The Virginia Gazette

From the New York Papers.

THE ALARM. No. IV.

The pernicious Effects of the intended Importation of the East India Company's Tea, in a commercial View, were in general pointed out to you in my last Number. It shall now be the Amusement of an Hour to answer Objections, and to unfold to you more particularly some of the numerous Evils that unavoidably await you if they succeed in that Project. Unfortunately for human Nature, the States which have enjoyed the greatest Share of Liberty have given Birth, Opulence, and Importance, to Miscreants who have prostituted these Blessings to enslave, instead of protecting their Country. Rome had its Caesars, and England its Staffords. Happy had it been for this distressed Colony if no such accursed Achans were found in your Camp. But, Thanks be to God, there are not many who are so hardy as openly to declare for, or patronize, the Machinations either of the Ministry or that Company to enslave this Country. Those, therefore, who desire to see their Country sacked by Harpies and Parricides, that they may share the Plunder, have Recourse to insidious Arts to impose on the Ignorance and Credulity of the suspicious Few who are dependent on or connected with them. As the first are sensible of the publick Abhorrence, and dare not openly abet a Measure, which, to their great Mortification, and the Joy of all good Men, is considered as replete with the Ruin of your Commerce and the Liberties of America, their Arguments in Favour of the Importation can only be collected from the Whispers of their Creatures. These shall be fully considered, and every Appearance of Argument that may occur in Favour of it.

Should it be said there is no Danger of your being subject to the Company's Extortion, because Merchants, when the Tea is once introduced, will import it as usual from London, and, as the Sale of it will be in many Hands, the Country will be supplied upon as moderate Terms as usual, whoever asserts this must either be a Knave or a Novice, totally a Stranger to Commerce. Can any Merchant purchase Tea of the Company in London and dispose of it here upon equal Terms with them? No. Because the first must purchase it of the last, and therefore he will not attempt to bring that Article to the same Market with those who have it at first Hand and at the cheapest Rate from India, as he must know they can and will undersell him; and therefore, as he will not import any, you will fall a Prey to the Avarice and Monopoly of the Company. Here then their Advocates fail.

Equally futile will it be to assert, that, as the Sale of the Company's Tea will be at publick Vendue, you will be supplied with it at a moderate Price. Common Experience evinces, that whether the Sale of any Commodity be publick or private it does not alter the Price. If such Article be in Demand, and within the Consumption, there will be Competitors for the Purchase; for the higher any Article is the quicker the Sale, and consequently the greater the Encouragement to the Retailers to buy it. For although the Sale of Tea is publick in London, they expose only such a Quantity of it as they know, from the Demand, will produce a Price to their Satisfaction. And there have not been wanting late Instances there of such notorious and manifest Extortion, from such Sales, that the Citizens were obliged to petition the Parliament for a Law to dissolve the Company, or to enable them to import Tea from abroad, when it exceeded a certain Price. This has, in some Cases, induced the Company to enlarge their Sales. Hence, you see that a Complaint to Parliament was necessary to check their Extortion. But have you any such Security against it? No. Will the Parliament, who is in League with the Company to fleece you of your All, hear your Complaints against the Instruments of their Tyranny? No. Here then the Advocates of the Company fail.

I know it is said 'that the Colony will not be in Danger of Extortion from the Company, because whenever Tea shall rise to an exorbitant Price the Holland Traders will import it.' Let the Reader now pause a little, and consider this Objection. Does it not, in so many Words, declare, that unless the Trade to Holland is prosecuted you will be in the Power of the merciless Company, to extort from you, for their Commodities, whatever Price their Avarice shall dictate? Nay, does it not declare against the intended Importation of the Company's Tea; as this Article has, at no Period since the Settlement of the Colony, been sold so cheap as it has since the Non-Importation Agreement? From that Period, to this, the mean Price has been under 4 s. a Pound, and not higher for any considerable Time than 4 s. 6 d. and if it had not been apprehended, for some Time, that the Company would risk the Tea to America, which prevented the Orders of your spirited Merchants, you would have had this Article under 4 s. And you will be thus supplied, whenever you disappoint the Hopes of those who are alike Enemies to your Commerce and Liberty. Here then the Advocates of the Company fail.

