not shuffle over these commercial tariffs, | lenge from him to show him that Lanimpositions, and reductions of duties from cashire had not been benefited by the imone Cabinet to another: you cannot im- proved trade with the Brazils. I accept pose commercial regulations one year, and that challenge. How has it fared with Lanabolish them the next, without bringing cashire? Open wide the portals of trade about such disastrous results as have re- with the Brazils, we were told, and the cently occurred in the East and West In- mills do not exist-the bricks are not made dies. You cannot change a trade of to build the mills-which will be required 100,000,000l. sterling from one channel to supply the enormous trade which will be to another without producing that which created with the Brazils, Cuba, and Porto is now happening in the East and West Rico. In vain we said, "Deluded men! Indies, whether the trade be in sugar or do not change your old customers for new anything else. The consequencee of such ones. You may get new customers in vacillation must be as we have seen- Brazil; but depend upon it your old cusmeetings of creditors-windings up under tomers in India, the Mauritius, and the deeds of inspection, estates thrown into West Indies, are far preferable to any you the Court of Bankruptcy-and balance- may fancy you have in prospect-keep the sheets with liabilities on one side and as- substance, and do not grasp at the shadow." sets on the other, where the stock on hand Those who raised a warning voice were will ordinarily be found set down at one- ridiculed. I have got, through the favour third of its original cost. That is the of Mr. Richard Burns of the Commercial state of trade here. I see the hon. Glance-an authority on these matters Member opposite (Mr. Wilson). It was whom nobody will doubt a statement of only in July last that Mr. Hawes pointed the comparative exports to the sugar-growto the Mauritius as the example of the ing countries for sixteen months previous to greatest prosperity; and I think it was in the passing of the Bill of my right hon. September that the Economist, the pre- Friend, and the sixteen months subsequent. ceptor of my right hon. Friend opposite What does this show? The Bill passed, (the Chancellor of the Exchequer) put I think, late in August, 1846-this acforth a most triumphant article, proclaim- count takes date from the 12th September. ing"cheap sugar the triumph of free It is true the trade with Brazil has imtrade." And how was it to be a triumph? proved :Not only was the revenue to be increased not only had the consumers gained something like, I think, 2,000,0007. sterling but see, we were told, what a glorious fiscal change! At the rate of 451. a ton, 100,000 tons of sugar additional had been imported, representing 4,500,000l., of which the profits, as the Economist told us, must necessarily be divided amongst merchants, brokers, shipowners, grocers, and shopkeepers. This was in September; and yet we do not arrive at the end of October before we find these great mercantile houses, the Reids, the Irvings, and the Barclays men of the greatest wealth before free trade came to interfere with their prosperity-involved in ruin to an extent, not of 4,500,000l., but of 6,300,0001. "In the 16 months from the 12th May to the 12th September, 1846, the exports of cotton to the Brazils were 1,981,6207.; in the 16 months after the passing of the Bill the exports increased to 2,264,3867.-showing an increase of 282,7661." But those who are acquainted with the Brazilian trade know that it is carried on at eighteen months' credit, and that the exports are still unpaid for. I have a letter here from a great Brazilian merchant at Liverpool, who informs me that there has been great speculation, and that the trade is carried on chiefly by British money. My correspondent says "From about the middle of 1846 to the same period of 1847 our exports to Brazil were heavy, Bahia, particularly, they were stimulated, owing and considerably in excess of the demand. To to the prospects of a large crop and consequent increased means of the natives to pay for them; all this resulted in accumulation of stocks; so much so, that in July and August of the past year the public stores were full to overflowing, and British ships had to remain, in many instances, for several weeks, without being able to discharge their cargoes for want of storage and room ashore in the custom-house, where all goods must go. I need scarcely tell your Lordship that the dealers in Brazil are sagacious enough, when the markets are so overstocked, to purchase sparingly, and the anxiety of importers to effect sales must have the result of depressing prices. Your Lordship is | is not a very profitable trade. How does correctly informed that large quantities have been the matter stand as regards the British got rid of by forced sales on very long credit, in colonies? The exports to Bombay have proof of which I may state that the principal exporters are scarcely in receipt of any returns for fallen from 1,643,5151. to 1,179,7637.; to their exports of 1847, whilst not less than proba- Calcutta, from 2,816,585l. to 2,174,0081. bly a fourth, or a third, of the exports of 1846 are There has been a trumpery increase of still unpaid for." exports to Madras - from 102,4907, to 107,4947. The exports to Mauritius, as might well be supposed, have fallen from 89,7821. to 41,1897.; and to the British West Indies, from 827,4831. to 638,1751. The result of the whole is, that upon our own colonial trade there has been a decrease of 1,339,2441., while to the foreign slaveholding countries there has been as a set-off, this miserable increase to the extent