BOOK it is far from being perfectly free, it is as free or freer than in any other part of Europe. IV. THOUGH the period of the greatest profperity and improvement of Great Britain, has been pofterior to that fyftem of laws which is connected with the bounty, we must not upon that account impute it to those laws. It has been pofterior likewife to the national debt. But the national debt has moft affuredly not been the cause of it. THOUGH the fyftem of laws which is connected with the bounty, has exactly the fame ten- . dency with the police of Spain and Portugal; to lower fomewhat the value of the precious metals in the country where it takes place; yet Great Britain is certainly one of the richeft countries in Europe, while Spain and Portugal are perhaps among the moft beggarly. This dif ference of fituation, however, may eafily be accounted for from two different causes. First, the tax in Spain, the prohibition in Portugal of exporting gold and filver, and the vigilant police which watches over the execution of thofe laws, muft, in two very poor countries, which between them import annually upwards of fix millions fterling, operate, not only more directly, but much more forcibly in reducing the value of thofe metals there, than the corn laws can do in Great Britain. And, fecondly, this bad policy is not in those countries counter-balanced by the general liberty and fecurity of the people. Induftry is there neither free nor fecure, and the civil and ecclefiaftical governments of both Spain V. and Portugal, are fuch as would alone be fuffi- CHAP. cient to perpetuate their present state of poverty, even though their regulations of commerce were as wife as the greater part of them are abfurd and foolish. THE 13th of the prefent king, c. 43. feems to have established a new fyftem with regard to the corn laws, in many refpects better than the ancient one, but in one or two refpects perhaps not quite fo good. By this ftatute the high duties upon importation for home confumption are taken off fo foon as the price of middling wheat rifes to fortyeight fhillings the quarter; that of middling rye, pease or beans, to thirty-two fhillings; that of barley to twenty-four fhillings; and that of oats to fixteen fhillings; and inftead of them a finall duty is impofed of only fix-pence upon the quarter of wheat, and upon that of other grain in proportion. With regard to all thefe different forts of grain, but particularly with regard to wheat, the home market is thus opened to foreign fupplies at prices confiderably lower than before. By the fame ftatute the old bounty of five fhillings upon the exportation of wheat ceafes fo foon as the price rifes to forty-four fhillings the quarter, instead of forty-eight, the price at which it ceafed before; that of two fhillings and fixpence upon the exportation of barley ceases fo foon as the price rifes to twenty-two fhillings, inftead of twenty-four, the price at which it VOL. II. Y ceafed BOOK ceafed before; that of two fhillings and fix-pence IV. upon the exportation of oatmeal ceafes fo foon as the price rises to fourteen fhillings, inftead of fifteen, the price at which it ceafed before. The bounty upon rye is reduced from three fhillings and fix-pence to three fhillings, and it ceases fo foon as the price rifes to twenty-eight fhillings, inftead of thirty-two, the price at which it ceafed before. If bounties are as improper as I have endeavoured to prove them to be, the fooner they ceafe, and the lower they are, fo much the better. THE fame ftatute permits, at the lowest prices, the importation of corn, in order to be exported again, duty free, provided it is in the mean time lodged in a warehouse under the joint locks of the king and the importer. This liberty, indeed, extends to no more than twenty-five of the different ports of Great Britain. They are, however, the principal ones, and there may not, perhaps, be warehouses proper for this purpofe in the greater part of the others. So far this law feems evidently an improvement upon the ancient fyftem. BUT by the fame law a bounty of two fhillings the quarter is given for the exportation of oats whenever the price does not exceed fourteen fhillings. No bounty had ever been given before for the exportation of this grain, no more than for that of peas or beans. By the fame law too, the exportation of wheat is prohibited fo foon as the price rises to forty four V. four fhillings the quarter; that of rye fo foon as CHA P. it rises to twenty-eight fhillings; that of barley fo foon as it rifes to twenty-two fhillings; and that of oats fo foon as they rife to fourteen fhillings. Those feveral prices feem all of them a good deal too low, and there feems to be an impropriety, befides, in prohibiting exportation altogether at those precife prices at which that bounty, which was given in order to force it, is withdrawn. The bounty ought certainly either to have been withdrawn at a much lower price, or exportation ought to have been allowed at a much higher. So far, therefore, this law feems to be inferior to the ancient fyftem. With all its imperfections, however, we may perhaps fay of it what was faid of the laws of Solon, that, though not the best in itself, it is the best which the interests, prejudices, and temper of the times would admit of. It may perhaps in due time prepare the way for a better. CHAP. VI. Of Treaties of Commerce. WHEN a nation binds itself by treaty either to permit the entry of certain goods from one foreign country which it prohibits from all others, or to exempt the goods of one country from duties to which it fubjects thofe of all others, Y 2 the BOOK IV. the country, or at least the merchants and manufacturers of the country, whose commerce is fo favoured, muft neceffarily derive great advantage from the treaty. Those merchants and manufacturers enjoy a fort of monopoly in the country which is fo indulgent to them. That country becomes a market both more extenfive and more advantageous for their goods: more extenfive, because the goods of other nations being either excluded or fubjected to heavier duties, it takes off a greater quantity of theirs: more advantageous, becaufe the merchants of the favoured country, enjoying a fort of monopoly there, will often fell their goods for a better price than if expofed to the free competition of all other nations. SUCH treaties, however, though they may be advantageous to the merchants and manufacturers of the favoured, are neceffarily disadvantageous to thofe of the favouring country. A monopoly is thus granted against them to a foreign nation; and they must frequently buy the foreign goods they have occafion for, dearer than if the free competition of other nations was admitted. That part of its own produce with which fuch a nation purchafes foreign goods, muft confequently be fold cheaper, becaufe when two things are exchanged for one another, the cheapnefs, of the one is a neceffary confequence, or rather is the fame thing with the dearnefs of the other. The exchangeable value of its annual produce, therefore, is likely to be diminished by every fuch treaty. This diminution, however, can |