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Chapter
III: COLONIAL POLICY Animal
Husbandry |
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[95] A.
THE MERCANTILE VIEW II.A.1.
American Husbandry [1775], I, 434-435; II, 235, 240-242, 245, 246-247. The
great increase of the population of the northern colonies is not near of
such advantage to Great Britain as that of the southern ones, which in
proportion to the increase of population has a corresponding increase in
the production of true staple commodities, the circumstance on which the
interest of Britain depends; those colonies which have not staples, we
have found from long experience, can afford to purchase but a small part
of their manufactures and other necessaries from the mother-country ;
common agriculture will not effect it; accordingly we see, that in the
northern settlements, that is, the settlements to the north of Maryland,
they are forced to make up their deficiency of staples by fisheries and
commerce, in both of which articles they interfere considerably with
Britain; so that their import of manufactures is by no means of the value
of that of the southern settlements, as they get the money to make their
purchases, by rivaling the fisheries and commerce of Britain. Hence
therefore appears the constant expediency of watching anxiously the
increase of population in the southern parts of America, and taking every
measure to increase it. Nor can any conduct in the administration of our
government be of such great importance, as inducing the people settled in
the northern colonies to quit them in favour of the southern ones. ... As
to the northern colonies, all to the north of the tobacco ones may with
propriety be classed together, since neither Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New
England, Nova Scotia, nor Canada, have any staple product of agriculture;
the consequence of which is their flying to all other employments; the
culture of the soil is common husbandry, like that of Britain herself; the
employment of their towns, which are numerous and large, is manufactures,
commerce, and fisheries. It is impossible they should be so employed, and
at the same time be the occasion of Britain's prosperity, like the
colonies to the south. ... The
more this subject is enquired into, the more evidently and clearly will it
appear, that the production of staple commodities is [96] the
only business proper for
colonies: whatever else they go upon, it is absolutely impossible that
they should by any employment whatever make up for the want of the one
really necessary. For the want of this capital foundation of a colony, our
northern settlements, we have found, are full of farmers, manufacturers,
merchants, fishermen, seamen; -- but no planters. This is precisely the
case with Britain herself; consequently a rivalry between them must
inevitably take place. This in the article of the fisheries we find fully
taken place; for the northern colonies have nearly beaten us out of the
Newfoundland fisheries, that great nursery of seamen! insomuch that the
share of New England alone exceeds that of Britain. Can anyone think from
hence, that the trade and navigation
of our colonies are worth one groat to this nation? There
is not one branch of commerce carried on by these trading settlements but
might just as well be in the hands of. the inhabitants of this kingdom,
the supplying the sugar islands with lumber alone excepted, and that we
have already seen is a trifle. Thus the trading part of the colonies rob
this nation of the invaluable treasure of 30,000 seamen, and all the
profits of their employment ; or in other words, the northern colonies,
who contribute nothing either to our riches or our power, deprive us of
more than twice the amount of all the navigation we enjoy in consequence
of the sugar islands, the southern, continental, and tobacco settlements!
The freight of the staples of
those setts of colonies bring us in upwards of a million sterling; that
is, the navigation of 12,000 seamen: according to which proportion we lose
by the rivalry of the northern colonies in this single article TWO
MILLIONS AND AN HALF sterling! ... That
fisheries and navigation are improper employments for colonies, and
detrimental to the interests of the mother-country, appears clearly enough
from hence; and I may add to these reasons, that the practice of the
French, whose fishery employs 20,000 seamen, while ours maintains only
4000, proves strongly that planted settlements are by no means necessary for success in
fishing. ... The
second article which I was to consider, is that of corn and provisions,
which are exported from all these northern colonies to [97] the West Indies and to Europe. How far these are to be considered as staples, a short enquiry will shew. As to all that are sent to Europe, we may safely determine it to be as pernicious a trade as any the colonies can go into, since it is directly rivalling, and even destroying one of the most advantageous branches of the exports of Britain. American corn cannot come to an European market without doing mischief to the corn trade of England. This trade is not like that of most other commodities, which are usually exported in certain quantities, and to certain markets : on the contrary , it is extremely uncertain in its destination, the quantity in demand depends on the accidents of crops, sometimes it is to one country, sometimes to another, and the circulation of the trade greatly depending on the surplus quantity which certain countries possess. Poland, England and Barbary may be called the exporting countries; the latter from the uncertainty of its governments rarely makes the most of the fertility of its soil, proving but a weak rival to England: this leaves all the south of Europe open to the export of that country , and very advantageous the circumstance has been, as we have more than once experienced, both to Portugal, Spain, the south of France, and Naples. Let therefore any person judge of the propriety of introducing another rival into this trade, which is far more likely to drive us out of it, than all the others we can have in Europe. II.A.2.
