Benns: British West India Carrying-Trade 73 
insurances, commissions, custom-house and shipping 
charges and yet the British planters were compelled to bear 
all this increase because of the great need for American goods. 
But altho this situation was bad enough, it was made doubly 
bad by the fact that British West India exports suffered a cor- 
responding decrease in price. In order to secure a market 
they were obliged to compete with goods from other sources 
which did not have to pay double freights and the like. Con- 
sequently, if the British planters were to sell their goods in 
American markets, their selling price at the source had to be 
low enough to enable them to compete, after the charges for 
double transportation had been added.^® The above facts are 
clearly shown by a table of prices prepared by the legislature 
of Antigua.'^® 
Imports 
Price, May, 1791 
Price, May, 1821 
Indian corn, per bushel 
White pine lumber, per 1,000 
6s 6d 
13s 6d 
£10 
£50 
Pitch pine lumber, per 1,000 
12 
40 
White oak staves, per 1,000 
12 
40 
Red oak staves, per 1,000 
12 
27-30 
Shingles, best 22-inch, per 1,000. . . . 
2 5s 
6 15s 
Exports 
Rum, per gallon 
4s 6d 
3s 6d 
Molasses, per gallon 
2s 9d 
No demand — sold 
at a late Custom 
House sale at 7)^d 
per gallon 
Another evil effect which was felt by the British planter 
in the West Indies was the demand for the use of money in 
exchange rather than the former system of barter. The 
articles of lumber, without which the West India sugar could 
not be forwarded to England, were almost exclusively the pro- 
ductions of the United States so far as the West Indies were 
concerned. These American productions, as a result of British 
and American restrictions, could be sent to the West Indies 
only thru Bermuda. But, since American vessels were not 
permitted by their own laws to import West India produce 
Petition of Assembly of Jamaica in Niles’ Register; XXII, 56, 57. Memorial of 
Legislature of Antigua, in St. Christopher Gazette; and Charibbean Courier, April 5, 
1822. 
Ibid. New York American (for the country), Jan. 23, 1822. 
St. Christopher Gazette; and Charibbean Courier, April 5, 1822. 
