Aviii I N T R O D U C T I O N. 



for want of a due attention to what might caufe any part of 

 it to revert to them and their people again, they left them- 

 feives poor and deftitutCj like a fpendthrift that ftill lives upon 

 the principal, and after fwinmiing for a feafon in high gaiety 

 and delight, finds himfelf on a fudden funk into penury and defola- 

 tion. Inftead of corifidering the Weft Ltdies as an eftate they were 

 to improve arid receive an annual profit always from, they re- 

 garded them only as a farm, out of which they endeavoured 

 to raife all they could at once : and in this refpecft we muft 

 own they aded with, much vigour, drawing thence immenfe 

 treafure, v/hich was fquandered in fchemes to deftroy the peace 

 of others in Europe^ and which at the fame time furnifhed 

 their antagonifts with the finew^s of war again ft them^felves : 

 whereas had they turned the ftrength of their riches inwards, and 

 made ufe of it as a fpur and incitement to improve the ingenu- 

 ity and induftry of their own people, the whole world could 

 fcarcely have withftood them ; and according to the natural con- 

 stitution of things, had their activity in thefe particulars been at 

 all proportioned to the vaflnefs of their wealth, fo as to have 

 produced and continued a circulation of it chiefly among them- 

 felves, they mufi: have held the principal fway in Europe^ for 

 the very fame reafons that v^^e fee thofe do, who in private life are 

 pofTeffed of moft wealth and induftry. By this mifmanagement, 

 Spaijty inftead of being the richeft, is, in reality, one of the 

 pooreft ftates in Europe. The continual fupply they ftand in 

 need of from other countries, renders their merchants no more 



in 



