ago HISTORY OF THE [book vi. 
have no vessels of their own, and those of America 
are denied admittance into their ports,—how are 
even the most opulent among them to avert from 
their unhappy labourers the miseries of famine, 
which in a like case swept off such numbers in Ja¬ 
maica ? Concerning the permission that is held out 
to the planters to resort, in time of emergency, to 
the foreign islands, it is so manifestly nugatory, that 
I choose not to speak of it in the language which 
my feelings w r ould dictate.* 
* Under the present limited intercourse with America (exclusive 
of the uncertainty of being supplied at all) the West Indians are sub¬ 
ject to three sets of devouring monopolists, ist. The British ship¬ 
owners. ad. Their -agents at the pGrts in America. 3d. Their 
agents or factors at the chief ports in the islands, all of whom exact an 
unnatural profit from the planter; by which means those most es¬ 
sential necessaries, staves and lumber, have risen in price no less than 
37 per cent, as the following comparative table will demonstrate: 
Prices of stages, lumber, & V. at Kingston , Jamaica, during t-ivo 
periods-, the first from 1772 to 1775 (both years inclusive') the second 
from 17S8 to 1791. 
177 
2 . 
17: 
73' 
1774 - 
3 775 - 
First Period : 
£■ 
S . 
£■ 
s. 
£■ 
s. 
£• 
S . 
Red Oak Staves 
per M. 
8 
0 
8 
0 
8 
10 
9 
O 
White Oak Staves 
per M. 
9 
10 
9 
10 
10 
0 
n 
O 
Pitch pine Lumbei 
■ per M. 
8 
0 
9 
0 
9 
10 
10 
O 
Common Lumber 
per M. 
6 
10 
7 
10 
8 
10 
9 
IO 
32 Inch Shingles 
per M. 
2 
0 
2 
5 
2 
10 
2 
10 
1788. 
1789. 
1790. 
I 79 1 * 
Second Period 
: 
£■ 
J-. 
£■ 
s. 
£■ 
s. 
£>• 
S' 
Red Oak Staves 
per M. 
14 
10 
H 
0 
JO 
JO 
12 
0 
White Oak Staves 
per M. 
>5 
0 
*5 
0 
11 
0 
12 
0 
Pitch-pine Lumber 
per M. 
>4 
0 
12 
5 
II 
10 
12 
0 
Common Lumber 
per M. 
13 
0 
10 
0 
9 
10 
10 
0 
S2 Inch Shingles 
per M. 
3 
0 
3 
0 
2 
15 
2 
J S 
