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CONVICTS TURNED GALLEY SLAVES

[TRANSPORTATION]. A scheme For Payment of the Sum of 49,301,855 l. 6 s. 1 d. 1/2 being the National Debt of great-britain...which, Ir Enacted into a Law, will be of infinite Service to the Merchants Trading to the West-Indies...

London. Printed for J. Wilford, 1732. First edition.
8vo. [2], 26pp. Modern powder blue card, paper lettering-piece to upper board. A trifle marked. Light spotting to title page.
The sole edition of an anonymous pamphlet providing an abstract of a strategy to reduce Britain's national debt, primarily through terminating the transportation of convicts to the West Indies.

The author states that the inhabitants of Jamaica, Barbados and New England refuse on any terms to be concerned with convicts, and that in Virginia and Maryland, where they are taken, they are 'so far from being of any Service to the Planters and Merchants, who traffick in them...they are rather a Nusance...by the numberless and incredible Mischiefs they do...by running away from their Masters...by spiriting up the Negro Slaves to Rebellion; by turning Pyrates...and ruining settlements'. Instead, it is suggested that criminals be made galley-slaves stationed in the Mediterranean, an action that is calculated to save the government £60,000 per annum.
£ 750.00 Antiquates Ref: 26620