(which are rather for security than otherwise) can make; what tonnage ; what value it produces in England; what custom it pays to his majesty. It is to be understood, that all they produce is clear gains to England (except some linnen, wines, and brandy, which are brought from foreign markets :) The rest is either freight, custom, charges of merchandise, apparel, and necessaries for the plantations, or in cash, which either serves to support the planters, when in England, or is laid out in purchasing lands; besides this, the employing of such a vast number of shipping and seamen, the benefit of which is well known to every Englishman. And, since the plantations have been brought to this perfection, the consumption of England saves at least two thirds, by the abatement of the price those commodities bore before they made them; for which they never draw from England gold, or silver; but, on the contrary, by exportation of what is there made, over and above, our consumption does either occasion the inriching of England, by monies brought from foreign parts for the sales of their goods, or by bartering for other goods, which must have been purchased by monies, or we must have been without them. By the hands employed in those colonies, foreign commodities became native, to the great inriching of England, as aforesaid, and to the lessening the riches and strength of all other European nations, that produce the like com. modities.

curing-house must not be at a distance from the grounds where the tobacco grows.

The price of every pound weight of tobacco, imported into the nation before we planted it, was from about four shillings to sixteen shillings a pound, and now the best Virginia is not above seven-pence to the merchant, of which the king has five-pence.

Two thirds of the tobacco brought from those colonies is exported to foreign markets, which at about three pounds the hogshead (which is the least the nation gets by it) amounts to above two-hundred thousand pounds, besides the great quantity of shipping it employs.

It is not so little as a million the kingdom saves yearly by our planting tobacco; so that, reckoning the white people in our tobacco colonies to be a hundred thousand men, women, and children, they, one with another, are each of them twelve pounds a year profit to the nation.

There are, in those colonies, by a probable computation, about six-hundred thousand Negroes and Indians, men, women, and children, and would be more, could they readily get Negroes from Guinea; every one of which consumes yearly two hilling-houghs, two weeding-houghs, two grubbing-houghs, besides axes, saws, wimbles, nails, and other iron-tools and materials, consumed in building and other uses, to the value of, at least, a hundred and twenty-thousand pounds sterling, in only iron-work.

The cloaths, guns, cordage, anchors, sails, and materials for shipping, besides beds, and other houshold-goods consumed and used by them, are infinite; nor is the benefit of them to the kingdom sufficiently to be explained. Therefore, let it suffice, in one word, to say, that the produce and consumption, with the shipping they give employment to, is of an infinite deal more benefit to the wealth, honour, and strength of the nation, than four times the same number of hands the best employed at home can be.

And thus much more I shall say for the colonies. As they are, to the nation, the most useful and profitable hands employed, and the best trade we have, both to the consuming the woollen-manufactory of England, and the encouraging of navigation; so those, that go thither as servants, if they are industrious, and just to their masters, they live much easier than in England, and much more likely to get estates; of which there are many precedents; and also they have been a great relief to many men (whose misfortunes have forced them to leave their own country) who, by their carrying thither the remains of their shipwrecked fortunes, have recovered their lost estate, and very much conduced to that increase of wealth to this nation, as well as to the increase of shipping, which are the only true bulwarks of this nation.

That the courteous reader may readily see the benefit to England, the hands employed in the colonies are, I have here made, in the nature of a table, what fifty negroes, with some few white hands

(which are rather for security than otherwise) can make; what tonnage; what value it produces in England; what custom it pays to his majesty. It is to be understood, that all they produce is clear gains to England (except some linnen, wines, and brandy, which are brought from foreign markets :) The rest is either freight, custom, charges of merchandise, apparel, and necessaries for the plantations, or in cash, which either serves to support the planters, when in England, or is laid out in purchasing lands; besides this, the employing of such a vast number of shipping and seamen, the benefit of which is well known to every Englishman. And, since the plantations have been brought to this perfection, the consumption of England saves at least two thirds, by the abatement of the price those commodities bore before they made them; for which they never draw from England gold, or silver; but, on the contrary, by exportation of what is there made, over and above, our consumption does either occasion the inriching of England, by monies brought from foreign parts for the sales of their goods, or by bartering for other goods, which must have been purchased by monies, or we must have been without them. By the hands employed in those colonies, foreign commodities became native, to the great inriching of England, as aforesaid, and to the lessening the riches and strength of all other European nations, that produce the like com modities.

useful, and best employed people, for their numbers, that can be found in all his majesty's dominions, which are those of the sugarcolonies; besides the inequality of the thing, that sixty-thousand industrious people, which, the parliament intended, should pay nothing, are, by accident, made to bear an imposition designed to be laid on the voluntary consumption of eight millions.

