CHAP. by all accounts, to have been at least equal to any of the cities of ancient Greece." 66 111. But the policy of modern Europe has very little to boast of, either in the original formation, or, so far as concerns their internal government, in the subsequent profperity of the colonies of America. Folly and injustice feem to have been the principles which prefided over the first project of establishing those colonies; the folly of hunting after mines, and the injustice of coveting a country, whose natives, far from having ever injured the people of Europe, had received the first adventurers with every mark of kindness and hospitality." 112. Every modern mother-country, has secured to herself, in one shape or another, a monopoly of her colony trade." This monopoly, like all the other mean and malignant expedients of the mercantile fyftem, depresses the industry of all other countries; but chiefly that of the colonies, without in the least increasing, but on the contrary diminishing, that of the country in whose favour it is established. Some nations have even gone so far as to give up the whole commerce of their colonies to an exclufive company, of whom the colonies were obliged to buy all fuch European goods as they wanted, and to whom they were obliged to fell the whole of their own surplus produce. It was the intereft of the company, therefore, not only to fell the former as dear, and to buy the latter as cheap, as poffible; but to buy no more of the latter, even at this low price, than they could dispose of at a very high price in Europe. It was their intereft, not only to degrade, in all cafes, the value of the produce of the colony, but, in many cafes, to keep down the natural increase of it's quantity. Of all the expedients that can well be contrived to ftunt the na tural VII. tural growth of a new colony, that of an exclufive company is CHA P. undoubtedly the most effectual." "For example, the Dutch Eaft India company, by different arts of oppreffion, have reduced the population of several of the Molucca Islands, formerly pretty well inhabited, nearly to the number fufficient to fupply with provifions their own infignificant garrifons, and such of their fhips as occafionally come there for spices*." COMMERCE. 113. There are two species of commerce different from, and even opposite to, if not deftructive of, one another. Some explanation of both forms an effential part of my plan. commerce 114. 1ft. Commiffion-commerce, into which, in remote ages, Commiffion mankind were naturally led by their real wants. An interchange of useful commodities was the only object of merchants in early times. A natural and neceffary barter, by *Wealth of Nations, edit. 5. Vol. II. p. 344, 360, 375, 397, 434.-At p. 476, the intelligent author mentions the operations of the Dutch East India company, in the Spice Islands, to enhance the price, by burning all the spices, beyond a certain quantity, giving premiums for the collection of the bloffoms of the clove and nutmeg trees, &c. He also glances at certain practices of the English East India company's former fervants; particularly their ordering the peasants to plough up rice, and fow poppies, and the contrary, just as their intereft, in the fale of opium or rice, happened to direct.—Sir W. Temple, in his observations on Holland, fays that" a Dutchman, who had been at the Spice Islands, told him, that he saw at one time three heaps of nutmegs burnt, each of which was more than an ordinary church would hold."-But we need not go so far abroad, for instances of fuch proceedings; for, in the year 1774, I was present at the burning of a large quantity of of faleable spices, at the India House in Amsterdam, for the avowed purpose of keeping up the price. VII. CHA P. their means, diffused the produce of every part of the then known world over the whole; and their profits might be regarded more as the wages of neceffary labour, than as the gains of injurious monopoly. Gold and filver were not excluded from this commerce; but they were left to find their way into the general circulation, by their weight and ftandard. Their relative worth was not, like that of coin, fixed by artificial laws; but, like the worth of every other commodity, was regulated by the natural demand. And paper credit had, in that early period, no exiftence. This natural and unreftrained flate of commerce accorded perfectly with the primitive fimplicity of those ages: and it certainly tended to promote a diffusion of the comforts of life commensurate to the wants of mankind, whom it united by the bond of mutual interests. fhould be encouraged in a new colony. 115. A mixture of sensible and virtuous Europeans with fimple, untutored Africans, may be expected, by the reciprocal action and re-action of their habits and manners, to produce a focial character nearly approaching the ancient fimplicity. It were therefore to be wished, that the beneficial fpecies of commerce, juft mentioned, could be fo fixed in every new African colony, as for ever to exclude that perverted system which I fhall call fpeculation-commerce, on which it seems neceffary to dwell fomewhat more particularly *. 