A. D.I 783. 13 



It was faid, and pretty generally believed to be ftriclly true, that 

 Great Britain pofTefled the whole of the American trade before the re- 

 volt, with the exception of a few branches, wherein the Americans were 

 favoured with a limited indulgence. But the prohibitions of laws enact- 

 ed at the diftance of four thoufand miles, with the vigilance (not very 

 flriclly exerted) of a few revenue officers, were but poor fecurities for 

 the monopoly of a trade, fpread over a coafl, fo very extenfive, and fo 

 peculiarly favourable to the operations of frauggling, if that may be 

 called fmuggling, in which there is little or no concealment. Nothing 

 is more certain, than that monopoHes are never enjoyed in their full 

 extent ; and that the advantages to the monopolizers are never equiva- 

 lent to the difadvantages impofed upon thofe, who are reftrained by 

 them from their free agency ; among which difadvantages the anxiety 

 and difcontent arifing from a prohibition of following the calls of in- 

 clination or intereft, according to the adventurer's own ideas of them, 

 ought not to be omitted. It is well known, that before the war the 

 Americans carried a confiderable proportion of their trade to other na- 

 tions, contrary to law, and often, it may be prefumed, merely for the 

 pleafure of infringing the reflridive laws. Now they are at liberty to 

 deal with other nations, or with Britain ; and for that reafon alone fome 

 of them will chufe to deal with Britain, while the more powerful mo- 

 tive of intereft direds the great bulk of the trade into that channel, in 

 which it can be moft profitably conduded. In a word, experience has 

 fully (hown, that there was no real caufe to apprehend any decay of the 

 Britifh commerce in confequence of the new order of things in Ame- 

 rica * : and moreover, what muft effedlually filence all controverfy upon 

 the fubjed, the official accounts of the cuftom-houfe (which may at leaft 

 in a comparative view be deemed infallible evidence) demonftrate, that 

 there has been a greater and more rapid increafe in the general com- 

 merce of Great Britain, and efpecially of the commerce with America, 

 fince the aera of American independence than ever there was in any 

 preceding period. 



After the peace was concluded upon in Europe, the Turks iilands in 



' The befl cuftomers of the manufafturers of Brit- ' require other meariB of monopoly than what their 



' ain are the people of Britain. Every emigrant • faperiority and cheapnefs will give. If we have 



' confequently, from being the heft culiomer, be- ' not purchafed our experience fufSciently dear, let 



' comes the worft ; and from being a foldicr or « us derive a lefFon of wifdom from the misfortunes 



♦ failor, who may be brought forward on the day ' of other nations, who, like us, puifued the phan- 

 « of danger, ceafes to be of any fervice to the ilate ' tom of foreign conqueft and diilant colonization, 

 < in any (hspe. Let confiderations of advantage ' and who, in the end, found themfelves lefs po- 



* and proteftion hereafter go hand in hand toge- ' pulous, opulent, and powerful.' £Lord Sbejield's 

 ' ther. In mod cafes the expenfe of protedion Ohfervat'tons on the commerce of America, p. 299, 

 ' and civil government is much greater than the Jixth ed.'\ 



' prevention of competition is worth ; a prevention • The trade with America is condudled in a 

 ' which is very feldom complete. The fuperior much fafer and more regular mniiiicr now, than it 



• ftate of Brkiih manufa£ture3 in general does not was before the revolution. 



