554

THE N'ATUKK AND CAUSES OE

lonies, therefore, have been a source of expense and not ofrevenue to their respective mother countries.

The advantages of such colonies to their respective mothercountries, consist altogether in those peculiar advantageswhich are supposed to result from provinces of so very pecu-liar a nature as the European colonies of America ; and theexclusive trade, it is acknowledged, is the sole source of allthose peculiar advantages.

In consequence of this exclusive trade, all that part of thesurplus produce of the English colonies, for example, whichconsists in what are called enumerated commodities, can besent to no other country but England. Other countries mustafterward buy it of her. It must be cheaper therefore inEngland than it can be in any other country, and must con-tribute more to increase the enjoyments of England than thoseof any other country. It must likewise contribute more toencourage her industry. For all those parts of her own surplusproduce which England exchanges for those enumerated com-modities, she must get a better price than any other countriescan get for the like parts of theirs, when they exchange thornfor the same commodities. The manufactures of England, forexample, will purchase a greater quantity of the sugar andtobacco of her own colonies, than the like manufactures ofother countries can purchase of that sugar and tobacco. Sofar, therefore, as the manufactures of England and those ofother countries are both to be exchanged for the sugar andtobacco of the English colonies, this superiority of price givesan encouragement to the former, beyond what the latter canin these circumstances enjoy. The exclusive trade of the co-lonies, therefore, as it diminishes, or, at least, keeps downbelow what they would otherwise rise to, both the enjoymentsand the industry of the countries which do not possess it; soit gives an evident advantage to the countries which do pos-sess it over those other countries.

This advantage, however, will, perhaps, be found to berather what may be called a relative than an absolute advan-tage ; and to give a superiority to the country which enjoys it,rather by depressing the industry and produce of other coun-tries, than by raising those of that particular country abovewhat they would naturally rise to in the case of a free trade.

The tobacco of Maryland and Virginia, for example, bymeans of the monopoly which England enjoys of it, certainlycomes cheaper to England than it can do to France , to whom