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Impolicy of Slavery

John Rylands Library, Manchester. Goldsmiths' Library of Economic Literature, University of London. Friends House Library, London. British Library.

Impolicy Slavery Free Trade British Commerce World Map Sugar

This three page tract, which was printed in Liverpool in the mid-1820s, argues that the duties protecting West Indian slave-produced sugar were stifling British commercial growth. It includes a map showing potential sugarcane-growing areas around the world, and attempts to demonstrate that the West Indies were "insignificant and inadequate with reference to the prospective increase of commerce commensurate with the unrestricted operations of British capital, enterprise, and industry" (3). It also compares sugar production in the British colonies with those of Spain and Portugal, questioning why the latter are able to undercut the price of British sugar, despite a "more mild" (1) system of slavery and higher rate of emancipation.

Printed by E. Smith & Co., Liverpool (no date). Originally published in the Liverpool Mercury, 31st October 1823. Also includes a short article entitled 'Remarks on the probable extension of British commerce' (3).