of all other countries dearer in the colonies,
it cramps in the same manner the industry
of all other colonies, and both the enjoyments
and the industry of the colonies. It is
a clog which, for the supposed benefit of some
particular countries, embarrasses the pleasures
and encumbers the industry of all other countries,
but of the colonies more than of any
other. It not only excludes as much as possible
all other countries from one particular
market, but it confines as much as possible
the colonies to one particular market; and
the difference is very great between being
excluded from one particular market when all
others are open, and being confined to one
particular market when all others are shut up.
The surplus produce of the colonies, however,
is the original source of all that increase of
enjoyments and industry which Europe derives
from the discovery and colonization of
America, and the exclusive trade of the mother
countries tends to render this source
much less abundant than it otherwise would
be.
The particular advantages which each colonizing
country derives from the colonies which
particularly belong to it, are of two different
kinds; first, those common advantages which
every empire derives from the provinces subject
to its dominion; and, secondly, those peculiar
advantages which are supposed to result
from provinces of so very peculiar a nature
as the European colonies of America.
The common advantages which every empire
derives from the provinces subject to its
dominion consist, first, in the military force
which they furnish for its defence; and, secondly,
in the revenue which they furnish for
the support of its civil government. The Roman
colonies furnished occasionally both the
one and the other. The Greek colonies sometimes
furnished a military force, but seldom
any revenue. They seldom acknowledged
themselves subject to the dominion of the mother
city. They were generally her allies in
war, but very seldom her subjects in peace.
The European colonies of America have
never yet furnished any military force for the
defence of the mother country. The military
force has never yet been sufficient for their
own defence; and in the different wars in
which the mother countries have been engaged,
the defence of their colonies has generally occasioned
a very considerable distraction of the
military force of those countries. In this respect,
therefore, all the European colonies
have, without exception, been a cause rather
of weakness than of strength to their respective
mother countries.
The colonies of Spain and Portugal only
have contributed any revenue towards the defence
of the mother country, or the support
of her civil government. The taxes which
have been levied upon those of other European
nations, upon those of England in particular,
have seldom been equal to the expense
laid out upon them in time of peace,
and never sufficient to defray that which they
occasioned in time of war. Such colonies,
therefore, have been a source of expense, and
not of revenue, to their respective mother
countries.
The advantages of such colonies to their
respective mother countries, consist altogether
in those peculiar advantages which are supposed
to result from provinces of so very peculiar
a nature as the European colonies of
America; and the exclusive trade, it is acknowledged,
is the sole source of all those peculiar
advantages.
In consequence of this exclusive trade, all
that part of the surplus produce of the English
colonies, for example, which consists in
what are called enumerated commodities, can
be sent to no other country but England.
Other countries must afterwards buy it of
her. It must be cheaper, therefore, in England
than it can be in any other country, and
must contribute more to increase the enjoyments
of England than those of any other
country. It must likewise contribute more
to encourage her industry. For all those parts
of her own surplus produce which England
exchanges for those enumerated commodities,
she must get a better price than any other
countries can get for the like parts of theirs,
when they exchange them for the same commodities.
The manufactures of England, for
example, will purchase a greater quantity of
the sugar and tobacco of her own colonies
than the like manufactures of other countries
can purchase of that sugar and tobacco. So
far, therefore, as the manufactures of England
and those of other countries are both to
be exchanged for the sugar and tobacco of the
English colonies, this superiority of price
gives an encouragement to the former beyond
what the latter can, in these circumstances,
enjoy. The exclusive trade of the colonies,
therefore, as it diminishes, or at least keeps
down below what they would otherwise rise
to, both the enjoyments and the industry of
the countries which do not possess it, so it
gives an evident advantage to the countries
which do possess it over those other countries.
This advantage, however, will, perhaps, be
found to be rather what may be called a relative
than an absolute advantage, and to give
a superiority to the country which enjoys it,
rather by depressing the industry and produce
of other countries, than by raising those
of that particular country above what they
would naturally rise to in the case of a free
trade.
The tobacco of Maryland and Virginia, for
example, by means of the monopoly which
England enjoys of it, certainly comes cheaper
to England than it can do to France, to whom
England commonly sells a considerable part