That the matter of fact is this, it cannot be denied by the most par. tial and interested, against what has been proposed for the common factory; though the natural aversion, most men have to new inven tion, joined with the private interest of some few men who are factors at home, laziness of thought in some, and weakness of understanding in others, will, I am sensible, make it difficult, if not impossible, to establish the most compendious and proper remedy for that lingering distemper.

But this I dare boldly affirm, that what was then prescribed car. ried along with itself evident proofs of its innocency and well-meaning; since nothing therein could possibly take effect, until every sugar colony in America had, in their general assemblies, considered and approved every part of it.

For, without the sanction and laws of every several and individual colony, by their acts of assembly, the whole and every part of the proposal was utterly inconsistent and unpracticable, as those, who will give themselves leave to examine it, will undeniably find.

So that, if it may be supposed, that the colonies themselves are proper judges of what they suffer, want, and would have, it cannot be denied, but that their minds must best appear in general asssemblies.

From whence it consequently follows, that, though the proposition might not be practicable, by reason of the many different interests it was to unite, yet that the proposers were innocent, and sacrificed their labour, expences, and time, with a laudable intention.

To leave, therefore, that matter in the state it is, I will proceed to obviate the true and genuine causes of the present discouragements those colonies lie under; which may be reduced to three general heads.

1. That, which is necessary to the beginning, increase, and sup. port of a plantation, comes to them much dearer than it might.

2. That what they produce by planting is forced to be sold at mar. ket much cheaper than can be afforded, to the nation's loss, as well as theirs.

3. That what they produce is carried to foreign markets at a much greater charge, than they might carry it for.

To make it evident, that what they want to begin, increase, and support a plantation, comes to them much dearer than it might, I must desire the reader to consider, from what has been said concern. ing a sugar-plantation, that the main support of that, as well as all other wealth, is labourers: That these labourers, in plantations, are either white servants, or black slaves: That the white servants are either such as are hired for wages, or assigned for a term of years. Now, if it appears, that, in the present method, all these several sorts of labourers come to the planter one third dearer than they need, then it must follow, that there is a burden on that

employment, as heavy, as if above thirty per cent. were laid, by way of tax, upon their whole industry.

That the case of most planters is this, as well in white servants as slaves, and also in most of the tools, and necessaries, for managing a plantation, is too much felt, to be doubted by all that are concerned in that trade, or are experienced in planting. But, to make it clear to others, I must beg them to consider, that few men leave their native country willingly, who have enough conveniently to support them. selves in it, except carried away by ambition, or immoderate avarice, two passions little known, or practised in America.

That therefore those who generally go thither comply with some urgent pressure in their fortunes or circumstances at home; so that, let them carry with them as good understandings or strong genius's and inclinations to planting, as is possible, yet they must not hope to reap, unless they sow; and wheat, or any other sort of grain, is not a more necessary seed for its own species, than wealth is seed to wealth. The Spaniards have a proverb to that purpose, which says, 'He, that will bring the Indies home, must carry the Indies thither.' It will not be unnecessary to explain the general causes of their first thriv ing, that the unexperienced reader may have a just idea of the con veniences, and inconveniences, have attended those places, by the many changes have happened in the government, and laws, of this kingdom, since the beginning of the late civil wars.

To do which, we will make a short reflexion on the unaccountable negligence, or rather stupidity of this nation, during the reigns of Henry the Seventh, Henry the Eighth, Edward the Sixth, and Queen Mary, who could contentedly sit still and see the Spaniards rifle, plunder, and bring home, undisturbed, all the wealth of that golden world; and to suffer them with forts and castles to shut up the doors and entrances into all the rich provinces of America, having not the least title, or pretence of right, beyond any other nation, except that of being, by accident, the first discoverers of some parts of it, where the unprecedented cruelties, exorbitances, and barbarities, their own histories witness, they practised on a poor, naked, and innocent people, which inhabited the islands, as well as upon those truly civi lised and mighty empires of Peru and Mexico, called to all mankind for succour and relief against their outrageous avarice and horrid massacres. Therefore, for a nation, situated like ours for trade and navigation, being, by the kingdom of Ireland, the nearest eastern neighbour to that western world, to sit still, and look upon all this, without either envy, or pity, must, I say, remain a lasting mark of the insensibility of those times, and the little knowledge our forefa. thers had of the true interest of mankind in general, or of their own country in particular,

Nor did we awake from this lethargy, and wonderful dosing, by. any prudent foresight, or formed counsel and design, but slept on, until the ambitious Spaniard, by that inexhaustible spring of treasure, had corrupted most of the courts and senates of Europe, and had set on fire, by civil broils and discords, all our neighbour nations, or had subdued them to his yoke, contriving too, to make us wear his chains,