340 
HISTORY OF THE [book vi. 
such a rateable contribution ; so that the revenue 
would not be injured, but greatly improved by its 
importation, while the public at large would obtain 
sugar in its best state much cheaper than they ob¬ 
tain it at present.* 
* It is not my business to seek out resources for increasing the 
public revenue, but as a matter of curiosity, I beg leave to subjoin 
the following facts : The quantity of raw or muscovado sugar im¬ 
ported from the British plantations into Great Britain in the year 
1787, was 1,926,121 cwt. and the gross duty paid thereon was 
£.1,187,774 12 s. Zd. If this sugar had been kept to be refined in the 
plantations, it would have been one-eighth more in quantity; that 
proportion having been lost at sea by drainage. This would have 
made 2,166,886 cwt. which, according to the computation of the Lon¬ 
don refiners, would have yielded 1,083,443 cwt. of loaf, and 425,638 
cwt. of bastards (excluding fractions.) Now supposing the duty on 
loaf sugar had been only 10s. per cwt. more than the present duty on 
muscovado (which it would have well afforded) and the bastard sugar 
to have continued at 151. per cwt. the British revenue in that case 
would have received as follows : (both the pul ic and the planter be¬ 
ing at the same time benefited in a high deg>- iz. 
£• *d. 
On 1,083,443 cwt. of loaf at 251. per cwt. 1,354,303 15 o 
425,638 cwt. of bastards, at 151. per cwt. 319,228 10 o 
Duties which might have been levied - - 1,673,532 5 o 
Duties actually paid in 1787 ... 1,187,77412 8 
Difference in favour of the revenue - - £-485,757 12 4 
Such is the sacrifice which is made by the planters of the West In¬ 
dies, and the public of Great Britain, in supporting the private inte¬ 
rests of that useless intermediate body of people the sugar refiners in 
England : who, whenever the casualties of war, or providential cala¬ 
mities have overtaken the West Indies, and thereby created a tempo- 