116. * In order to give the reader fome idea of the extent to which a trade in the productions of Africa may be carried, it may not be amifs to mention a few facts which show that a communication between very distant parts of that continent, is already open. And it will scarcely be denied, that this might be made the channel of conveying regular fupplies of European goods into those central regions which have hitherto feldom received any, except when the precarious fuccefs of the predatory expeditions of their chiefs happened to enable them to make returns in flaves: VII. 116. 2d. Speculation-commerce produces effects very dif- CHA P. ferent from commiffion-commerce. It does not tend fo di flaves; but who, were that traffic abolished, would not fail to find equivalents in the productions of the country.--The Chevalier des Marchais, who vifited Guinea in 1725, 1726, and 1727, by order of the French government, fays that" Malays came on horses 90 days journey to trade at Ardra, bringing cotton cloths and muflins, and receiving flaves, ivory and gold duft.”—Captain Fraser fays, there is a trade in flaves, carried on across the continent by merchants, who come for them from the eftern parts of Africa to Angola on the weft, and other witneffes affirm the fame thing (See Min. of Evid.)--Lieut. Matthews tells us, that many black priests travel across from the Nile, and from Morocco to Abyffinia, that he saw seve ral of them in the Mandingo country, and that by means of them, and the travelling black merchants, the defeat of the Spaniards before Gibraltar was known 40 days after, at Riopongos (Voyage to Sierra Leona, p. 70.) This report must have travelled at the rate of at least 40 miles a day, which proves that the roads are not very bad. The negro captive I mentioned in the note to § 71, told me that he had travelled much; and, in particular that he had made seven journies from Fouta Jallo, confiderably above Gallam, to Whidah, to buy fire-arms for his king, who having been embroiled with the princes lower down the Senegal, could not as ufual, get them from the coaft, by that river. From his account Fouta Jallo, lies between the Niger and the Whidah, 10 days journey from the former" towards the fun-setting," as he expreffed it, and 15 from the latter, "towards the fun-rifing, but confiderably below it." But the circumftance of his converfation which most furprised me was, that in many parts of the interior, he paffed the rivers on bridges. -For an account of the "trade in the interior parts of Africa," fee that title in the Privy Council's Report, where it appears that that continent is traversed in many directions by caravans trading in European goods, ivory, gold-dust, ebony, flaves, sennah, mannah, caffia, dates, gums, &c.-See also the interesting publica, tions of the African affociation.. It may be faid, that, feeing the western coast of Africa, is reforted to for flaves by the eaftern nations of that continent, and even by the Eaft Indians, that the abolition of that traffic does not depend on the Europeans. I anfwer that the flave market on the western coaft does entirely depend on the Europeans; and that this is the greatest market, would appear from the dealers coming fo far to frequent it; for they would not travel across the continent, if they could conveniently buy flaves nearer home. If, therefore, the Europeans abolish the flave-trade, it is plain that the emporium for it would be removed from the western coaft, and would no longer difturb legitimate commerce there. Speculation commerce. rectly VII. CHA P. rectly to fupply the wants of a community, as to gratify the avidity of individual merchants, whom governments suffer to take advantage of those wants. Nay, as if this were not enough, most governments have been prevailed on to make formal grants, of monopolies and exclufive privileges to bodies of merchants. Such grants are destructive of competition, the very foul of commerce, put the confumers compleatly in the power of foreftallers, and nourish the overbearing wealth and ambition of individuals, at the expenfe of the community.-The merchant who collects. the products of diftant countries in fuch quantities as have been previously ordered by his correspondents and customers, may be compared to a stream which gently irrigates and refreshes the fields. The monopolizing speculator in those products not unaptly refembles a reservoir which confines the waters till the fields are parched, and at last distributes them unseasonably and partially, overflowing some places, and miferably stinting others. Speculators unconnected with the 117. Speculators in exchanges and money-jobbers may, perhaps, love to be compared to conductors which convey community. the commercial fluid through the world. I fhall not object to the comparison, if they will permit me to mention, that the Jews have also been likened to those conductors, by an eminent orator*. Like the Ifraelites too, thofe gentlemen are unconnected with any community; and, like Jew pedlars, can, at any time, put their cash and bills in their pockets, and flit, with the celerity of their own paper, from one end of the world to the other. For, I would ask any man who knows the world, what hold any community can have of persons who, without property in lands, houses, or commodities, fit in their counting-houses, watching the course * Mr. Burke. of |