POLITICAL ECONOMY. 



59 



Political The existence of this manufacturing population, and 

 liciinomv. t ] M . ( | llt y O f providing for its wants, have constrained 

 *""~~ y ~"'~" government-, to alter the aim of their legislation. For- 

 merly, in the rial spirit of the mercantile nystem, they 

 encouraged manufactures, in order to sell much to fo- 

 reigners, and grow rich at their ex pence ; now, per- 

 ceiving that a prohibitive system is everywhere adopt- 

 ed, or like to be adopted, they cannot any longer count 

 on the custom of strangers, and therefore study to 

 find in their own kingdom consumers for their own 

 workmen ; in other words, to become isolated and suf- 

 ficient for themselves. The system of policy at pre- 

 sent, more or less strictly followed by all the nations 

 of Europe, destroys all the advantage of commerce ; 

 it hinders each nation from profiting by the superiori- 

 ties due to its climate, to its soil, to its situation, to 

 the peculiar character of its people ; it arms man 

 against man, and breaks the tie which was destined 

 to sooth national prejudices, and accelerate the civili- 

 zation of the world. 



According to the natural progressof increasing wealth, 

 when capitals are yet inconsiderable, it is certainly desi- 

 rable to direct them rather to some neighbouring branch 

 of trade, than to one which is very remote ; and as the 

 trade of exportation and importation gives foreigners 

 one-half of its profit, and the natives another, a coun- 

 try which has little capital may desire to employ it en- 

 tirely in the trade of its interior, or for its own use ; 

 and the more so, because if the market is near the pro- 

 ducer, the same capital will be several times renewed 

 in a given period, whilst another capital, destined for a 

 foreign market, will scarcely accomplish a single re- 

 newal. But the capitalist's interest will always direct 

 him with certainty, in such cases, to do what suits 

 the country best; because his profit is proportioned to 

 the need there is of him, and consequently to the di- 

 rection in which the public demand carries him. 



Besides, nations on reckoning up their produce and 

 their wants, almost constantly forget that neighbouring 

 foreigners are much more convenient and more advan- 

 tageous producers and consumers than distant country- 

 men. The relation of markets on the two banks of 

 the Rhine is much more important, both for the Ger- 

 man and the French merchant, than the relation of 

 markets between the Palatinate and Brandenburgh is 

 for the former, or between Alsace and Provence for the 

 latter. 



The ardour, with which all governments have excited 

 every species of production, by means of their restric- 

 tive system, has brought about such a disproportion 

 between labour and demand, that perhaps it has become 

 necessary for every state to think first, not of the com- 

 fort, but of the existence of its subjects, and to main- 

 tain those barriers which have been so imprudently 

 erected. An important part of the population might 

 perhaps be cut off by penury in the course of a few 

 years ; and it is reasonable, that each state shonld seek 

 to preserve itself and those depending on it from such a 

 calamity. Yet we cannot without pain behold the riv- 

 eting of this anti-social system, and the abandonment 

 of that ancient spirit of commerce, which triumphed 

 over barbarism, and taught hostile hordes to know and 

 esteem each other. 



Governments, after having attempted to give the 

 national producers a monopoly in their own country, 

 have sometimes endeavoured to procure them a simi- 

 lar advantage in foreign countries, by treaties of com- 

 merce. Such pactions, always subordinate to policy, 

 granted to a favoured nation an exemption from some 



part of the duties required from others, on consider!- 

 tion of some reciprocal Advantage. It cannot be doubt- 

 ed that such an exemption was advantageous to the na- 

 tion, in whose favour it was granted; but, on the other 

 hand, it was just a* disadvantageous to the nation grant- 

 ing it; and when a treaty of commerce bore a conces- 

 sion of mutual excmjKion, each state should have dis- 

 covered, that a monopoly granted to its producers was 

 too dearly purchased, by a monopoly granted to fo- 

 reigners against its consumers ; and the more to, as 

 there existed no kind of relation between the two fa- 

 voured branches of trade. Some show of reason may 

 be discovered, why the consumers of cloth should be 

 taxed, for the advantage of cloth manufacturers ; but 

 there is no shadow of reason why the consumers of 

 wine in England should experience A loss, in compensa- 

 tion for an advantage to the sellers of goods in Portugal. 



No treaty of commerce can fully satisfy the greedi- 

 ness of merchants desiring a monopoly ; ad therefore 

 governments invented the fantastic expedient of creat- 

 ing in a colony a nation expressly to be purchasers 

 from their merchants. The colonists were prohibited 

 from establishing any manufacture at home, that to 

 they might be more dependent on the mother coun- 

 try. They were carefully prevented from following 

 any species of foreign trade ; they were subjected to 

 regulations the most vexatious, and contrary to their 

 own interests ; not for the mother country's good, but 

 for the good of a small number of merchants. The in- 

 finite advantages attached to a new country, where every 

 kind of labour is profitable, because every thing is yet 

 to do, enabled colonies to prosper, although they were 

 continually sacrificed. As their raw produce was fit 

 for a distant trade, they had it in their power to sup- 

 port a most unequal exchange, in which nothing was 

 taken from them that the buyer could procure at home; 

 but their rapid increase itself bears witness against the 

 system which has founded them ; they have prospered 

 by a system diametrically opposite to that followed by 

 the mother country. The exportation of all raw pro- 

 duce, the importation of all wrought produce, have 

 been encouraged in colonies, and have presented to 

 such as believe in the existence, and calculate the state 

 of a commercial balance, a result as disadvantageous for 

 themselves as it was advantageous for the mother country. 

 Doubtless their oppression gave the latter all the pro- 

 fits of a monopoly; yet in a very circumscribed mar 

 ket ; whilst the free trade of all Europe, with all its 

 colonies, would have been more advantageous for both, 

 by infinitely extending the market of the one, and ac- 

 celerating the progress of the other. What justice and 

 policy should have taught, force will obtain, and the 

 colonial system cannot long continue. 



Governments, in the last place, to favour commerce, 

 have granted it bounties and drawbacks. A bounty is 

 a reward which the state decrees to the manufacturer 

 on account of his goods, which comes to him in the 

 shape of profit. A drawback is a restitution of all the 

 taxes, which a piece of goods had paid, granted to it at 

 the moment of its exportation. A drawback is perfect- 

 ly just and reasonable. It leaves the national producer, 

 in the foreign market, on a footing of equality with all 

 his rivals, whilst, if beforehand he had paid a tax ra 

 his own country, he could not have sustained the com- 

 petition. Bounties are the strangest encouragements 

 which a government can give. They may be justified 

 when granted for the fabrication of an article, the pro- 

 duction of which it is necessary to procure at any 

 price : but when granted on exported goods, as often 



