A PROJECT OF EMPIRE

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
LONDON • BOMBAY CALCUTTA

MELBOURNE

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO

ATLANTA. SAN FRANCISCO

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.

TORONTO

A

PROJECT OF EMPIRE

A CRITICAL STUDY OF THE ECONOMICS OF

IMPERIALISM, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE

TO THE IDEAS OF ADAM SMITH

BY

J. SHIELD NICHOLSON

M.A., D.Sc., F.B.A.

PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL ECONOMY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH

The rulers of Great Britain have, for more than a century past,
amused the people with the imagination that they possessed a great
empire on the west side of the Atlantic. This empire, however, has
hitherto existed in imagination only. It has hitherto been, not an
empire, but the project of an empire ; not a gold mine, but the project
of a gold mine.-ADAM SMITH.

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON