64 
HISTORY OF THE [bookv. 
on the moderate profits of his own moderate farm, 
will startle to hear, that it requires a capital of no 
less than thirty thousand pounds sterling to embark 
in this employment with a fair prospect of advan¬ 
tage To elucidate this position, it must be under¬ 
stood, that the annual contingencies of a small or 
moderate plantation, are very nearly equal to those 
of an estate of three times the magnitude. A pro¬ 
perty, for instance, producing annually one hun¬ 
dred hogsheads of sugar of sixteen cwt. has occa¬ 
sion for similar white servants, and for buildings 
and utensils of nearly the same extent and number, 
as a plantation yielding from two to three hundred 
such hogsheads, with rum in proportion. In speak¬ 
ing of capital, I mean either money, or a solid well 
established credit $ for there is this essential dif¬ 
ference attending, loans obtained on landed estates 
in Great Britain, and those which are advanced 
on the credit of West Indian plantations, that an 
English mortgage is a marketable security which a 
West Indian mortgage is not. In England, if a 
mortgagee calls for his money, other persons are 
ready to advance it: now this seldom happens in 
regard to property in the West Indies. The credit 
obtained by the sugar planter is commonly given by 
men in trade, on the prospect of speedy returns 
and considerable advantage; but as men in trade 
seldom find it convenient to place their money out 
of their reach for any length of time, the credit 
which they give is oftentimes suddenly withdrawn, 
and the ill-fated planter compelled, on this account, 
to sell his property at much less than half its first 