Postlethwayt, Britain's Commercial Interest [1757], I, 482-492. Though this commerce [of the continental colonies] is so very
considerable; yet the whole advantage thereof does not center in England.
But if the commerce of these colonies was directed in the right channel,
it might prove of far higher concernment to the nation than it has ever
yet been; it would promote the consumption of much greater quantities of
British and Irish manufactures, than our traffic to any other part of the
world: and would not the landed interest be more advantaged by this than
any other of our branches of trade, as there is a great distinction
between a commerce carried on by a barter of foreign commodities, and that
arising from the manufactures of this kingdom; the one employing the poor
in general, and improving the landed interest, while the [98] other
may only enrich the merchant, and not much encrease the national stock. Is
not this manifest from the State of Spain? Although the merchant and the
public may be enriched by this trade in foreign merchandizes, yet the
landed interest reaps little benefit by it. Is not the like apparent with
relation to the united provinces of the Netherlands? Whatever
practices amongst the British traders have any tendency to promote and
advance the prosperity of our foreign American rivals in trade, ought to
be put a stop to. The British northern colonies in America carrying on a
commerce with the French and the Dutch islands there, have proved very
detrimental to the kingdom. -- This has been the charge of our West-India
merchants against those of the northern colonies; and this charge may be
supported with no little weight of reason and argument. ... But
soon after the peace of Utrecht, a pernicious commerce began to shew
itself, between the British northern colonies and the French sugar
colonies, which began with bartering the lumber of the former for French
sugar and melasses. The French, who before that time had no vent for their
melasses, and could make no better use of it than to give it to their hogs
and horses, soon found the way (after they became acquainted with our
northern traders) of distilling it into rum, which their new
correspondents were as ready to take off their hands, as they had been
before to take their sugar and melasses ; and from hence our enemies the
French have derived a new mine of
profit, unknown to them before, and transferred to themselves the benefit
of a trade, which it was the design of those laws to preserve to England. This
being made appear to our parliament, a further provision was made for
putting a stop to this manifest subversion of the fundamental maxims of
the British policy, for preserving her commercial interests, by an act in
the sixth year of his present majesty's reign ; entitled, An act for the
better securing and encouraging the trade of his majesty's sugar colonies
in America, whereby such high duties were laid on all foreign sugars, rum,
and melasses, to be imported into any of his majesty's colonies in
America, as it was thought were equal to, and would answer all the ends of
a prohibition. [99] But
experience has shewn, that all these laws are too weak to answer the
purposes for which they were designed, and that some more effectual
remedies should be found to keep the British traders in North-America
within bounds, if Great Britain resolves to preserve her rights of
controlling the trade of her own subjects in that part of the world, and
turning the same into such channels only as her wisdom shall direct, and
think most conducive to the interests of the whole community. ... It
may be taken for granted as an undoubted truth, that, as the enlarging the
vent of any commodity is one of the best means that can be used to
encourage its growth, so the lessening of it is the certain way to
discourage it; whence it necessarily follows, that, as we may have rivals
in this commerce, nothing could be more detrimental to the British sugar
colonies, than to suffer foreign sugars to be consumed in any of its
dominions; it being obvious, that this must check the growth of sugar in
our own islands, and increase it in those of France; and, therefore, has
manifestly tended to strengthen the colonies of our ancient enemies, and
to weaken our own. This
trade, as it has long been carried on has raised the price of lumber to
the British planters; and, as the northern traders often refuse to take
anything from them but ready money, this has drained so much of their gold
and silver, that they have been often in distress for want of specie. A
great part of the money, which our northern colony traders have received
from our British planters, has been carried to the foreign sugar-colonies,
