CHAP. III.
OF THE EXTRAORDINARY RESTRAINTS UPON
THE IMPORTATION OF GOODS OF ALMOST
ALL KINDS, FROM THOSE COUNTRIES WITH
WHICH THE BALANCE IS SUPPOSED TO BE
DISADVANTAGEOUS.
Part I.—Of the Unreasonableness of those
Restraints, even upon the Principles of the
Commercial System.
To lay extraordinary restraints upon the importation
of goods of almost all kinds, from
these particular countries with which the balance
of trade is supposed to be disadvantageous,
is the second expedient by which the
commercial system proposes to increase the
quantity of gold and silver. Thus, in Great
Britain, Silesia lawns may be imported for
home consumption, upon paying certain duties;
but French cambrics and lawns are prohibited
to be imported, except into the port
of London, there to be warehoused for
exportation. Higher duties are imposed upon
the wines of France than upon those of Portugal,
or indeed of any other country. By
what is called the impost 1692, a duty of five-and-twenty
per cent. of the rate or value, was
laid upon all French goods; while the goods
of other nations were, the greater part of them,
subjected to much lighter duties, seldom exceeding
five per cent. The wine, brandy,
salt, and vinegar of France, were indeed excepted;
these commodities being subjected to
other heavy duties, either by other laws, or by
particular clauses of the same law. In 1696,
a second duty of twenty-five per cent. the first
not having been thought a sufficient discouragement,
was imposed upon all French goods,
except brandy; together with a new duty of
five-and-twenty pounds upon the ton of French
wine, and another of fifteen pounds upon the
ton of French vinegar. French goods have
never been omitted in any of those general
subsidies or duties of five per cent. which have
been imposed upon all, or the greater part, of
the goods enumerated in the book of rates.
If we count the one-third and two-third subsidies
as making a complete subsidy between
them, there have been five of these general
subsidies; so that, before the commencement
of the present war, seventy-five per cent. may
be considered as the lowest duty to which the
greater part of the goods of the growth, produce,
or manufacture of France, were liable.
But upon the greater part of goods, those duties
are equivalent to a prohibition. The
French, in their turn, have, I believe, treated
our goods and manufactures just as hardly;
though I am not so well acquainted with the
particular hardships which they have imposed
upon them. Those mutual restraints have
put an end to almost all fair commerce between
the two nations; and smugglers are now the
principal importers, either of British goods
into France, or of French goods into Great
Britain. The principles which I have been
examining, in the foregoing chapter, took
their origin from private interest and the spirit
of monopoly; those which I am going to
examine in this, from national prejudice and
animosity. They are, accordingly, as might
well be expected, still more unreasonable.
They are so, even upon the principles of the
commercial system.
First, Though it were certain that in the
case of a free trade between France and England,
for example, the balance would be in
favour of France, it would by no means follow
that such a trade would be disadvantageous
to England, or that the general balance
of its whole trade would thereby be turned
more against it. If the wines of France are
better and cheaper than these of Portugal, or
its linens than those of Germany, it would be
more advantageous for Great Britain to purchase
both the wine and the foreign linen
which it had occasion for of France, than of
Portugal and Germany. Though the value
of the annual importations from France would
thereby be greatly augmented, the value of
the whole annual importations would be diminished,
in proportion as the French goods
of the same quality were cheaper than those of
the other two countries. This would be the
case, even upon the supposition that the whole
French goods imported were to be consumed
in Great Britain.
But, Secondly, A great part of them might
be re-exported to other countries, where, being
sold with profit, they might bring back a
return, equal in value, perhaps, to the prime
cost of the whole French goods imported.
What has frequently been said of the East
India trade, might possibly be true of the
French; that though the greater part of East
India goods were bought with gold and silver,
the re-exportation of a part of them to
other countries brought back more gold and
silver to that which carried on the trade, than
the prime cost of the whole amounted to.
One of the most important branches of the
Dutch trade at present, consists in the carriage
of French goods to other European
countries. Some part even of the French wine
drank in Great Britain, is clandestinely imported
from Holland and Zealand. If there
was either a free trade between France and
England, or if French goods could be imported
upon paying only the same duties as those
of other European nations, to be drawn back
upon exportation, England might have some
share of a trade which is found so advantageous
to Holland.
Thirdly, and lastly, There is no certain criterion
by which we can determine on which
side what is called the balance between any