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and Portugal, are fuch as would alone be fuffi- CHAP. cient to perpetuate their present state of poverty, even though their regulations of commerce were as wife as the greater part of them are abfurd and foolish.

The 13th of the prefent King, c. 43. feems to have established a new fyftem with regard to the corn laws, in many respects better than the ancient one, but in one or two refpects perhaps not quite fo good.

By this ftatute the high duties upon importation for home confumption are taken off fo foon. as the price of middling wheat rifes to fortyeight fhillings the quarter; that of middling rye, pease or beans, to thirty-two fhillings; that of barley to twenty-four fhillings; and that of oats to fixteen fhillings; and inftead of them a fmall duty is impofed of only fix-pence upon the quarter of wheat, and upon that of other grain in proportion. With regard to all thefe different forts of grain, but particularly with regard to wheat, the home market is thus opened to foreign fupplies at prices confiderably lower than before.

By the fame ftatute the whole bounty of five fhillings upon the exportation of wheat ceafes fo foon as the price rifes to forty-four fhillings the quarter, inftead of forty-eight, the price at which it ceafed before; that of two fhillings and fixpence upon the exportation of barley ceafes fo foon as the price rifes to twenty-two fhillings, inftead of twenty-four, the price at which it ceafed

VOL. III.

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J

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BOOK ceafed before; that of two fhillings and fix-pence upon the exportation of oatmeal ceafes fo foon as the price rifes to fourteen fhillings, instead of fifteen, the price at which it ceafed before. The bounty upon rye is reduced from three fhillings and fixpence to three fhillings, and it ceafes fo foon as the price rifes to twenty-eight fhillings, instead of thirty-two, the price at which it ceased before. If bounties are as improper as I have endeavoured to prove them to be, the fooner they ceafe, and the lower they are, fo much the better.

The fame ftatute permits, at the lowest prices, the importation of corn, in order to be exported again, duty free, provided it is in the mean time lodged in a warehoufe under the joint locks of the King and the importer. This liberty, indeed, extends to no more than twenty-five of the different ports of Great Britain. They are, however, the principal ones, and there may not, perhaps, be warehouses proper for this purpose in the greater part of the others.

So far this law feems evidently an improvement upon the ancient fyftem.

But by the fame law a bounty of two fhillings the quarter is given for the exportation of oats whenever the price does not exceed fourteen fhillings. No bounty had ever been given before for the exportation of this grain, no more than for that of peafe or beans.

By the fame law too, the exportation of wheat is prohibited fo foon as the price rifes to forty

four

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four fhillings the quarter; that of rye fo foon as CHA P. it rifes to twenty-eight fhillings; that of barley fo foon as it rifes to twenty-two fhillings; and that of oats fo foon as they rife to fourteen fhillings. Those feveral prices feem all of them a good deal too low, and there feems to be an impropriety, beiides, in prohibiting exportation altogether at those precife prices at which that bounty, which was given in order to force it, is withdrawn. The bounty ought certainly either to have been withdrawn at a much lower price, or exportation ought to have been allowed at a much higher.

So far, therefore, this law feems to be inferior to the ancient fyftem. With all its imperfections, however, we may perhaps fay of it what was faid of the laws of Solon, that, though not the best in itself, it is the best which the interests, prejudices, and temper of the times would admit of. It may perhaps in due time prepare the way for

a better.

W

CHAP. VI.

Of Treaties of Commerce.

HEN a nation binds itself by treaty either CHA P. to permit the entry of certain goods

from one foreign country which it prohibits from all others, or to exempt the goods of one country from duties to which it fubjects thofe of all others,

Y 2

the

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IV.

BOOK the country, or at least the merchants and manufacturers of the country, whofe commerce is fo favoured, muft neceffarily derive great advantage from the treaty. Thofe merchants and manufacturers enjoy a fort of monopoly in the country which is fo indulgent to them. That country becomes a market both more extenfive and more advantageous for their goods: more extenfive, because the goods of other nations being either excluded or fubjected to heavier duties, it takes off a greater quantity of theirs more advantageous, because the merchants of the favoured country, enjoying a fort of monopoly there, will often fell their goods for a better price than if expofed to the free competition of all other nations.

Such treaties, however, though they may be advantageous to the merchants and manufacturers of the favoured, are neceffarily difadvantageous to thofe of the favouring country. A monopoly is thus granted againft them to a foreign nation; and they must frequently buy the foreign goods they have occafion for, dearer than if the free competition of other nations was admitted. That part of its own produce with which fuch a nation purchases foreign goods, muft confequently be fold cheaper, because when two things are exchanged for one another, the cheapness of the one is a neceffary confequence, or rather is the fame thing with the dearness of the other. The exchangeable value of its annual produce, therefore, is likely to be diminished by every fuch treaty. This diminution, however,

VI.

can scarce amount to any positive lofs, but only CHAP. to a leffening of the gain which it might otherwife make. Though it fells its goods cheaper than it otherwise might do, it will not probably fell them for lefs than they coft; nor, as in the cafe of bounties, for a price which will not replace the capital employed in bringing them to market, together with the ordinary profits of ftock. The trade could not go on long if it did. Even the favouring country, therefore, may ftill gain by the trade, though less than if there was a free competition.

Some treaties of commerce, however, have been fuppofed advantageous upon principles very different from thefe; and a commercial country has fometimes granted a monopoly of this kind against itself to certain goods of a foreign nation, because it expected that in the whole commerce between them, it would annually fell more than it would buy, and that a balance in gold and filver would be annually returned to it. It is upon this principle that the treaty of commerce between England and Portugal, concluded in 1703, by Mr. Methuen, has been fo much commended. The following is a literal tranflation of that treaty, which confifts of three articles only :

ART. I.

His Sacred Royal Majefty of Portugal promifes, both in his own name, and that of his fucceffors, to admit, for ever hereafter, into