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[Page 4]
From in the Perusal of the Report of the Commee of the Legislature of Antigua, several Observations of Considerable importance naturaly present themselves by which the state of the Case receives Considerable Elucidation it will on thei as however or under the Present Circumstances of the Commee, it will be useless to enumerate the whole a few only are therefore notied below
it appears unintelligible that the Colonists should have occasion to Remit Cash by bills to the mother Countrey as the mother Countrey has a right by Colonial Tenure to Receive the whole of the Produce of the Colony except the Rum & Molasses, which by an indulgence Calculated for a state of war, when the mother Countrey can not Provide a regular supply of Lumber & Provisions they are allowd to Sell to the Americans & which the Report 11.11.12 delares [declares] does not Produce a sufficient Fund to pay for the necessary articles with which America suplies them
it is still more perplexing to guess in what manner the americans have Contrivd to inundate the Island with Light Portugal money p.4, as the Report declares that one third of what the Americans persist must be paid for by the Islanders in cash because the Rum & Molasses made in the Island are equal to 2/3 only p.12 [indecipherable]. The americans have found means to Purchase goods Produce for their Light Cash in which case the articles they have taken away must then have been those which such as ought to have been Sent to the Mother Countrey
The distress of Antigua from a Circulating Medium is not a new fact occurrence it has been laid before the Commee at Various Times for some years back past as similar Complaints from other Islands have also been, the Commee however appear on all former occasions that have come to my knowledge to have passd by the Question without meeting it Fairly, no doubt because it opens a Field of Enquiry of the highest importance & also of no small dificulty