ANON - A Statement of the Claims of the West India Colonies to a Protecting Duty Against East India Sugar. Whitmore and Fenn, London (1823) iv + 120pp. 1st ed., fine in modern half calf.The West India colonists were possessed of vested rights like other British subjects, that they were entitled to the same restrictive duties on foreign produce that British agriculturists and manufacturers at home enjoyed, that the advantages accruing to the mother country from her relations with the West Indies were greater than those arising from her having trading posts in the East and that it would be inexpedient to hazard the prosperity of the former in the speculative hope of uncertain and distant advantages which might be obtained from the latter. The belief that an equalization of East and West India sugar duies would lower the cost to consumers in Great Britain and would at the same time increase the export of British manufactures to India was neither justified by the experience of the past nor reasonable expectations of the future. (Ragatz)