WEST INDIES. 
CHAP. V.] 
333 
of sugar) and over whose exports she has no con- 
troul. That this is an advantage of no small ac¬ 
count, appears from the following circumstance re¬ 
corded by the author of an Inquiry into the Wealth 
of Nations. “ About the beginning of the present 
century (says that writer) the pitch and tar com¬ 
pany of Sweden endeavoured to raise the price of 
their commodities to Great Britain, by prohibiting 
their exportation, except in their own ships, at 
their own price, and in such quantities as they 
thought proper.” It is surely unnecessary to ob¬ 
serve, that no such selfish policy can at any time be 
displayed by the subordinate and dependent govern¬ 
ments of the colonies. 
But the circumstance that presses with the great¬ 
est weight on the British planters in the West 
Indies, is that branch of the monopoly, which, re¬ 
serving for the manufacturers in Great Britain, all 
such improvements as the colonial produce is capa¬ 
ble of receiving beyond its raw state, or first stage 
of manufacture, prohibits the colonists from refining 
their great staple commodity (sugar) for exportation. 
This is effected by the heavy duty of £a 18^. 8 A. 
the cwt. on all refined or loaf sugar imported, while 
raw or muscovado pays only 1 5 s. The difference 
operates (as it was intended) as a complete prohibi¬ 
tion. “ To prohibit a great body of people (says 
the author before quoted)* from making all they 
can of every part of their own produce, or from era- 
* Wealth of Nations. 