But it can be demonstrated, as the Company is to establish a Warehouse in this City, they will prevent your Trade to Holland for the Commodities of India. I grant, that whenever the Holland Traders conceive the Company raises the Price of their Tea, or other Articles, so high as to make it the Interest of the former to run the Risk of importing those from Foreigners, it will be done, but not repeated. The Company are so connected with the Ministry, and play into each others Hands, that the first can borrow Millions of the Government. This, and other Advantages from their Capital, will enable them, upon such Importation, to lower the Price of their Tea, &c. so as to make the Holland Traders, if they sell theirs, smart for their Temerity; or, if they keep it for a better Market (which they cannot get) suffer by the Loss of Interest. Whenever they have disposed of their Tea, at either of those Losses, the Company will raise their Tea at Pleasure; and if the Holland Traders will be bold enough to make a second Attempt, they will easily be defeated, by repeating the same Expedient. This will be effected at the Expense of a few Thousands Sterling, which they can put on the Tea when the entire Sale returns to them. Thus disappointed with the Loss of their Interest, the Holland Traders will decline the Pursuit of a Trade subject to a certain if not a total Loss of their Property; and thus will you be entirely in the Power of the East India Company.

Should it be said, that you may as well be in their Power as the Holland Traders, let the Experience you have had of the latter, for near four Years, and of the former, since the Settlement of the Colony, be the Answer. Whenever a Merchant, or Company, has the sole vending of a Commodity, they impose on the Consumers; and infinitely more so are you subject to the Extortion of a Company who has a permanent Monopoly, and those Advantages to support the true Spirit of it. Therefore, the Publick is always best served when there are Competitors for the publick Favour, or Commerce.

Cast your Eyes now to the Loss the Colony will sustain by the Company's engrossing the Trade of all the India Commodities consumed and imported into it. When the Account of the Inhabitants of the Colony was taken in the Winters of 1770 and 1771, the Return amounted to 121,000 Souls; but as many Families were disinclined to give up their Number, from an Apprehension that a Poll Tax was in Contemplation, I am confident that Numbers concealed. The Increase since that, and the Number of those who emigrated from Europe, will make our Number at least 150,000. From this deduct a fifth Person, for all those who are unable, disinclined, or otherwise prevented, from purchasing Tea, and the Number of Tea Drinkers will be 120,000. Allowing each of these to consume three Pounds of Tea a Year, besides Coffee, &c. the annual Consumption of this Colony will be 360,000 Pounds of Tea, equal to 1000 Chests. The Importation of this Article to supply our Trade to the west Part of Connecticut, and the east Part of Jersey, may very moderately be fixed to Half the Quantity we consume. This Quantity, at the moderate Price of 5 s. Currency a Pound, amounts to 136,125 l. From this Sale deduct the Freight of 30 s. a Chest, Insurance, and Commission for Shipping, at five per Cent. the neat Sum on which the Profit is to be calculated will be 127,181 l. 5 s. 6 d. Currency. Suppose this yields the moderate Profit of ten per Cent. to the Purchasers of Tea in London, the annual Loss to your Merchants will be 11,561 l. 18 s. 6 d. To this add the Freight of 1500 Chests at 30 s. 2250 l. which their Ships will lose, as the Company will send the Tea in their own Ships, then the annual Loss to them on our Importation of Tea will be 13,811 l. 18 s. 6 d. The India Silks, Cottons, Spices, and China, imported for the Consumption of this and those two Colonies, may be computed to Half the Value of the Tea we import for those Consumptions. Allowing Half the Profit on those Articles at the above Rate on Tea, and Half the Freight of it or the Freight of those different Commodities, lost to your Merchants, 4603 l. 19 s. 6 d. added to the Loss they will sustain by the Company's importing Tea you would import, amount to the enormous Sum of 20,717 l. 17 s. 9 d. Currency annual Loss to this City. To this add the Duty on Tea consumed in this Colony, 4537 l. 10 s. Sterling, at 75 per Cent, 7940 l. 12 s. Currency, will be 28,658 l. 9 s. 9 d. annual Loss to this Colony. But this is but a small Part of what the Company will extort from you, by the Monopoly of all the India Commodities you consume. As no Man can conceive, and far less describe, to what Pitch their unbounded Avarice will carry them, you have abundant Reason to dread the Consequences. You have been fully informed to whom this Sacrifice of your Commerce will be made. To a Company which connived at, if not abetted, the most horrid Inhumanities and Cruelties the Sun ever beheld; to a Company now made the Instruments of a corrupt, a tyrannical Ministry, to give the last and finishing Stroke to your Commerce and your Liberties. It therefore concerns you to act with a Vigilance and Resolution that become a free and trading People, if you would avert the Storm that now hangs over you, ready to strip you of both, or you will be left Monuments of Folly and Pusillanimity to all Eternity!

HAMPDEN.