3 °o 
HISTORY OF THE [book vi. 
cerning New England, and some other of the colo¬ 
nies in North America; but none of those writers 
ever considered the plantations in the West Indies 
in the same point of view. They knew that the 
greatest benefit of colonies, is the production of 
staple commodities different from those of the mo¬ 
ther-country ; an advantage almost peculiar to such 
of our plantations as are situated in the southern 
latitudes. This necessary distinction seems how¬ 
ever to have escaped the notice even of those who 
admit that the money which is vested in the sugar 
islands, is in fact British property, and that the 
profits and returns arising from it, centre in Great 
Britain, and no where else; another advantage pe¬ 
culiar to our West Indian settlements. Yet the 
truth undoubtedly is, that the sugar planters, gene¬ 
rally speaking, are but so many agents or stewards 
for their creditors and annuitants in the mother- 
country; or if, in some few instances, they are in¬ 
dependent proprietors themselves, it is in Great 
Britain alone that their incomes are expended, and 
their fortunes ultimately vested. The produce of 
the sugar islands therefore ought, in all reason, to 
be considered as standing precisely on the same 
footing with the produce of the mother-country. 
The sugar made in them is raised by British sub¬ 
jects, and the sale of it (as far as it can answer any 
profitable purpose to Great Britain) confined to the 
British market. In the actual consumption of the 
commodity within the kingdom, the money which 
it costs is only transferred from the hand of one in¬ 
habitant into that of another : hence, be the price 
