The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1807-08-17 00:00:00

RICO RT.

The Committee who were appointed to take ilia
consideration the Commercial State of tie West
India Colonies, sod to report their Mint-tiding%
from time to time, toilet House Of Commons ;
and who were empowered to report theminutes
of evidence taken before them ; and to whom ail
minutes of evidence which were takeo lictore the
Committee in the last Session of Firliarnent, on
the West India Platters' Petitions, together with
their proceedings, were refereed ; have, putt.
mad to the order of the House. examined the,
matting to them referred ; and have agreed Mee
following Report ;
Your Committee have thought it their duty, in •
the first place. to inquire into the situation of the
West India Planten at the present moment, aid for
several years preceding; and have examined various
reapeaahle witnesses, proprietors of estates. who
have resided many years in the West Indies, aid
who have bad the properties of several absentees
under their management; and also many merchant;
intimately acquainted with the expensergtair profi:s
of a great variety of estates, and gen coupe.
sent with the t'lcs: India Commerce. From war
test:toony it arpears , that since the year 1799,
there has taken place a progressive deteriotaion its
the squation of the planters, resulti from a.pro.
gressiee diminution of the price of aegas, Although
at the same time the duty, and all the .4p nee. at-
tending the cultivation; have bees it c•vasiog. till
at length the depression of them aket has bec..mse
such. that the prices oht .ed for the lay year's
crop will not pay the expose of conivation, eztept
upon *states on a very great scale, allillkug .apiar
of a very soperiir quality, or rnioying nate& exp..
ors/hies y a vantages. Calculations here been laid
before your Committee, from tie coconuts of e.t.tes
both in Jamaica and the other Islands. by whist. it
appears. that the British supplies and fslaild
penses amount to 201. 10J. in the former.
to lib. rid. in the latter, on the cwt. of 'acre
after accounting and giving credit toe the amoont
received fur the sale of rum As these c4lowi
I itior.s are formed arm an average of ye.:rs And op.
on estates of the ordinary scale, and in no respe‘ta
unusually eitsumrtanced, it appears to your Corn-
Arita, that these sums per est. uf sloe May
be taken es the average expense', eultivataqp,
pendent of interest upon the capital ; and your
Capeskin' are confirmed in this opinion by finding
a similar calculation in the Report made by the
Sugar Distille.y Committee, in the last Parliament.
l'o tr.is most be added an itepenbe of from 15s.
to la. ptir ewt. necessarily incurred)°, freight, Me
:wane*. and other mercantile charges, between tli•
snipping the goods in the Colonies. sod their being
offered to market in this kirlOom, foliating togei
an amount of from BSc to tbs. which appvcs.
this evidence. to be the absolute cost to the
per cwt. of sugar, before any return of capital can
atta:h. Upon ,a reference to the average prices
published in The Gwent, for the last eight month%

-.,.

ich vary from 36... to 3! s giving a mean price
335. 61. it appears evident, th.t the Planters must
eve cultivated their estates at a loss.
The interest which has bees stated to your Com-
mittee as what ihnuld be the fair profit upon a capi-
tal of such a nature as that of a Sugar Estate, con.
silting not merely of land and Negroes, but of build-
lags o great exteat and cost, necessary for the car-
rying on of such a manufaaure, and subjeß to vari•
ous and peculiar risks and vicissitudes. is not less
than lil per cent.
During the period of prosperity previous to 1800,
i: is stated, that h general the profits d.d not exceed
that sum ; cud that. kern that period. they have
gradually dim.nished to el and I l per cent, till at
t%bhee present moment, there is no return of interest
whatever.

