or even example, seems to have formed in
them all at once the great qualities which it
required, and to have inspired them both with
abilities and virtues which they themselves
could not well know that they possessed. If
upon some occasions, therefore, it has animated
them to actions of magnanimity which
could not well have been expected from them,
we should not wonder if, upon others, it has
prompted them to exploits of somewhat a
different nature.
Such exclusive companies, therefore, are
nuisances in every respect; always more or
less inconvenient to the countries in which
they are established, and destructive to those
which have the misfortune to fall under their
government.
CHAP. VIII.
CONCLUSION OF THE MERCANTILE SYSTEM.
Though the encouragement of exportation,
and the discouragement of importation, are
the two great engines by which the mercantile
system proposes to enrich every country,
yet, with regard to some particular commodities,
it seems to follow an opposite plan: to
discourage exportation, and to encourage
importation. Its ultimate object, however, it
pretends, is always the same, to enrich the
country by an advantageous balance of trade.
It discourages the exportation of the materials
of manufacture, and of the instruments of
trade, in order to give our own workmen an advantage,
and to enable them to undersell those
of other nations in all foreign markets; and
by restraining, in this manner, the exportation
of a few commodities, of no great price, it
proposes to occasion a much greater and more
valuable exportation of others. It encourages
the importation of the materials of manufacture,
in order that our own people may be
enabled to work them up more cheaply, and
thereby prevent a greater and more valuable
importation of the manufactured commodities.
I do not observe, at least in our statute book,
any encouragement given to the importation
of the instruments of trade. When manufactures
have advanced to a certain pitch of
greatness, the fabrication of the instruments
of trade becomes itself the object of a great
number of very important manufactures. To
give any particular encouragement to the importation
of such instruments, would interfere
too much with the interest of those manufactures.
Such importation, therefore, instead
of being encouraged, has frequently been
prohibited. Thus the importation of wool cards,
except from Ireland, or when brought in as
wreck or prize goods, was prohibited by the
3d of Edward IV.; which prohibition was renewed
by the 39th of Elizabeth, and has been
continued and rendered perpetual by subsequent
laws.
The importation of the materials of manufacture
has sometimes been encouraged by
an exemption from the duties to which other
goods are subject, and sometimes by bounties.
The importation of sheep's wool from several
different countries, of cotton wool from all
countries, of undressed flax, of the greater
part of dyeing drugs, of the greater part of
undressed hides from Ireland, or the British
colonies, of seal skins from the British Greenland
fishery, of pig and bar iron from the
British colonies, as well as of several other
materials of manufacture, has been encouraged
by an exemption from all duties, if properly
entered at the custom-house. The private
interest of our merchants and manufacturers
may, perhaps, have extorted from the
legislature these exemptions, as well as the
greater part of our other commercial regulations.
They are, however, perfectly just and
reasonable; and if, consistently with the necessities
of the state, they could be extended
to all the other materials of manufacture, the
public would certainly be a gainer.
The avidity of our great manufacturers,
however, has in some cases extended these
exemptions a good deal beyond what can justly
be considered as the rude materials of their
work. By the 24th Geo. II. chap. 46, a
small duty of only 1d. the pound was imposed
upon the importation of foreign brown
linen yarn, instead of much higher duties, to
which it had been subjected before, viz. of 6d.
the pound upon sail yarn, of 1s. the pound
upon all French and Dutch yarn, and of
L.2 : 13 : 4 upon the hundred weight of all
spruce or Muscovia yarn. But our manufacturers
were not long satisfied with this reduction:
by the 29th of the same king,
chap. 15, the same law which gave a bounty
upon the exportation of British and Irish
linen, of which the price did not exceed 18d.
the yard, even this small duty upon the importation
of brown linen yarn was taken away.
In the different operations, however, which
are necessary for the preparation of linen
yarn, a good deal more industry is employed,
than in the subsequent operation of preparing
linen cloth from linen yarn. To say nothing
of the industry of the flax-growers and flax-dressers,
three or four spinners at least are
necessary in order to keep one weaver in constant
employment; and more than four-fifths
of the whole quantity of labour necessary for
the preparation of linen cloth, is employed in
that of linen yarn; but our spinners are poor
people; women commonly scattered about in
all different parts of the country, without support
or protection. It is not by the sale of
their work, but by that of the complete work