友情提示:如果本网页打开太慢或显示不完整,请尝试鼠标右键“刷新”本网页!阅读过程发现任何错误请告诉我们,谢谢!! 报告错误
九色书籍 返回本书目录 我的书架 我的书签 TXT全本下载 进入书吧 加入书签

wealbk04-第46章

按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!



price gives an encouragement to the former beyond what the latter

can in these circumstances enjoy。 The exclusive trade of the

colonies; therefore; as it diminishes; or at least keeps down

below what they would otherwise rise to; both the enjoyments and

the industry of the countries which do not possess it; so it

gives an evident advantage to the countries which do possess it

over those other countries。

     This advantage; however; will perhaps be found to be rather

what may be called a relative than an absolute advantage; and to

give a superiority to the country which enjoys it rather by

depressing the industry and produce of other countries than by

raising those of that particular country above what they would

naturally rise to in the case of a free trade。

     The tobacco of Maryland and Virginia; for example; by means

of the monopoly which England enjoys of it; certainly comes

cheaper to England than it can do to France; to whom England

commonly sells a considerable part of it。 But had France; and all

other European countries been; at all times; allowed a free trade

to Maryland and Virginia; the tobacco of those colonies might; by

this time; have come cheaper than it actually does; not only to

all those other countries; but likewise to England。 The produce

of tobacco; in consequence of a market so much more extensive

than any which it has hitherto enjoyed; might; and probably

would; by this time; have been so much increased as to reduce the

profits of a tobacco plantation to their natural level with those

of a corn plantation; which; it is supposed; they are still

somewhat above。 The price of tobacco might; and probably would;

by this time; have fallen somewhat lower than it is at present。

An equal quantity of the commodities either of England or of

those other countries might have purchased in Maryland and

Virginia a greater quantity of tobacco than it can do at present;

and consequently have been sold there for so much a better price。

So far as that weed; therefore; can; by its cheapness and

abundance; increase the enjoyments or augment the industry either

of England or of any other country; it would; probably; in the

case of a free trade; have produced both these effects in

somewhat a greater degree than it can do at present。 England;

indeed; would not in this case have had any advantage over other

countries。 She might have bought the tobacco of her colonies

somewhat cheaper; and consequently have sold some of her own

commodities somewhat dearer than she actually does。 But she could

neither have bought the one cheaper nor sold the other dearer

than any other country might have done。 She might; perhaps have

gained an absolute; but she would certainly have lost a relative

advantage。

     In order; however; to obtain this relative advantage in the

colony trade; in order to execute the invidious and malignant

project of excluding as much as possible other nations from any

share in it; England; there are very probable reasons for

believing; has not only sacrificed a part of the absolute

advantage which she; as well as every other nation; might have

derived from that trade; but has subjected herself both to an

absolute and to a relative disadvantage in almost every other

branch of trade。

     When; by the Act of Navigation; England assumed to herself

the monopoly of the colony trade; the foreign capitals which had

before been employed in it were necessarily withdrawn from it。

The English capital; which had before carried on but a part of

it; was now to carry on the whole。 The capital which had before

supplied the colonies with but a part of the goods which they

wanted from Europe was now all that was employed to supply them

with the whole。 But it could not supply them with the whole; and

the goods with which it did supply them were necessarily sold

very dear。 The capital which had before bought but a part of the

surplus produce of the colonies; was now all that was employed to

buy the whole。 But it could not buy the whole at anything near

the old price; and; therefore; whatever it did buy it necessarily

bought very cheap。 But in an employment of capital in which the

merchant sold very dear and bought very cheap; the profit must

have been very great; and much above the ordinary level of profit

in other branches of trade。 This superiority of profit in the

colony trade could not fail to draw from other branches of trade

a part of the capital which had before been employed in them。 But

this revulsion of capital; as it must have gradually increased

the competition of capitals in the colony trade; so it must have

gradually diminished that competition in all those other branches

of trade; as it must have gradually lowered the profits of the

one; so it must have gradually raised those of the other; till

the profits of all came to a new level; different from and

somewhat higher than that at which they had been before。

     This double effect of drawing capital from all other trades;

and of raising the rate of profit somewhat higher than it

otherwise would have been in all trades; was not only produced by

this monopoly upon its first establishment; but has continued to

be produced by it ever since。

     First; this monopoly has been continually drawing capital

from all other trades to be employed in that of the colonies。

     Though the wealth of Great Britain has increased very much

since the establishment of the Act of Navigation; it certainly

has not increased in the same proportion as that of the colonies。

But the foreign trade of every country naturally increases in

proportion to its wealth; its surplus produce in proportion to

its whole produce; and Great Britain having engrossed to herself

almost the whole of what may be called the foreign trade of the

colonies; and her capital not having increased in the same

proportion as the extent of that trade; she could not carry it on

without continually withdrawing from other branches of trade some

part of the capital which had before been employed in them as

well as withholding from them a great deal more which would

otherwise have gone to them。 Since the establishment of the Act

of Navigation; accordingly; the colony trade has been continually

increasing; while many other branches of foreign trade;

particularly of that to other parts of Europe; have been

continually decaying。 Our manufactures for foreign sale; instead

of being suited; as before the Act of Navigation; to the

neighbouring market of Europe; or to the more distant one of the

countries which lie round the Mediterranean Sea; have; the

greater part of them; been accommodated to the still more distant

one of the colonies; to the market in which they have the

monopoly rather than to that in which they have many competitors。

The causes of decay in other branches of foreign trade; which; by

Sir Matthew Decker and other writers; have been sought for in the

excess and improper mode of taxation; in the high price of

labour; in the increase of luxury; etc。; may all be found in the

overgrowth of the colony trade。 The mercantile capital of Great

Britain; though very great; yet not being infinite; and though

greatly increased since the Act of Navigation; yet not being

increased in the same proportion as the colony trade; that trade

could not possibly be carried on without withdrawing some part of

that capital from other branches of trade; nor consequently

without some decay of those other branches。

     England; it must be observed; was a great trading country;

her mercantile capital was very great and likely to become still

greater and greater every day; not only before the Act of

Navigation had established the monopoly of the colony trade; but

before that trade was very considerable。 In the Dutch war; during

the government of Cromwell; her navy was superior to that of

Holland; and in that which broke out in the beginning of the

reign of Charles II; it was at last equal; perhaps superior; to

the united navies of France and Holland。 Its superiority;

perhaps; would scarce appear greater in the present times; at

least if the Dutch navy was to bear the same proportion to the

Dutch commerce now which it did then。 But this great naval power

could not; in either of those wars; be owing to the Act of

Navigation。 During the first of them the plan of that act had

been but just formed; and though before the breaking out of the

second it had been fully enacted by legal authority; yet no part

of it could have had time to produce any considerable effect; and

least of all that part which established the exclusive trade to

the colonies。 Both the colonies and their trade were

inconsiderable then in comparison of what they are now。 The

island of Jamaica was an unwholesome desert; little inhabited;

and less cultivated。 New York and New Jersey were in the

possession of the Dutch: the half of St。 Christopher's in that of

the French。 The island of Antigua; the two Carolinas;

Pennsylvania; Georgia; and Nova Scotia were not planted。

Virginia; Maryland; and New England were planted; a
返回目录 上一页 下一页 回到顶部 0 0
未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!
温馨提示: 温看小说的同时发表评论,说出自己的看法和其它小伙伴们分享也不错哦!发表书评还可以获得积分和经验奖励,认真写原创书评 被采纳为精评可以获得大量金币、积分和经验奖励哦!