so 



COMMERCE. 



Principles 

 of com- 

 merce. 



Commerce by attempting, at a large expence, to render commons 

 and waste lands productive. Both, however, are plea- 

 sant objects in prospect, and are of a nature to tran- 

 quillize us in regard to apprehensions of deficient pro- 

 vision. By the official returns of population, we have 

 seen an increase, between 1801 and 1811, of nearly a 

 million and a half in Great Britain ; an increase owing 

 to the introduction of vaccination, and to causes more 

 likely to operate in peace than in war. Peace, how- 

 ever, in accelerating the progress of our numbers, will 

 restore to us the labour of a portion of our countrymen, 

 who are well calculated to extend the produce of the 

 earth. Ireland likewise, largely as she has of late con- 

 tributed to our corn supplies, is still far from being 

 cultivated to the point of which her fertile soil is ca- 

 pable. 



The topic which we take up, in the third place, is 

 the supposed superiority of our foreign to our inland 

 trade. It is a very common notion, that money can be 

 made by a country by foreign trade only, while all in- 

 land transactions are mere transfers from hand to hand. 

 If we examine the speeches of our statesmen, we find 

 the amount of our exports perpetually adduced as the 

 grand criterion of national wealth ; and, if we look to a 

 less friendly quarter, the cabinet of Bonaparte, we see 

 decree follow decree on the presumption that the exclu- 

 sion of British commerce from the continent would 

 prove the grand instrument of our downfall. Nay one 

 writer, of official eminence at Paris, M. de Montgail- 

 lard, goes the length of asserting, that " India is the 

 grand source of the wealth of Britain ; Calcutta, not 

 London, her real capital." Notwithstanding these high- 

 sounding authorities, we may, Ave believe, assert with- 

 out exaggeration, that the produce of our foreign trade 

 is not more than one eighth, perhaps not one tenth of 

 that of the inland. We take, of course, the word trade 

 in its most comprehensive meaning, viz. as expressive 

 of " all industry directed to a productive purpose." 

 We understand by it, the exertions of all those who, 

 whether agriculturists, manufacturers, mechanics, shop- 

 keepers, &c. labour for the progressive augmentation 

 of their individual property. It is by thus labouring 

 for themselves that they contribute to the extension of 

 national wealth. The distinctions so frequently made 

 between those who, by their business, bring money 

 into a country, and those who are supported by pro- 

 fessions which apparently form a charge on their neigh- 

 bours, will often prove to have little foundation. The 

 exact limit between productive and unproductive in- 

 dustry has not been successfully defined by our ablest 

 political economists ; but all who have gone thoroughly 

 into the science are satisfied, that the productive cha- 

 racter belongs as strongly to home as to foreign trans- 

 actions. The practical result of this most important 

 truth is, that the relative value of foreign commerce 

 has hitherto been much overrated. We have gone to 

 war with Holland and with France for particular 

 branches of trade, and have expended, in a single 

 twelvemonth, more of the national treasure, than would 

 be repaid by the possession of the traffic in question for 

 one hundred years. Another conclusion of a more con- 

 solatory nature regards the solidity of the basis on 

 which our national power rests. France, in excluding 

 us from the Continent, could not, with all her efforts, 

 suspend above one twentieth part of our productive in- 

 dustry ; a proportion by no means insignificant, but in- 

 finitely below that which both we and our enemies were 

 led to anticipate. Accordingly, it was not until the 

 additional loss of our North American, trade in 1 808, 



\ 



or more properly in 1811, that a serious blow was given Commerce, 

 to our commercial prosperity. L ^« *- v — ■— 



The fourth and last point to which we shall at pre- Principles 

 sent advert, regards an idea which is still very preva- of com " 

 lent among people at large, although excluded from nKrce * 

 the creed of enlightened inquirers. We have in view 

 the notion, that, in trade, one nation loses as another 

 gains ; and that rivalship in commerce is founded on 

 serious and substantial reasons. How often has it been 

 predicted, that the French, by the cheapness of labour, 

 by the attention of their government, at particular in- 

 tervals, to the promotion of commerce, or, by the ac- 

 quisition of certain settlements, such as Louisiana or 

 St Domingo, were about to give a death blow to cor- 

 respondent branches of British manufacture and com- 

 merce. Yet ages, we may almost say centimes, have 

 passed away, without the realization of these gloomy 

 predictions. In regard to government interferences, 

 we may, once for all, dismiss apprehension from our 

 thoughts, by the conviction, that, whenever a govern- 

 ment diverts the current of industry from its natural 

 channel, it infallibly throws a proportion of it to waste-. 

 The only sound policy in a government is to give se- 

 curity to property, and freedom, unrestricted freedom, 

 to the developement of industry. Next, as to the aug- 

 mentation of public wealth consequent on this judici- 

 ous course, the nations trading with a flourishing coun- 

 try may be assured, that their gains, from intercourse 

 with her, will not fail to go hand in hand with her 

 prosperity. Portugal has long been reputed the coun- 

 try on the Continent, from which, in proportion to its 

 population, we obtained the largest profits; but, on 

 close inquiry, it will be found, that we realized much 

 more by our trade with Holland. The inhabitants of 

 a rich country have many more wants, and can much 

 better afford to gratify them. The security, in point 

 of payment, is infinitely better, — a point which, though 

 it frequently escapes the attention of a mercantile be- 

 ginner, or a theoretical calculator, is, in the eye of the 

 experienced trader, a matter of the greatest conse- 

 quence. It follows, that countries of improved habits, 

 of established capital, and of comparatively little dis- 

 tance, are much more profitable in the way of trade, 

 than the dazzling and remote regions of the east or 

 west. Distance implies a correspondent slowness in 

 the return of capital ; a disadvantage which can be com- 

 pensated only by a larger increase in the rate of profit 

 than is generally allowed for it. Our trade with the 

 United States of America is profitable, but it has be- 

 come so only of late years, since the condition of our 

 quondam colonists lias begun to approximate, in point 

 of habits and in state of capital, to the circumstances of 

 the well cultivated parts of Europe. 



In regard to Spanish America, the features of our in- 

 tercourse have been of late traced in very legible co- 

 lours, and will tend to illustrate the scope of our obser- 

 vations. Until within these five years, the North Ame- 

 ricans acted as middle men in our transactions with va- 

 rious parts of the Spanish settlements. Possessing the 

 advantage of vicinity of situation, and of a neutral flag, 

 the inhabitants of the United States were accustomed 

 to re-sell a proportion of the manufactures imported 

 from Britain to then- southern neighbours, taking in ex- 

 change indigo, cocoa, coffee, sugar, and such other ar- 

 ticles as the limited industry of the Spaniards enabled 

 them to export. This intervention of the Americans 

 was viewed with a very jealous eye by many of the 

 ship-owners, of the merchants, and we believe we may 

 add, by some of the ministers of this country. Many 



