The Virginia Gazette

On the Importance and Utility of the BRITISH COLONIES. From Dr. Campbell's Political Survey of Britain.

IN our Days, the Value, Utility, and Importance of the Colonies, in Respect to this Island, have been, by the Evidence of Facts, put beyond all Dispute. The British Inhabitants in them draw some of the Necessaries, and many of the Conveniences of Life, from hence. The supplying them with these is a new and very great Source of Industry, which, by affording Employment to Multitudes, cannot but have an Effect in augmenting the Numbers as well as contributing to the Ease and Happiness of our People at Home. The having a certain, constant, regular, and increasing Market for our Commodities and Manufactures, hath had a very visible Effect on almost every Branch of our domestick Trade. Besides, as the Correspondence between us and our Country-men in these remote Parts is carried on by Sea, this extends our Navigation, and hath added amazingly to the Number of our Shipping, which is another Article very advantageous and profitable to the Inhabitants of Britain. At the same Time, by raising and subsisting Numbers of hardy and experienced Seamen, it evidently contributes to the Support of our naval Power.

It must give no small Pleasure to a curious and judicious Inquirer to reflect upon and investigate these Points, in Order to satisfy his own Mind as to the Manner in which they are brought about. It is from hence that our Planters in general, their Servants and Slaves, are supplied with Apparel of all Kinds, with most Sorts of Furniture, with a vast Variety of Tools and Instruments for their several Occupations, which of Course gives Business and Bread to our Artificers and Manufacturers. The directing and collecting of these employs Merchants, Factors, and their Servants. All the Trades which are connected with building, rigging, and supplying Materials of every Kind for Ships, and fitting out Seamen, are indebted to the same Causes for their Subsistence. The Freight also, both out and at home, is a Matter of great Consequence; amounting often to as much, and sometimes more, than the Value of the Goods. The Provisions, and other Necessaries, consumed by the Seamen in these long Voyages, with many more Articles which would be tedious to enumerate, concur to promote and to reward almost every Species of Industry exercised amongst us. All this arises chiefly from the Difference of Soil and Climate, and from the Remoteness of our Plantations. And that these are not fallacious Suggestions, or plausible Conjectures, the Rise of our Customs, the Improvement of our Lands, the Number of our Ships, and the gradual Increase of our Fleets, are Testimonies that leave us not a Shadow of Doubt; but, on the contrary, demonstrate clearly that this Representation is, in all Respects, founded on Truth.

These, though signal and shining Advantages, as plainly conducing to the increasing our Riches and Strength, are far, very far, from being all the Benefits that have resulted, and continue to result, from our Settlements. By the Returns they make us for Goods of every Kind that we send them, we are enabled, after furnishing our Home Consumption, to manufacture and export immense Quantities of their Produce to other Countries; which is a further Addition to our Commerce, and swells not a little the Profit that arises from it. We likewise receive from them many Things which we formerly purchased from other Nations at their own Price, and which were frequently brought to us in their own Bottoms; neither, in some Cases, were these the greatest Inconveniencies. Their inexhaustible Fisheries are also pregnant with innumerable Benefits. The Number of our Subjects in these Parts has been, and may be, increased without Danger, by permitting foreign Protestants to settle in them; from whose Skill and Labour new Improvements may, with great Probability, be expected to arise. What considerably advances the Value of these, and many more Advantages that might be enumerated, is, that they are not only solid and permanent, but belong exclusively to Great Britain; and of which, while we retain our Freedom and naval Power, we never can be deprived.

Amongst many other Articles that are the Produce of our Colonies, and sent from hence into other Parts of the World, are Tobacco, Sugar, Rice, Cotton, &c. to a very great Value, which, being the Return of our own Goods and Manufactures, are clear Gain to this Nation; and to this, as most of them are exported in our own Bottoms, we are to add the Freight likewise, which is very considerable. Most of these Goods, before we had Plantations of our own, we bought from Foreigners at very high Prices; as, for Instance, Brasil Sugar at 7l. and 8l. by the Hundred, Tobacco from 4s. to 8s. a Pound. Indigo, of which we now receive much, and are like to receive much more, from our own Colonies, we still purchase from the French and Spaniards to a large Amount. What may serve to set this Point in a stronger Light is the Case of Pitch and Tar, which we formerly bought from the Swedes at what Price they pleased to set upon it; and, even at this high Rate, they insisted on sending it in their own Ships. At the Beginning of Queen Anne's War, we found ourselves in so precarious a State with Respect to these Commodities, so necessary for our Navy, that Dr. Robinson, afterwards Bishop of London, then our Minister at the Court of Sweden, recommended the procuring them from our Colonies upon any Terms. This produced a Bounty for the obtaining them, and that soon brought them, not only at a third Part of what we had paid for them to Sweden but also in Such Quantities as enables us to export them to the Straits, Spain, Portugal, Holland, Bremen, and Hamburg. Upon the same Principle, we have since, by the same Means, obtained great Quantities of Iron; and, in Time, are likely to draw all our naval Stores from our own Settlements.

From this Sketch of the Emoluments flowing from our Plantations, it is incontestably evident that they have contributed greatly to increase our Industry, and of Course our Riches; to extend the Commerce, to augment the naval Power, and consequently to maintain the Grandeur, and Support the Prosperity, of the Mother Country.