whole round-about trade are more distant than
the returns from America, by the time only
which the goods may lie unsold in the warehouse;
where, however, they may sometimes
lie long enough. But, had not the colonies
been confined to the market of Great Britain
for the sale of their tobacco, very little more
of it would probably have come to us than
what was necessary for the home consumption.
The goods which Great Britain purchases
at present for her own consumption
with the great surplus of tobacco which she
exports to other countries, she would, in this
case, probably have purchased with the immediate
produce of her own industry, or
with some part of her own manufactures.
That produce, those manufactures, instead of
being almost entirely suited to one great market,
as at present, would probably have been
fitted to a great number of smaller markets.
Instead of one great round-about foreign
trade of consumption, Great Britain would
probably have carried on a great number of
small direct foreign trades of the same kind.
On account of the frequency of the returns, a
part, and probably but a small part, perhaps
not above a third or a fourth of the capital
which at present carries on this great round-about
trade, might have been sufficient to
carry on all those small direct ones; might
have kept in constant employment an equal
quantity of British industry; and have equally
supported the annual produce of the land
and labour of Great Britain. All the purposes
of this trade being, in this manner,
answered by a much smaller capital, there
would have been a large spare capital to apply
to other purposes; to improve the lands, to
increase the manufactures, and to extend the
commerce of Great Britain; to come into
competition at least with the other British
capitals employed in all those different ways,
to reduce the rate of profit in them all, and
thereby to give to Great Britain, in all of
them, a superiority over other countries, still
greater than what she at present enjoys.
The monopoly of the colony trade, too, has
forced some part of the capital of Great Britain
from all foreign trade of consumption to
a carrying trade; and, consequently from
supporting more or less the industry of Great
Britain, to be employed altogether in supporting
partly that of the colonies, and partly that
of some other countries.
The goods, for example, which are annually
purchased with the great surplus of eighty-two
thousand hogsheads of tobacco annually re-exported
from Great Britain, are not all consumed
in Great Britain. Part of them,
linen from Germany and Holland, for example,
is returned to the colonies for their particular
consumption. But that part of the
capital of Great Britain which buys the tobacco
with which this linen is afterwards
bought, is necessarily withdrawn from supporting
the industry of Great Britain, to be
employed altogether in supporting, partly that
of the colonies, and partly that of the particular
countries who pay for this tobacco with
the produce of their own industry.
The monopoly of the colony trade, besides,
by forcing towards it a much greater proportion
of the capital of Great Britain than what
would naturally have gone to it, seems to
have broken altogether that natural balance
which would otherwise have taken place among
all the different branches of British industry.
The industry of Great Britain, instead of
being accommodated to a great number of
small markets, has been principally suited to
one great market. Her commerce, instead
of running in a great number of small channels,
has been taught to run principally in
one great channel. But the whole system of
her industry and commerce has thereby been
rendered less secure; the whole state of her
body politic less healthful than it otherwise
would have been. In her present condition,
Great Britain resembles one of those unwholesome
bodies in which some of the vital
parts are overgrown, and which, upon that
account, are liable to many dangerous disorders,
scarce incident to those in which all
the parts are more properly proportioned. A
small stop in that great blood-vessel, which
has been artificially swelled beyond its natural
dimensions, and through which an unnatural
proportion of the industry and commerce
of the country has been forced to circulate,
is very likely to bring on the most dangerous
disorders upon the whole body politic. The
expectation of a rupture with the colonies,
accordingly, has struck the people of Great
Britain with more terror than they ever felt
for a Spanish armada, or a French invasion.
It was this terror, whether well or ill grounded,
which rendered the repeal of the stamp
act, among the merchants at least, a popular
measure. In the total exclusion from the
colony market, was it to last only for a few
years, the greater part of our merchants used
to fancy that they foresaw an entire stop to
their trade; the greater part of our master
manufacturers, the entire ruin of their business;
and the greater part of our workmen,
an end of their employment. A rupture
with any of our neighbours upon the continent,
though likely, too, to occasion some stop
or interruption in the employments of some
of all these different orders of people, is
foreseen, however, without any such general
emotion. The blood, of which the circulation
is stopt in some of the smaller vessels,
easily disgorges itself into the greater, without
occasioning any dangerous disorder; but,
when it is stopt in any of the greater vessels,
convulsions, apoplexy, or death, are the immediate
and unavoidable consequences. If
but one of those overgrown manufactures,
which, by means either of bounties or of the