and there laid out either in the purchase of foreign sugars, rum, melasses,
or of foreign European and East India commodities; which are carried to
the British northern colonies, and there have supplied the place of
British manufactures, and British sugars, rum, and melasses ; and
consequently have robbed this nation, not only of the consumption of so
much of its own commodities, but of so much gold and silver too : whereas,
if the foreign colonies (who cannot be supplied with lumber but from the
English) had been constrained to have purchased the same with ready money
only, and had never been allowed to give their sugars, rum, and melasses,
in exchange for it, this would have [100] turned
the tables upon them, and have made the balance of the lumber-trade as
much in our favour as it has been many years against us. . It is well known to all concerned in the sugar trade, that the profits of the planter depend upon the vent which he finds for his rum and melasses; for, if sugar only, and no rum and melasses, could be produced from the sugar cane, it would not pay the expense of culture, and making; consequently, in proportion as the vent of rum and melasses is prevented or encreased, the sugar: colonies (whether English or foreign) must respectively thrive, or decline. And, as rum is not allowed to be imported into Old France, or any of its colonies (because it interferes with brandy, which is the product of the mother-country) this evidently shews how much it has been in the power of Great Britain to have checked the progress of the French sugar-islands, and advanced that of her own: for, if the bringing French rum and melasses into any of the British dominions had been effectually hindered, all the profits made by rum and melasses, in the French sugar colonies, would have been lost to them, and they would have found no vent for them in any other part of the world. This point, therefore, had it been strictly attended, and invariably adhered to, would have inevitably damped the prosperity of the French sugar-:Colonies, and encreased that of our own; and might, very probably, have long before now, proved the means of enabling the English to have beat the French out of all the foreign markets in Europe for sugar, and have confined them solely to their own consumption. But, have we not, to our eternal ignominy, acted a contrary part? Have we not studied to enrich the French in America, and strengthen their power at the expense of our own, and do we not now experience the fatal effects of such a system of policy?
II.B.
COLONIAL GOVERNORS II.B.1
Bernard, Select Letters on the Trade and Government of America [1764],
20-22. Trade
is a science, which I have had little opportunity to study, and therefore
it would be a presumption in me to dictate upon it. However, as I have
caught a few flying notions of it, I [101] will
venture to state some principles which have occurred tome, with the
consequences which follow them. The two great objects of Great
Britain, in regard to the American
trade, must be, To oblige her American
subjects to make from Great
Britain only, all the manufactures and European
goods which she can supply them with:
2. To regulate the foreign trade of the Americans,
so that the profits thereof may finally center in Great Britain, or be applied to the improvement of her Empire.
Whenever these two purposes militate against each other, that which is
most advantageous to Great Britain ought
to be preferred. If the first of these purposes is well secured, the
second will follow of course, The only means of employing extraordinary
profits of trade in America, are
either by luxury at home, or by settling and improving lands. American luxury sends the money to Great Britain, either mediately from the hands of the first
expender, or immediately through the hands of the tradesmen, husbandmen,
&c, with whom he deals. Settling and improving lands, is the means of
raising and enabling other persons to deal with Great Britain, and therefore it only postpones the remittances,
hereafter to be made with interest. Therefore, if due care be taken to
confine the sale of manufactures and European
goods (except what shall be permitted) to Great
Britain only, all the profits of the American
Foreign trade will necessarily center in Great Britain. And therefore, if the first purpose is well secured,
the Foreign American trade is
the trade of Great Britain: the
augmentation and diminution, the extension and restriction, the profit and
loss of it, all finally come home to the mother country. It
has been long ago admitted, that the American
trade with the Spanish West
Indies ought to be
encouraged by all means: and why not also with the French?