It may ps be right so notice one exception,
namely, orarnbaestate most favourably eilagossuinced
in every raspy& where the profits are stated to have
amounted, during the four years 1795, 1796. 1797.
aid 17:01,, to It per cent.; but they appear also to
have le:lined ever since ; in 1602, 1103, and
Itloa. to haeoheen reduced to about ti per cent. end
in 11105. to about 9 per cent. and subsequently to
have warred a still further reduCtion.
In triariuterrseof their investigation of the situation
of PM a, your Committee thought it right to
ascertain whether it might not be in their own
power, in many instances, to remedy the evils of
their situations, by converting their auger estates to
other more profitable eoltivaion ; but the evidr nce
on that point skews. that ,tech a conversion must tee
attended with great • sacrifice of capital, as to be
out of the yuesian as *measure of relief.
With 4 view to thelprospeet for the future, they
have obtained a return of the quantity of sugar at
-present 'to the WesAndia Docks; from which, and
from other evident:a., it appears. that the quantity
now nn hand is unusually great for the time of year.
Tree crop of last year is also on t: o. poiot of coming
into the market.
It should not he omitted further to state, that for
many years past the ,islands have almost entirely
escaped the natural calamitous (of hurricanes, &c.)
whi.:ll have occasionally proved destructive to the
property en those countries.
In inv.:stigating the causes of that depression of
the market, from whence the whole of the Planter's
discern appears to originate, the first object which
strikes your Committee, is, that extraordinary !item-
lion in which he is placed, which prevents him alone
(in exception to every other similar cast) from ino
demnifying himself fer the increase of duty, and of
other expenses attending his cultivation, by in equi-
valent increase of price to the consumer. Fur a :p-
-pears, that since the year 171/9, the duty on sugar
has been raised from £os. to L's. and contingently to
SOL per cwt. ; the expenses of the estates are calcu-
lated to have risen in many articles 50, and in others
above 100 per cent.; and the price has fallen front
Os. to SU 6d. per es t. the average of the last eight
months. As it appears obvious, from the above
statement, that the duty is heavier than the article
can bear at its present price, it it suggested that it
might be expedient, for the relief of the borne mar-
ket, to extend the principle which has been adopted
oh the contingentincrease of duty from V.. sp 305.;
so that from the maximum of duty then fixed, on a
gusto price of 1555. afferii-1 SOS. duty, and 535. to
the tl e duty sh,uld be thrown back on a Li.
polar scale in er own 'ion to the si •pression of the
market. till the price are vet at liOs grow, leaving
£O. (the origin. t .fat t r G vernment, and 40s to
Nee Plaiver ; ter, en (Woo e. no d,, a r.o.luction of Is. of
duty as a sediectiou of 2. g• ors price, from the
average then Serif for the imposiaon of the new duty,
as far as 10s.
An increase of the 6-way oo the export has:sees
also recommended; and your Committee are of ()pi-
nines. that it would afford }treat rend if given As au
accompanint:nt to we, of rastriction upon neu-
trals. so as to rend.-r the expenses on Brains and fc-
reign produce equal in the foreigo market.
A considerable deprechoism is the price of rum
basing also taken place. it ha. been suggested, that
the encouragement of the consesmptiou of :hat arti-
cle w0u1.4 be a considerable advantage to the '
Planter. Your Committee are aware that such ea-
conragement ha. been givtn, to a cettain extent,
Lot if,st were (Quoit pratlicahle to carry that asses:-
anal hither, ky an ate:eased consumpion in the
Army and Navy, inch a rn.{lllllB you'd, in their
o_pinion, have very heneficini dials ; or a redua%on
g daty on rum might afford essential relief to the
Planter, without loss to the revenue, which would
bo indemnified by an increased tonsumptioa of that
spa it.
Great, floc' errs as are the evils of the decrease of
pr:ce and if,creartr of charges. it does nit appear to
)our Commatee, that they are the original causea
of the di.tress of the Planter, by applying to which
atone any practicable remody,be could be more than
partially relieved ; but that the main evil, and that
to which these are u!timately to be referred, is the
eery unfavourable state of the foreign market, in
which formerly the British Merchant enjoyed nearly
a monopoly, but where he cannot at present enter
into competition with the Planters, net only of the
neutral, but of the hostile Colonies. The result of
all 'heir iaquiries on this moss important part of the
ienA ier has brought before their eyes one grand
area primary evil, from which all the others are
easily to be deduced ; namely, the facility of inter-
course between the hostile Colonies and Europe,
under the American neutral flag, by enema of which
not only the whole of their produce is carried to a
market, but at charges little exceeding those of
Peace ; while a British Planter is hardened with
all the inconvenience, risk, and expense, resulting
from a state of war.
The advantages which the hostile Colonies derive
from the relaxation of that principle, which prohi-
bited any trade from being carried on with the ene-
my's Colonies by Nearer, during war. which the
enemy himself did not permit to those Neutrals
during peace, may be in part estimated by refer-
ence to a statement of the imposts into Amsterdam
alone, from the United States of America. in the
year 1606, amounting to 34,0115 hhas, of coffee, and
sugar. conveyed in ill vessels,
and to a statement also annexed,
i West-India produce, exported.
States of America. between the
and 30th September. Mb. In
• expense, the advantages of the
,be further illustrated by the

