The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 01 (of 12)Burke, Edmund
Philosophy
The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 01 (of 12)
Burke, Edmund
Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1760-1820; Political science -- Early works to 1800
If the opinion and wish of the landed interest is a motive, and it is a
fair and just one, for taking away a real and large revenue, the desire
of the trading interest of England ought to be a just ground for taking
away a tax of little better than speculation, which was to be collected
by a war, which was to be kept up with the perpetual discontent of those
who were to be affected by it, and the value of whose produce even after
the _ordinary_ charges of collection, was very uncertain;[87] after the
_extraordinary_, the dearest purchased revenue that ever was made by any
nation.
These were some of the motives drawn from principles of convenience for
that repeal. When the object came to be more narrowly inspected, every
motive concurred. These colonies were evidently founded in subservience
to the commerce of Great Britain. From this principle, the whole system
of our laws concerning them became a system of restriction. A double
monopoly was established on the part of the parent country; 1. A
monopoly of their whole import, which is to be altogether from Great
Britain; 2. A monopoly of all their export, which is to be nowhere but
to Great Britain, as far as it can serve any purpose here. On the same
idea it was contrived that they should send all their products to us
raw, and in their first state; and that they should take everything from
us in the last stage of manufacture.
Were ever a people under such circumstances, that is, a people who were
to export raw, and to receive manufactured, and this, not a few
luxurious articles, but all articles, even to those of the grossest,
most vulgar, and necessary consumption, a people who were in the hands
of a general monopolist, were ever such a people suspected of a
possibility of becoming a just object of revenue? All the ends of their
foundation must be supposed utterly contradicted before they could
become such an object. Every trade law we have made must have been
eluded, and become useless, before they could be in such a condition.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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