WEST INDIES. 
CHAP. V.] 
305 
tal, even to nails. Wine, paper, linens, and a thou¬ 
sand other things, came from France. Portugal 
supplied us with sugar. All the products of Ame¬ 
rica were poured into us from Spain 5 and the Vene¬ 
tians and Genoese retailed to us the commodities 
of the East Indies, at their own price.” The same 
account is confirmed by Sir Josiah Child. “ Por- 
The amount of these colonial imposts upon a cask of 14 cwt. will 
therefore be ... £.1 g o 
The British duties which were formerly paid on importation 
were 12 s. 3 \d. per cwt. - - - 8120 
In all, per cask. - £.10 0 0 
Then, supposing the gross value of one cask of 
14. per cwt. at 45J. per Cwt. to be - £.31 10 o 
Deduct public imposts and duties - - 10 o o 
Leaves - £.21 10 o 
N. B. £.5 8s. (the French duties) is rather less than 18 per cent, on 
the value, and 10I, the imposts and duties paid by the British 
planters, is 31J per cent. 
From the preceding calculation it appears, that out of £.100 value of 
the French planter’s sugar, there is left him, after payment of duties 
to his government abroad and at home, £.82—But to the British plan¬ 
ter, out of his sugar, no more than £.68 5s.—and although the gross 
apparent value of the British planter’s hogshead of sugar is higher 
than that of the French planter’s by £.1 4s. 3d. yet he receives, after 
paying the taxes upon it, less than the other by £.3 7s. 9 d—This su¬ 
perior advantage enables the French planters to pay a higher price for- 
negroes, and to carry on their plantations at a greater expense than the 
English—circumstances which probably make the scale between the 
planters of the two nations nearly even. 
VqI. III. Q q 
