An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith (ebook reader with highlighter txt) 📖

entrusted, in spite of every thing which that

governor, who soon repented of having trusted such a person,

could do to thwart it. The conquerors of Chili and Peru, and of

almost all the other Spanish settlements upon the continent of

America, carried out with them no other public encouragement, but

a general permission to make settlements and conquests in the

name of the king of Spain. Those adventures were all at the

private risk and expense of the adventurers. The government of

Spain contributed scarce any thing to any of them. That of

England contributed as little towards effectuating the

establishment of some of its most important colonies in North

America.

 

When those establishments were effectuated, and had become so

considerable as to attract the attention of the mother country,

the first regulations which she made with regard to them, had

always in view to secure to herself the monopoly of their

commerce; to confine their market, and to enlarge her own at

their expense, and, consequently, rather to damp and discourage,

than to quicken and forward the course of their prosperity. In

the different ways in which this monopoly has been exercised,

consists one of the most essential differences in the policy of

the different European nations with regard to their colonies. The

best of them all, that of England, is only somewhat less

illiberal and oppressive than that of any of the rest.

 

In what way, therefore, has the policy of Europe contributed

either to the first establishment, or to the present grandeur of

the colonies of America ? In one way, and in one way only, it has

contributed a good deal. Magna virum mater! It bred and formed

the men who were capable of achieving such great actions, and of

laying the foundation of so great an empire ; and there is no

other quarter of the world; of which the policy is capable of

forming, or has ever actually, and in fact, formed such men. The

colonies owe to the policy of Europe the education and great

views of their active and enterprizing founders; and some of the

greatest and most important of them, so far as concerns their

internal government, owe to it scarce anything else.

 

PART III.

 

Of the Advantages which Europe has derived From the Discovery of

America, and from that of a Passage to the East Indies by the

Cape of Good Hope.

 

Such are the advantages which the colonies of America have

derived from the policy of Europe.

 

What are those which Europe has derived from the discovery and

colonization of America?

 

Those advantages may be divided, first, into the general

advantages which Europe, considered as one great country, has

derived from those great events; and, secondly, into the

particular advantages which each colonizing country has derived

from the colonies which particularly belong to it, in consequence

of the authority or dominion which it exercises over them.

 

The general advantages which Europe, considered as one great

country, has derived from the discovery and colonization of

America, consist, first, in the increase of its enjoyments ; and,

secondly, in the augmentation of its industry.

 

The surplus produce of America imported into Europe, furnishes

the inhabitants of this great continent with a variety of

commodities which they could not otherwise have possessed ; some

for conveniency and use, some for pleasure, and some for ornament

; and thereby contributes to increase their enjoyments.

 

The discovery and colonization of America, it will readily be

allowed, have contributed to augment the industry, first, of all

the countries which trade to it directly, such as Spain,

Portugal, France, and England; and, secondly, of all those which,

without trading to it directly, send, through the medium of other

countries, goods to it of their own produce, such as Austrian

Flanders, and some provinces of Germany, which, through the

medium of the countries before mentioned, send to it a

considerable quantity of linen and other goods. All such

countries have evidently gained a more extensive market for their

surplus produce, and must consequently have been encouraged to

increase its quantity.

 

But that those great events should likewise have contributed to

encourage the industry of countries such as Hungary and Poland,

which may never, perhaps, have sent a single commodity of their

own produce to America, is not, perhaps, altogether so evident.

That those events have done so, however, cannot be doubted. Some

part of the produce of America is consumed in Hungary and Poland,

and there is some demand there for the sugar, chocolate. and

tobacco, of that new quarter of the world. But those commodities

must be purchased with something which is either the produce of

the industry of Hungary and Poland, or with something which had

been purchased with some part of that produce. Those commodities

of America are new values, new equivalents, introduced into

Hungary and Poland, to be exchanged there for the surplus produce

of these countries. By being carried thither, they create a new

and more extensive market for that surplus produce. They raise

its value, and thereby contribute to encourage its increase.

Though no part of it may ever be carried to America, it may be

carried to other countries, which purchase it with a part of

their share of the surplus produce of America, and it may find a

market by means of the circulation of that trade which was

originally put into motion by the surplus produce of America.