only of 168,082,, which is still unpaid. "Several thousands of both sexes are annually imported from Africa into Brazil, I have heard the number estimated at 30,000 and upwards. In October last several cargoes of slaves were landed in Bahia, or on the coast in the neighbourhood; and in a letter from Bahia, written about three months ago, I saw it stated that the assortment was not considered very suitable, there being too many old women amongst them, which were a drug in that market." My correspondent further informs me, that I may not perhaps be aware that there is an export duty on Brazilian sugar and cotton of twelve per cent ad valorem; so that all this encouragement of Brazilian sugar, as in the case of the United States, only tends to fill the Exchequer of the Brazils. But what has our liberality to Brazil done? Has she reduced her duties? No; she raised them in 1845, and maintains them; and, through raising her duties, she has increased her revenues from 7,000 contos in I have a statement as to the raw ma 1845, to 16,000 contos in 1847. Has she terial of cotton in 1845 and 1846. It shown any favour to our shipping interest? was dear in the end of 1846 and in Quite the contrary. She has selected the 1847; the price having advanced from United States, France, Bremen, Norway, twenty-five to forty per cent on the value Sweden, and Prussia, and has conferred of the exports. The balance which renew privileges upon them; but not so Eng-mained for wages of labour and profits, land, who has been fool enough to part with comparing these two periods, has declined her advantages without asking for any re- by 1,871,000l. And for this we are told turn. Speaking of the slave trade, my the poor operatives of Lancashire are to correspondent saysbe compensated by the cheap sugar which they are to get; that the reduction of 10s. a cwt. or ld. a pound, is to be ample compensation to the manufacturers and operatives of Lancashire and the west of Scotland, for a loss of 1,800,000l., the greater part of which would have fallen to their share in the shape of wages and profits of manufacture. By a return moved for by the hon. Member for Salford (Mr. Brotherton), it appears that there were engaged in the factories. 307,000 persons, of whom I think above 100,000 were under eighteen years of age. If I add 193,000 as dependent on these, it will make the number in Lancashire and the west of Scotland amount to about 500,000. I grant you that in a consumption of 290,000 tons of sugar among 20,000,000 of people, the consumption of each person amounts to between 231b, and 24lb. a head. Whether or not the unemployed manufacturers of Lancashire have got their due share, I will not pretend to say; but I will assume that every one of these 500,000 persons depending on the cotton trade for their existence consume their share of 231b. of sugar. The whole will amount in the course of the sixteen months of which we are speaking to about 6,904, say 7,000 tons, and by your policy they have saved 10l. a ton on Comparing the sixteen months antecedent and the sixteen months subsequent to the Act for the admission of slave-grown sugar, there has been to Brazil an increased export of cotton goods amounting to 282,7661. For the period from the 12th of May, 1845, to the 12th of September, 1846, the value of the exports was 1,981,6207.; for the period from the 12th of September, 1846, to the 12th of January, 1848, their value was 2,264,3861. But the exports to Cuba have fallen from 322,4887. in the first period, to 210,7321. in the second, showing a decrease of 111,7567.; and the exports to Porto Rico have fallen from 4,8201. in the first period, to 1,8927. in the second, showing a decrease of 2,9281. After all, this grand Brazilian, Cuban, and Porto Rico trade furnishes on the balance an increased export to the value of only 168,0821., the goods exported in 1846 not having yet been paid for. So that it that. You have given them, then, 70,000l. on the one hand, whilst you have robbed them, on the other, of trade to the value of 1,871,000l., the greater part of which consists in the wages of labour. I am sorry the hon. Mover of the Address is not here to meet his own challenge, and show to me, if he is able, that the exchange of your colonial trade, of your "old lamps for new," has answered its purpose. pect the trade of Bengal; and what is Has this diminished export been confined to cotton goods? No, Sir, I have here a statement—although it is hardly sufficiently full-of the exports of machinery. The right hon. Gentleman near me (Mr. Goulburn), moved for a return of the increased amount of machinery exported to Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Brazils, showing a very great increase to those countries; and I know, too, that the Champion, which went out the other day, took six or eight mills and engines to Porto Rico. I find by this return that the export of machinery to the Mauritius, in consequence of sugar works being discontinued or abandoned, has been gradually falling off. In 1845 all the exports to the Mauritius were 333,1927., and that of machinery 41,1381.; have not quite done with this question of trade. I have been furnished with a circular, which came by the last mail from Calcutta, which contains an account of the trade to that place, which is very remarkable. We altered our sugar laws, as regards the East Indies, in 1835, when we admitted East Indian sugar to compete with the colonial. In the year ending the 1st of May, 1835, the whole trade of Calcutta amounted to 1,574,1821., of which about 735,6871. consisted of cotton manufactures. The entire exports of Calcutta to Great Britain in the same year were 1,523,4751., and