312 
HISTORY OF THE [book vr. 
absurd to say the laying any duty can create, or the 
not laying it diminish. Thus, when wheat is scarce, 
the price rises ; and two or three good harvests make 
it cheap again, without any reference to the land- 
tax whether it be 3s. or 4s. and without any re¬ 
gard to the farmer’s expenses. Nor will com af¬ 
terwards bear a good price, until the stock is les¬ 
sened by exportation, or otherwise, to such a 
quantity as is barely sufficient for home consump¬ 
tion. Hops, hay, cyder, and a thousand other com¬ 
modities, are subject to the same rule. 
Such too is precisely the situation of the West 
Indian planters: they are compelled to send their 
goods to market, or starve ; and (with a few unpro¬ 
fitable exceptions) there is no market to which they 
are permitted to resort but that of Great Britain. 
Their produce therefore, when brought to sale, can 
obtain no other than its natural price, I mean that 
price which a greater or less supply necessarily and 
naturally creates. The consumers of sugar neither 
care for, nor inquire after, its original cost, or the 
duties and charges which it has paid in its way to 
market. The importer however must pay the du¬ 
ties before he can bring his sugar to sale, for no 
man will buy unless the duty is first cleared; and 
whether the importer can compel the buyer to re¬ 
fund the whole, or any part of it, by adding it to the 
price of the commodity, depends altogether, as I 
have observed, on the quantity at market; it being 
an absolute contradiction to affirm that great plenty 
and a high price on the one hand, or on the other. 
