_The possibility of their supporting their Credit in all the Operations of Government, in the Commerce of their Inhabitants, and, above all, in the Protection of National Industry._ "As to the possibility of supporting their credit in the cases mentioned, there is no doubt it is very _possible_. How far it is _probable_, is a question less easy to answer. If the taxes called for by Congress last fall be duly paid, all will be safe. But whether they have been paid or not I am wholly uninformed, except that I find in a public paper that Virginia had made good her first payment. As I daily expect to receive advices from America on this subject, I shall postpone saying anything further on it at present, but your Excellency may rely on my communicating to you a full state of what intelligence I may have respecting it. "As to supporting their credit in _commerce_, it is attended with considerable, though not insurmountable difficulties. They are of two kinds, the want of sufficient commodities for remittances, and the risk of transporting them. North America abounds in valuable commodities, such as fish, oil, lumber, provisions of flesh and corn, iron, tobacco, and naval stores, peltry, indigo, potash, and other articles, all of which have greatly diminished since the war; the laborers formerly employed in producing them having been often called to the field, and by other effects of the war been prevented from regularly following their usual occupations. Of some of these articles America still produces more than is necessary for her own consumption, but the risk of transporting them to Europe renders her remittances very uncertain. The asylum, which all British armed vessels find in the ports of Portugal, enables them to cruise very conveniently and with great advantage off the Western Islands, and other situations proper for annoying vessels from thence to France, Spain, or the Mediterranean. Hence it is that the trade from America to St Eustatia has of late so greatly increased, it being carried on principally in small, fast sailing vessels, that draw but little water, and that the chief remittances to Europe have been in bills of exchange instead of produce.