Chap. III. ENGLISH /W AMERICA. i;r 
Lofs to them *, and what is more, they plainly perceive might be improved fufficiently to make as much more 
that this Trade muft diortly and effectually ruin and def- Rum and Sugar as they now do, it will follow that the 
troy our Sugar Plantations, by inhancing the Price of our Britijh Sugar Colonies may take off all the New England 
Plantation Neceffaries, and flopping the ProduCl of our Lumber. 
Manufailure \ however fpecious therefore the Argument Barhadoes is allowed to be at its Perfection, and per- 
may be in favour of this Trade, nothing lefs than a pro- haps incapable of being farther improved, fo as to in- 
hibition of Horfes and Lumber, as well as of foreign creafe its annual Product of Sugar and Rum. Antigud 
Sugar, Rum, and Moloffes, will be of any real Service is capable of farther Improvements, and may enlarge 
or Benefit to the Sugar Colonies^ its ProduCt of Sugar, according to the bell Computa- 
For if you allow them to carry Lumber, what muff tions, at leaff, one fifth Part per annum \ as to the Pro- 
they have in Exchange for it but Sugar And how will duCt of Rum there, it may certainly be enlarged near 
it be poffible, on fo long a Coaft as feven or eight hun- one half upon proper Encouragement, for the Rum it 
dred Miles, as that of thofe northern Colonies, where there now makes is not quite one half of its ProduCl of Sn- 
are fo many Bays, Creeks, and Rivers, and fo few gar : That is to fay, if Antigua makes twenty thoufand 
Officers, to prevent the Running of thefe Goods, let your Hogffieads of Sugar per annum^ its ProduCl of Rum is 
Penalties be never fo flri6l. But it may be laid, per- not quite ten thoufand. But it is evident from the Ex- 
haps, that France will allow them to carry their Rum to perience of Barhadoes^ that out of twenty thoufand Hogf-* 
their own Settlements on the Continent ; but that is alto- heads of Sugar, there ought to be made near fourteen 
gether as improbable and as unlikely, as that we Ihould thoufand Hogffieads of Rum. And this Increafe, both 
fuffer to fupply our Plantations with woollen Manu- of Sugar and Rum, would certainly be made if there 
faClures. Thofe Colonies there are abundantly fupplied was proper Encouragement. Montferrat^ Nevis, and 
with Brandy from France, very cheap, and which is a St. ChriftopheFs, for want of Encouragement, do not 
Spirit much better liked, and what they have been ufed to. make one Hogffiead of Rum for three Hogffieads of 
As to the fecond Objection, that the Englijh Sugar Sugar. Whereas it is evident, by the Experience of 
Colonies cannot take off the Lumber they have, or Barhadoes, that three Hogllieads of Sugar ought to pro- 
Rum they want, they anfwered, duce two Hogffieads of Rum *, confequently the ProduCl 
if the Trade and Navigation from the Britijh Co- of Rum in thefe three Elands might be, upon proper 
lonies on the Continent, to the foreign Colonies, be pre- Encouragement, encreafed to as much more as it now" 
judicial to the Sugar Colonies, and to Great Britain, and is. Add to this the Improvement to be made in thofe 
if the reftraining it will effellually dillrefs the French in Elands, by which the Qiiantity of Sugar would be en- 
the Sugar Trade, it ought to be prohibited, though fome creafed. It will follow flill farther, that the Quantity 
few Traders ffiall fuffer Hardfiiips and Inconveniency by of Rum which thofe Elands are capable of making, 
it. As to difpofmg of their Lumber, the Sugar Colonies would be as much more as they now make, and con- 
have more Reafon to apprehend that they ffiall find a fequently the Demand for Lumber Would be proporti- 
Want of it, than that the New England People will have enable. Jamaica, the largeft of all the Britijh Sugar 
much upon their Hands ; at leaff, if what they fay be Colonies, is yet but in its Infancy *, having now as much 
true, and founded in FaCl. For we have for many Years Land uncultivated, as would produce above three times 
been alarmed with Scarcity of Lumber in New England, its prefent Produeff if cultivated, as it certainly would 
and we have felt the EffeCls of it in the advanced Price be upon proper Encouragement. 
