Now, that which makes these Plantations more profitable to this Kingdom, is the Trade to _Africa_, whereby the Planters are supplied with Negroes for their Use and Service; a Trade of the most Advantage of any we drive, and as it were all Profit, the first cost being some Things of our own Manufactures, and others generally purchased with them, for which we have in return, Gold, Teeth, Wax, and Negroes, the last whereof is indeed the best Traffic the Kingdom hath, as it occasionally gives so vast an Employment to our People both by Sea and Land. These are the Hands whereby our Plantations are improved, and it is by their Labours such great Quantities of Sugar, Tobacco, Cotton, Ginger, Fustick and Indigo, are raised, which employ great Numbers of Ships for transporting them hither; and the greater Number of Ships, employs the greater Number of Handicraft Trades at home, spends more of our Product and Manufactures, and makes more Sailors, who are maintained by a separate Employment; for if every one raised the Provisions he eat, or made the Manufactures he wore, Traffic would cease, which is a Variety of Employments Men have set themselves on, whereby one is serviceable to another, adapted to their particular Genius’s, without invading each other’s Provinces: Thus the Husbandman raises Corn, the Miller grinds it, the Baker makes it into Bread, and the Citizens eats it: Thus the Grasier fats Cattle, and the Butcher kills them for the Market: Thus the Shepherd sheers his Sheep, the Spinster turns the Wool into Yarn, the Weaver makes it into Cloth, and the Merchant exports it, and every one lives by each other: Thus the Country supplies the City with Provisions, and that the Country with Necessaries; now the advising a former Reign to monopolize this Trade, and confine it to an exclusive Company, was the same, as to advise the People of _Ægypt_, to raise high Banks to keep the River _Nilus_ from overflowing, least it should fertilize their Lands; or the King of _Spain_ to shut up his Mines, least he should fill his Kingdom too full of Silver: This Trade indeed is our Silver Mine, for by the Overplus of Negroes above what will serve our Plantations, we draw great Quantities thereof from the _Spaniards_, who are settled on the Continent of _America_, both for the Negroes we furnish from _Jamaica_, and also by the Assiento, lately settled by a Compact of both Nations: ’Twas these which first introduced our Commerce with that People, and gave us Opportunities of selling our Manufactures to them. But tho’ this Trade be now laid open, yet it will not be amiss to enquire what Reasons should persuade that Government to monopolize it, and what has been the Consequences thereof, in order to obviate any future Attempts that may be made to get it done again. As for the First; The Necessity of having Forts, Castles, and Soldiers to defend the Trade which could not be carried on without them, had then Force enough to prevail.