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XXII. An Essay on Commercial Policy. By 

 J. B. GaLt, Esq, London '■'^■. 



Jf jiEEDOM of execution is so essential to mercantile spe-- 

 dilations, that every legislative interference which would 

 limit their objects, or control the modes of their accom- 

 plishment, is of greater injury and wider consequence than 

 is generally imagined. The famous reply, " Leave us to 

 ourselves," which the French merchants made to the mi- 

 nister who was desirous of promoting their prosperity, has 

 been often quoted for its wisdom : but though sufficient 

 data be presented in the history of all commercial countries, 

 and particularly in the history of our own, to demonstrate 

 the value of liberty to trade, no regular attempt has yet 

 been made to place the subject in a clear and distinct 

 light. To exhibit such' a demonstration, it would be neces- 

 sary, in the first place, to consider the natural tendency of 

 commerce ; and, in the second, how far it should be re- 

 strained by political circumstances. Were this done, and 

 a series of facts, linked to certain special laws, produced, 

 the pernicious effects of governments attempting to regu- 

 late the objects of trade would be evident, and a deoree of 

 certainty on that point of political ceconomy, proportioned 

 to the evidence, would be obtained only inferior to mathe- 

 matical truth. For all special acts of authority relative to 

 trade are boons granted either to individuals^ or corpora- 

 tions, or provinces. 



The nature of trade has a tendencv to blend the interests 

 of mankind together, and to disseminate throughout the 

 whole species a principle of mutual dependence. If one 

 might imagine the world in such a Utopian condition as 

 would allow commerce to diffuse itself without being af- 

 fected by political events ; if the world were raised to a state 

 which would require no part of human industry to be appro- 

 priated to the purposes of governments, nor of its popular 

 tion to be en)ployed in war ; mankind, at liberty to cultivate 

 in safety the varieties of (.rade, would divide themselves into 

 companies, by which aii approximation would be induced 

 towards a tommunion of gcjods, and societv would assume 

 a forjn of which a faint epitome may sometimes be traced 

 in the eomnumities of factories and colonies ; — with this 

 difference, however, that neither the calamities of war nor 

 the struggles of faction interfering to divert the nierchaut 



' Communicated by the Author. 



from 



