538 THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF

naturally multiply beyond the consumption of the inhabi-tants, and are often upon that account of little or no value.But it is necessary, it has already been shewn, that the priceof cattle should bear a certain proportion to that of corn, be-fore the greater part of the lands of any country can be im-proved. By allowing to American cattle, in all shapes, deadand alive, a very extensive market, the law endeavours to raisethe value of a commodity of which the high price is so veryessential to improvement. The good effects of this liberty,however, must be somewhat diminished by the 4th of Geo. 111.c. 15. which puts hides and skins among the enumeratedcommodities, and thereby tends to reduce the value of Ame-rican cattle.

To increase the shipping and naval power of Great Bri-tain , by the extension of the fisheries of our colonies, is anobject which the legislature seems to have had almost con-stantly in view. Those fisheries, upon this account, have hadall the encouragement which freedom can give them, and theyhave flourished accordingly. The New England fishery inparticular was, before the late disturbances, one of the mostimportant, perhaps, in the world. The whale-fishery, which,notwithstanding an extravagant bounty, is in Great Britain carried on to so little purpose, that in the opinion of manypeople (which I do not however pretend to warrant) the wholeproduce does not much exceed the value of the bounties whichare annually paid for it, is in New England carried on withoutany bounty to a very great extent. Fish is one of the principalarticles with which the North Americans trade to Spain ,Portugal , and the Mediterranean.

Sugar was originally an enumerated commodity whichcould be exported only to Great Britain . But in 1731, upona representation of the sugar-planters, its exportation was per-mitted to aH parts of the world. The restrictions, however,with which this liberty was granted, joined to the high priceof sugar in Great Britain , have rendered it, in a great mea-sure, ineffectual. Great Britain and her colonies still continueto be almost the sole market for all the sugar produced in theBritish plantations. Their consumption increases so fast, that,though in consequence of the increasing improvement ofJamaica , as well as of the ceded islands, the importation ofsugar has increased very greatly within these twenty years,the exportation to foreign countries is said to be not muchgreater than before.