The following have been the exports from this island from 1821 to 1844:—­

lbs.
1821                      1,214,093
1822                      1,780,379
1823                      2,424,703
1824                      2,661,628
1825                      2,760,603
1826                      2,951,171
1827                      3,696,144
1828                      2,582,323
1829                      2,756,603
1830                      1,646,531
1831                      1,888,852
1832                      1,530,990
1833                      3,090,526
1834                      3,363,630
1835                      2,744,643
1836                      3,188,870
1837                      2,507,483
1838                      2,571,915
1839                      2,914,068
1840                      2,007,494
1841                      2,493,302
1842                      2,163,798
1843                      1,099,975
(Mill’s Trinidad Almanac).

In a lecture delivered by Dr. Lindley before the Society of Arts, alluding to the colonial products shown, at the Great Exhibition, he said:—­

“There was one sample which ought to be mentioned most especially; namely, the cocoa of admirable quality which comes, or which may come, from Trinidad.  Cocoa—­cacao, as we should call it—­is an article of very large consumption.  Enormous quantities of it are now used in the navy; and every one knows how much it is employed daily in private life.  It is, moreover, the basis of chocolate.  But we have the evidence of one of the most skilful brokers in London, who has had forty years experience to enable him to speak to the fact—­that we never get good cocoa in this country.  The consequence is, that all the best chocolate is made in Spain, in France, and the countries where the fine description of cocoa goes.  We get here cocoa which is unripe, flinty, and bitter, having undergone changes that cause it to bear a very low price in the market.  But it comes from British possessions, and is, therefore, sold here subject to a duty of only 18s. 8d. per cwt., whereas if it came from a foreign country it would pay 56s.[3] The differential duty drives the best cocoa out of the English market.  Still it appears that we might supply, from our own colonies, this very cocoa; because, as I have said, there was exhibited, from Trinidad, a very beautiful sample, quite equal to anything produced in the best markets of the Magdalena, of Soconusco, or of other places on the Spanish main.  It had no bitterness, no flintiness, no damaged grain in it; but all were plump and ripe, as if they had been picked.  The cocoa from the Spanish main goes into other countries, for the preparation of that delicious chocolate which we buy of them.  It is thrown out of our market by the differential duty.  But it is their own fault if our own colonies do not produce fine cocoa, as Trinidad has conclusively proved.”

The exports of cacao from St. Lucia, where there are now 300 acres under cultivation, have been as follows:[4]—­I have also added the produce of St. Vincent and Grenada imported here:—­