IV.

BOOK from making very exorbitant profits. Under fo liberal a policy the colonies are enabled both to fell their own produce and to buy the goods of Europe at a reasonable price. But fince the diffolution of the Plymouth company, when our colonies were but in their infancy, this has always been the policy of England. It has generally too been that of France, and has been uniformly fo fince the diffolution of what, in England, is commonly called their Miffiffippi company. The profits of the trade, therefore, which France and England carry on with their colonies, though no doubt fomewhat higher than if the competition was free to all other nations, are, however, by no means exorbitant; and the price of European goods accordingly is not extravagantly high in the greater part of the colonies of either of those nations.

In the exportation of their own furplus produce too, it is only with regard to certain commodities that the colonies of Great Britain are confined to the market of the mother country. These commodities having been enumerated in the act of navigation and in fome other fubfequent acts, have upon that account been called enumerated commodities. The reft are called nonenumerated; and may be exported directly to other countries, provided it is in British or Plantation fhips, of which the owners and threefourths of the mariners are British subjects.

Among the non-enumerated commodities are fome of the most important productions of Ame

rica and the Weft Indies; grain of all forts, CHA P. lumber, falt provisions, fish, fugar, and rum.

Grain is naturally the first and principal object of the culture of all new colonies. By allowing them a very extensive market for it, the law encourages them to extend this culture much beyond the consumption of a thinly inhabited country, and thus to provide beforehand an ample fubfiftence for a continually increafing population.

In a country quite covered with wood, where timber confequently is of little or no value, the expence of clearing the ground is the principal obftacle to improvement. By allowing the colonies a very extenfive market for their lumber, the law endeavours to facilitate improvement by raifing the price of a commodity which would otherwise be of little value, and thereby enabling them to make fome profit of what would otherwife be mere expence.

In a country neither half-peopled nor halfcultivated, cattle naturally multiply beyond the confumption of the inhabitants, and are often upon that account of little or no value. But it is neceffary, it has already been fhewn, that the price of cattle fhould bear a certain proportion to that of corn before the greater part of the lands of any country can be improved. By allowing to American cattle, in all fhapes, dead and alive, a very extenfive market, the law endeavours to raise the value of a commodity of which the high price is fo very effential to improvement. The good effects of this liberty,

however,

VII.

BOOK however, must be somewhat diminished by the IV. 4th of George III. c. 15. which puts hides and

fkins among the enumerated commodities, and thereby tends to reduce the value of American cattle.

To increase the fhipping and naval power of Great Britain, by the extenfion of the fisheries of our colonies, is an object which the legislature feems to have had almost constantly in view. Thofe fisheries, upon this account, have had all the encouragement which freedom can give them, and they have flourished accordingly. The New England fifhery in particular was, before the late disturbances, one of the most important, perhaps, in the world. The whalefishery which, notwithstanding an extravagant bounty, is in Great Britain carried on to fo little purpose, that in the opinion of many people (which I do not, however, pretend to warrant) the whole produce does not much exceed the value of the bounties which are annually paid for it, is in New England carried on without any bounty to a very great extent. Fifh is one of the principal articles with which the North Americans trade to Spain, Portugal, and the Mediterranean.

Sugar was originally an enumerated commodity which could be exported only to Great Britain. But in 1731, upon a representation of the fugar planters, its exportation was permitted to all parts of the world. The reftrictions, however, with which this liberty was granted, joined to the high price of fugar in Great Britain, have rendered

VII.

rendered it, in a great meafure, ineffectual. CHA P. Great Britain and her colonies ftill continue to be almoft the fole market for all the fugar produced in the British plantations. Their confumption increafes fo faft, that, though in confequence of the increafing improvement of Jamaica, as well as of the Ceded Iflands, the importation of fugar has increafed very greatly within thefe twenty years, the exportation to foreign countries is faid to be not much greater than before.

Rum is a very important article in the trade which the Americans carry on to the coaft of Africa, from which they bring back negro flaves in return.

If the whole furplus produce of America in grain of all forts, in falt provifions, and in fish, had been put into the enumeration, and thereby forced into the market of Great Britain, it would have interfered too much with the produce of the industry of our own people. It was probably not fo much from any regard to the intereft of America, as from a jealoufy of this interference, that thofe important commodities have not only been kept out of the enumeration, but that the importation into Great Britain of all grain, except rice, and of falt provifions, has, in the ordinary ftate of the law, been prohibited.

The non-enumerated commodities could originally be exported to all parts of the world. Lumber and rice, having been once put into the enumeration, when they were afterwards taken out of it, were confined, as to the European market, to the countries that lie fouth of Cape Finisterre.

IV.

BOOK Finisterre. By the 6th of George III. c. 52. all non-enumerated commodities were subjected to the like restriction. The parts of Europe which lie fouth of Cape Finisterre, are not manufacturing countries, and we were lefs jealous of the colony ships carrying home from them any manufactures which could interfere with our own.

The enumerated commodities are of two forts: firft, fuch as are either the peculiar produce of America, or as cannot be produced, or at leaft are not produced, in the mother country. Of this kind are, melaffes, coffee, cocoa-nuts, to bacco, pimento, ginger, whale-fins, raw filk, cotton-wool, beaver and other peltry of Ame rica, indigo, fuftic, and other dying woods: fecondly, fuch as are not the peculiar produce of America, but which are and may be produced in the mother country, though not in fuch quantities as to fupply the greater part of her demand, which is principally fupplied from foreign countries. Of this kind are all naval ftores, mafts, yards, and bowfprits, tar, pitch, and turpentine, pig and bar iron, copper ore, hides and skins, pot and pearl ashes. The largest importation of commodities of the first kind could not discourage the growth or interfere with the fale of any part of the produce of the mother country. By confining them to the home market, our merchants, it was expected, would not only be enabled to buy them cheaper in the Plantations, and confequently to fell them with a better profit at home, but to establish between the Plantations and foreign countries an advantageous carrying trade,

3