336 HISTORY OF THE [book vi. 
rent system of regulations. I have stated his actual 
loss (the merchant’s charges deducted) at £.3 6s. 
per hogshead; but another and a very considerable 
loss, is the melasses, of which 112 lbs. of raw sugar 
yield in the London refinery 28-1 lbs. I will say 
28 lbs. only. On this proportion, a hogshead of raw 
sugar at the shipping weight (16 cwt.) would, if 
refined in the colonies, yield the planter 448 lbs. 
being equal to 64 gallons. This, valued at 9 d. 
sterling per gallon, gives £.2 8 s. It will be said 
perhaps that the British refiner includes the value 
of the melasses produced in the refinery, in the es¬ 
timate of his profits, and is thereby enabled to give 
a larger price for raw sugar to the planter, who 
thus receives payment for the article said to be lost. 
It must be remembered, however, that the sugar- 
planter in the British West Indies is his own distil¬ 
ler; and having the necessary buildings, stills, &c. 
already provided, would convert this melasses into 
rum, without any additional expense ; and by this 
means add to its value somewhat more than one- 
third. This additional value therefore would be 
clear profit. Thus, allowing 64 gallons of melasses 
to produce only 40 gallons of rum of the Jamaica 
proof, these at Is. 10c/. sterling the gallon, would 
yield £3 13 .?. 4 d. : from which the original 
melasses being deducted, there will remain £.1 
5 s. 4 d. which may therefore be estimated as the 
loss now sustained by the planter in the article of 
melasses, on every hogshead of muscovado sugar 
shipped to Great Britain, exclusive of the loss in the 
raw material before stated. 
