BEfore England had any Sugar Planta­tions of its own, Portugal had a­bout Four Hundred Thousand Pounds per Annum for Sugar from England, to the great Inriching of Portugal and Impoverishing of England.

The Portugeeze having set High Customs upon their Sugars, and letting none Trade at Brasil but themselves, gave the English Encouragement to Adventure upon Planting it, who have so increased, that they not only Sup­ply England with all the Sugar it wants, whereby 400000 l. paid Portugal formerly for Sugar is saved; but great Quantities of Sugars have been Transported to Foreign Markets, to the vast increase of the Wealth of the Kingdom, and by consequence the value of the Lands of England.

In the Trade to the English Sugar Plantations, about 400 Sail of English Ships and 8000 Seamen are annually Employed.

All the Ships that go from England are Loaden with Manufactures and Provisions for the Supply of the Plan­tations, with Cloaths, Tools, and Utensils, and Victu­al, which all pay Custom to the King outward, and on which many Families in England do subsist.

[Page 2] The Planters have at their Cost, brought above 100000 Negroes from Affrica, whereby so many New Subjects are added to the Crown.

The French King taking Notice of the great Wealth and Strength the Sugar Plantations bring to the Kingdom of England, and also of the difficulties the English Plantati­ons are under, by reason of the Acts of Trade and Navi­gation, which enjoyning all the Sugars of the English Plantations to be brought home to England, and there to be Landed, and pay the King a Custom before it can be Transported to any Forreign Markets, which is a great Charge, hath thought it feazible, and with great Application hath set himself to become Master of that Trade; and the Dutch have done the same, and grant­ing more ease to their Planters, in producing and disposing of their Sugars, than the English have, the French are so far increased, that their Sugar Plantations, which are Martinico, Guadeloupe, Marigalant, Grenados, St. Christophers, Kayan, and part of Hispaniola, do already find an Employment for Two hundred Sail of Ships, and Seamen proportionable, andare increasing daily: And the Dutch have already many Ships annually Loaden with Sugar from Surinam, which they make a Business of State to Improve.

This Increase of the Sugar Trade of the French and Dutch, hath brought those Sugars that were worth be­tween 5 and 6 l. the Hundred Weight, when the last Book of Rates was made, to be worth now not above 35 s. out of which the Planter pays 5 s. Custom, and 4½ per Hundred to the King in the Plantations; insomuch that an Estate that was formerly worth 2000 l. per Annum in the Plantations, is not now worth 600 l. per Annum; and if any further Imposition be laid, will yield little or no­thing, to the undoing many Thousand English Families, many of which reside in England; for which Reason the [Page 3] Planters intended to have Address'd to this Parliament, for reducing the Book of Rates to the present Value of Sugars.

This low Value of the Commodity causes the Inhabi­tants of the English Colonies to forsake them, and remove to other places, whilst the King of France useth all Ima­ginable Industry to strengthen and fill his Plantations; (some of which are in sight of ours) with Inhabitants, having made Dunkirk a Free Port for his own Sugars, where no Customs are paid in or out; by reason of which the Markets of Flanders and Holland, &c. are furnished with French Sugars at 2 s. 6 d. per Hundred cheaper than the English can, by reason of the Acts of Trade and Na­vigation.

This Increase of the Strength of the French Plantations and decrease of the English, hath made many of the Plant­ers consider of with-drawing their Stocks, for fear if a War should happen with France all would be lost.

The English Sugar Trade being apparently decaying under the present Impositions upon Sugar, can by no means bear more and subsist; and it is of great advan­tage to France to have our Plantations ruined by more Impositions on their Sugars: for should the French gain the Sugar Trade from the English, England would lose the Imployment of 400 Sail of Ships and 8000 Seamen, and France would gain it, which would differ the present Ballance of Seamen 16000, besides the loss of a Native Commodity, that hath brought so much Wealth to the Kingdom, and would also be the loss of the Trade of Africa for Negro's.

It hath been ever the Practice and Policy of Trading Nations, to set the Publick Taxes on Foreign Commodi­ties and not those of their own growth.

In the time of the Usurper Cromwell, when all things [Page 4] were raked into to find a Revenue to support his Usur­pation, no Excise was put on Sugars of the growth of the English Plantations.

England is an Island whose Wealth and Strength con­sists in Trade, which cannot be preserved but by being Master at Sea; and the Plantation Trade is near one half of the Navigation of England, and whether it be so con­venient to hazard the loss of it by over-burthening it, since an Imposition may be set on Commodities of Foreign growth, that will be equivalent, is humbly submitted.

And whereas some seem to be of Opinion that an Im­position will fall upon the Buyer only, and not hurt the Planter, it is a Mistake for the Reasons following.

For it was found by Experience in the time of the late Rebellion, when there was an Excise imposed, the Buyer refused to buy Commodities of the Importer, unless he would clear the Excise, so that the Importer came gene­rally to pay the Excise as well as the Customs. And it is well known that all Commodities are in Value as there is a greater or lesser quantity of them at the Market. If the Imposition doth not lessen the quantity of Sugar imported, it cannot raise the price, and then by conse­quence the Imposition must be born wholly by the Planter. If it doth lessen the quantity of Sugar import­ed, it lessens the Imployment of our Shipping and Sea­men, and the Kings Revenue, and will constrain those Planters who are forced to leave Making Sugar, to for­sake the Plantations, as having no Imployment there; which will so weaken them of Defendants, as they will be in hazard to become a prey to the French or their own Negro's; which will be a total loss of that Trade to this Kingdom, and be the ruin of many Thousand English Families, vvho in England and the Plantations subsisted by that Trade of making Sugar, or by fur­nishing Cloaths, Tools and Utensils.