 

Those great events may even have contributed to increase the

enjoyments, and to augment the industry, of countries which not

only never sent any commodities to America, but never received

any from it. Even such countries may have received a greater

abundance of other commodities from countries, of which the

surplus produce had been augmented by means of the American

trade. This greater abundance, as it must necessarily have

increased their enjoyments, so it must likewise have augmented

their industry. A greater number of new equivalents, of some kind

or other, must have been presented to them to be exchanged for

the surplus produce of that industry. A more extensive market

must have been created for that surplus produce, so as to raise

its value, and thereby encourage its increase. The mass of

commodities annually thrown into the great circle of European

commerce, and by its various revolutions annually distributed

among all the different nations comprehended within it, must have

been augmented by the whole surplus produce of America. A greater

share of this greater mass, therefore, is likely to have fallen

to each of those nations, to have increased their enjoyments, and

augmented their industry.

 

The exclusive trade of the mother countries tends to diminish, or

at least to keep down below what they would otherwise rise to,

both the enjoyments and industry of all those nations in general,

and of the American colonies in particular. It is a dead weight

upon the action of one of the great springs which puts into

motion a great part of the business of mankind. By rendering the

colony produce dearer in all other countries, it lessens its

consumption, and thereby cramps the industry of the colonies, and

both the enjoyments and the industry of all other countries,

which both enjoy less when they pay more for what they enjoy, and

produce less when they get less for what they produce. By

rendering the produce of all other countries dearer in the

colonies, it cramps in the same manner the industry of all other

colonies, and both the enjoyments and the industry of the

colonies. It is a clog which, for the supposed benefit of some

particular countries, embarrasses the pleasures and encumbers the

industry of all other countries, but of the colonies more than of

any other. It not only excludes as much as possible all other

countries from one particular market, but it confines as much as

possible the colonies to one particular market; and the

difference is very great between being excluded from one

particular market when all others are open, and being confined to

one particular market when all others are shut up. The surplus

produce of the colonies, however, is the original source of all

that increase of enjoyments and industry which Europe derives

from the discovery and colonization of America, and the exclusive

trade of the mother countries tends to render this source much

less abundant than it otherwise would be.

 

The particular advantages which each colonizing country derives

from the colonies which particularly belong to it, are of two

different kinds ; first, those common advantages which every

empire derives from the provinces subject to its dominion ; and,

secondly, those peculiar advantages which are supposed to result

from provinces of so very peculiar a nature as the European

colonies of America.

 

The common advantages which every empire derives from the

provinces subject to its dominion consist, first, in the military

force which they furnish for its defence; and, secondly, in the

revenue which they furnish for the support of its civil

government. The Roman colonies furnished occasionally both the

one and the other. The Greek colonies sometimes furnished a

military force, but seldom any revenue. They seldom acknowledged

themselves subject to the dominion of the mother city. They were

generally her allies in war, but very seldom her subjects in

peace.

 

The European colonies of America have never yet furnished any

military force for the defence of the mother country. The

military force has never yet been sufficient for their own

defence; and in the different wars in which the mother countries

have been engaged, the defence of their colonies has generally

occasioned a very considerable distraction of the military force

of those countries. In this respect, therefore, all the European

colonies have, without exception, been a cause rather of weakness

than of strength to their respective mother countries.

 

The colonies of Spain and Portugal only have contributed any

revenue towards the defence of the mother country, or the support

of her civil government. The taxes which have been levied upon

those of other European nations, upon those of England in

particular, have seldom been equal to the expense laid out upon

them in time of peace, and never sufficient to defray that which

they occasioned in time of war. Such colonies, therefore, have

been a source of expense, and not of revenue, to their respective

mother countries.

 

The advantages of such colonies to their respective mother

countries, consist altogether in those peculiar advantages which

are supposed to result from provinces of so very peculiar a

nature as the European colonies of America; and the exclusive

trade, it is acknowledged, is the sole source of all those

peculiar advantages.

 

In consequence of this exclusive trade, all that part of the

surplus produce of the English colonies, for example, which

consists in what are called enumerated commodities, can be sent

to no other country but England. Other countries must afterwards

buy it of her. It must be cheaper, therefore, in England than it

can be in any other country, and must contribute more to increase

the enjoyments of England than those of any other country. It

must likewise contribute more to encourage her industry. For all

those parts of her own surplus produce which England exchanges

for those enumerated commodities, she must get a better price

than any other countries can get for the like parts of theirs,

when they exchange them for the same commodities. The

manufactures of England, for example, will purchase a greater

quantity of the sugar and tobacco of her own colonies than the

like manufactures of other countries can purchase of that sugar

and tobacco. So far, therefore, as the manufactures of England

and those of other countries are both to be exchanged for the

sugar and tobacco of the English colonies, this superiority of

price gives an encouragement to