544 
HISTORY OF THE [book vi. 
I shall now state the value of this great pfhper- 
ty, considered as British capital. In the report of 
the privy council, it is estimated at seventy mil¬ 
lions of pounds sterling, as follows; viz. 
450,000 negroes at £.50 per 
head..£.22,500,000 
Lands, buildings, utensils, 
mules, &c. and crop on 
the ground double the va¬ 
lue of the negroes . . . 45,000,000 
Value of the houses, &c. in 
the towns, the trading and 
coasting vessels, and their 
crews belonging to the 
islands 2,500,000 
Total . . £. 70 , 000,000 
Another mode proposed by their lordships of 
ascertaining the capital, is to reckon twelve years 
purchase on its annual produce, it being, they ob¬ 
serve, not unusual in the "West Indies, to sell 
estates at that price. I think that the sale of West- 
Indian estates at ten years purchase, is much more 
common; and reckoning the mercantile value of 
the capital at seven millions per annum, the result, 
by this mode of calculation, agrees precisely with 
the former; a circumstance which gives room to 
conclude, that it is pearly as accurate as the sub- 
