A REPLY To a Paper entitled An Answer to the Sugar-Refiners Paper.  
IT has been too common with those who value not what they say, whether true or false, so it answers their end; to supply the want of Argument with false Accusations and opprobrious Terms, and to endeavour to stifle the Truth with Confusion and Incoherency: Yet tho' the Vulgar may be so misled, I wonder the Answerer should think to impose upon the Wisdom of Parliament by such trifling: But if he have not a Talent to do otherwise, that cannot be helped, only then he should forbear coming out in Print.  
Several things he affirms which are false in Fact, As that the Sugar-Refiners contrived and procured the laying on the New Duty on Sugar in King James's Reign, that the Barbadoes White Sugar is cleaner and better purged than our refined Sugar, and that one Pound of the former sweetens almost twice as much as the latter, &c. and all along his Arguments are of no Weight, or conclude against himself, as I shall briefly show.  
He says, 'tis the Sugar-Bakers of London and Bristol that make all this noise, but it is known there are Sugar-houses in Newcastle, York, Chester, Leverpool, Worcester, plymouth, Exeter, &c. and would be many more every where if the Manufacture were encouraged, as it is highly the Interest of England so to do. But it is true, London and Bristol are the chief Ports for Exportation of that as well as other Commodities, but when Exeter Petitions for the Improvement of their woollen Manufacture, or Norwich for their Stuffs, or Sudbury for their says, or the Weavers in London for their Silks, according to this Gentleman's Argument, 'tis not the general Interest of England; and he would think it enough to overthrow their Petitions, by saying 'tis Exeter makes all this Noise, or Norwich, or Sudbury, or London that makes all this Noise. Indeed if Noise only would answer Reason, this Gentleman may answer any thing, for it is little else he uses: He seems angry that we say our Manufacture is of ancient standing, and yet in answer says nothing but to prove that it is so, and says himself that there were Refining-Houses in England before our Plantations fell to making of Sugar. That the Sugar Refiners here employ great numbers of People he does not deny, but says, that for one Man they employ, the Plantations employ an hundred, and would here and in other places insinuate that what we seek is against the Interest of the Plantations, which is the blind by which some few concerned in a small part only of one of the Plantations would misled such as take things upon their word, without examining and considering the matter; for the Sugar-Plantations are Jamaica, Nevis, Antego, Monseratt, and St. Christophers as well as Barbadoes; and of Barbadoes itself the greatest part do not day their Sugars, and what is the Interest of the Sugar-Refiners here, is plainly the interest of all the Sugar-Plantations, unless that small part of Barbadoes which day their Sugars, for the more the Refiners here are encouraged, the greater price and brisker Market will the Muscovado Sugar always find here, and it is entirely the Interest of England to have the Product of their Plantations manufactured here at home by our own People, who thereby increase the Strength and Wealth of England, eating and wearing the product of their own Country, rather than by Negroes abroad, the great Number whereof in the Plantations do rather hazard than add to their safety.  
The next thing he attacks is, what is said in the Sugar-Refiners Paper, That formerly they exported great quantities of White Sugars, which has for ten Years past been taken away by foreigners. This he does not deny, and in Answer declares, That the Sugar-Refiners contrived, promoted and procured the High Duty upon Sugar in K. James's Reign, which is utterly false in fact; but some People think that the confident affirmation of a thing will pass for proof: And it is absurd to imagine, that they should contrive and promote a thing so prejudicial to themselves, which did immediately destroy part of their own manufacture, by taking away their foreign Trade. So that all his Reflections from that Head must fall upon himself.  
He says Loaf-Sugar from the Plantations pays 16 s. per C. with. and by that means the Sugar-Refiners have got a Monopoly of that sort of Sugar; and so by thrusting in there, and in other parts of his Paper the odious and frightful term Monopoly,( tho' he seems not to understand what it means) he thinks he has given them their Deaths-wound. I thought Monopoly had properly signified the buying, or selling, or making any Commodity by one Man, or one stock only; but by this Gentleman's quaint way of arguing, what is done in England only is a Monopoly, tho' all the People in England are or may be concerned separately and apart therein, which is too gross to take place. It is true, the Parliament imposed 16 s. per C. with. on Loaf-Sugar fom the Plantations, and no doubt therein considered, that it was most beneficial to England to manufacture their own Commodities in England, by their own People, who add to their own strength, and spend their own Product, as before has been said.  
