An Essay on Commercial Poller/. idf* 



the Darien expedition the Scottish fishers practised the 

 deep-sea herring-fishery, which the Dutch have so long so 

 successt'ally followed ; and it is equally well known to everv 

 one who has at all attended to the subject, that such has 

 been the toral ignorance of that method of fishine; aniona' 

 the Scots, that up to the last year not one vessel was fitted 

 out from any port in Scotland for many years before. It 

 is, however, with no small degree of satisfaction, that I 

 have it in my power to be the first to record that several 

 vessels are this year equipped for that purpose from the 

 Clyde. But the diminution of the trade, and the loss oF 

 the requisite knowledge, did not close the etfects of Wil- 

 liam's interference with the Darien expedition ; the revenue 

 of the kingdom is burthencd with heavy bounties, that can 

 only be described as the means of prolonging the precarious 

 loch fishery ; and large sums arc annually voted to force 

 upon the inhabitants of the Highlands of Scotland that in- 

 dustry and civilization which would probably have gradu- 

 ally arisen from the extensive commerce that would have 

 flou'ccl in upon the molher country from the Darien colony. 

 Independent of the pecuniary consequences of impolitic 

 restrictions on trade, they are often the cause of political 

 evils also. The American war, and all that "has resulted 

 from the consolidation of the United States, \\'\]\ be found 

 to have originated in those severe limitations with which 

 the trade of the colonies was harnessed to forward the pro- 

 sperity of the mother country, although (lie separation of 

 the colonies has been ascribed to the financial schemes of 

 the British ministry. The spirit, as well as the letter, of the 

 navigation law was enforced upon the colonies with a de- 

 gree of rigour altogether obnoxious to the free geniiis of 

 trade. The colonies were compellfd to send their produce 

 to Great Britain in vessels belonging to British subjects, 

 and from Great Britain the rest of the world was supplied 

 with Anglo-American produce. By this restriction the co- 

 lonies were obliged to furnish themselves from British mar- 

 kets with the necessaries or luxuries that they required, 

 which beine; of greater value than their produce, in tinie 

 accumulated a debt against them to so great an amount, 

 that to be released from it formed the reason, and the ta\- 

 bills furnished the pretext, for throwing ofi'tlie yoke of the 

 mother country. Had tlie British govcrinncnt, instead of 

 expecting to draw from the colonics a direct reveinie, made 

 such political arrangements as would have allowed them to 

 trade inniiediaiely with the states of Europe, we should not 

 no'v have bi'en consoling ourselves with the absurd asser- 

 tion. 



