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imported。 The importation of commodities of the second kind might

be so managed too; it was supposed; as to interfere; not with the

sale of those of the same kind which were produced at home; but

with that of those which were imported from foreign countries;

because; by means of proper duties; they might be rendered always

somewhat dearer than the former; and yet a good deal cheaper than

the latter。 By confining such commodities to the home market;

therefore; it was proposed to discourage the produce; not of

Great Britain; but of some foreign countries with which the

balance of trade was believed to be unfavourable to Great

Britain。

     The prohibition of exporting from the colonies; to any other

country but Great Britain; masts; yards; and bowsprits; tar;

pitch; and turpentine; naturally tended to lower the price of

timber in the colonies; and consequently to increase the expense

of clearing their lands; the principal obstacle to their

improvement。 But about the beginning of the present century; in

1703; the pitch and tar company of Sweden endeavoured to raise

the price of their commodities to Great Britain; by prohibiting

their exportation; except in their own ships; at their own price;

and in such quantities as they thought proper。 In order to

counteract this notable piece of mercantile policy; and to render

herself as much as possible independent; not only of Sweden; but

of all the other northern powers; Great Britain gave a bounty

upon the importation of naval stores from America; and the effect

of this bounty was to raise the price of timber in America much

more than the confinement to the home market could lower it; and

as both regulations were enacted at the same time; their joint

effect was rather to encourage than to discourage the clearing of

land in America。

     Though pig and bar iron too have been put among the

enumerated commodities; yet as; when imported from America; they

were exempted from considerable duties to which they are subject

when imported from any other country; the one part of the

regulation contributes more to encourage the erection of furnaces

in America than the other to discourage it。 There is no

manufacture which occasions so great a consumption of wood as a

furnace; or which can contribute so much to the clearing of a

country overgrown with it。

     The tendency of some of these regulations to raise the value

of timber in America; and thereby to facilitate the clearing of

the land; was neither; perhaps; intended nor understood by the

legislature。 Though their beneficial effects; however; have been

in this respect accidental; they have not upon that account been

less real。

     The most perfect freedom of trade is permitted between the

British colonies of America and the West Indies; both in the

enumerated and in the non…enumerated commodities。 Those colonies

are now become so populous and thriving that each of them finds

in some of the others a great and extensive market for every part

of its produce。 All of them taken together; they make a great

internal market for the produce of one another。

     The liberality of England; however; towards the trade of her

colonies has been confined chiefly to what concerns the market

for their produce; either in its rude state; or in what may be

called the very first stage of manufacture。 The more advanced or

more refined manufactures even of the colony produce; the

merchants and manufacturers of Great Britain choose to reserve to

themselves; and have prevailed upon the legislature to prevent

their establishment in the colonies; sometimes by high duties;

and sometimes by absolute prohibitions。

     While; for example; Muskovado sugars from the British

plantations pay upon importation only 6s。 4d。 the hundredweight;

white sugars pay L1 1s。 1d。; and refined; either double or

single; in loaves L4 2s。 5 8/20d。 When those high duties were

imposed; Great Britain was the sole; and she still continues to

be the principal market to which the sugars of the British

colonies could be exported。 They amounted; therefore; to a

prohibition; at first of claying or refining sugar for any

foreign market; and at present of claying or refining it for the

market; which takes off; perhaps; more than nine…tenths of the

whole produce。 The manufacture of claying or refining sugar

accordingly; though it has flourished in all the sugar colonies

of France; has been little cultivated in any of those of England

except for the market of the colonies themselves。 While Grenada

was in the hands of the French there was a refinery of sugar; by

claying at least; upon almost every plantation。 Since it fell

into those of the English; almost all works of this kind have

been given tip; and there are at present; October 1773; I am

assured not above two or three remaining in the island。 At

present; however; by an indulgence of the custom…house; clayed or

refined sugar; if reduced from loaves into powder; is commonly

imported as Muskovado。

     While Great Britain encourages in America the manufactures

of pig and bar iron; by exempting them from duties to which the

like commodities are subject when imported from any other

country; she imposes an absolute prohibition upon the erection of

steel furnaces and slitmills in any of her American plantations。

She will not suffer her colonists to work in those more refined

manufactures even for their own consumption; but insists upon

their purchasing of her merchants and manufacturers all goods of

this kind which they have occasion for。

     She prohibits the exportation from one province to another

by water; and even the carriage by land upon horseback or in a

cart; of hats; of wools and woollen goods; of the produce of

America; a regulation which effectually prevents the

establishment of any manufacture of such commodities for distant

sale; and confines the industry of her colonists in this way to

such coarse and household manufactures as a private family

commonly makes for its own use or for that of some of its

neighbours in the same province。

     To prohibit a great people; however; from making all that

they can of every part of their own produce; or from employing

their stock and industry in the way that they judge most

advantageous to themselves; is a manifest violation of the most

sacred rights of mankind。 Unjust; however; as such prohibitions

may be; they have not hitherto been very hurtful to the colonies。

Land is still so cheap; and; consequently; labour so dear among

them; that they can import from the mother country almost all the

more refined or more advanced manufactures cheaper than they

could make for themselves。 Though they had not; therefore; been

prohibited from establishing such manufactures; yet in their

present state of improvement a regard to their own interest

would; probably; have prevented them from doing so。 In their

present state of improvement those prohibitions; perhaps; without

cramping their industry; or restraining it from any employment to

which it would have gone of its own accord; are only impertinent

badges of slavery imposed upon them; without any sufficient

reason; by the groundless jealousy of the merchants and

manufacturers of the mother country。 In a more advanced state

they might be really oppressive and insupportable。

     Great Britain too; as she confines to her own market some of

the most important productions of the colonies; so in

compensation she gives to some of them an advantage in that

market; sometimes by imposing higher duties upon the like

productions when imported from other countries; and sometimes by

giving bounties upon their importation from the colonies。 In the

first way she gives an advantage in the home market to the sugar;

tobacco; and iron of her own colonies; and in the second to their

raw silk; to their hemp and flax; to their indigo; to their naval

stores; and to their building timber。 This second way of

encouraging the colony produce by bounties upon importation; is;

so far as I have been able to learn; peculiar to Great Britain。

The first is not。 Portugal does not content herself with imposing

higher duties upon the importation of tobacco from any other

country; but prohibits it under the severest penalties。

     With regard to the importation of goods from Europe; England

has likewise dealt more liberally with her colonies than any

other nation。

     Great Britain allows a part; almost always the half;

generally a larger portion; and sometimes the whole of the duty

which is paid upon the importation of foreign goods; to be drawn

back upon their exportation to any foreign country。 No

independent foreign country; it was easy to foresee; would

receive them if they came to it loaded with the heavy duties to

which almost all foreign goods are subjected on their importation

into Great Britain。 Unless; therefore; some part of those duties

was drawn back upon exportation; there was an end of the carrying

trade; a trade so much favoured by the mercantile system。

     Our colonies; however; are by no means independe

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