u 



such productions were required, but also for the 

 supply of the continent of Europe, at less than the 

 AfJiericati prices. 



But it does not appear that upon the acknow- 

 ledgment of the Independence of the United States 

 of America^ any greater facilities of intercourse 

 with the British Asiatic provinces were accorded 

 to the British merchant; the British intercourse 

 with those extensive, productive and cheap coun- 

 tries, continued in monopoly to the East India 

 Company,' and that monopoly held the British 

 trade with India in severe check. 



When the British trade in slaves was abolished, 

 British Tropical Agriculture^ in the West, be- 

 came limited to the then actual e.vte?it of Btitish cul- 

 tivation. The estates in cultivation no longer ad- 



' It is not intended to convey any other than respectful 

 sentiments of the East India Company, under whom 

 the great fabric of the British Asiatic Government has arisen. 

 Still, however, it has happened that the very expensive ship- 

 ping system of the Company, and their management of the 

 commercial |)roperty of private traders, until gradually broken 

 down by the substitution of the present more enlarged and 

 liberal system, nearly excluded all East Indian produce of 

 great bulk, compared with its value, from the European 

 market, through the medium of the British flag. 



^ The words " Tropical Agriculture," as used in this 

 Essay, are not intended to be confined to their strict geogra- 

 phical sense, but to include the countries on either side of 

 the Tropics in the hotter climates. 



