PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 885
1 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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To this reasoning it is replied that the colonists are wrong in supposing that a repeal of the Navigation Laws would benefit them; for, it is said, what they complain of is, that freights in their trade with the mother-country are raised against them by the law which confines the ship- ment of their produce to particular ships; and what they want is, that freights should be low- ered by that trade being thrown open to ships of all nations; but they forget that the same laws which raise freights against them, raise freights against their rivals also; for our Navigation Law prevents not only the Jamaican, but the Cuban also, from selecting freely the ship in which to
send his produce here. If, then, we were to repeal our law, we might indeed reduce the cost of the transmission of Jamaican produce to this country, but we should equally reduce that of Cuban produce also; so that the Jamai- can would be no better off, as regards com- petition with his rival, than before.
I his answer is full of fallacies.
First, it is not true that the colonists only suffer from the impediments thrown in the way of their transmitting their produce to this country. We injure them at an earlier stage, by laying restrictions on their importation of articles necessary for them. For anything we know to the contrary, their foreign rivals may get the supplies they require to carry on their cultivation, in any ship, and from any place what- ever. Now, our colonies can in no case import such supplies in foreign vessels, unless they come direct from the country of production, and in vessels of that country; and they are prohibited altogether from importing the produce of some countries, except in British vessels. These pro- hibitions extend even to importations for the purpose of warehousing. The disadvantages to which our colonies are thus subjected, are evi- dent.
1. They cannot import the goods of which they stand in need, at so cheap a rate as their rivals can.
They cannot avail themselves, for instance, of any foreign ship to bring any goods from New York, unless such goods are the produce of the
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United States, but must either get a British ship
to bring the goods they want, or must take American produce instead.
They cannot import any goods whatever from England, or a British possession, Holland, Bel- gium, Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, Spain, Greece, Turkey, nor from any part of Asia or Africa, except in British ships. An instance of the in- jurious effects of this restriction is given by Lord Harris, when he mentions that American ships would have brought Coolies to Trinidad at 91. a-head, and that being obliged to employ English vessels, the colonists had to pay 187. It is needless to point out that in the present state of the West Indies, any law which enhances the cost of pro- curing labour must be very injurious; and the sume may be said of the effect of the law in rendering it less ea y to import provisions, clothing, live-stock, lumber for house-building, staves for making casks, and so on.
2. The ships of Holland, Belgium, &c., are absolutely excluded from their ports, so that they lose the trade which they might have with those countries. Lord Harris particularly points out how the partial exclusion of French vessels from Trinidad injures the export trade of the colony to France, for France will only receive its produce on reasonable terms if it comes in French ships; and our law discourages French ships from re- sorting to the colony by restricting the articles which they may bring.
Thus we not only injure our colonists by throwing impediments in the way of the trans- mission of their produce to market, but we crip- ple their powers of production by crippling their import trade.
3. The impediments we throw in the way of the transmission of produce not only raise freights, but sometimes amount to an actual prohibition; since, if a British ship is not to be had, the colonists may not take any other.
4. Although it is true that we somewhat cripple the foreigner's power of transmitting his produce, we do not lay nearly the same restric tions on him that we do on our own colonist.
a. We allow our colonist his choice between two classes of ships only:-1, British; 2. colonial. But