COLONY. 



149 



Colony, merchandise. Next year, a more important step was 

 ""Y"""* * taken, the intercou rse with the S panish West India islands 

 being laid open to the principal ports of Spain. A few 

 years after, a similar permission was granted in regard to 

 Louisiana, Yucatan, and Campeachy. But it was with- 

 held till 1778 from the richer colonies of Peru, Chili, 

 Buenos Ayres, Santa Fe, and Guatimala. Last of all 

 came Mexico, which, partly from its superior import- 

 ance in respect of mines, partly perhaps from an ap- 

 prehension of internal dissatisfaction, was not opened to 

 the principal ports of the mother country until 1788. 

 The ports thus licensed to trade with America, were, 



Alicant and Carthagena for Valentia and Murcia, 



Corunna for Galicia, 



Gijon for the Asturias, 



St Andero for Castile, 



Barcelona for Catalonia and Arragon, 



Cadiz and Seville for Andalusia. 



The limitation of the trade to these particular sea- 

 ports, arose from a view partly to facilitate the collection 

 of duties, and partly to preserve a superintendence over 

 the persons embarking for the western hemisphere. It 

 deserves to be recorded as a memorable proof of narrow 

 policy, that the permission to the Spanish American pro- 

 vinces to carry on a free trade with each other, was not 

 granted till 1~74>. So discouraging to the first active 

 powers of the colonies, was this system of extreme mo- 

 nopoly, that the Spaniards, who are great consumers of 

 cocoa, and who possessed in America the finest soil and 

 climate for its growth in the world, were actually obli- 

 ged to make importations of it from other countries. The 

 island of Cuba, the most fertile perhaps of any in the 

 American Archipelago, did not, in 1765, employ twenty 

 vessels, but within twelve years after the abrogation of 

 the monopoly, it employed two hundred. Even the 

 city of Cadiz, which clamoured most loudly against the 

 opening of the trade, reaped most important advantages 

 from the change. It continued the emporium of colo- 

 nial intercourse, and found its proportion advance in the 

 same favourable ratio as the trade of the kingdom at 

 large. Cadiz is to Spanish America what London is to 

 the British settlements ; more than half of the colonial 

 trade being conducted respectively in each of these ports. 

 No country in Europe was less fittrd to derive advan- 

 tage from a large track of colonial possessions than Spain. 

 The indolence of her inhabitants, the bigotry and igno- 

 rance of her government, have had the effect of perpetu- 

 ally keeping her bare of capital; and so far from being 

 able to spare funds for transatlantic cultivation, she was 

 destitute of trie stock requisite to do justice to her own 

 provinces. Hence one great cause of the miserable pro- 

 gress of her colonies, though possessed of natural advan- 

 tages that excited the envy of the world. For such a 

 government, and such a people, it was perfectly natural 

 to confine their exertions to the working of mines, and 

 to overlook the incalculable treasures which would have 

 rewarded the labour of the agriculturist. The progress 

 of the Spanish settlements accordingly has been great in 

 population only, the natural and direct consequence of 

 an overflowing stock of provisions. It was, until late- 

 ly, a very prevalent notion, that Spain and Portugal had 

 suffered, both in population and in capital, by their co- 

 lonies. Those who contrasted the extensive influence of 

 Philip II. in the affairs of Europe with the insignificant 

 figure made by the subsequent possessors of his throne, 

 did not hesitate to account for the difference by the ex- 

 haustion consequent on the transfer of subjects and of ca- 

 pital to the western hemisphere. It is now, however, as- 

 certained, that Spain was never so populous as at present ; 



that in the course of the last century she has nearly doub- Colony.' 

 led her numbers ; and that her fall in the scale of political """Y" ** 

 power is to be ascribed, not to retrogradation on her 

 part, but to a more rapid advance on that of her north- 

 ern neighbours. These considerations are correctly, 

 though we admit very diffusely, illustrated by M. La- 

 borde in his voluminous account of that kingdom. A 

 similar course of reasoning, as far at least as regards the 

 colonies, is followed, (Vol. I. p. 396. et seq. ) by Mr 

 Brougham in his Colonial Policy. 



In regard to population, the Spanish colonies differ 

 both from the United States and the West India Islands. 

 The disproportion of whites is smaller than in the latter, 

 while, on the other hand, their number in no degree ap- 

 proximates to that of the former. The immense field 

 open to agricultural labour would have the effect of gi- 

 ving a general character of steadiness to the inhabitants, 

 were not the lottery of mining perpetually holding forth 

 a temptation to depart from the gradual, and, in the eye 

 of an ardent calculator, tardy progress ot agriculture. In 

 their sanguine anticipations, the insecurity inseparable 

 from mining-concerns is greatly under-rated, while ths 

 progressive, but eventually large returns of agriculture 

 are accounted of little weight in the scale. The fact, 

 however, is, that the advance of agriculture is not only 

 more sure, but frequently more rapid than that of com- 

 mercial settlements ; and the reason is plain, the market 

 of the former exists chiefly among themselves, while that 



of the latter is dependant on the caprice of foreign na- 

 tions. 



The island of Cuba has, during the present age, made 

 more rapid advances than any other part of Spanish A- 

 merica. The number of its negroes in 1787 exceeded 

 50,000, and they have been since in a state of progres- 

 sive increase. There being no restriction on the mode 

 of manufacturing sugar, it is common to clay it before 

 exportation, and as it thus becomes of greater value by 

 twenty per. cent, a proportional saving is made in regard 

 to freight. The sugar is packed in boxes weighing 

 generally 4 cwt. 1 quarter English, and the annual crop 

 is computed ( War in Disguise, 3J. edition, p. 230) at 

 eighty or ninety thousand hogsheads. 



Porttigue.se Colonies. The Portuguese have certainly p,, rtuenesc 

 ranked next to the Spaniards, in the art of mismanaging colonies, 

 colonies. They did not, indeed, for a long time, com- 

 mit the error of establishing an exclusive company for 

 their splendid acquisitions in the East; but they did what 

 was fully as impolitic, they vested the trade in the hands 

 of the executive government. The king granted from 

 time to time the permission of making exports and im- 

 ports to certain partnerships and individuals, who thus en- 

 joyed temporary monopolies. This hopeful course was, 

 in a great measure, abandoned in the year 1752 ; but the 

 change, as to the India trade at least, came too late, that 

 branch of commerce being no longer worth following. 

 Brazil becoming progressively more populous, would have 

 afforded a beneficial commerce to Portugal, had the inter- 

 course not been conducted in the true spirit of exclusion 

 and monopoly. Unfortunately about a century ago, at 

 the time when better principles might have been brought 

 into operation, discoveries were made of gold and dia- 

 mond mines. These discoveries were pernicious to Bra- 

 zil in two ways ; they turned capital from agriculture to 

 the precarious, and, in general, unprofitable labour ot" 

 mines, while they redoubled the vigilance of govern, 

 ment in regard to restraints on the communication with 

 the colony. A late traveller, Mr Mawe, whose report, 

 if deficient in literary attractions, possesses the merit of 

 much clearness and candour ae to matters of fact, confirms 

 most explicitly the opinion, that the condition of the in- 



