difficulties for want of money, as at this present precarious time may
render the whole colony an easy prey to their neighbours the Indians and
Spaniards, and also to those yet more dangerous enemies their own
negroes, who are ready to revolt on the first opportunity, and are eight
times as many in number as there are white men able to bear arms, and the
danger in this respect is greater since the unhappy expedition to
Augustine.

"From the year 1729, when his Majesty purchased South Carolina, the trade
of it hath so increased, that their annual exports and imports of late
have been double the value of what they were in the said year; and their
exports of rice in particular have increased in a greater proportion:
for, from the year 1720 to 1729, being ten years, both included, the
whole export of rice was 264,488 barrels, making 44,081 tons. From the
1730 to 1739, being also ten years, the whole export of rice was 499,525
barrels, making 99,905 tons; so that the export of the latter ten years
exceeded the former by 235,037 barrels, or 55,824 tons: and of the vast
quantities of rice thus exported, scarcely one fifteenth part is consumed
either in Great Britain or in any part of the British dominions; so that
the produce of the other fourteen parts is clear gain to the nation;
whereas almost all the sugar, and one fourth part of the tobacco,
exported from the British colonies, are consumed by the people of Great
Britain, or by British subjects; from whence it is evident, that the
national gain arising from rice is several times as great in proportion,
as the national gain arising from either sugar or tobacco.

"This year, _viz._ 1740, in particular, we shall export from South
Carolina above ninety thousand barrels of rice, of which quantity there
will not be three thousand barrels used here, so that the clear national
gain upon that export will be very great; for at the lowest computation,