The State of the Trade with the West Indies
Printed in The London Chronicle, December 3-6, 1768
To the Printer of the London Chronicle Sir,

In a Letter of mine, which you inserted in your Paper of Nov. 3, was contained a view of the state of our commerce with the American continent colonies. I now send you a view of our commerce with the West India or Sugar Islands, taken, as the former was, from the Custom House accounts. When your Readers have compared and considered these accounts, they may form a judgment which of those two classes of colonies is most beneficial to the mother country. I am Sir, your humble servant,

F.B.

Imports from the English West India Islands.
1761 1762 1763 1764 1765
Antigua 249,367 0 9 180,347 3 1 307,392 6 8 159,152 12 5 396,465 12 3
Anguilla 2,369 18 9 3,536 11 0 3,225 19 11
Barbadoes 254,860 17 6 252,537 10 0 300,213 17 3 326,688 6 8 296,732 16 7
Dominica 31,894 6 2 73,497 10 0 111,649 5 9
Grenades 26,560 16 9 261,552 3 0 206,889 13 6 199,909 0 11 264,194 5 7
Jamaica 852,777 14 0 1,159,023 15 11 1,076,155 1 9 1,023,091 13 9 1,201,801 16 4
Montserat 57,122 6 0 59,571 15 11 82,966 15 0 66,694 12 11 71,762 2 4
Nevis 42,095 3 8 45,280 9 10 60,652 11 2 54,528 17 6 74,200 16 0
St. Christopher's 246,360 16 0 234,981 17 9 283,842 4 1 245,095 3 7 304,778 9 2
St. Vincent 4,459 14 5 31,028 1 7
Tobago
Tortola 33,265 3 6 58,571 4 2 41,549 1 11 38,972 13 10 48,280 5 8
In 1761 1,762,409 18 2 2,254,235 18 5 2,391,555 17 6 2,195,626 18 0 2,804,119 11 2
1762 2,254,235 18 5
1763 2,391,155 17 6
1764 2,195,626 18 0
1765 2,804,119 11 2
£.11,407,548 3 3 ,

which is £2,281,509 12s. 8d. per ann. on a medium of said 5 years,

Exports to the English West India Islands.
1761 1762 1763 1764 1765
Antigua 125,323 9 0 101,574 8 2 63,126 10 10 149,751 1 8 142,326 16 7
Anguilla
Barbadoes 213,177 4 5 213,909 4 9 181,710 11 3 191,202 19 0 194,042 7 1
Dominica 1,264 5 6 16,415 12 6 8,656 3 3 20,792 6 0
Grenades 119 1 6 53,118 5 6 65,935 3 9 77,673 9 1 89,431 1 9
Jamaica 460,631 16 0 584,978 2 5 456,528 1 11 415,624 0 4 415,544 17 4
Montserat 23,895 9 11 15,505 18 1 7,532 8 9 15,938 15 4 26,826 1 10
Nevis 9,066 6 3 29,557 9 8 7,934 16 5 11,905 19 5 18,989 8 0
St. Christopher's 102,627 2 10 104,724 7 10 98,321 8 2 111,357 9 11 91,736 17 6
St. Vincent 971 15 2 1,443 18 9 5,325 6 7
Tobago 349 8 5 546 19 11 13 2 6
Tortola 2,052 0 1 1,901 1 4 2,485 1 0 21,171 17 9 18,218 0 7
In 1761 936,892 10 0 1,106,533 3 3 902,320 18 2 995,272 14 5 1,003,246 5 9
1762 1,106,533 3 3
1763 902,320 18 2
1764 995,272 14 5
1765 1,003,246 5 9
£.3,944,265 11 7 ,

which is £785,545 2s. 4d. per ann. on a medium of said 5 years.

Upon the face of these Custom House accounts it appears, that there is a balance against Great Britain of £1,495,954 10s. 4d. per annum, and by the same accounts that the balance against her annually increases. But to reduce this balance, which appears upon this comparative view of direct exports and imports, let us suppose, as we did in the case of the Northern colonies, that the errors of entry and of valuation will admit of one third more to be added to the amount of the export, though by no means just even for a comparative view of the value of the two setts of colonies to Great Britain; for not above one fourth of the exports to the Northern colonies is in foreign European and Asiatic goods, but to the West India Islands two thirds of the amount of the exports is in foreign goods; therefore, there is not that latitude for erroneous entries, as there is to the continent, it being impossible to make wrong entries for goods entitled to a drawback as all those of foreigners are.

Then with the additional value to the imports mentioned under the account thereof, and the additional value to the exports just stated, the account will stand thus:

Imports, £3,422,264 9 s. 0 d.
Exports, £1,047,060 3 s. 1 d.
£2,375,204 5 s. 11 d. Balance against G. Britain.

But out of this balance must be struck what the Sugar Planters pay the Irish for provisions, and the British Merchants for slaves. As to the Irish provisions, the islands take but a small part of their consumption from them; they being chiefly supplied from North America, not only with provisions, but many other things, whom they pay in their products, that those Northern colonies consume. The very rum that goes directly from the Islands to Ireland, yields as much as the provisions they take from thence amounts to: And as to what they pay the British Merchant for slaves, it is almost impossible to fix with precision upon any amount, from the very nature of the trade on the coast of Africa; but to allow that the annual cost of Negroes is equal to the whole annual export from Great Britain to Africa, we shall not be impeached for being under the mark at least, when it is considered that part of the produce of that export is returned in gold dust, dying woods, and elephants teeth to Great Britain; part of its goes to supply foreign plantations with Negroes; and part of it goes in slaves to the continent colonies from Pensylvania to Florida, where a stock of 70,000 Negroes is to be kept up in proportion to that of 250,000 in the sugar colonies. Now the whole export of Africa per ann. upon a medium of the above five years, is £433,529 17s. 8d. which deducted from the above balance of £2,375,204 5s. 11d. leaves still an annual balance against Great Britain of £1,941,674 8s. 3d. while the poor Northern colonies have a balance in favour of G. Britain of £1,000,000 which all their other trade cannot pay, they being constantly in debt to G. Britain; when these Sugar Islands would be worth little to their owners, in comparison of what they are now, if it was not for cheap and ready supplies from the Northern colonies, of lumber for the building their houses, sugar mills, casks to contain their produce, horses, provisions of the cheapest kind for feeding their slaves in particular, and ships to bring home their produce at the cheapest rate known.