evidence 01 Mr. Marryat, supported by estiliadory
&cusses% wbicb show the charges of freight and
insurance on sugar from the hostile Colonies,
throng** United States of America, to the ports
of Holland and Flanders, aod to those of the Me-
diterranean, to be less by 81. 11d. to the former, and
►y 12s. 64 to the timer, than those charges on 36-
ti%ll sugars to the same p-.rts.
Your Committee cannot omit to state also
annther important advantage enjoyed by the French
Colonies, from the isle of nearly the whole French
mercantile marine to Neutrals, under the stipulation
of each vessel being returned into French ports, in
order SI be navigated as French ships, within
twelve months after peace, and with the enjoyment,
during war, of the same privileges in the ports of
France, as if they were ailualty French, for in.
stance, to import sugar at a duty of 4s. per cwt.
k.s than the duty imposed on sugar imported in
neutral vessels.

In order to counterbalance, in some degree, the
advantages thus enjoyed by the hostile Colonies, to
the detriment of toe British Planter, it has been re-
commended, that a blockade of the ports of the
Enemy's settlements should be resorted to ; such a
measure, if it could be swiftly enforced, would un-
doubtedly afford relief to our export trade.
But a measure of more permanent and certain ad-
vantage would be the enforcement of those restric-
tions on the trade between Neutnils and the Enemy's
Colonies, which were formerly maintained by Great
Britain, and from the relaxation of which the Ene-
my's Colonies obtain iediredly. during war, all the
advantages of Peace; while our own Colonies, in
the intercourse with whom that system of mono-
poly which has been held essential to the Commer-
cial and Military Navy of this country, is rigorously
enforced, are deprived of the advantages under
rich in former wars they carried their produce to
Cle foreign markets, and which in the present war,
by me.ms of our decided naval superiority, would
have amounted to the exclusive supply of the whole
of Flurry: ; asid when those extraordinary measures
are token into consideration which have been aoopt-
est exclude the British Colonial produce from the
Direpealt market, it appears to your Committee to
be a matter of evident and imperious necessity, to
result to such a system, as by impeding and zestrill-
ink and, as hr as possible, preventing the export of
the produce of the enemy's Colonies from the places
of its growth, shall compel the Continent to have
recourse to the only source of supply which, in that
event, would be open to it.
As it may be apprehended thit from the adoption
of such measures, difficulties might arise in that in-
tercourse, from which the West Indies at present
dei.va a considerable proportion of shine of their
supplies, your Committee have thought it their duty
to make inquiry i the resources in that rapes
to which recourselAht be had in such an event.
During the only period which affords an example of
the suspension of that intercourse, the evidence con-
curs as to the fall of a supply having been obtained
(though not without temporary and occasional in-
conveniences) from a variety of sources which may
reasonably be relied apon, in case of such necessity,
at the present moment, to a greater amount than
at the former period. From the examination of
persons who, in consequence of their residence in
the British North American Settlement., or exten-
sive commercial connelliong with them, possess the
best information as to their present and future re-
sources, there is ground to believe that some supply
of the principal articles of limber might be obtauhd
from thence immediately, and to limped that, with
due encouragemeite the quantity of that supply
might he increased no any extent.
The supc,:y of 'our which they could at present
afford to the We,t India Market would be small,
and of inferior quality. They appear to be capable
of affording a lore supply of fish, and what defi-
ciency might exist in ether articles of salt provisions
might be made up by supplies from Europe.
Upon the whole, the impression which your Com-
mittee have received is. that the trade now carried
on between the Britsh West ladies and the Coned
States of America, is very conveni-nt and advan-
tageous to the inhabitants of ma Colonies, and one
which they could not relinquish without essential
diteinteot. unless it were compensated by other ad-
•vantagest but that it is not essential to their exist-
ence, or equivalent to the disadvantages of their si-
tuation, in those respells which your Committee
have already gone through in the present ,tatement.
Y. iur Committeehaving briefly stated the distress-
ed situat.on of the West India Planter—the causes
which have gradually produced his distress, which
arc beyond his reach to remedy. and which must
continue to operate with increased eifeft—and hav-
ing stated such measures of relief as have been tug
gested to them, and such as, from the best sources of
information, appear most adequate to the end in
view, have only to add, that if those remedies are
liable to ohjeelions and difficulties. .lsere is oil the
other hand the strongest cuncurtent testimony and
proof, that unless some speedy and efficient mea-
sures of relief are adopted, the ruin of a *rest num-
ber of the Planters, and of persons in this country,
holding annuities, and otherwise dependent upon
' those properties for their income, must inevitably
very soon take place, which must be followed by
the loss of a vast Capital, advanced on securities
in those countries, and by time most fatal injury to
die commercial, maritime, and financial nucleus
of Great Britain.

