the colonies; to the market in which they
have the monopoly, rather than to that in
which they have many competitors. The
causes of decay in other branches of foreign
trade, which, by Sir Matthew Decker and
other writers, have been sought for in the
excess and improper made of taxation, in the
high price of labour, in the increase of
luxury, &c. may all be found in the overgrowth
of the colony trade. The mercantile
capital of Great Britain, though very
great, yet not being infinite, and though
greatly increased since the act of navigation,
yet not being increased in the same proportion
as the colony trade, that trade could not
possibly be carried on without withdrawing
some part of that capital from other branches
of trade, nor consequently without some decay
of those other branches.
England, it must be observed, was a great
trading country, her mercantile capital was
very great, and likely to become still greater
and greater every day, not only before the act
of navigation had established the monopoly of
the corn trade, but before that trade was very
considerable. In the Dutch war, during the
government of Cromwell, her navy was superior
to that of Holland; and in that which
broke out in the beginning of the reign of
Charles II., it was at least equal, perhaps
superior to the united navies of France and
Holland. Its superiority, perhaps, would
scarce appear greater in the present times, at
least if the Dutch navy were to bear the
same proportion to the Dutch commerce now
which it did then. But this great naval
power could not, in either of those wars, be
owing to the act of navigation. During the
first of them, the plan of that act had been
but just formed; and though, before the
breaking out of the second, it had been fully
enacted by legal authority, yet no part of it
could have had time to produce any considerable
effect, and least of all that part which
established the exclusive trade to the colonies.
Both the colonies and their trade were inconsiderable
then, in comparison of what they
are now. The island of Jamaica was an
unwholesome desert, little inhabited, and less
cultivated. New York and New Jersey were
in the possession of the Dutch, the half of
St. Christopher's in that of the French.
The island of Antigua, the two Carolinas,
Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Nova Scotia,
were not planted. Virginia, Maryland, and
New England were planted; and though
they were very thriving colonies, yet there
was not perhaps at that time, either in Europe
or America, a single person who foresaw,
or even suspected, the rapid progress which
they have since made in wealth, population,
and improvement. The island of Barbadoes,
in short, was the only British colony of any
consequence, of which the condition at that
time bore any resemblance to what it is at
present. The trade of the colonies, of which
England, even for some time after the act of
navigation, enjoyed but a part (for the act
of navigation was not very strictly executed
till several years after it was enacted), could
not at that time be the cause of the great
trade of England, nor of the great naval
power which was supported by that trade.
The trade which at that time supported that
great naval power was the trade of Europe,
and of the countries which lie round the Mediterranean
sea. But the share which Great
Britain at present enjoys of that trade could
not support any such great naval power.
Had the growing trade of the colonies been
left free to all nations, whatever share of it
might have fallen to Great Britain, and a
very considerable share would probably have
fallen to her, must have been all an addition
to this great trade of which she was before in
possession. In consequence of the monopoly,
the increase of the colony trade has not so
much occasioned an addition to the trade
which Great Britain had before, as a total
change in its direction.
Secondly, This monopoly has necessarily
contributed to keep up the rate of profit, in
all the different branches of British trade,
higher than it naturally would have been, had
all nations been allowed a free trade to the
British colonies.
The monopoly of the colony trade, as it necessarily
drew towards that trade a greater
proportion of the capital of Great Britain than
what would have gone to it of its own accord,
so, by the expulsion of all foreign capitals, it
necessarily reduced the whole quantity of
capital employed in that trade below what it
naturally would have been in the case of a
free trade. But, by lessening the competition
of capitals in that branch of trade, it necessarily
raised the rate of profit in that
branch. By lessening, too, the competition
of British capitals in all other branches of
trade, it necessarily raised the rate of British
profit in all those other branches. Whatever
may have been, at any particular period since
the establishment of the act of navigation, the
state or extent of the mercantile capital of
Great Britain, the monopoly of the colony
trade must, during the continuance of that
state, have raised the ordinary rate of British
profit higher than it otherwise would have
been, both in that and in all the other branches
of British trade. If, since the establishment
of the act of navigation, the ordinary rate of
British profit has fallen considerably, as it
certainly has, it must have fallen still lower,
had not the monopoly established by that act
contributed to keep it up.
But whatever raises, in any country, the
ordinary rate of profit higher than it otherwise
would be, necessarily subjects that country