PART III.
Of the Advantages which Europe has derived
from the Discovery of America, and from
that of a Passage to the East Indies by the
Cape of Good Hope.
Such are the advantages which the colonies
of America have derived from the policy of
Europe.
What are these which Europe has derived
from the discovery and colonization of America?
Those advantages may be divided, first, into
the general advantages which Europe, considered
as one great country, has derived from
those great events; and, secondly, into the
particular advantages which each colonizing
country has derived from the colonies which
particularly belong to it, in consequence of
the authority or dominion which it exercises
over them.
The general advantages which Europe, considered
as one great country, has derived from
the discovery and colonization of America,
consist, first, in the increase of its enjoyments;
and, secondly, in the augmentation of its industry.
The surplus produce of America imported
into Europe, furnishes the inhabitants of this
great continent with a variety of commodities
which they could not otherwise have possessed;
some for conveniency and use, some for
pleasure, and some for ornament; and thereby
contributes to increase their enjoyments.
The discovery and colonization of America,
it will readily be allowed, have contributed
to augment the industry, first, of all
the countries which trade to it directly, such
as Spain, Portugal, France, and England;
and, secondly, of all those which, without
trading to it directly, send, through the
medium of other countries, goods to it of their
own produce, such as Austrian Flanders, and
some provinces of Germany, which, through
the medium of the countries before mentioned,
send to it a considerable quantity of linen and
other goods. All such countries have evidently
gained a more extensive market for
their surplus produce, and must consequently
have been encouraged to increase its quantity.
But that those great events should likewise
have contributed to encourage the industry
of countries such as Hungary and Poland,
which may never, perhaps, have sent a single
commodity of their own produce to America,
is not, perhaps, altogether so evident. That
those events have done so, however, cannot
be doubted. Some part of the produce of
America is consumed in Hungary and Poland,
and there in some demand there for the
sugar, chocolate, and tobacco, of that new
quarter of the world. But those commodities
must be purchased with something which is
either the produce of the industry of Hungary
and Poland, or with something which had
been purchased with some part of that produce.
Those commodities of America are
new values, new equivalents, introduced into
Hungary and Poland, to be exchanged there
for the surplus produce of these countries.
By being carried thither, they create a new
and more extensive market for that surplus
produce. They raise its value, and thereby
contribute to encourage its increase. Though
no part of it may ever be carried to America,
it may be carried to other countries, which
purchase it with a part of their share of the
surplus produce of America, and it may find
a market by means of the circulation of that
trade which was originally put into motion
by the surplus produce of America.
Those great events may even have contributed
to increase the enjoyments, and to augment
the industry, of countries which not only
never sent any commodities to America, but
never received any from it. Even such countries
may have received a greater abundance
of other commodities from countries, of which
the surplus produce had been augmented by
means of the American trade. This greater
abundance, as it must necessarily have increased
their enjoyments, so it must likewise
have augmented their industry. A greater
number of new equivalents, of some kind or
other, must have been presented to them to
be exchanged for the surplus produce of that
industry. A more extensive market must
have been created for that surplus produce, so
as to raise its value, and thereby encourage
its increase. The mass of commodities annually
thrown into the great circle of European
commerce, and by its various revolutions
annually distributed among all the different
nations comprehended within it, must have
been augmented by the whole surplus produce
of America. A greater share of this
greater mass, therefore, is likely to have fallen
to each of those nations, to have increased
their enjoyments, and augmented their industry.
The exclusive trade of the mother countries
tends to diminish, or at least to keep down below
what they would otherwise rise to, both
the enjoyments and industry of all those nations
in general, and of the American colonies
in particular. It is a dead weight upon the
action of one of the great springs which puts
into motion a great part of the business of
mankind. By rendering the colony produce
dearer in all other countries, it lessens its consumption,
and thereby cramps the industry of
the colonies, and both the enjoyments and the
industry or all other countries, which both enjoy
less when they pay more for what they enjoy,
and produce less when they get less for
what they produce. By rendering the produce