ed replied, that when a manufacture is much more valuable
than the rough materials, and these cannot be produced at home in
sufficient quantities, and at such a price as is consistent with the
preservation of the manufacture, it is the interest of the legislature,
to admit a free importation of these materials, even from foreign
countries, although it should put an end to the production of that
material in this island: that as the neighbours of Great Britain are now
more attentive than ever to their commercial interests, and endeavouring
to manufacture their rough materials at home, this nation must take
every method for lowering the price of materials, otherwise in a few
years it will lose the manufacture; and, instead of supplying other
countries, be furnished by them with all the fine toys and utensils
made of steel and iron; that being in danger of losing not only the
manufacture but the produce of iron, unless it can be procured at a
cheaper rate than that for which it is sold at present, the only way
of attaining this end is by diminishing the duty payable upon the
importation of foreign iron, or by rendering it necessary for the
undertakers of the iron mines in Great Britain to sell their produce
cheaper than it has been for some years afforded; that the most
effectual method for this purpose is to raise up a rival, by permitting
a free importation of all sorts of iron from the American plantations;
that American iron can never be sold so cheap as that of Britain can be
afforded; for, in the colonies, labour of all kinds is much dearer
than in England: if a man employs his own slaves, he must reckon in
his charge a great deal more than the common interest of their purchase
money, because, when one of them dies, or escapes from his master, he
losses both interest and principal; that the common interest of money in
the plantations is considerably higher than in England, consequently
no man in that country will employ his money in any branch of trade by
which he cannot gain considerably more per cent, than is expected
in Great Britain, where the interest is low, and profit moderate; a
circumstance which will always give a great advantage to the British
miner, who likewise enjoys an exemption from freight and insurance,
which lie heavy upon the American adventurer, especially in time of war.
With respect to the apprehension of the leather tanners, they observed,
that as the coppices generally grew on barren lands, not