Note 4 — THIRTY YEARS OF LIBERAL LEGISLATION.
Reading edition
"Of the progressive decline in the powers of production of the West India possessions generally, some idea may be formed from what has been observed in Jamaica; for though that island labours under some peculiar disadvantages, that fact merely increases the force of the argument which is derived from its past experience:—
Average of the five years ending 1807—last of the slave trade,£3,852,624
Average of the five years ending 1815—date of the Registry Act,3,588,903
Average of the five years ending 1823—date of Canning's Resolution,3,192,637
Average of the five years ending 1833—last five of slavery,2,791,478
Average of the five years ending 1843—first five of freedom,1,213,284
"The House of Assembly, from whose memorial to the government (June 1847) we borrow these facts, makes the following remarks on this instructive table:—
"'Up to 1807 the exports of Jamaica progressively rose as cultivation was extended. From that date they have been gradually sinking; but we more especially entreat attention to the evidence here adduced of the effects of emancipation, which, in ten years, reduced the annual value of the three principal staples from £2,791,478 to £1,213,284, being in the proportion of seven to sixteen, or equal, at five per cent., to an investment of about thirty-two millions of property annihilated. We believe the history of the world would be in vain searched for any parallel case of oppression perpetrated by a civilised government upon any section of its own subjects.'"