Benjamin Franklin [1766
Indies; but the duty of four and a half per cent. on
sugars exported was, I believe, granted by their own
assemblies.
Q. How much is the poll-tax in your province laid
on unmarried men?
A. It is, I think, fifteen shillings, to be paid by
every single freeman upwards of twenty-one years
old.
OQ. What is the annual amount of all the taxes in
Pennsylvania?
A. 1 suppose about twenty thousand pounds
sterling.
QO. Supposing the Stamp Act continued and enforced,
 do you imagine that ill-humor will induce the
Americans to give as much for worse manufactures
of their own, and use them, preferable to better of
ours?
A. Yes, I think so. People will pay as freely to
gratify one passion as another, their resentment as
their pride.
0. Would the people at Boston discontinue their
trade?
A. The merchants are a very small number compared
 with the body of the people, and must discontinue
 their trade if nobody will buy their goods.
OQ. What are the body of the people in the colonies?

A. They are farmers, husbandmen, or planters.
OQ. Would they suffer the produce of their lands
to rot?
A. No: but they would not raise so much. They
would manufacture more and plough less.

100 Ta