OUR COMMERCE WITH AFRICA. 361 



exchangeable value, at the same time increasing 

 the salubrity of the climate. This would be the 

 first effect of the extinction of the slave-trade on 

 the social condition of the African. The export 

 of slaves being stopped, the export of produce 

 would increase, as the goods formerly exchanged 

 for slaves would then be procured by produce — 

 with this difference, that the slave, being ex- 

 ported, was lost as a producer and consumer, and 

 only brought his first cost. To make this clearer 

 I will state a case : — An able-bodied slave is at 

 present worth about four pounds' worth of British 

 goods, and when he is shipped he can produce 

 nothing more.* But supposing he was kept in 

 his native country, he might by very slight ex- 

 ertion produce one ton of oil per annum, which 

 would be worth eight pounds, or purchase double 

 the quantity of British goods. 



Having thus, I hope, shown the way in which 

 the stoppage of the slave-trade would benefit 

 British commerce in Africa, I have now to show 



* Of course an African can and does raise produce in 

 Cuba and Brazils, which may be exchanged for British goods ; 

 but it is the labour of a slave and not of a freeman ; and as 

 far as the African trade is concerned, he is lost as a producer 

 and consumer. 



