THE PLANTER AND HOME MERCHANT. 



95 



got their notes extended upon condition that they bought 

 of their creditors all their supplies — for which they were 

 sure to be charged always the highest market prices — and 

 sent to them all their produce to sell, for which they 

 were charged heavy commissions. These expenses might 

 have been avoided if the islanders had been out of 

 debt, but the indemnification money they received was 

 far from affording the required relief. It reduced, but 

 did not extinguish the mortgages, and in a very few 

 years the money was gone, and no one could tell where, 

 or for what. Meantime, the property depreciated in 

 value to such an extent, that it could not be sold ; the 

 planters were compelled to draw every thing they could 

 from their properties, exhausting them at every turn to 

 meet their interest debts, and to prevent a forced and 

 ruinous sale. In this way it is, that the downward tenden- 

 cies of the island, which were derived from a degraded 

 system of labor, and non-resident proprietorships, have 

 been accelerated by the indebtedness of the planters. 



That the connexion between the planter and the home 

 merchant, as he is called, may be better understood by 

 American readers, I may as well here add a brief statement 

 of the usual mode in which their business with each other 

 is transacted, which will illustrate what I have stated. I 

 am indebted in part for my facts, to the authority of Mr. 

 McCulloch.* The sugar planter always forms a connexion 



* Com. Diet. Tit. Colonies. 



♦ 



