[43] Remarks, p. 47, 48, &c.

[44] The writer has [since] obtained accounts of the exports to North America, and the West India Islands; by which it appears, that there has been some increase of trade to those islands as well as to North America, though in a much less degree. The following extract from these accounts will show the reader at one view the amount of the exports to each, in two different terms of five years; the terms taken at ten years distance from each other, to show the increase, viz.

First term, from 1744 to 1748, inclusive.
Northern Colonies.West India Islands.
1744£.640,114124£.796,112179
1745534,31625503,669199
1746754,94543472,994197
1747726,64855856,463186
1748830,243169734,095153
——————————————
Total,£.3,486,26112Tot.£.3,363,3371010
Difference,122,930104
——————
£.3,486,26812
Second term, from 1754 to 1758, inclusive.
Northern Colonies.West India Islands.
17541,246,615111685,67530
17551,177,848610694,667133
17561,428,7201810733,458163
17571,727,924210776,48806
17581,832,9481310877,5711911
——————————————
Total,£.7,414,05743Tot.£.3,767,8411211
Difference,3,646,215114
———————
£.7,414,05743
In the first term, total of West India islands,3,363,3371010
In the second term, ditto3,767,8411211
———————
Increase, only£.0,404,50421
In the first term, total for Northern Colonies,3,486,26812
In the second term, ditto7,414,05743
———————
Increase,£.3,927,78931

By these accounts it appears, that the exports to the West India islands, and to the northern colonies, were in the first term nearly equal (the difference being only 122,936l. 10s. 4d.) and in the second term, the exports to those islands had only increased 404,504l. 2s. 1d.—Whereas the increase to the northern colonies is 3,927,789l. 3s. 1d. almost four millions.

Some part of this increased demand for English goods may be ascribed to the armies and fleets we have had both in North America and the West Indies; not so much for what is consumed by the soldiery; their clothing, stores, ammunition, &c. sent from hence on account of the government, being (as is supposed) not included in these accounts of merchandize exported; but, as the war has occasioned a great plenty of money in America, many of the inhabitants have increased their expence.

N. B. These accounts do not include any exports from Scotland to America, which are doubtless proportionally considerable; nor the exports from Ireland.

[I shall carry on this calculation where Dr. Franklin left it. For four years, from 1770 to 1773 inclusively, the same average annual exports to the same ports of the West Indies is 994,463l., and to the same ports of the North American plantations 2,919,669l. But the annual averages of the first and second terms of the former were 672,668l. and 753,568l.: of the latter, 697,254l. and 1,482,811l.

In ten years therefore (taking the middle years of the terms) the North American trade is found to have doubled the West Indian: in the next sixteen years it becomes greater by three-fold.—With respect to itself, the North American trade in 32 years (taking the extremes of the terms) has quadrupled; while the West Indian trade increased only one half; of which increase I apprehend Jamaica has given more than one-third, chiefly in consequence of the quiet produced by the peace with the maroon negroes.—Had the West Indian trade continued stationary, the North American trade would have quadrupled with respect to it, in 26 years; and this, notwithstanding the checks given to the latter, by their non-importation agreements and the encouragement of their own manufactures.

There has been an accession to both these trades, produced by the cessions at the treaty of Paris, not touched upon by Dr. Franklin. The average annual export-trade, from 1770 to 1773 inclusively, to the ceded West India islands, amounted to 258,299l.: to the ceded North American territory it has been 280,423l. See Sir Charles Whitworth's State of Trade. B. V.]