goods of some kind or other. But
if those consumable goods were purchased directly
with the produce of English industry,
it would be more for the advantage of England,
than first to purchase with that produce
the gold of Portugal, and afterwards to purchase
with that gold those consumable goods.
A direct foreign trade of consumption is always
more advantageous than a round-about
one; and to bring the same value of foreign
goods to the home market, requires a much
smaller capital in the one way than in the
other. If a smaller share of its industry,
therefore, had been employed in producing
goods fit for the Portugal market, and a
greater in producing those fit for the other
markets, where those consumable goods for
which there is a demand in Great Britain are
to be had, it would have been more for the
advantage of England. To procure both the
gold which it wants for its own use, and the
consumable goods, would, in this way, employ
a much smaller capital than at present.
There would be a spare capital, therefore, to
be employed for other purposes, in exciting
an additional quantity of industry, and in
raising a greater annual produce.
Though Britain were entirely excluded from
the Portugal trade, it could find very little
difficulty in procuring all the annual supplies
of gold which it wants, either for the purposes
of plate, or of coin, or of foreign trade. Gold,
like every other commodity, is always somewhere
or another to be got for its value by
those who have that value to give for it. The
annual surplus of gold in Portugal, besides,
would still be sent abroad, and though not
carried away by Great Britain, would be carried
away by some other nation, which would
be glad to sell it again for its price, in the
same manner as Great Britain does at present.
In buying gold of Portugal, indeed, we buy
it at the first hand; whereas, in buying it of
any other nation, except Spain, we should buy
it at the second, and might pay somewhat
dearer. This difference, however, would surely
be too insignificant to deserve the public attention.
Almost all our gold, it is said, comes from
Portugal. With other nations, the balance of
trade is either against us, or not much in our
favour. But we should remember, that the
more gold we import from one country, the
less we must necessarily import from all others.
The effectual demand for gold, like that for
every other commodity, is in every country limited
to a certain quantity. If nine-tenths
of this quantity are imported from one country,
there remains a tenth only to be imported
from all others. The more gold, besides, that
is annually imported from some particular
countries, over and above what is requisite
for plate and for coin, the more must necessarily
be exported to some others: and the
more that most insignificant object of modern
policy, the balance of trade, appears to be in
our favour with some particular countries, the
more it must necessarily appear to be against
us with many others.
It was upon this silly notion, however, that
England could not subsist without the Portugal
trade, that, towards the end of the late
war, France and Spain, without pretending
either offence or provocation, required the
king of Portugal to exclude all British ships
from his ports, and, for the security of this
exclusion, to receive into them French or Spanish
garrisons. Had the king of Portugal
submitted to those ignominious terms which
his brother-in-law the king of Spain proposed
to him, Britain would have been freed from
a much greater inconveniency than the loss of
the Portugal trade, the burden of supporting
a very weak ally, so unprovided of every thing
for his own defence, that the whole power of
England, had it been directed to that single
purpose, could scarce, perhaps, have defended
him for another campaign. The loss of the
Portugal trade would, no doubt, have occasioned
a considerable embarrassment to the
merchants at that time engaged in it, who
might not, perhaps, have found out, for a year
or two, any other equally advantageous method
of employing their capitals; and in this
would probably have consisted all the inconveniency
which England could have suffered
from this notable piece of commercial policy.
The great annual importation of gold and
silver is neither for the purpose of plate nor of
coin, but of foreign trade. A round-about
foreign trade of consumption can be carried
on more advantageously by means of these
metals than of almost any other goods. As
they are the universal instruments of commerce,
they are more readily received in return
for all commodities than any other goods; and,
on account of their small bulk and great value,
it costs less to transport them backward
and forward from one place to another than
almost any other sort of merchandize, and they
lose less of their value by being so transported.
Of all the commodities, therefore, which are
bought in one foreign country, for no other
purpose but to be sold or exchanged again for
some other goods in another, there are none
so convenient as gold and silver. In facilitating
all the different round-about foreign
trades of consumption which are carried on in
Great Britain, consists the principal advantage
of the Portugal trade; and though it is
not a capital advantage, it is, no doubt, a considerable
one.
That any annual addition which, it can reasonably
be supposed, is made either to the
plate or to the coin of the kingdom, could require
but a very small annual importation of
gold and silver, seems evident enough; and