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THE NATURE AND CAUSES 01'

quently to sell them with a better profit at home, but to esta-blish between the Plantations and foreign countries an ad-vantageous carrying trade, of which Great Britain was neces-sarily to be the centre or emporium, as the European countryinto which those commodities were first to be imported. Theimportation of commodities of the second kind might be somanaged too, it was supposed, as to interfere, not with thesale of those of the same kind which were produced at home,but with that of those which were imported from foreigncountries; because, by means of proper duties, they might berendered always somewhat dearer than the former, and yet agood deal cheaper than, the latter. By contining such com-modities to the home market, therefore, it was proposed todiscourage the produce, not of Great Britain , but of someforeign countries with which the balance of trade was be-lieved to be unfavourable to Great Britain .

The prohibition of exporting from the colonies, to anyother country but Great Britain , masts, yards, and bowsprits,tar, pitch, and turpentine, naturally tended to lower the priceof timber in the colonies, and consequently to increase theexpense of clearing their lands, the principal obstacle totheir improvement. But about the beginning of the presentcentury, in 1703, the pitch and tar company of Sweden en-deavoured to raise the price of their commodities to GreatBritain , by prohibiting their exportation, except in their ownships, at their own price, and in such quantities as theythought proper, in order to counteract this notable piece ofmercantile policy, and to render herself as much as possibleindependent, not only ol Sweden , but of all the other northernpowers, Great Britain gave a bounty upon the importation ofnaval stores from America , and the effect of this bounty wasto raise the price of timber in America , much more than theconfinement to the home market could lower it; and as bothregulations were enacted at the same time, their joint effectwas rather to encourage than to discourage the clearing ofland in America .

Though pig and bar iron too have been put among the enu-merated commodities, yet as, when imported from America ,they are exempted from considerable duties to which they aresubject when imported from any other country, the one partof the regulation contributes more to encourage the erectionof furnaces in America , than the other to discourage it.There is no manufacture which occasions so great a con-