It is said, that the French will
not admit any trade which is not advantageous to them, But how come they
to have the power of picking and chusing their trade as they please? must
not they submit to wants and necessities as well as the Spaniards?
will not present convenience and private profit get the better of national
considerations among the one as well as the other ? It has done
heretofore; and will do again, if British
prohibitions do not prevent it. I have been told, [102]
that in the former Spanish war, the Admiral, stationed at Jamaica, had orders to encourage and protect the English trade with the Spanish Main. And yet, in strict law, a private correspondence with enemies is treason. In the last war there was a considerable trade carried on from some of the British Colonies to French Hispaniola, by means of letters of truce. This trade (except such part of it as was carried on with provisions) was generally allowed to be very advantageous to Great Britain: and it has been supposed that it contributed not a little to the means of carrying on the war both in America and Europe. It is pleasant, at this time, to observe the complaints of the Jamaicans upon their being obstructed in carrying on their trade with the Spanish West Indies ," and yet they are for stopping and totally prohibiting the trade of the North Americans to the French West Indies. They can see plainly the loss to Great Britain, from their own trade being obstructed ; but they cannot discover the loss which accrues from the obstruction of that of North America. In truth; it is the interest of Great Britain that both the one and the other should be encouraged as much as may well be. And the West Indians should be taught that equitable maxim of trade, "Live, and let live." II.B.2
Pownall, The Administration of the Colonies [1764], pp. 181-182,
183-185, 188-190, 192-195, 198-202. The
principles on which the act of navigation is founded are just, and of
sound policy, but the application of them, by the modes prescribed, as the
laws now stand, to the present state of the colony trade, is neither
founded in justice or prudence. Any spirit that would force this
application, would injure the principles themselves, and prove injurious
to that commercial interest, which those very acts of trade mean to secure
to Great Britain: whereas, upon a due revision of those laws, it would
appear that there are means of producing this same end consistent with the
particular interest of the colonies, and what would carry the general
commercial interest of the mother country to the utmost extent that it is
capable of. ... The
general principle of the laws of trade regulating the colony trade, is,
that the colonies shall not, on one hand, be supplied with [103] anything
but from a British market, nor
export their produce any where but to a British
market. In the application of this principle' the present laws direct,
except in some special particulars, that the colonies shall import all
.their supplies from Britain, and
carry all their produce to
Britain. If
now, instead of confining this market for the colonies to Britain only,
which is a partial and defective application of the general principle
whereon the act of Navigation is founded; this colony trade was made,
amidst other courses of trade, an occasion of establishing British
markets even in other countnies, the true use would be derived to the
general interest from these advantageous circumstances, while in
particular the colonies and the mother country would be mutually
accomodated. In the first case,
the general interest, perverted to partial purposes, becomes so far forth
obstructed; in the second, it would be carried by the genuine spirit of it
to its utmost extent. If,
under certain restrictions, securing also those duties which the produce
of the colonies, carried to market, ought to pay to the mother country,
the colonies were permitted to export their produce (such as are the basis
or materials of any British manufacture excepted) directly to foreign
countries, if so be they sold it to any British
house established in such place, and were also permitted, if they
bought their supplies from a British
house established. in those parts, to supply themselves with the
natural fruits and produce of that country (all manufactures that any way
interfere with the British manufactories excepted) paying there to some
British officer, or upon their arrival in the colonies, the same duties as
they would have paid by purchasing the same commodities in England, every
end proposed by the principle of the act of Navigation would be answered;
the exports of the colonies would be encouraged; and the British
market greatly extended. .., Under
the administration of such measures, there does not appear any reason why
all the produce of the British colonies, which are not the basis of, and
do not interfere with the British manufactures, might not be carried
directly to a British market at a foreign port, -and why the carrying of
rice to foreign ports might not be extended, under these laws, to all such
foreign ports [104]
