the English, French, Dutch, Danes, and
Swedes, all the great nations who had any
ports upon the ocean, attempted to make some
settlements in the new world.
The Swedes established themselves in New
Jersey; and the number of Swedish families
still to be found there sufficiently demonstrates,
that this colony was very likely to prosper,
had it been protected by the mother country.
But being neglected by Sweden, it was soon
swallowed up by the Dutch colony of New
York, which again, in 1674, fell under the
dominion of the English.
The small islands of St. Thomas and Santa
Cruz, are the only countries in the new world
that have been possessed by the Danes.
These little settlements, too, were under the
government of an exclusive company, which
had the sole right, both of purchasing the surplus
produce of the colonies, and of supplying
them with such goods of other countries as
they wanted, and which, therefore, both in its
purchases and sales, had not only the power
of oppressing them, but the greatest temptation
to do so. The government of an exclusive
company of merchants is, perhaps, the
worst of all governments for any country whatever.
It was not, however, able to stop altogether
the progress of these colonies, though it
rendered it more slow and languid. The late
king of Denmark dissolved this company, and
since that time the prosperity of these colonies
has been very great.
The Dutch settlements in the West, as well
as those in the East Indies, were originally
put under the government of an exclusive
company. The progress of some of them,
therefore, though it has been considerable in
comparison with that of almost any country
that has been long peopled and established,
has been languid and slow in comparison with
that of the greater part of new colonies. The
colony of Surinam, though very considerable,
is still inferior to the greater part of the sugar
colonies of the other European nations. The
colony of Nova Belgia, now divided into the
two provinces of New York and New Jersey,
would probably have soon become considerable
too, even though it had remained under
the government of the Dutch. The plenty
and cheapness of good land are such powerful
causes of prosperity, that the very worst government
is scarce capable of checking altogether
the efficacy of their operation. The great
distance, too, from the mother country, would
enable the colonists to evade more or less, by
smuggling, the monopoly which the company
enjoyed against them. At present, the company
allows all Dutch ships to trade to Surinam,
upon paying two and a-half per cent.
upon the value of their cargo for a license;
and only reserves to itself exclusively, the direct
trade from Africa to America, which consists
almost entirely in the slave trade. This
relaxation in the exclusive privileges of the
company, is probably the principal cause of
that degree of prosperity which that colony at
present enjoys. Curaçoa and Eustatia, the
two principal islands belonging to the Dutch,
are free ports, open to the ships of all nations;
and this freedom, in the midst of better colonies,
whose ports are open to those of one nation
only, has been the great cause of the prosperity
of those two barren islands.
The French colony of Canada was, during
the greater part of the last century, and some
part of the present, under the government of
an exclusive company. Under so unfavourable
administration, its progress was necessarily
very slow, in comparison with that of
other new colonies; but it became much more
rapid when this company was dissolved, after
the fall of what is called the Mississippi scheme.
When the English got possession of this country,
they found in it near double the number
of inhabitants which father Charlevoix had assigned
to it between twenty and thirty years
before. That jesuit had travelled over the
whole country, and had no inclination to represent
it as less inconsiderable than it really
was.
The French colony of St. Domingo was
established by pirates and freebooters, who,
for a long time, neither required the protection,
nor acknowledged the authority of
France; and when that race of banditti became
so far citizens as to acknowledge this
authority, it was for a long time necessary to
exercise it with very great gentleness. During
this period, the population and improvement
of this colony increased very fast. Even
the oppression of the exclusive company, to
which it was for some time subjected with all
the other colonies of France, though it no
doubt retarded, had not been able to stop its
progress altogether. The course of its prosperity
returned as soon as it was relieved from
that oppression. It is now the most important
of the sugar colonies of the West Indies, and
its produce is said to be greater than that of
all the English sugar colonies put together.
The other sugar colonies of France are in general
all very thriving.
But there are no colonies of which the progress
has been more rapid than that of the
English in North America.
Plenty of good land, and liberty to manage
their own affairs their own way, seem to be
the two great causes of the prosperity of all
new colonies.
In the plenty of good land, the English colonies
of North America, though no doubt
very abundantly provided, are, however, inferior
to those of the Spaniards and Portuguese,
and not superior to some of those possessed
by the French before the last war. But the
political institutions of the English colonies
have been more favourable to the improvement
and cultivation of this land, than those
of the other three nations.