XXV 1. 
95 
attach. Upon a reference to the average prices .... which 
vary from 36 sh. to 31 sh it appears evident that 
the planters must have cultivated their estates at a loss. 
During the period of prosperity previous to 1800 
the profits did not exceed IOV2 (return of capital) 
and from that period they have gradually diminished to 2Vs 
and IV2 per cent, till at the present moment, there is no 
return of interest of all. — 
Great however, as are the evils of the decrease of price 
.... it does not appear that they are the original 
causes of the distress but the main evil . . . . is 
the very 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, not only 
of the neutral, but of the hostile colonies. The 
result of all their inquiries .... have brought before their 
eyes one grand and primary evil, from which all the 
others are easily to be deduced: namely, the facility of 
intercourse between the hostile colonies and 
Europe, under the American Neutral flag, by means 
of wich . . . the whole of their produce is carried to a market 
.... at charges little exceeding those of peace; while the 
British planter is burthened with all the inconvenience, risk and 
expence, resulting from a state of war .... In order to counter 
balance, in some degree, the advantages thus enjoyed by the 
hostile colonies .... it has been recommended ... a blockade 
of the ports of the enemy’s settlements . ... (S. 6). 
Your commitee having briefly stated the distressed situ 
ation of the West India Planter .... have only to add, that 
unless some speedy and efficient measures of relief are adopted, 
the ruin ofagreat number of the planters... must 
inevitably very soon take place, which must be follo 
wed by the loss of a vast capital .... and by the most fatal 
injury to the commercial, maritime and finanzial interest of 
Great Britain!“ 
Diese Schilderung enthält sicherlich einen Hauptbeweg 
grund für die Abolition ! 
Zweiter Teil. 
Der Friede von Amiens 1802 und die Rückgabe der 
englischen Eroberungen. 
Über diese an und für sich schon ziemlich trostlosen west 
indischen Verhältnisse brach obendrein noch 1802 der für 
England wenig günstige Seefriede von Amiens herein. Durch 
den Frieden von Luneville 1801 aller Bundesgenossen auf dem