Volume 1
The universal dictionary of trade and commerce : with large additions and improvements, adapting the same to the present state of British affairs in America, since the last treaty of peace made in the year 1763. With great variety of new remarks and illustrations incorporated throughout the whole: together with everything essential that is contained in Savary's dictionary: also, all the material laws of trade and navigation relating to these kingdoms, and the customs and usages to which all traders are subject / By Malachy Postlethwayt, esq.
- Jacques Savary des Brûlons
- Date:
- 1766
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The universal dictionary of trade and commerce : with large additions and improvements, adapting the same to the present state of British affairs in America, since the last treaty of peace made in the year 1763. With great variety of new remarks and illustrations incorporated throughout the whole: together with everything essential that is contained in Savary's dictionary: also, all the material laws of trade and navigation relating to these kingdoms, and the customs and usages to which all traders are subject / By Malachy Postlethwayt, esq. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![true one. Antedates are of a very dangerous confequence in matters of trade. To Antedate, is to fet down a falfe date, to date from a day prior to that on which the bufinefs is tranfttSled, the note, or bill, drawn, or letters written, &c. Remarks. In France it was formerly the ill cuftom to leave blank orders on the back of bills of exchange} that is to fay, to indorfe them by writing only one’s name, fo that they could eafily be antedated, which might occafion very great abufes, ef- peciaily from thofe who happened to break : for they who fell under that misfortune, and had bills of exchange drawn at two ufances, or payable in the payment of Lyons, which were to order, in blank, might antedate the order, and make them thus be received under borrowed names, or give them n payment to fuch of their creditors as they wanted to fa¬ vour, to the prejudice of others} by which means thofe bills could not be demanded to be added to the bankrupt s ef- fetfs, becaufe, the date of their order feeming to be prior to the time of the failure, it could not be urged that they were negociated within the time wherein the perfon became a bankrupt. The regulation for commerce in France, made in the year 167 /, has provided, that it is not now fo eafy to antedate orders on the back of bills of exchange: for, in the 22d ar¬ ticle of tit. 5. it is ordered, that the fignature, or name fign- ed, on the back of bills of exchange, fhall ferve only as an indorsement, and not as an order, unlefs it be dated, and contain the name of the perfon who (hall have paid the value in money, merchandife, or otherwife: and, by the 26th ar¬ ticle of the fame title, it is ordered, that, whoever antedates order?, fhall be pur.ifhed as guilty of forgery. To ANTICIPATE a payment, is to pay it before the time be expired, when it is to become due. ANTILLES ISLANDS, lie in America, fituate in the At¬ lantic ocean, between 59 and 63. degrees of weft longitude from London, and between 11 and 18 degrees of north lati¬ tude. Some call thefe ifles the Caribbees, from the firft fet- tlers, though this is a denomination that mod geographers confine to the Leeward Iflands, with regard to the ufual courfe of the European fhips from Old Spain, or the Canary Iflands to New Spain} in which courfe they muft neceflarily pafs be¬ tween fome of thofe iflands. They are commonly diftinguifhed by the Great and Little Antilles. Befides the original natives, they are inhabited by Spaniards, or Englifh, French, or Dutch, as they have hap¬ pened to be pofteffed by them. We fhall take them as they are ranged on the north fide of the north fea, from weft to eaft, and on the fouth fide of it from eaft to weft, let them belong to whom they will. The firft that we come to from the Bahamas, are Cuba, Ja¬ maica, Hifpaniola, and Porto-Rico, which, with fome fmall ones, as it were appendent to them, go all by the name of the Great Antilles. I. Cuba. This ifland, which begins on the eaft fide, at lati¬ tude 20. 20, touches on the north at the tropic of Cancer, and extends from longitude 74 to 85. 15, about 11 degrees from eaft to weft, or 660 miles from Cape St Anthony on the weft, to Cape Maize on the eaft ; but is very narrow in pro¬ portion, being, in fome parts, not above 12 or 14 leagues in breadth, and, at moft, but 120 miles in length. It lies 60 miles to the weft of Hifpaniola, 25 leagues to the north of Jamaica, 100 miles to the eaft of Jucatan, and as many to the fouth of Cape Florida, and commands the entrance of both the gulphs of Mexico and Florida, and the Windward Paflage: fo that the Spaniards, by their pofleflion of this ifland, may, with a tolerable fleet, not only fecure their own trade, but annoy their neighbours. ’Tis faid to have generally the beft lands, for fo large a coun¬ try, of any in America, and to produce moft of the commodi¬ ties known in the American iflands, particularly ginger, long pepper, and other fpices; caffia, fiftula, maftic, aloes, large ce¬ dars, and other odoriferous trees} oaks, pines, palm-trees, large vines, cotton-trees, and tobacco. They have fruit-trees of various forts, large walks of cocoas, good fugar-works, and are faid to make the beft fugars in the Weft-Indies, though in no great quantity, for want of hands to cultivate the canes. They have mirfes of copper, which furnifli the Spaniards in America with metal for their brafs founderies, for the making of cannon, &c. Gold duft alfo being found in the fands of the rivers, it is conjeftured there are gold mines, if not of filver, in the mountains, of which there runs a ridge from the eaft to the weft of the ifland. But the Spaniards have not yet opened thefe mines; perhaps from not having yet difcovered them, or from policy to pre¬ vent an invafion, as is faid to be the cafe at Morida, where, though ’tis certain they have mines towards the north fea, they do not work them, but rather employ themfelves in others farther up the country, though the carriage by land to Mexico is much more expenfive. This ifland has many very good ports and harbours of great advantage to Ihipping for the fafe paffing the gulph, and when the Spaniards keep Guarda Cofta, plying off and on between the weft end of Cuba and Hifpaniola, it is fcarce poflible for any Englifh fhips from Jamaica to efc2pe them. Here are great conveniencies for making fair, and catching fifh, which are chiefly barbel and fhad. They have mules, plenty of horfes, fheep, wild boars, hogs, and cattle of a lar¬ ger and better breed than any other part of America ; they have wild fowl, partridges, and large tortoifes. They have quarries of flints and fountains of bitumen, which is ufed for fhips inftead of pitch, and alfo for medicinal ufes. Their black cattle are fo numerous, that they run wild in the woods for want of people to confume their flefh : many fine fat beafts are left to rot upon the ground, though great num¬ bers are killed, purely for the hides that are fent into Spain. The flefh being cut into pieces is dried in the fun, and ferves as provifions for {flipping. Abundance of tobacco, both in leaf and fnufF, is exported to New Spain, Cofta Ricca, the South Sea, and Europe in ge¬ neral. Another of its trading commodities is Campeachy wood for dyeing, which the merchants of this ifland import from the bay of that name, and the bay of Honduras, and put the fame on board the flota for Spain, together with their hides and tobacco. Upon the whole, it is moft advantage- oufly fituated for the general trade of the Spanifh Weft-Indies, and may be defervedly called the Gibraltar of America, and therefore a place of as much importance to Spain, as the other is to Great-Britain. But the Spaniards, by their fbocking butchery of the natives, have depopulated the ifland, fo that their improvements are not fo genera], nor fo good, in their nature and tendency, as in our iflands. Here are more churches than farms, more priefts than planters, and more lazy and luxurious bigots than ufeful labourers. To which it is owing, that this large and well fituated ifland, with a luxuriant foil, belides great plenty of food for its inhabitants, does not produce, for exportation, near the value of our little ifland of Antigua. Its harbour for {hipping is fo large, as to admit a tboufand fail of fhips to ride there commodioufly and fafely, as it were without either anchor or cable, no wind being able to hurt them. It is fo deep withal, that the largeft veilels anchor at a fmall diftance from the fhore, and there is commonly fix fathom water. The entrance, which has no bar or fhoals to obftruft it, is by a channel about three quarters of a miie in length, but fo narrow, that only one fhip can go in at a time. This ifland is of the greateft importance to the Spaniards of any of their fettlements in America, the Havanna here being the place of rendezvous for all their fleets in their return from that quarter of the world to Spain } and lying at the mouth of the gulph of Florida, through which they are all obliged to pafs. The Spaniards therefore, not without reafon, call it the Key of all the Weft Indies, to lock up or open the door or entrance to all America: and, in effect, no fhips can pafs this way, without leave from this port. But, however impregnable this place may be thought at pre- fent, yet even the Englifh Buccaneers, under Capt. Morgan, took it in 1669, and would have kept it, could they have had the king of England’s protection. Had this been the cafe, our pofi'eflions in the Weft-Indies, as well as our trade thither, not only to and from our colonies, would have been duly fe- cured, but our fair and honourable trade, by the way of Old Spain to New, would have been far more extended; for, while the key of the Weft-Indies was in Britifh hands, the Spaniards would always have found themfelves under the ne- ceffity of encouraging our trade thither, preferably to that of our rival nations. Jamaica, lying between Cuba, Hifpaniola, and the continent, is liable to be invaded from thefe three quarters at once } and, its fecurity is the more precarious, as the French are poftefT- ed of the weft part of Hifpaniola. On the other hand, it is very plain, that if the Englifh were poflefied of the Ha¬ vanna, our fhips, both here and at Jamaica, would be always ready to pick up the ftraggling fhips of the Spaniards, which they would not be able to keep in a body without the help of this port, it being as impoffible for their unweildy fhips to turn up through the Windward Paftage from the bay of Mex¬ ico, or Porto Bello, without feparation, as it would be for them to pafs the gulph of Florida, fhould they lofe the Ha¬ vanna, where they always rendezvous, virtual, water, and provide all neceflaries for their return to Spain. II. Jamaica, extends from longitude 75. 57 weft of London, to longitude 78. 37, and from latitude 17. 48, to 18. 50. This ifland, reckoned bigger than 2II the other Britifh fugar iflands put together, Barbadoes excepted, is fo far from being wholly cultivated as fome of them are, that it has as much land uncultivated as would produce about three times what it does at prefent, were encouragement given for the cultivation of the reft. The general produce of this ifland is fugar, rum, ginger, co¬ coa, coffee, cotton, pimento, or Jamaica pepper, feveral kinds of woods, fome medicinal drugs and tobacco, but of fo ordinary a fort, that it is only cultivated to ferve the negroes, who could fcarce live without it. Fruits grow here in great plenty, the Seville and China orange, the common and fweet lemon, fbaddocks, ckrons, pomegranates, mamies, four-fops, papas,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30459436_0001_0154.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
