Page:Abstract of the evidence for the abolition of the slave-trade 1791.djvu/186

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Present produce of West Indies sufficient for Britain and her dependencies.

R. IRVING states, by means of official papers from the Custom-house, that the British West India Islands, in their present state, produce annually a greater quantity of sugar and rum than is requisite for the consumption of Great Britain, her immediate dependencies, and the kingdom of Ireland, and, to extend the cultivation, he considers to be very impolitick [sic], for two reasons:

Extension of it by new slaves must be made out of the capital of the mother country.

First, because such extension can only be made from British capitals, which might be employed in carrying, on and extending the manufactures, commerce, and agriculture of the mother country; but which must thus be transferred to the most vulnerable parts of the empire, and there invested in pursuits, which do not appear to him to be productive of a profit to the proprietor, or of advantage to the publick, in any degree adequate to the precarious situation in which such property stands, from the contingencies of climate and of war: for, if but one island should be lost, it is a complete loss of so much capital to the empire: and Mr. Irving shews their extremely hazardous situation, by the capture of six of them, and the final separation of Tobago in the late war.

Secondly,