426 On the State of the Manufaciure 
To the third question, whether it is the interest of France ta 
multip:y these manufactories, | may answer, that France can 
have no other interest than that of her inhabitants; conse- 
quently, whatever augments the mass of labour, or multiplies the 
productions of the earth and of industry, and enriches the agri- 
culturist, must merit protection on the part of the government. 
In this place, the great consideration of the colonies presents 
itself, and I do not pretend to resolve a question of such high 
importance ; I shall confine myself on this subject to the state- 
ment of a few remarks, which I submit to the wisdom of govern- 
ment, and to men more competent to decide than myself. I 
shall not say, with some writers, that the colonial system does 
not interest the nation, under the pretext that the colonies 
bring nothing into the public treasury, that they require the sup- 
port of a very expensive marine, &c. I know that the colonies 
open a market for the products of our industry and of our soil, 
that they supply our manufactories with raw materials, and that 
they give great activity to commerce. Under all these relations, 
the colonies have hitherto been one of the principal sources of 
public prosperity; but if all these advantages can be obtained 
in the bosom of France itself, if the indigenous fabrication of 
sugar and indigo can replace the sugar and indigo of the new 
world, at the same price and of the same quality; if this new 
branch of industry augments the mass of labour among ourselves, 
and enriches our agriculture, without depriving us of any of its 
products; it is evident that there remain against the colonies, 
without compensation for any superior interests, the annual ex- 
peuse which they occasion, and the numberless chances of war, 
which all at once sacrifice our fortunes, and force us to priva- 
tions, when a formidable marine is unable to obtain dominion, 
or at least equality, upon the seas. These reasons might be 
strengthened by looking at the actual state of the colonies : but 
God forbid that I should pretend to turn the attention of go- 
vernment from an interest equally great to the metropolis, and — 
from its paternal solicitude for the unhappy colonists who have 
been despoiled of their property! I only desire, that at the pre- 
sent moment the establishments of indigenous sugar may be en- — 
couraged, so that, their products being upon an equal footing © 
with those of the colonies, we may share with foreigners the 
commercial relations which are limited to the exchange of our 
colonial commodities, especially sugar, against the productions 
of their soil. This becomes the more important, as our prin- 
cipal trade with Hamburgh and the northern countries consists — 
of colonial commodities, for which we receive wood for building, 
metal, potash, hemp, flax, and tallow; and that when these 
great 
