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In our North American and West Indian colonies, not only the

wages of labour, but the interest of money, and consequently the

profits of stock, are higher than in England. In the different

colonies, both the legal and the market rate of interest run from

six to eight percent. High wages of labour and high profits of

stock, however, are things, perhaps, which scarce ever go

together, except in the peculiar circumstances of new colonies. A

new colony must always, for some time, be more understocked in

proportion to the extent of its territory, and more underpeopled

in proportion to the extent of its stock, than the greater part

of other countries. They have more land than they have stock to

cultivate. What they have, therefore, is applied to the

cultivation only of what is most fertile and most favourably

situated, the land near the sea-shore, and along the banks of

navigable rivers. Such land, too, is frequently purchased at a

price below the value even of its natural produce.