REPORT. THE COMMITTEE, who were appointed to take HAVE, pursuant to the Order of the Houfe, examined the Matter to them referred; and have agreed to the following REPORT. YOUR Committee have thought it their duty, in the first place, to inquire into the fituation of the Weft India Planters at the prefent moment, and for feveral years preceding; and have examined various refpectable Witnesses, Proprietors of Estates, who have refided many years in the West Indies, and who have had the properties of several Absentees under their management; and also many Merchants intimately acquainted with the expences and profits of a great variety of Estates, and generally converfant with the West India Commerce. From their teftimony it appears, that fince the year 1799, there has taken place a progreffive deterioration in the fituation of the Planters, refulting from a progreffive diminution of the price of Sugar, although at the fame time the Duty, and all the expences attending the cultivation, have been increafing, till at length the depreffion of the market has become fuch, that the prices obtained for the laft year's Crop will not pay the expence of cultivation, except upon Estates on a very great scale, making Sugar of a very fuperior quality, or enjoying other extraordinary advantages.-Calculations have been laid before Your Committee, from the Accounts of Eftates both in Jamaica and the other Iflands; by which it appears, that the British Supplies and Inland Expences amount to 20s. 10 d. in the former, and to 19s. 6d. in the latter, on the Cwt. of Sugar, after accounting and giving credit for the amount received for the fale of Rum. As thefe Calculations are formed upon an average of years, and upon Estates of the ordinary scale, and in no refpects unusually circumftanced, appears to Your Committee, that these fums per cwt. of Sugar, may be taken as the average expence of cultivation, independent of interest upon the Capital; and Your Committee are confirmed in this opinion by finding a fimilar calculation in the Report made by the Sugar Distillery Committee, in the laft Parliament.-To 65: it this Appendix Pp. 19 & 36. Appendix, p. 67. this must be added an expence of from 1.5s. 6d. to 16 s. per cwt. neceffarily incurred for freight, infurance, and other mercantile charges, between the fhipping the goods in the Colonies, and their being offered to market in this kingdom, forming together an amount of from 35 s. to 36 s. which appears, upon this evidence, to be the abfolute coft to the Planter per cwt. of Sugar, before any return of Capital can attach.-Upon a reference to the average prices publifhed in the Gazette for the last eight months, which vary from 36s. to 315. giving a mean price of 33 s. 6 d., it appears evident that the Planters must have cultivated their Eftates at a lofs. The intereft which has been ftated to Your Committee as what should be the fair profit upon a Capital of fuch a nature as that of a Sugar Eftate, confifting not merely of Land and Negroes, but of Buildings of great extent and coft, neceffary for the carrying on of such a manufacture, and subject to various and peculiar rifks and viciffitudes, is not lefs than 10 per-cent. During the period of profperity previous to 1800, it is ftated, that in general the profits did not exceed that fum; and that, from that period, they have gra dually diminished to 2 and 1 per-cent. till, at the prefent moment, there is no return of Intereft whatever. It may perhaps be right to notice one exception, namely, of an Estate moft favourably circumftanced in every refpect, where the profits are ftated to have amounted, during the four years 1795, 1796, 1797, and 1798, to 12 per-cent. ; but they appear alfo to have declined ever fince; in 1801, 1802, 1803, and 1804, to have been reduced to about 6 per-cent. and in 1805, to about 3 per-cent, and fubfequently to have fuffered a ftill further reduction. In the course of their inveftigation of the fituation of the Planters, Your Committee thought it right to ascertain whether it might not be in their own power, in many inftances, to remedy the evils of their fituation, by converting their Sugar Eftates to other more profitable cultivation; but the Evidence on that point fhews, that such a converfion must be attended with fo great a facrifice of Capital, as to be out of the question as a measure of relief. With a view to the profpect for the future, they have obtained a Return of the quantity of Sugar at prefent in the West India Docks; from which, and from other Evidence, it appears, that the quantity now on hand is unusually great for the time of year. The Crop of the last year is also on the point of coming into the Market. It should not be omitted further to ftate, that for many years past, the Islands have almost entirely escaped the natural calamities (of Hurricanes, &c.) which have occafionally proved deftructive to the Property in those Countries. In investigating the caufes of that depreffion of the Market, from whence the whole of the Planter's diftrefs appears to originate, the first object which strikes Your Committee, is that extraordinary fituation in which he is placed, which prevents him alone (in exception to every other fimilar cafe) from indemnifying himself for the increase of Duty, and of other Expences attending his cultivation, by an equi valent increase of price to the confumer. For it appears, that fince the year 1799, the Duty on Sugar has been raifed from 20s. to 27s. and contingently to 30s. per cwt; the expences of the Eftates are calculated to have rifen, in many articles 50, and in others above 100 per cent; and the price has fallen from 69s. to 33 s. 6d. per cwt. the average of the laft 8 months. As it appears obvious, from the above tatement, Statement, that the Duty is heavier than the Article can bear at its prefent price, it is fuggefted that it might be expedient, for the relief of the Home Market, to extend the principle which has been adopted on the contingent increase of duty from 275. to 30s.; fo that from the maximum of duty then fixed, on a grofs price of 80s. affording 30 s. duty, and 50 s. to the Planter, the duty fhould be thrown back on a similar scale in proportion to the depreffion of the market, till the price arrives at 60s. grofs, leaving 20s. (the original duty) to Government, and 40s. to the Planter; or, in other words, a reduction of 1 s. of duty on a reduction of 25. grofs price, from the average then fixed for the impofition of the new duty, as far as 205. An increase of the Bounty on the Export has been alfo recommended; and Your Committee are of opinion, that it would afford great relief if given as an accompaniment to measures of reftriction upon Neutrals, fo as to render the expences on