Page:Abstract of the evidence for the abolition of the slave-trade 1791.djvu/187

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Can be made only by destructive bounties from Government.

Secondly, because the sugar and rum to be produced by extending the cultivation (the present cultivation being more than sufficient for the demand of England and her dependencies) must be exported to foreign states. This, says Mr. Irving, is exceedingly impolitick; for the sugar made in the French islands can be afforded (which he shews by official papers) so much cheaper than the British, that, in order to enable the planters to sell it at the same price as their rivals, Government must give large and destructive bounties. Mr. Irving even states, and this again officially, that, in the most favourable period for the British islands, viz. before the late war, the French planters were able to sell their sugars from twenty to thirty per cent. cheaper than the British planters: and he conceives it to be a maxim thoroughly established in national commerce, that it is unwise to push forward by monopolies, restrictive regulations, or bounties, any branch of commerce or manufactures, which cannot be carried on, after a fair trial, within fifteen per cent. of the prices of other rival countries.

Must entail incumbrances on the proprietor.

To the above reasons, given by Mr. Irving, we may add, that the extension of the cultivation, by means of purchasing new slaves, must be exceedingly impolitick, if we bear in mind the evidence adduced in the preceding chapter: inasmuch as it must be, as it ever has been, attended with debts, mortgages, and ruin.

Whereas if made by Creoles those evils would be avoided.

Now, if the above arguments should, in the opinion of the reader, fully prove the impolicy of the measure of carrying the cultivation beyond its present bounds by means of the present system, it will be very easy to evince the policy of doing it by means of the rising generation of slaves, and by them alone. ^[1] This will appear, first, because the breeding of slaves where it has been attended to as an object, has been shewn to increase the proprietor's capital: for this reason therefore, and from the

1. Sir George Young states his belief, that if the slave-trade were abolished, and every proper regulation adopted, to encourage the breeding of negroes in the West Indies, the stock of negroes would gradually increase, so as to be adequate to the clearing and cultivation of all the islands, to the full extent of which they are capable.

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