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 en- 
forced, 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 com- 
pared with the body of the people, and must discon- 
tinue their trade if nobody will buy their goods. 
OQ. What are the body of the people in the col- 
onies? 
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