before the revolution. But the exports ' cultivation, and bounties been added to encourage 



to all North America, when at the highell, fup- « new produfts of agriculture; had they been plant- 



pofe the goods had coft nothing, and the amount ' cd on the banks of our rivers and our bays with 



had been all clear profit, were never equal to t-wo ' a view to fidicries ; they would have increafed the 



per cent upon the capital of the debt incurred by • people, and augmented the opulence, of Great 



the wars of 1739 and 17551 which were under- 'Britain, in the fame proportion as the colonifts 



taken on account of America. ' have for many years formed a balance to our po- 



f The goods exported to thofe provinces were ' pulation, and to our power. Nothing can be 



moftly of kinds not likely to be under-entered at • more impolitic, at leaft in a commercial nation, 



the cuftom-houfe by the exporters. * than a fondnefs for foreign dominions, and a pro- 



% ' Had America been fettled by any other na- ' penfity to encourage diftant colonization, rather 



' tion, it is more than probable that Great Britain ' than to promote domeftic induftry and popula- 



* had been more populous and powerful ; that her ' tion at home. The internal trade of Great Brit- 



• taxes had been much lighter, and her debt m.uch ' ain is much greater than its external commerce. 



4. The 



