5G4

THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF

not tlie colonies been confined to the market of Great Britain for the sale of their tobacco, very little more of it would pro-bably have come to us than what was necessary for the homeconsumption. The goods which Great Britain purchases atpresent for her own consumption with the great surplus oftobacco which she exports to other countries, she would, inthis case, probably have purchased with the immediate pro-duce of her own industry, or with some part of her own ma-nufactures. That produce, those manufactures, instead ofbeing almost entirely suited to one great market, as at pre-sent, would probably have been fitted to a great number ofsmaller markets. Instead of one great round-about foreigntrade of consumption, Great Britain would probably havecarried on a great number of small direct foreign trades ofthe same kind. On account of the frequency of the returns,a part, and probably but a small part, perhaps not above athird or a fourth, of the capital which at present carries onthis great round-about trade, might have been sufficient tocarry on all those small direct ones, might have kept in con-stant employment an equal quantity of British industry, andhave equally supported the annual produce of the land andlabour of Great Britain . All the purposes of this trade be-ing, in this manner, answered by a much smaller capital,there would have been a large spare capital to apply to otherpurposes; to improve the lands, to increase the manufac-tures, and to extend the commerce of Great Britain ; to comeinto competition at least with the other British capitals em-ployed in all those different ways, to reduce the rate of profitin them all, and thereby to give to Great Britain , in all ofthem, a superiority over other countries, still greater thanwhat she at present enjoys.

The monopoly of the colony trade too has forced somepart of the capital of Great Britain from all foreign trade ofconsumption to a carrying trade ; and, consequently, fromsupporting more or less the industry of Great Britain , to beemployed*altogether in supporting partly that of the colo-nies, and partly that of some other countries.

The goods, for example, which are annually purchasedwith the great surplus of eighty-two thousand hogsheads oftobacco annually re-exported from Great Britain , are not allconsumed in Great Britain. Part of them, linen from Ger-many and Holland , for example, is returned to the coloniesfor their particular consumption. But, that part of thecapi-