RUSSIAN tIK.A.YE.

BY ORDER OF 1115 IMPERIAL M AJESTT.

The Senate having taken into consideration the representa-
tion of Count It omantsoff, in which he Sete forth, Thor
the College of Commerce has demanded of liim—lerom what
date are English merchant., trading here, to reckon the ten;
of six m//ohs allowed to itinerant merchants--vbsther horn
the dated! the lailyerial Manifesto, that is, from in January
of this year; or from the data on which the Englina Treaty of
Commerce expired ?" He, the Minister of Commerce, fol-
lowing the exact interpretation uS the appellation of itinerant
eserebant, in the Imperial Manifesto, does not see any 'affi-
davit mom for the College of Commerce having put this
getenien; bust coruliiiiing the circumstasecesof the times, and
judging by that security which the foreign merchants on their
rum nessiont have hitherto enjoyed, concludes that they,
beteg perhaps in kopes et some change of the Manifesto to
their fewer, and dot having yet obtained their wish, defer
felfillbeg the NOM of the olteileree which have been adopted
by the 1.1111,11411, and endeavour 60 lay hold of the appellation
of ittaienint merchant, far she purpose of remaining am atestiss
longer in an endesereseed nat:. The sem pl gale let
merchants is very clearly set down in the Mustiest., stet
finish Treaty of Cocaromee den hove no plate there. wise*