whereat a British factory is established. -- Nor under this mode of commerce can any sufficient reason upon earth subsist, why the colony traders should not be permitted to load at these ports, the fruits, wine, oil, pickles, the produce of that' country, and also such raw unmanufactured produce, as would not interfere with the manufacture of Great Britain, instead of being obliged to come to Britain to buy or reload here, after the expence of an unnecessary voyage, those very commodities which they might have bought in a British market, at the port which they left. Why not any of these as well as salt, as well as wines from the Madeiras and western isles? In the same manner, by the same law, why may not our colony traders be permitted to carry sugar, ginger, tobacco, rice, &c. to such ports in the rivers Weser and Elbe, in the Sound and in Russia, whereat a British factory is, or may .be established? It can never be right policy to suffer labour in vain in a community : it is just so much lost to the community : and yet this coming round by England is labour in vain: If the subordinacy of the colony-trade, and the duties arising thereon, can be by any other means secured, it is so much labour lost. The two points of a British market, and the revenue of the duties being secured, why may not these traders be permitted to load at these ports directly for the colonies, hemp, yarn, and such coarse linens, as do no way interfere with the British manufactories? These measures taken, which would prove to be the true means of encouraging the colony-trade, the best method to put a stop to the contraband trade carried on in this branch of business, and the true grounds whereon to establish the general commercial interest of Great Britain, Government could not be too strict in enforcing the execution of the laws of trade, nor too severe in punishing the breach of them. -- Wherever they found these traders endeavouring to carry from these ports to the colonies raw silk, silks, velvets, foreign cloths, laces, iron, steel, arms, ammunition, sails or rigging, or any manufactures whatever, that interfere with the manufacture of Great Britain: whenever they found these traders endeavouring to carry from the colonies to those ports, any dying-wood whatever, indigo, cotton, silk, bees or myrtle-wax, flax-seed, naval stores, furs, skins or peltry, hides, [105] provision,
grain, flour, bread or biscuit; whale-oil, blubber, bone, or any other
fish-oil, or tallow, or candles, with an exception perhaps to myrtle and
spermaceti candles, Government could not be too strict and watchful to
restrain them. Under proper regulations, the rum of the northern colonies
should be carried to Africa, and the sale of it to the French on the banks
of Newfoundland encouraged, if such vent could be procured, as we should
thereby reap at least some share even of the French Fishery. … In
the same manner, some revision of the state of the trade of the colonies
of the several maritime powers amongst each other will be necessary. --The
laws and ordonnances of these do in general prohibit all trade of foreign
colonies with their own; and yet, without some such trade as supplies the
Spanish provinces with British goods and provisions, as supplies the
British colonies with Spanish silver, as supplies the French islands with
British lumber, fish, .provisions, horses, and live stock, as supplies the
British colonies with French mellosses, the trade and culture of these
colonies would be greatly obstructed and impaired; and yet notwithstanding
this fact, our laws of trade, by an impracticable duty, extend to the
prohibiting the importation of French mellosses into our colonies. If the
government, under this law, could prevent effectually this importation,
not only into the northern colonies, but
into the British Isles also, the reward of that pains would be the
destruction of a beneficial branch of trade, perhaps of driving the
British American distillery into the French, Dutch, or Danish isles, or of
forcing the French, contrary to their own false policy, into a profitable
manufacture of that produce which they now sell as refuse materials. I
need not point out here the very essential change that this would make in
the colony trade. -- On the contrary, it is the duty of government to permit,
nay even to encourage, under proper regulations, these branches of trade;
in the first place, in order to extract out of the foreign colonies, to
the benefit of the British commerce, as much as possible the profits of
these colonies, and which is more material, in order to create a necessary
dependance in the trade and culture of those colonies for their supplies
on the British commerce. --When it is remembered that the law, which lays
a duty equal to a prohibition, on [106]
the
importation of French mellosses in the British colonies, was obtained at
the solicitation of the British isles, it will be seen, that the obtaining
this law is not so much meant to prohibit totally the introduction of
French mellosses into the British trade, as to determine a struggle
between the West India and North American traders, who should have the
profits of it. And thus, from the predominant interest of these partial
views, has government been led to embarrass the general courses of its
trade. -- But as the West India traders see that this law has not, never
had, and never will have the effect proposed, they will be better
reconciled to its ceasing; and as government must now, after the
experiment, see the false policy of it, there is no doubt but that it will