we have paid for it, for fome Time, upon this Pretence. But farther it appeared by the Cuffom-houfe Books, 
Thofe who were principally concerned there, in the Lum- that all the Britijh Sugar Colonies do produce about one 
. ber Trade, complained laff Year, great hundred thoufand Hogffieads of Sugar per annum', and 
Want of Oak and Firr near the Rivers on which their they ought, in proportion, to make about feventy thou- 
Saw-Mills ffand ; and as they are reffrained by feveral fand Hogffieads of Rum a Quantity more than fuffici- 
A6ls of Parliament from cutting the King’s Trees, they ent to fupply the New England Fifliery, and Indian 
will hardly be able to fupply us long with Lumber, of Trade, even according to their own Computation. But 
private Property, at any reafonable Rate, which deferves the prefent Produdl of the Sugar Colonies, under all the 
Confideration. The other Part of this Objeflion, That incumbent Difadvantages, is more than they of New^ 
our Sugar Colonies are not able to fupply them with a England can proveto be neceffary to both thole Trades j 
fufficient Quantity of Rum, is as groundlefs as the nay, on the contrary, they will have a Proof fooner than 
former. A Gentleman of Diffinftion, of St. ChriJiopheF s, defired, that their Fiffiery and Indian Trade do not take 
informed the Committee, that himfelf made two thou- off one half of the Rum, now adlually made in the Su- 
fand Gallons of Rum a Year, but that if he had Encou- gar Colonies. South Carolina trades with eight thoufand 
ragement he could make twenty thouland Gallons ; and Indians, and yet nine hundred Hogffieads is the moff 
the. olhtvGtntltmtnoi St. ChriJiopheFs, Nevis, Mont- they ever imported in one Year, both to fupply their 
ferrat, who made little or no Rum now, could make a home Confumption, all their Trade with thefe eight 
^ry gieat Quantity, if there was a Demand for it. thoufand Indians, and to trade to other Ports with •, and 
Therrfore the Queffion that was afleed by a New Eng- yet this is a Colony that is the hotteff, has the largeft 
l^d Gentleman, whether we have any Rum left on our Harveft of Rice, (Ac. and is not fo well fupplied with Beer, 
Hands at the End of the Year, is not at all to the Pur- (Ac. as the other Northern Colonies fo let us allow this 
pofe, though at firft Sight it feems fo. Colony of South Carolina thefe nine hundred Hogffieads ; 
, Diftillers in New England find this Trade in Spi- North Carolina one thoufand Hogffieads ; Virginia and 
Fits, made of foreign Moloffes, very profitable, and for Maryland three thoufand Hogffieads •, New York and 
) that Reafon raife Objeflions which have nothing in them, Philadelphia four thoufand Hogffieads ; Rhode IJland and 
' n! make Bojion the great Staple of Rum. For New England ten thoufand •, which Calculations both by 
Prohibition take Place on foreign Rum and their refpeftive Cuffom-houfe Accounts, and by the greateft 
Moloffes, then our Sugar Colonies might fend again their Eftimates that ever have been made, are too large, and yet 
um to Virginia, Maryland, Carolina, and Newfound- the whole amounts but to eighteen thoufand and nine 
1 j before, and fave the Lives of many hundred Hogffieads •, whereas the Sugar Colonies produce 
uin red of poor Wretches, who, if this Trade be not forty thoufand, and might fifty-five thoufand, Hogffieads. 
, probably be deftroyed by this pernicious It was obferved alfo, that the New EtiglandP toplt thus 
pint, made of foreign Moloffes, which is very unwhol- taking from the French their Moloffes, Rum, and Sugar, 
II we ffiould admit, for Argument’s fake, that and fupplying all the other Northern Colonies, as well as 
th^ \ Colonies, and Surinam (belonging to Newfoundland, Great Britain, Ireland, and Africa, with 
1 T ^ ol the New England large Quantities thereof, was a very great Hurt to 
i ^ G Way is more than can be prov- the Revenue •, for if thefe Places were not thus fupplied, 
h ^ ^ ^ciency then of the Demand of Lumber, will they muft be fupplied by our own Sugar Colonies, and 
if it can be proved that the Rn- then every thoufand Pounds Value of Rum, or Moloffes, 
y ugar Colonies, upon a proper Encouragement, of our own Growth, muft pay his Majefty a Duty of 
forty- 
i 