tepired on the nib March, N.S. With respell to foreigners
itt.eonlog thelio.ives as itinerant os.ffcriAnta, the lOth article
el the Maniteito again clearly orders that the tern gannet to
the itineralit merclisot is to be reckoned iron the day of nie
arrival of the foreign trader in Russia, consequently foreigners
inscribed into Guilds, u Ito have paid their yearly tax for this
year, or such as have houses (wIIIC3 is udt allowed to the class
of itinerant merchants); or such as hue lived a loirg while in
Russo, for purposes of trade, .Silt become itinerant fuer.
chAnts, but must enter dire!. either into the state of rutUutt,
or iuto the claw of foreign Guests. For these raison., the
Stin.ster of Coruineroe, en tepte,ettliiiit this subjs., to the
Senate, has applied tor an (Those, in eurtfirmati ,o of the
same, a• well for foreign merchants resident its Kowa, u fur
those who may hereafter come into this Empire ; and in order
not to impede commercial Lansattions by too sudden an altar-
-10011 in the situation of the merchAnto, by which they would
be daiiged either to enter into new employments, Ur entirely
to put a atop to them, would not the Senate think proper
to allow the following arrangement to be made r via. That
as soon as any petition is given its for admitting a foreigner as
a guest, the Duns., or City Council, ►hould give the petr-
'toiler a certificate, empowering hiin to carry on huntress to
conformity with hi. future intended calling, and after that the
Lamina might collect horn them the information necessary for
their introduction into the rights and obligations attached to
guests, as ordered by Articles fin and tweive of the Ilan..
tette.

It it therefore ordered, that it be made known to the Minis-
ter of Commerce, that the Senate, finding the reirresentation
which he has made in cunsequence of the questisti tit thu Col-
lege of Commerce, relative to the term allowed by the
Alaniteme of the Ist January of this year, to foreign itirimant
merchants, and relative to those (oteiguon, who are IWO Ibta 111
Guilds, arid have paid the yearly tax, or have houses, o. hare
heed some time in the Russian Empire for ;Ms porpr-es of
trod, that they cannot become itinerant merchants, but ;1/111t
btLU.It• subjects, or foreign guest.; and eittli..g that re, ie-
mutation lint, and conformable to the meaning and interit of
the Imperial Malifesto, [covet It to the Minater of C'1111•.1, ILC
to ratify and make known Cie stone to those who /Meetly ',aside
in Russia, as well as to those 11103 may come hetidnet, by
publicatruns in the (inhumes of Moscow and Petersburgli.-r,
Arid that this Ordennance should also be put in due execution;
oil the part of the Admiuistratiun M Provinces, proper instruc-
tions are to be made out to theta, that they, in confurinity
with the representation of the Minister of Commerce, and to
aeon( impeding the course of conameresai affairs, by allowing
toe short a period, should instruct the City Councils to proceed
in the foiliming manner, •:s :—At soon as any petition.; Mr
inscription, as foreign guests., see prmented by ftweignera, the
City Council raceming from them the necessary do:omegas, as
stipulated by Articles i and 14 of the &tannest°, by winch
they can be introdueed Into the rigl.ts and obligations attached
t:i guests, are at the game time to give the Petitimers' certifs.
c.tea„rorourting that they are at huedy to prosecete their busi-
ness a; ("Ingo guests, even before all the Mentalities, necessary
for their commies, nucriptiun are gone through. Whereof
proper notice is to be given to all Provincial Courts and Go-
vetoers m Petersburgh and Moscow, to the Munster et the In.
Mime and to the Colleges of Commerce and Foreign Aff.uss.
July 1107.-I,t Department.

FOREIGN INTILLIGSACE.

GOTTENBURGH MAIL.

GOTTEN lUIGH, AVG. 7.
By accounts from Elsineur we learn, that the first
division of the English fleet passed the Castle of
Cronberg on Monday last, and saluted and received
a salute in the customary urtnner.
The Prune of Wales packet arrived here the day
before yesterday with a Russian Courier from Lon-
don. who set off immediat,dy for St. Petersburgh.
A great number of English ships of war, trans-
ports, 6tc. &c. have passed our harbour these two
days, ad steering for the Baltic, and making a for-
midable appearance. The reports of the different
officers who have been engagAl in the late affairs
at Stralsund, are uninteresting ; the only thing
worth noticing is the last

i*

/, 45,097 hhds. of soi
beresicto annued ; ar
of t.:: amount of V
from the United Ste
Ist Oaober, ISO& u
point of comparative
,i/o Colonies will