362 Travels in France 



from having a monopoly that Vo ths of the material are imported 

 under a duty and our own exportable duty free. The next 

 (possibly the first) is that of hardware; English iron is exported 

 duty free, and the import of foreign pays £2 i6s. 2d. a ton; 

 English coals exported in vast quantities. Glass exhibits the 

 same spectacle; English kelp exportable duty free, and i6s. 6d. 

 a ton on foreign; raw silk pays 3s. a lb. on import; export of 

 British hemp and flax undressed is free, foreign pays a duty on 

 import; British rags, for making paper, exportable duty free; 

 unwrought tin, lead, and copper all exportable either free or 

 under a sHght duty. The immense progress made by these 

 manufactures, particularly hardware, cotton, glass, flax, and 

 earthem-ware, another in which no monopoly of material can 

 exist, is known to all Europe; they are among the greatest 

 fabrics in the world, and have risen rapidly; but note (for it 

 merits the attention of France), that wool has experienced no 

 such rise.^ Our policy in wool stands on fact therefore convicted 

 of rottenness; and this is precisely the policy which the new 

 government of France copies, and extends to every raw material ! 



4. The free trade in raw materials is necessary, like the free trade 

 in com, not to send those materials abroad, but to secure their 

 production at home; and lowering the price, by giving a mono- 

 poly to the buyer, is not the way to encourage farmers to produce. 



5. France imports silk and wool to the amount of 50,000,000 or 

 60,000,000 a year, and exports none, or next to none; why pro- 

 hibit an export which in settled times does not take place ? At 

 the present moment, the export either takes place, or it does not 

 take place? if the latter, why prohibit a trade which has no 

 existence? If it does take place, it proves that the manu- 

 facturers cannot buy it as heretofore: is that a reason why the 

 farmers should not produce it? Your manufacturers cannot 

 buy, and you will not let foreigners; what is that but telling your 

 husbandmen that they shall not produce? Why then do the 

 manufacturers ask this favour? They are cunning: they ver}' 

 well know why; they have the same view as their brethren in 

 England — solely that of sinking the price, and thereby putting 

 money in their own pockets at the expense of the landed interest. 



6. All the towns of France contain but 6,000,000 of people; the 

 manufacturing towns not 2,000,000: why are 20,000,000 in the 

 country to be cheated out of their property, in order to favour 



1 Exports in 1757, £4,758,095; 1767, £4,277,462; 1777, £3,743,537; 

 1787, £3,687,795. See this subject fully examined, Annals of Agriculture, 

 vol. X. p. 235. — Author's note. 



