Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

such a policy "the sneaking arts of underling tradesmen are erected into political maxims for the conduct of a great empire. . . . By such maxims as these, nations have been taught that their interest consisted in beggaring their neighbours. Each nation has been made to look with an invidious eye upon the prosperity of all the nations with which it trades, and to consider their gain its own loss. Commerce which ought naturally to be among nations as among individuals a bond of union and friendship has become the most fertile source of discord and animosity. The capricious ambition of kings and ministers has not during the present and the preceding centuries been more fatal to the repose of Europe than the impertinent jealousy of merchants and manufacturers." 1 The empire projected by Adam Smith was an empire with a world-wide commerce flowing in natural channels; an empire capable in case of need of insisting on the removal of obstructions from these channels and capable also of itself placing obstructions if demanded by the supreme interests of imperial defence. But the minute supervision and management of the multitudinous transactions of foreign commerce was a task not to be entrusted to "any senate whatever," and still less to the "states general" of a great empire.

With foreign trade as with currency the best system is that which is automatic in its adjustments ; the worst that which requires most management. In both cases the state has duties of the highest im

1 Book IV. chap. iii.

portance, but the duties are best fulfilled by permanent regulations on broad principles.

In treating of the commercial relations of the states of the empire inter se, and of the whole empire to foreign states, attention has been mainly given to fiscal considerations. But there are many important functions of the state which would be better carried out by an imperial union than by independent action, e.g. the consular service, the control of the means of communication and transport, the general management of mails and telegraphs, subsidies of various kinds for defence, the regulation of emigration and immigration, the treatment of subject native races, etc.

A customs union might, by promoting closer imperial union, aid in the furtherance of these objects, just as it might aid in the adoption of internal free trade. And in spite of all the difficulties, a customs union on the lines approved by Adam Smith ought to be possible if only the idea of imperial union is once accepted.

§ 11. The Project of an Empire.

The outstanding merit of Adam Smith was his breadth of view; he ranged in search of facts over every country and every period; and he was not afraid to project his ideas into the future. Many of these projections have been realised; some are in process of being realised; his project of an empire is still a project. The project was outlined when, by the stress of events, the choice seemed inevitable

between disintegration and real union. It is not
often, in the history of nations, that such a choice
is twice offered; yet to-day it is offered to the
British people under circumstances that once more
convert the project of an empire into a practical
proposition. In parting, let us look at the main
objects free from detail; imperial defence, to which
every nation or dominion or
or commonwealth or
dependency or possession contributes its share; a
system of representation by which every responsible
constituent of the empire has a voice in the control
of the concerns of the whole; an immense internal
market for every part of the produce of all the con-
stituents; a customs union and a common policy in
commercial relations with other countries; a policy
adverse to every kind of monopoly, and favourable
to everything that increases the revenue and the
prosperity of the great body of the people throughout
the empire.1

1 See above, Chapter XIV. § 8, n.

[ocr errors]

Advantage-

Profit-

INDEX

Coincident with, 73-4, 75-6
Distinguished from, 49, 53 n.,
62-3, 71, 76, 85-6, 96, 176, 200,
224-5, 235

Test of, the employment of produc-
tive labour, 85, 92
Agriculture-

Advantages of, natural and social,
46-8, 74-5, 145

America, in-Carver quoted, 147
and n.; Hamilton cited, 250
Artificial encouragement of, unde-
sirable, 149

Colonies, British, in, protective
policy harmful to, 250
Combinations of those engaged in,
conditions hostile to, 140, 144
Decline in numbers engaged in, in
Great Britain (1811-41), 148
Encouragement of, methods of, ap-
proved by A. Smith, 150
Free imports of produce of the soil
innocuous to, 99 n., 146
German protection of, 160, 174
Home market's importance to, 56
and n.2

Land laws, A. Smith's views regard-
ing, 144, 150

Monopoly in the sphere of, 144-5
Neglect of, for greater profits, 71
Profits of, low, 74-5

Ashley, Prof., Economic Surveys by,

cited, 15 n., 201-3

Australia-

Consumer in, position of, 128
Protection in, 92, 173-4

Bargaining, townsmen's advantages
regarding, 48

Bentham cited, 255

Bogart, Dr. E. L., Economic History of
the United States by, quoted, 259 n.

[blocks in formation]
« AnteriorContinuar »