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.But the colony government of all these three nationsis conducted upon a much more expensive ceremonial.The sumsspent upon the reception of a new viceroy of Peru, for example,have frequently been enormous.Such ceremonials are not onlyreal taxes paid by the rich colonists upon those particularoccasions, but they serve to introduce among them the habit ofvanity and expense upon all other occasions.They are not onlyvery grievous occasional taxes, but they contribute to establishperpetual taxes of the same kind still more grievous; the ruinoustaxes of private luxury and extravagance.In the colonies of allthose three nations too, the ecclesiastical government is extremelyoppressive.Tithes take place in all of them, and are levied with theutmost rigour in those of Spain and Portugal.All of them, besides,are oppressed with a numerous race of mendicant friars, whosebeggary being not only licensed but consecrated by religion, is amost grievous tax upon the poor people, who are most carefullytaught that it is a duty to give, and a very great sin to refuse themtheir charity.Over and above all this, the clergy are, in all of them,the greatest engrossers of land.Fourthly, in the disposal of their surplus produce, or of what isAdam Smith ElecBook ClassicsThe Wealth of Nations: Book 4 759over and above their own consumption, the English colonies havebeen more favoured, and have been allowed a more extensivemarket, than those of any other European nation.Every Europeannation has endeavoured more or less to monopolise to itself thecommerce of its colonies, and, upon that account, has prohibitedthe ships of foreign nations from trading to them, and hasprohibited them from importing European goods from any foreignnation.But the manner in which this monopoly has beenexercised in different nations has been very different.Some nations have given up the whole commerce of theircolonies to an exclusive company, of whom the colonists wereobliged to buy all such European goods as they wanted, and towhom they were obliged to sell the whole of their own surplusproduce.It was the interest of the company, therefore, not only tosell the former as dear, and to buy the latter as cheap as possible,but to buy no more of the latter, even at this low price than whatthey could dispose of for a very high price in Europe.It was theirinterest, not only to degrade in all cases the value of the surplusproduce of the colony, but in many cases to discourage and keepdown the natural increase of its quantity.Of all the expedients thatcan well be contrived to stunt the natural growth of a new colony,that of an exclusive company is undoubtedly the most effectual.This, however, has been the policy of Holland, though theircompany, in the course of the present century, has given up inmany respects the exertion of their exclusive privilege.This, too,was the policy of Denmark till the reign of the late king.* It hasoccasionally been the policy of France, and of late, since 1755, after*Frederick V.Adam Smith ElecBook ClassicsThe Wealth of Nations: Book 4 760it had been abandoned by all other nations on account of itsabsurdity, it has become the policy of Portugal with regard at leastto two of the principal provinces of Brazil, Fernambuco andMarannon.Other nations, without establishing an exclusive company, haveconfined the whole commerce of their colonies to a particular portof the mother country, from whence no ship was allowed to sail,but either in a fleet and at a particular season, or, if single, inconsequence of a particular licence, which in most cases was verywell paid for.This policy opened, indeed, the trade of the coloniesto all the natives of the mother country, provided they traded fromthe proper port, at the proper season, and in the proper vessels.But as all the different merchants, who joined their stocks in orderto fit out those licensed vessels, would find it for their interest toact in concert, the trade which was carried on in this mannerwould necessarily be conducted very nearly upon the sameprinciples as that of an exclusive company.The profit of thosemerchants would be almost equally exorbitant and oppressive.The colonies would be ill supplied, and would be obliged both tobuy very dear, and to sell very cheap.This, however, till withinthese few years, had always been the policy of Spain, and the priceof all European goods, accordingly, is said to have been enormousin the Spanish West Indies.At Quito, we are told by Ulloa, a poundof iron sold for about four and sixpence, and a pound of steel forabout six and ninepence sterling.But it is chiefly in order topurchase European goods that the colonies part with their ownproduce.The more, therefore, they pay for the one, the less theyreally get for the other, and the dearness of the one is the samething with the cheapness of the other.The policy of Portugal is inAdam Smith ElecBook ClassicsThe Wealth of Nations: Book 4 761this respect the same as the ancient policy of Spain with regard toall its colonies, except Fernambuco and Marannon, and withregard to these it has lately adopted a still worse [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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