British and Foreign Produce equal in the Foreign Market. A confiderable depreciation in the price of Rum having alfo taken place, it has been fuggefted, that the encouragement of the confumption of that article. would be a confiderable advantage to the Planter. Your Committee are aware that fuch encouragement has been given, to a certain extent, but if it were found practicable to carry that affiftance further, by an increased confumption in the Army and Navy, fuch a measure would, in their opinion, have very beneficial effects; or a reduction of Duty on Rum might afford effential relief to the Planter, without lofs to the Revenue, which would be indemnified by an increased consumption of that Spirit. Great, however, as are the evils of the decrease of Price and increase of Charges, it does not appear to Your Committee, that they are the original caufes of the diftrefs of the Planter, by applying to which alone any practicable remedy he could be more than partially relieved; but that the main evil, and that to which thefe are ultimately to be referred, is the very unfavourable ftate of the Foreign Market, in which formerly the British Merchant enjoyed nearly a monopoly, but where he cannot at prefent enter into competition with the Planters, not only of the Neutral, but of the hoftile Colonies. The refult of all their enquiries on this most important part of the subject have brought before their eyes one grand and primary evil, from which all the others. are easily to be deduced; namely, the facility of intercourse between the hoftile Colonies and Europe, under the American Neutral Flag, by means of which not only the whole of their Produce is carried to a Market, but at charges little exceeding thofe of Peace; while the British Planter is burthened with all the inconvenience, rifk, and expence, refulting from a ftate of War. The advantages, which the hoftile Colonies derive from the relaxation of that principle, which prohibited any trade from being carried on with the Enemy's Colonies by Neutrals during War, which the enemy himself did not permit to thofe Neutrals during Peace, may be in part eftimated by reference to a Statement of the Imports into Amfterdam alone from the United States of America in the year 1806, amounting to 34,085 Hhds. of Coffee, and 45,097 Hhds of Sugar, conveyed in 211 veffels, hereunto annexed; and to a Statement, alfo annexed, of the Amount of West India Produce, exported from the United States of America, between the 1st October 1805 and 30th September 1806.-In point of comparative expence, the advantages of the hoftile Colonies will be further illuftrated by the evidence of Mr. Marryat, fupported by fatisfactory documents, which fhew the charges of Freight and Infurance on Sugar from the hoftile Colonies, through the United States of America, to the Ports of Holland and Flanders, and to thole 65, B of Appendix, pp. 14 & 17. Appendix, pp. 83. Appendix, of the Mediterranean, to be lefs by 8s. 11 d. to the former, and by 12s. 6d. to the latter, than thofe charges on British Sugars to the fame Ports. Your Committee cannot omit to state alfo another important advantage enjoyed by the French Colonies, arifing from the fale of nearly the whole French Mercan tile Marine to Neutrals, under the ftipulation of each Veffel being returned into French Ports, in order to be navigated as French, Ships, within twelve months after Peace, and with the enjoyment, during War, of the fame Privileges in the Ports of France as if they were actually French; for instance, to import Sugar at a Duty of 4 s. per cwt. lefs than the Duty impofed on Sugar imported in neutral veffels. In order to counterbalance, in fome degree, the advantages thus enjoyed by the hoftile Colonies, to the detriment of the British Planter, it has been recommended, that a blockade of the Ports of the Enemy's Settlements fhould be resorted to; fuch a measure, if it could be strictly enforced, would undoubtedly afford relief to our Export Trade. But a measure of more permanent and certain advantage would be the enforcement of those restrictions on the Trade between Neutrals and the Enemy's Colo, nies, which were formerly maintained by Great Britain, and from the relaxation of which the Enemy's Colonies obtain indirectly, during War, all the advantages of Peace; while our own Colonies, in the intercourfe with whom that fyftem of monopoly which has been held effential to the Commercial and Military Navy of this country is rigorously enforced, are deprived of the advantages under which in former Wars they carried their produce to the Foreign markets, and which in the prefent War, by means of our decided Naval fuperiority, would have amounted to the exclusive supply of the whole of Europe; and when those extraordinary measures are taken into confideration which have been adopted to exclude the British Colonial produce from the European market, it appears to Your Committee to be a matter of evident and imperious neceffity to refort to fuch a fyftem, as by impeding and restricting, and as far as poffible, preventing the Export of the produce of the Enemy's Colonies from the places of its growth, fhall compel the Continent to have recourse to the only fource of fupply, which, in that event, would be open to it. As it may be apprehended that from the adoption of fuch measures, difficulties might arife in that intercourfe, from which the Weft Indies at prefent derive a confiderable proportion of fome of their fupplies, Your Committee have thought it their duty to make inquiry into the resources in that refpect to which recourfe might be had in fuch an event. During the only period which affords an example of the fufpenfion of that intercourfe, the Evidence concurs as to the fact of a fupply having been obtained (though not without temporary and occafional inconveniences) from a variety of fources which may reasonably be relied upon in cafe of fuch neceffity, at the prefent moment, to a greater amount than at the former period. From the examination of Perfons who, in confequence of their refidence in the British North American Settlements, or extenfive commercial connections with them, poffefs the best information as to their prefent and future refources, there is ground to believe that fome fupply of the principal articles of Lumber might be obtained from thence immediately, and to expect that with due encouragement, the quantity of that fupply might be increafed to any extent. The supply of Flour which they could at prefent afford to the Weft India Market would be small, and of inferior quality. They appear to be capable of affording a large fupply of Fish, and what deficiency might exift in other articles of Salt Provifions, might be made up by fupplies from Europe. Upon |