in that year but 134,2267. consisted of the produce of the sugar cane. Well, after that the Legislature let the sugar of the East Indies into this country; and what was the result of that? In 1846-7-before the recent free-in 1846 the whole exports had been trade law came into practical operation the sugar trade had increased from 134,2261. a-year, in 1834-5, to 1,690,0327.; while the general trade had increased from 1,526,4751. to 4,459,4221., being an increase on the general trade of 181 per cent, and upon sugar alone in the same period of 1,159 per cent. Well, is this increased export trade requited by increased imports to the niggardly extent I have shown from Spanish West Indies and Brazil amounting to a miserable balance of 168,000l.? Far from it; our exports to Bengal had increased from 1,574,1821. to 4,241,0727. Of this Lancashire and the West of Scotland had gained an increase upon cotton goods alone, jumping up from 735,6871. to 3,087,1351., an increase of 2,321,4477., almost double the entire trade of Great Britain to Calcutta before we opened the sugar market to the East Indies. ma 323,5901., machinery 17,1517.; in 1847 the whole exports were 223,2401., chinery 10,0391. To the East Indies and Ceylon the exports of millwork and machinery in the seven years ending 1846 inclusive had been 482,2431,, British West Indies 258,8201., Mauritius 121,9137., making a total of 862,9761. During the same period the export of machinery to Brazil had been 156,3167,; to Cuba 74.8871. The total exports of British and foreign goods from the United Kingdom to Mauritius for the years 1845, 1846, and 1847, were in 1845, 333,1927., in 1846, 323,5907., in 1847, 223,2401. The carrying trade with Cuba and Brazil in the seven years from 1840 to 1846 inclusive, was as follows: Well, the sugar trade has now been cut off from Bengal. It is well known, Cuba and admitted on all hands, that while Ben-Brazils gal can supply any quantity of sugar so long as prices keep up, when the export price falls below 11 or 111⁄2 rupees, 22s. or BRITISH. FOREIGN. Ships. Tonnage. Ships. Tonnage. 23s. the cwt. at Calcutta, the export of Thus the aggregate tonnage, British, Brasugar ceases. Well, you destroy in pros-zilian, and Cuban, amounted to 646,607 the joint Brazilian and Cuban constituting | perty tax, and 3,000,000l. of a beer tax, less than one-seventh of the whole. It is and I know not how many millions more said that the West Indian proprietors of house taxes, salt taxes, and leather should have resided on their properties; but I think no want of zeal, energy, or enterprise, can be fairly brought against them; for, upon looking at the returns, we may see that their imports of English machinery were very large indeed, and were on the increase up to the period when the present law was passed. What is now the case? Why, the machinery which they erected at so much cost is, in many instances, lying useless and idle; whilst foreign countries are increasing their stock of machinery, and purchasing it, not merely from this country, but from the United States, and even out of our own West Indian colonies. But we are told of the costliness of putting down slavery and the slave trade. I acknowledge it at once. I know these noble exertions have cost this country more than 100,000,000l. sterling. There is a sum of 29,000,000l. for putting down the slave trade; for blockading armaments; slave trade commissions; subsidies of 400,000l. and 600,000l. to Spain and Portugal to induce them to put down the slave trade-to induce them to enter upon treaties that have never been fulfilled; then the charge of maintaining military establishments on the coast of Africa. You paid 20,000,000l. as compensation for the slaves, and 1,000,000l. to the commissioners for distribution to the stipendiary magistrates. taxes-but you took off none of those taxes which pressed so heavily on the West Indian interest; and it is recorded by Mr. Marshall, that while the value of sugar alone imported from the West Indies amounted during the period of the war in 1814 to 12,484,7147. sterling, by the change in the currency, and other causes, the entire produce of the West Indies had fallen, in 1830, to 6,758,0841. the customs duties on which exceeded 7,150,000l. Such is the way the West India islands have been treated by this country; and then you are surprised that there should be a cry of distress when a duty of 30s. the cwt. is charged upon their sugar-a duty levied when sugar was selling for 80s. per cwt., and continued when the price had dropped to an average of 29s. the cwt. The advocates of emancipation predicted for us a greater produce of sugar. Were these predictions fulfilled? Sir, the produce of sugar had so fallen off that it occasioned a rise of 10s. the cwt. on an average of the twelve years ending 1846, as compared with the twelve previous years. Sir, I think it is clear that taking the enhanced cost of the sugar to the consumer that has been occasioned by this measure, and the corresponding enhanced cost of molasses and rum, consequent upon diminished production, the result to the consumer in this country has been that instead of being benefited by the substitution of free for slave labour, he has paid in the course of these twelve years between 30,000,000l. and 40,000,0007. sterling more for his sugar than during the previous twelve years of slavery. To You prophesied - you the advocates of emancipation-that the free labourers would do more than twice the work of the slaves; and you said that the planters were entitled to no compensation, because, instead of being injured, they would be absolutely benefited by the abolition. I remem- Was this a benefit to