302 
HISTORY OF THE [bookvi. 
in the West Indies, no man of common sense or 
common candour ever denied, until the motives 
that I have already assigned, gave birth to a contra¬ 
ry pretence; and that many individual proprietors 
have, at the same time, suffered considerably by 
adventuring therein, I am afraid it is too notorious 
to dispute. 
But the argument that comes more immediately 
home to the bulk of the community, is the very pre¬ 
valent idea which I have before slightly noticed, 
that all the products of the British West Indies, and 
more especially the great article sugar, are from 
twenty to thirty per cent, dearer than those of the 
foreign plantations. Against this circumstance, (if 
it were well founded), it might seem sufficient to 
oppose the national benefit arising generally from 
the whole system; but the consumer, mindful of 
himself only, conceives that he ought to have per¬ 
mission to purchase sugar at the cheapest rate, 
wherever he can procure it. The refiner, whose 
aim is to buy cheap and sell dear, claims the same 
privilege ; to which indeed there would be less ob¬ 
jection, if he would consent that another part of his 
fellow-subjects, the growers of the commodity, 
should enjoy the same freedom from commercial 
restraint which he requires for himself. Unluckily 
however, the fact itself is altogether destitute of 
foundation. The existence of such disparity of 
price, independent of accidental and temporary fluc¬ 
tuations, is neither true nor possible, as is demon¬ 
strated by the magnitude of the British export, both 
