chap, v.] WEST INDIES. 315 
other cases, that the duties fell ultimately on the 
consumer. Government however at length, by 
abrogating all the duties, saw, and acknowledged 
its error ; but the remedy was applied too late ; for 
if the duties had either been taken off in time, or if 
the weight of them had fallen on the consumer, in¬ 
stead of the planter, the cultivation of indigo, be¬ 
yond all dispute, had never been wrested out of our 
hands. 
Cacao, or chocolate, furnishes another instance 
of the fatal effects of high duties on importation. 
Strange as it may seem that an article which our 
own colonies can raise in the greatest plenty and 
perfection, should be subject to a higher proportion¬ 
ate duty than the foreign commodity tea (the place 
of which chocolate or coffee might have supplied;) 
such however was the case even when the duties on 
tea were nearly double what they are at present ! 
The consequence was, that whether the duties on 
cacao fell on the consumer or the planter, the effect 
on the latter was precisely the same; for if through 
want of a living profit, the planter could not afford 
to continue the cultivation ; or if, in exacting a living 
profit, he lost his customers, because they could no 
longer afford to purchase, his situation became 
equally distressing ; until necessity compelled him 
to change his system, and apply his land and labour 
to other objects. Thus the growth of cacao, which 
once constituted the pride of Jamaica, and its prin¬ 
cipal export, became checked and suppressed be¬ 
yond the power of recovery. I think I have else- 