cease, so far as to reduce the duty to a moderate and practicable charge,
such as will be paid, and such as will raise to the crown a very
considerable revenue thus paid. I
speak not this by guess; but, from a comparison of the quantity of sugars,
and mellosses brought to account in the custom-house books of the King's
revenue, with the quantity of the same article, in the same ports, brought
to account in the impost-books of the colony
revenue, for six years together, could, with some precision, mark the
extent of it. I own I did always apprehend that two-pence per
gallon on foreign mellosses imported into any British plantation, and
so in proportion of sugars, was the best rate at which to fix this duty ;
that being thus moderate, it might be easier and with less alarm and opposition
collected, and might
therefore the sooner introduce the practice of fair trade, and the sooner
become an effective revenue: But
when I see a groundless clamour raised, which represents the rate fixed by
the late revenue-act [The sugar act of 1764 which levied a duty of three
pence per gallon.] as destructive of the American distillery, as ruinous
to the American fishery , as a prohibition of the returns made from the
foreign islands for the North American fish; I must own that I have never
seen any fact stated, or calculation fairly made on which such assertions
found themselves. ... Were
some such arrangements taken for a revision and further establishment of
the laws of trade, upon the principle of extending the British general
commerce, by encouraging the trade of the [107] colonies,
in subordination to, and in coincidence therewith, the trade of the
colonies would be administered by that true spirit from whence it rose,
and by which it acts; and the true application of the benefits which arise
to a mother country from its colonies would be made. Under this spirit of
administration, the government, as I said above, could not be too watchful
to carry its laws of trade into effectual execution. --But under the
present state of those laws, and that trade, there is great danger that
any severity of execution, which should prove effectual in the cases of
the importation into the colonies of foreign European and East India
goods, might force the Americans to trade for their imports, upon terms,
on which the trade could not support itself, and therefore become in the
event a means to bring on the necessity of these Americans manufacturing
for themselves. Nothing does at present, with that active and acute
people, prevent their going into manufactures, except the proportionate
dearness of labour, as referred to the terms on which they can import; but
encrease the price of their imports to a certain degree, let the extent of
their settlements, either by policy from home or invasion of Indians
abroad, be confined, and let their foreign trade and navigation be, in
some measure, suppressed; -their paper -currency limited within too narrow
bounds and the exclusion of that trade which hath usually supplied them
with silver-money too severely insisted upon; --this proportion of the
price of labour will much sooner cease to be an object of objection to
manufacturing there, than is commonly apprehended. The winters in that
climate are long and severe; during which season no labour can be done
without doors. That application therefore of their servants labour, to
manufactures for home consumption, which under any other circumstances
would be too dear for the product created by it, becomes, under these
circumstances, all clear gains. And if the colonists cannot on one hand
purchase foreign manufactures at any reasonable price, or have not money
to purchase with, and there are, on the other, many hands idle which used
to be employed in navigation, and all these, as well as the husbandmen,
want employment; these circumstances will soon overbalance the difference
of the rate of labour in Europe and in America. And if the colonies, under
any future state of administration, which [108]
they
see unequal to the management of their affairs, once come to feel their
own strength in this way, their independence on government, at least on
the administration of government, will not be an event so remote as our
leaders may think, which yet nothing but such false policy can bring on.
For, on the contrary, put their governments and laws on a true and
constitutional basis, regulate their money, their revenue, and their
trade, and do not check their settlements, they must ever depend on the
trade of the mother country for their supplies, they will never establish
manufactures, their hands being elsewhere employed, and the merchants
being always able to import such on terms that must ruin the manufacturer.
Unable to subsist without, or to unite against the mother country they
must always remain subordinate to it, in all the transactions of their
commerce, in all the operation of their laws, in every act of their
government: -- The several colonies, no longer considered as demesnes of
the crown, mere appendages to the realm, will thus become united therein,
members and parts of the realm, as essential parts of one organized whole,
the commercial domination of Great
Britain. THE TAKING LEADING MEASURES TO THE FORMING OF WHICH, OUGHT,
AT THIS JUNCTURE, TO BE THE GREAT OBJECT OF GOVERNMENT. |
