THE WEALTH OF NATIONS.

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neral combination, and their competition is sufficient to hinderthem from making very exorbitant profits. Under so liberala policy the colonies are enabled both to sell their own pro-duce and to buy the goods of Europe at a reasonable price.But since the dissolution of the Plymouth company, whenour colonies were but in their infancy, this has always beenthe policy of England. It has generally too been that ofFrance , and has been uniformly so since the dissolution ofwhat, in England, is commonly called their Mississippi com-pany. The profits of the trade, therefore* which France andEngland carry on with their colonies, though no doubt some-what higher than if the competition were free to all othernations, are, however, by no means exorbitant; and the priceof European goods accordingly is not extravagantly high inthe greater part of the colonies of either of those nations.

In the exportation of their own surplus produce too, it isonly with regard to certain commodities that the colonies ofGreat Britain are confined to the market of the mother coun-try. These commodities having been enumerated in the actof navigation and in some other subsequent acts, have uponthat account been called enumerated eomnwdities. The rest arecalled non-eniimerated; and may be exported directly to othercountries, provided it is in British or Plantation ships, of whichthe owners and three-fourths of the mariners are British subjects.

Among the non-emunerated commodities are some of them °st important productions of America and the West Indies ;gram of all sorts, lumber, salt provisions, fish, sugar, and rum.

Grain is naturally the first and principal object of the cul-ture ot a.11 new colonies. By allowing them a very extensivemarket lor it, the law encourages them to extend this culturemuch beyond the consumption of a thinly inhabited country,ai ul thus to provide beforehand an ample subsistence for acontinually increasing population.

fu a country quite covered with wood, where timber con-sequently i s 0 j- p tt i e

or no value, the expense of clearing thegiound is the principal obstacle to improvement. By allowingthe colonies a very extensive market for their lumber, the lawetuleavouis to tacilitatc improvement by raising the price ofa commodity which would othc rwise be ot little value, andthereby enabling them to make some profit of what wouldotherwise be mere expense.

Iu a country neither half-peopled nor half-cultivated, cattle

2 M