INTRODUCTION. 



85 



pared with other colouies possessing much inferior ad- 

 vantages, their progress would be slow. The French 

 system although not entirely free from the prevalent 

 error of exclusive companies, is thought by some to 

 have been the least oppressive. Great Britain en- 

 deavored to monopolise the commerce of her North 

 American possessions, and injudiciously thwarted 

 their trade with the West Indies; a trade without 

 which, it was impossible to pay her for the products 

 which she furnished, as it would now be to discharge 

 the balance against us, without the aid of the com- 

 merce which we carry on with different parts of the 

 world. But when compared to the parent state, nei- 

 ther the colonies of France nor of England, bore the 

 the same proportion as the Spanish colonies to Spain; 

 and those countries moreover, were not absolutely 

 incapable of supplying their colonies with articles of 

 European manufacture, although the colonies could 

 not always find a market, at least the best market, for 

 their products in the ports of the mother country. The 

 establishments of the French, English, and Dutch 

 were formed it is true, with different views from those 

 of Spain; they calculated on seeking for articles of ex- 

 port on the surface of the earth, and not in its bowels. 



Their value depended upon the market; commerce 

 was therefore indispensable. The North American 

 provinces and other colonies, although under distinct 

 governments, were permitted to have a free and un- 

 constrained intercourse with each other; while the 

 Spanish American viceroyalties, stood upon the same 

 footing as if they were each a foreign nation. In our 

 rupture with Great Britain, no one cause operated 

 more powerfully on our minds^ than the attempt to force 



