544

THE NATURE AN1> CAUSES OF

country. In 17G3, indeed, by the 4th of Geo. III. c. 15.this indulgence was a good deal debated, and it was enacted,f ‘ That no part of the duty called the old subsidy should bedrawn back for any goods of the growth, production, or ma-nufacture of Europe or the East Indies, which should be ex-ported from this kingdom to any British colony or plantationin America ; wine, white calicoes, and muslins excepted.”Before this law, many different sorts of foreign goods mighthave been bought cheaper in the plantations than in the mo-ther country; and some may still.

Of the greater part of the regulations concerning the co-lony trade, the merchants who carry it on, it must be observed,have been the principal advisers. We must not wonder,therefore, if in the greater part of them, their interest hasbeen more considered than either that of the colonies or thatof the mother country. In their exclusive privilege of sup-plying the colonies with all the goods which they wantedfrom Europe , and of purchasing all such parts of their sur-plus produce as could not interfere with any of the tradeswhich they themselves carried on at home, the interest of thecolonies was sacrificed to the interest of those merchants.In allowing the same drawbacks upon the re-exportation ofthe greater part of European and East India goods to thecolonies, as upon their re-exportation to any independentcountry, the interest of the mother country was sacrificed toit, even according to the mercantile ideas of that interest. Itwas for the interest of the merchants to pay as little as pos-sible for the foreign goods which they sent to the colonies,and, consequently, to get back as much as possible of theduties which they advanced upon their importation intoGreat Britain . They might thereby be enabled to sell inthe colonies, either the same quantity of goods with a greaterprofit, or a greater quantity with the same profit, and, con-sequently to gain something either in the one way or theother. It was, likewise, for the interest of the colonies, toget all such goods as cheap, and in as great abundance aspossible. But this might not always be for the interest ofthe mother country. She might frequently suffer both in herrevenue, by giving back a great part of the duties which hadbeen paid upon the importation of such goods; and in hermanufactures, by being undersold in the colony market, inconsequence of the easy terms upon which foreign manufac-tures could be carried thither bv means of those drawbacks*