132 



RESTRICTIONS ON TRADE. 



extorting, ultimately, from the purchaser, the government was a 

 gainer in charges, profits and duties ; whilst the merchants of 

 Cadiz and Seville, who enjoyed the monopoly of trade, were ena- 

 bled to affix any valuation they pleased to their commodities. The 

 ingenuity of the Spaniards in contriving methods to exact the 

 utmost farthing from their submissive colonists, is not a little 

 remarkable. " They took advantage of the wants of the settlers, 

 and were, at one time, sparing in their supplies, so that the price 

 might be enhanced, whilst, at another, they sent goods of poor 

 quality, at a rate much above their value, because it was known 

 they must be purchased. It was a standing practice to despatch 

 European commodities in such small quantities as to quicken the 

 competition of purchasers and command an exorbitant profit. In 

 the most flourishing period of the trade of Seville, the whole 

 amount of shipping employed was less than twenty-eight thou- 

 sand tons, and many of the vessels made no more than annual 

 voyages. The evident motive on the part of the crown for limit- 

 ing the supply was, that the same amount of revenue could be 

 more easily levied, and collected with more certainty as well as 

 despatch, on a small than on a large amount of goods." 1 



Whilst the commerce of Spain was thus burdened by enormous 

 impositions, the colonies were of course cramped in all their ener- 

 gies. There could be no independent action of trade, manufacture, 

 or even agriculture, under such a system. 



America, — under the tropics and in the temperate regions, 

 abounding in a prolific soil, — was not allowed to cultivate the 

 grape or the olive, whilst, even some kinds of provisions which 

 could easily have been produced on this continent were imported 

 from Spain. 



Such w^ere some of the selfish and unnatural means by which 

 the Council of the Indies, — whose laws have been styled, by 

 some writers, beneficent — sought to drain America of her wealth, 

 whilst they created a market for Spain. This was the external 

 code of oppression ; but the internal system of this continent, 

 which was justified and enacted by the same council, was not less 

 odious. Taxation, without representation or self government, was 

 the foundation of our revolt; yet, the patient colonies of Spain 

 were forced to bear it from the beginning of their career, so that 

 the idea of freedom, either of opinion or of impost, never entered 

 the minds of an American Creole. 



Duties, taxes, and tithes were the vexatious instruments of royal 



1 North American Review, vol. xix p. 117. 



