COMMERCE. 1]7 



stra6t proportion of the buyers and sellers, but in the greater 

 or less quantity of the produ6tions. The number of importers 

 has been augmented in a very considerable degree ; but the 

 consumption having been invariably the same, the competition 

 they have entered into has obliged them to endeavour to lighten 

 themselves, at a loss even, of a heavy burthen which they 

 could not transport elsewhere. Let the importations be once 

 brought to the level of the annual produce, and there will 

 cease to be any complaints against the useful and profitable sys- 

 tem of a free trade. 



The loud clamours which have been raised against the Com- 

 pany of the Philippine Islands, and against the deputation of 

 the Five Corporations of Madrid, have been founded on a 

 persuasion that they have been destru6tive of the commerce of 

 private individuals, and have absorbed all that the viceroy alty 

 can maintain, by the excessive importations of their immense 

 funds, and by the facility with which they can sell at a more 

 commodious and reduced price. 



It is agreed on all hands, that the advancement and prospe- 

 rity of great companies have in general been attended by the 

 destruction of private trade, which finds it im practicable to 

 enter into a competition with such powerful bodies, capable 

 of undertaking the greatest enterprizes, and of supporting the 

 repeated losses to which commerce is subjected by its variations. 

 It is also true, that several of these companies have resorted to 

 the odious, unjust, and arbitrary proceeding, of lowering the 

 sales to such a degree as to occasion a sacrifice of a part of the 

 capital advanced on the purchases. The private merchant has 

 thus been defeated in his intention of trading to the same des- 

 tination ; and, although the countries in which this has been 



practised, 



