296 Banda. 



that no gold existed in Australia, but that it had been found 

 in immense quantities by one of our ships in some small and 

 barren island. In this case it would plainly become the duty 

 of the State to keep and work the mines for the public bene- 

 fit, since by doing so the gain would be fairly divided among 

 the whole population by decrease of taxation ; whereas by 

 leaving it ojjen to free trade while merely keeping the gov- 

 ernment of the island, we should certainly produce enormous 

 evils during the first struggle for the precious metal, and 

 should ultimately subside into the monopoly of some wealthy 

 individual or great company, whose enormous revenue would 

 not equally benefit the community. The nutmegs of Banda 

 and the tin of Banca are to some extent parallel cases to 

 this supposititious one, and I believe the Dutch Government 

 will act most unwisely if they give up their monopoly. 



Even the destruction of the nutmeg and clove-trees in 

 many islands, in order to I'estrict their cultivation to one or 

 two where the monopoly could be easily guarded, usually 

 made the theme of so much virtuous indignation against the 

 Dutch, may be defended on similar principles, and is certain- 

 ly not nearly so bad as many monopolies we ourselves have 

 till very recently maintained. Nutmegs and cloves are not 

 necessaries of life ; they are not even used as spices by the 

 natives of the Moluccas, and no one was materially or per- 

 manently injured by the destruction of the trees, since there 

 are a hundred other products that can be grown in the same 

 islands, equally valuable and far more beneficial in a social 

 point of view. It is a case exactly parallel to our prohibi- 

 tion of the growth of tobacco in England, for fiscal purposes, 

 and is, morally and economically, neither better nor worse. 

 The salt monopoly which we so long maintained in India was 

 much worse. As long as we keep up a system of excise and 

 customs on articles of daily use, which requires an elaborate 

 array of officers and coast-guards to carry into effect, and 

 which creates a number of purely legal crimes, it is the height 

 of absurdity for us to affect indignation at the conduct of the 

 Dutch, who carried out a much more justifiable, less hurtful, 

 and more profitable system in their Eastern possessions. I 

 challenge objectors to point out any physical or moral evils 

 that have actually resulted from the action of the Dutcli 

 Government in this matter, whereas such evils are the admit- 