the sugar plantber well the argument often used, especially ers? I shall show you presently that by the hon. Member for Dumfries, "the they have gained nothing. I have said day that makes a man a slave takes away that 50,000,000l. was spent in putting half his worth ;" and this was held to down slavery and the slave trade. apply to the slaves in a tropical climate. this may be added 35,000,000l. as the But what was the state of the produce of increased cost to the consumer here, at the British colonies at that time? Why, 10l. per ton on 2,500,000 tons of sugar, with the mitigated slavery that then ex- and on its corresponding and due proportion isted, there was imported every year an of rum and molasses entered for home conaverage, as stated by Lord Stanley, of sumption in twelve years from 1834 to 50,000 tons more sugar than this country 1846, inclusive; and it will make a total of could consume. The consumption was 85,000,000l. sterling; and then if you kept down by the war duties of 30s., and, further add the duty which you would have till very lately, of 27s. the cwt. on sugar received upon the quantity of sugar, mothe produce of the West Indies. You took lasses, and rum, that had been previously off taxes from your own shoulders-you re-produced and consumed under the slave lieved yourselves of 15,000,000l. of a pro- system, and which the free-labour system Maryland 717 1,722 22 2 did not produce, you will find that the fall-bitrators came to a unanimous verdict; ing-off in the revenue amounted to not and what was the price that they assessed less than 30,000,000l. more, calculated against England for the payment of these upon the deficiency in the same twelve American slaves? years of sugar to the amount of 1,000,000 tons, and of molasses and rum in due proportion. So that I do not exaggerate at all when I say, that the abolition of the slave trade and the abolition of slavery-of the mild form of slavery that existed in our colonies-cost this country, from first to last, within forty years, not less than 115,000,000l. sterling. And yet after we have made this immense sacrifice, we have undone it all by the admission of slave-grown sugar to compete with free-labour sugar; for I believe it cannot be denied that it has stimulated the slave trade and increased its horrors. Alexandrina, Colombia 3 Total South Carolina Total Louisiana Grand total 2,466 at £58 6 4 8 833 31 872 at £81 5 0 263 at £120 16 8 3,601... £266,197 10 0; being an average of 731. 18s. 51d. per head, while we only paid to our own colonies 25l. 14s. 84d. per head! I want to know whether this is fair dealing between our own colonies and the citizens of a foreign country? There is another example to which I beg to refer it is the case of French Guiana, with regard to which negotiations are at present going on for the emancipation of the slaves. The arrangement that has been come to is, that they are to receive a sum of 551. for each slave, coupled with the condition that the slaves are to be bound to serve their present masters fifteen years after their emancipation. We know that so long as the apprenticeship system lasted in the West Indies there was no great difficulty in procuring the necessary amount of labour, the only drawback being the fourth part of the day allowed to the apprentices; and then, whether we look at the French colonies or the arrangement made with the citizens of the United States, it cannot be said that the compensation was set down at too high a sum for our own colonists. It has been asserted that the West Indian interest has no claim upon us, and that the Mauritius has no claim; but I beg to differ from those who hold that argument. There would have been no claim if the price paid for their property had been decided by arbitration, and settled in the way that these matters usually are in the case of private property. But did the West Indies appoint an arbitrator? No-this country first said, We will take your property, and having taken it, we will decide what we will pay you for it. You, the people of England, set your own value upon that property. You valued it at 45,000,000l. sterling, having first lowered its value by several measures which the West Indian planters cheerfully assented to. Having lowered the value of the property, by forbidding the transport of the slaves from one island to another; having prohibited the separation of families, even in the case of men and women living together without being married-having put all these restrictions on the sale of transfer of slave property, by which its value was consid- But perhaps the simplest way of showerably reduced-in fact, having by your ing how small a compensation it proved acts reduced it to half its worth you to be will be to show the comparative then came forward and appointed your average cost and profit of cultivation own valuers set down the value at in the island of Jamaica for four years 45,000,000l. and paid them 20,000,000l., ending 1834, and four years ending 1845. being on an average about 251. 14s. I will take Lord Stanley's estimate of the for each slave. In the course of the cost of subsistence, and also Lord Grey's, war with the United States we captured the first being 27. 10s. and the other 21. 58. 3,601 slaves. By the Treaty of Ghent we per head per annum. I have charged the bound ourselves to make the owners restitu- planters during slavery with the payment, tion. How did we deal with the citizens of not only of effective labourers, but of all the the United States? Arbitrators were prædial slaves of every age and sex. I find selected by both parties, and those ar- that in the island of Jamaica there were, VOL. XCVI. Third C Series |