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is one part of our ideal to be an extended trade that shall reach the remotest corners of the earth? The full answer to this question takes us beyond the range of economic ideas, for we must take account of the indirect political and social effects of this everextending commerce.

The greater the extension of the commerce of the British empire so much the greater would be its moral and political influence in promoting the general advance of civilisation.1

Even on narrow economic grounds, however, it is true of great empires, as of small nations, that the richer the neighbours the richer the state-and this indirect accession to opulence can only be realised by the extension of commerce.

No one has appreciated more than Adam Smith the advantages of the employment of capital in the home country and the importance of the home market; but at the same time no one has shown more clearly the real advantages of foreign trade. He condemned the policy of isolation by prohibitions; he condemned also the calculating policy of giving special favours to the nations which were supposed to be the better customers for our manufactures. By

1 c In the case of the British possessions there are strong reasons for maintaining the present slight bond of connection. . . . It has the advantage, specially valuable at the present time, of adding to the moral influence and weight in the councils of the world of the Power which of all in existence best understands liberty, and whatever may have been its errors in the past, has attained to more of conscience and moral principle in its dealings with foreigners than any other great nation seems either to conceive as possible or recognise as desirable" (J. S. Mill, Representative Government, p. 133). If for the slight bond of connection there were substituted a real union so much greater would the influence become.

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.

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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 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 constituents; 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.

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