272 Colonial Policy : [MARCH, 



United States of North America has increased seven fold since they have 

 ceased to be our colonies. 



There is abundant evidence, however, on the contrary, that the very 

 result of our colonial policy is to exclude us from markets of which we 

 might otherwise avail ourselves. Speaking of the probable tendency 

 which an alteration in favour of a less restricted trade with the countries 

 on the north of Europe, in the article of timber, would have in increas- 

 ing the demand for British manufactures, the report, to which we have 

 before alluded, goes on to add : " Your committee are inclined to believe 

 that an increased demand would be the result, as well for the desire of 

 British manufactures, that is said strongly to prevail in those countries, as 

 the extent to which the export of them has been maintained, notwith- 

 standing the burthens imposed on the importation of this important branch 

 of their produce into the United Kingdom." And again in the Report of 

 the Select Committee of the House of Lords, relative to the trade with the 

 East Indies and China speaking of the extension of free trade to the 

 Peninsula of India, the Report says : " It must be admitted, that its 

 progress has been such as to indicate that neither a power to purchase, 

 nor a disposition to use commodities of European manufacture, are 

 wanting in the natives of British India, whilst the minute knowledge of 

 the wants and wishes of the inhabitants, acquired by a direct intercourse 

 with this country, would naturally lead to a still further augmentation 

 of our exports. The great increased consumption cannot be sufficiently 

 accounted for by the demand of European residents, the number of 

 whom does not materially vary ; and it appears to have been much the 

 greatest in articles calculated for the general use of the natives. That 

 of the cotton manufactures of this country alone is stated, since the first 

 opening of the trade, to have been augmented from four to five fold. 

 The value of the merchandize exported from Great Britain to India, 

 which amounted in the year 1815 to 870,177^ had in the year 1819 

 increased to 3,052,741 /." ' 



But even assuming it to be the interest of a country to found colonies 

 for the purpose of creating a market for the disposal of its productions, 

 we humbly apprehend that the degree in which that object would be 

 promoted, would entirely depend upon the purchasing power of the 

 colonists. Yet the very restrictions, to uphold which dominion is main- 

 tained, contain within themselves the principle of impoverishment. 

 These restrictions are the confession of the mother country that the 

 commodities to which they extend could be supplied cheaper by other 

 countries than by herself. To drive the colonies, therefore, to the 

 market of the mother country for their purchase, would truly indeed 

 secure a sale for articles which, but for the supply of the colonies, would 

 never have been produced ; but it would leave to the colonists less for 

 the purchase of those other commodities, the production of which would 

 be the best distribution of her industry. Were Great Britain to force 

 a cultivation of the grape, for the benefit of supplying her colonies with 

 wine of her own production, in order to realize the ordinary profit on 

 that return of her capital, she might require a price ten times the 

 amount at which Portugal could furnish them with the same article. 

 This she might by possibility obtain ; but the high price the colonists 

 would then have to pay for their wine, would proportionably reduce the 

 power of purchasing hardware, in which Great Britain might possess 

 the same superiority over Portugal, that in the article of wine Portugal 

 possessed over her. It is needless, however, to go into further expla- 