And now the Answerer quits all Modesty, when he affirms so notorious a Falsity, that the Barbadoes refined Sugar is the best in the World, and the English refined Sugar the worst in the World. And elsewhere he says, that the White Sugars made in the Plantations are cleaner, they working by day and Water, and we by Fire. And again, That the Plantation White Sugar goes almost twice as far, sweetens almost twice as much, and its relish is much more delicious.  
As to the difference between our Refining and their Claying, it is true, theirs is done with day and Water, and ours is clarify'd with Eggs, and afterwards strained thro' Broad cloth, and so refined, as he says, with Fire, which he will not allow to Purge as well as their day and Lime; wherein he shows himself as bad a Philosopher as his arguing shows him a Logician, or indeed a Man of common sense; for all the World knows, that nothing purifies or refines so well as Fire, and the goodness and cleanness of our refined Sugar is seen by its constant use in Thea, which would soonest show its Impurity, if any were. And instead of being weaker and fowler than Barbadoes White Sugar, it is quiter the contrary, as is undeniably evinced by the Confectioners, and all others who require the strongest and cleanest Sugar for their Candying and other uses, and for that Reason they prefer and use our refined Sugar before the Barbadoes White Sugar. It is true, we must make and sell a courser sort of Sugar to them that desire it, and it cannot be expected that a low price should purchase Sugar of the same goodness as a higher price.  
What he affirms of the French's refining their Sugar in their Plantations, is o● the same Complexion with his other Affirmations, that is, not true, for they bring home their Sugars brown, and refine it at home, as the Dutch do: Perhaps they may have a Refining-House or two in their Islands, as we have at Nevis, to refine Sugar to serve the use of those Islands, knowing it to be better, and more wholesome, and clean, when refined by Fire, than what is only Clay'd, tho' this Gentleman seems ignorant of it: And the French and Dutch understand their own Interest so well, as to keep on in that course.  
The Answerer says, 3 C. with. of Muscovado, when refined, makes 1 C. with. of White, and a good deal more; he should have  told what he means by a good deal more: It may be he may call a pound or two a good deal more, which agrees well enough with his arguing in other things.  
And now he comes to the point, on which, as he says, the Hinge of the Case turns, and that is, that the English Refiners paying the Duty on Muscovado inwards, and the half Duty being drawn back on Exportation, the foreigners pay but the foreigners. This the Answerer denies in Words, but proves it in his own Arguments; for if, as he says, the foreigner pays the dearer for the Sugar he buys 9 d. per C. with. in lieu of so much he draws back on Exportation, does not the English Refiner by the same reason pay 1 s. 6 d. per C. with. the dearer for the Sugar he buys, because the Importer pays so much Duty at Importation. This is plain, the foreigner pays for 1 C. with. of Sugar 29 s. 3 d. and for the same C. with. of Sugar the English Refiner pays 30 s. has not the foreigner it then 9 d. cheaper than we? and in 3 C. with. of brown Sugar, which goes to make 1 C. with. of White, is not that 2 s. 3 d. differerence in 1 C. with. of White, which the foreigner has advantage in working up and refining our brown Sugar? and whether then the Exporter of Sugars refined in England ought not to draw back as much as if the same were exported brown? let any reasonable Man judge: And this would be the interest of all the Plantations, and that part of Barbadoes which makes White are not at all concerned in it, unless it be to their Profit; for what does it signify to them( unless, as has been said, to mend the Market for theirs) whether the brown Sugar be exported brown, or whether it be made white here, and then exported.  
As to what the Answerer says about Molosses, it would be the interest of all the Plantations if none came hither from thence, their Sugar would yield the better price, and they have ways enough to dispose of it by making Rum, and sending it to Virginia, Maryland, New-England, Carolina, &c. whereas here is a very high Duty imposed upon Spirits drawn from Molosses; and there can no reason be given, why Molosses should come from thence any more than Rum, which is made of Molosses, and cannot be imported here.  
The laying any New Duty upon Sugars, we never did, nor do desire, but it was necessary in giving the Parliament and account of this matter to state the Fact truly before them, and we have and shall prefer Truth, and the general interest of the Kingdom, before our own particular Advantage.