BOOK of America? In one way, and in one way only, IV. it has contributed a good deal. Magna virúm Mater! It bred and formed the men who were capable of atchieving fuch great actions, and of laying the foundation of fo 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 enterprifing founders; and fome of the greatest and most important of them, fo far as concerns their internal government, owe to it fcarce any thing else. PART THIRD. Of the Advantages which Europe has derived from SUCH are the advantages which the colonies of America have derived from the policy of Europe. WHAT are thofe which Europe has derived from the discovery and colonization of America? THOSE advantages may be divided, firft, into the general advantages which Europe, confidered as one great country, has derived from those great events; and, fecondly, into the particular advantages which each colonizing country has derived from the colonies which particularly be long long to it, in confequence of the authority or CHA P. dominion which it exercises over them. THE general advantages which Europe, confidered as one great country, has derived from the discovery and colonization of America, consist, first, in the increase of its enjoyments; and fecondly, in the augmentation of its industry. THE furplus produce of America, imported into Europe, furnishes the inhabitants of this great continent with a variety of commodities which they could not otherwise have poffeffed, fome for conveniency and use, fome for pleasure, and fome 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, firft, of all the countries which trade to it directly; fuch as Spain, Por→ tugal, France, and England; and, fecondly, of all those which, without trading to it directly, fend, through the medium of other countries, goods to it of their own produce; fuch as Auftrian Flanders, and fome provinces of Germany, which, through the medium of the countries before mentioned, fend to it a confiderable quantity of linen and other goods. All fuch countries have evidently gained a more extenfive market for their furplus produce, and must confequently have been encouraged to increase its quantity. BUT, that those great events fhould likewife have contributed to encourage the industry of countries, fuch as Hungary and Poland, which VOL. II. Dd may VII. BOOK may never, perhaps, have fent a fingle commoIV. dity of their own produce to America, is not, perhaps, altogether fo evident. That thofe events have done fo, however, cannot be doubted. Some part of the produce of America is confumed in Hungary and Poland, and there is fome demand there for the fugar, chocolate, and tobacco, of that new quarter of the world. But those commodities must be purchased with fomething which is either the produce of the industry of Hungary and Poland, or with fomething which had been purchased with some part of that produce. Thofe commodities of America are new values, new equivalents, introduced into Hungary and Poland to be exchanged there for the furplus produce of those countries. By being carried thither they create a new and more extenfive market for that furplus 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 fhare of the furplus 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 furplus 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 fent any commodities to America, but never received any from it. Even fuch countries may have received a greater abundance of other commodities from countries of which the furplus produce 4 VII. produce had been augmented by means of the CHA P. American trade. This greater abundance, as it muft neceffarily have increafed their enjoyments, fo it must likewife have augmented their induftry. A greater number of new equivalents of fome kind or other must have been prefented to them to be exchanged for the furplus produce of that industry. A more extenfive market must have been created for that furplus produce, fo as to raise its value, and thereby encourage its increase. The mafs of commodities annually thrown into the great circle of European commerce, and by its various revolutions annually diftributed among all the different nations comprehended within it, muft have been augmented by the whole furplus produce of America. A greater fhare of this greater mafs, therefore, is likely to have fallen to each of those nations, to have increased their enjoyments, and augmented their industry. THE exclufive trade of the mother countries. tends to diminish, or, at leaft, to keep down below what they would otherwife rife to, both the enjoyments and induftry of all thofe nations in general, and of the American colonies in particular. It is a dead weight upon the action of one of the great fprings which puts into motion. a great part of the business of mankind. By ren dering the colony produce dearer in all other countries, it leffens its confumption, and thereby cramps the industry of the colonies, and both the enjoyments and the induftry of all other countries, which both enjoy lefs when they pay more BOOK for what they enjoy, and produce lefs when they IV. get lefs for what they produce. By rendering the produce of all other countries dearer in the colonies, it cramps, in the fame manner, the industry of all other countries, and both the enjoyments and the induftry of the colonies. It is a clog which, for the fuppofed benefit of fome particular countries, embarraffes 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 poffible, all other countries from one particular market; but it confines, as much as poffible, 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 furplus produce of the colonies, however, is the original source of all that increase of enjoyments and induftry which Europe derives from the discovery and colonization of America; and the exclufive trade of the mother countries tends to render this fource 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; firft, thofe common advantages which every empire derives from the provinces fubject to its dominion; and, fecondly, those peculiar advantages which are fuppofed to refult from provinces of fo very peculiar a nature as the European colonies of America. THE |