Key Arguments

• Smith asserts that 'The maintenance of this monopoly has hitherto been the principal, or more properly, perhaps, the sole end and purpose of the dominion which Great Britain assumes over her colonies,' indicating that imperial governance is primarily organized around supporting exclusive trade.
• He observes that 'Whatever expense Great Britain has hitherto laid out in maintaining this dependency, has really been laid out in order to support this monopoly,' including the entire 'peace establishment' of twenty regiments, artillery, stores, provisions, and 'a very considerable naval force' guarding against smuggling along 'the immense coast of North America, and that of our West Indian islands.'
• The cost of this peace establishment 'was a charge upon the revenue of Great Britain, and was, at the same time, the smallest part of what the dominion of the colonies has cost the mother country,' since one must add the interest on all capital laid out for colonial defence.
• He explicitly attributes 'the whole expense of the late war'—'altogether a colony quarrel' amounting 'to more than ninety millions sterling'—to the colonies, as well as 'a great part' of the preceding Spanish war of 1739, 'principally a colony quarrel' about contraband trade.
• He concludes, 'This whole expense is, in reality, a bounty which has been given in order to support a monopoly,' debunking the 'pretended purpose' of encouraging manufacture and commerce.
• In reality, its effect 'has been to raise the rate of mercantile profit, and to enable our merchants to turn into a branch of trade, of which the returns are more slow and distant than those of the greater part of other trades, a greater proportion of their capital than they otherwise would have done.'
• He therefore states plainly: 'Under the present system of management, therefore, Great Britain derives nothing but loss from the dominion which she assumes over her colonies.'

Source Quotes

A clause in the famous act of navigation established this truly shopkeeper proposal into a law. The maintenance of this monopoly has hitherto been the principal, or more properly, perhaps, the sole end and purpose of the dominion which Great Britain assumes over her colonies. In the exclusive trade, it is supposed, consists the great advantage of provinces, which have never yet afforded either revenue or military force for the support of the civil government, or the defence of the mother country.

The monopoly is the principal badge of their dependency, and it is the sole fruit which has hitherto been gathered from that dependency. Whatever expense Great Britain has hitherto laid out in maintaining this dependency, has really been laid out in order to support this monopoly. The expense of the ordinary peace establishment of the colonies amounted, before the commencement of the present disturbances to the pay of twenty regiments of foot; to the expense of the artillery, stores, and extraordinary provisions, with which it was necessary to supply them; and to the expense of a very considerable naval force, which was constantly kept up, in order to guard from the smuggling vessels of other nations, the immense coast of North America, and that of our West Indian islands.

We must add to it, in particular, the whole expense of the late war, and a great part of that of the war which preceded it. The late war was altogether a colony quarrel; and the whole expense of it, in whatever part of the world it might have been laid out, whether in Germany or the East Indies, ought justly to be stated to the account of the colonies. It amounted to more than ninety millions sterling, including not only the new debt which was contracted, but the two shillings in the pound additional land tax, and the sums which were every year borrowed from the sinking fund.

Its principal object was to prevent the search of the colony ships, which carried on a contraband trade with the Spanish Main. This whole expense is, in reality, a bounty which has been given in order to support a monopoly. The pretended purpose of it was to encourage the manufactures, and to increase the commerce of Great Britain.

But its real effect has been to raise the rate of mercantile profit, and to enable our merchants to turn into a branch of trade, of which the returns are more slow and distant than those of the greater part of other trades, a greater proportion of their capital than they otherwise would have done; two events which, if a bounty could have prevented, it might perhaps have been very well worth while to give such a bounty. Under the present system of management, therefore, Great Britain derives nothing but loss from the dominion which she assumes over her colonies. To propose that Great Britain should voluntarily give up all authority over her colonies, and leave them to elect their own magistrates, to enact their own laws, and to make peace and war, as they might think proper, would be to propose such a measure as never was, and never will be, adopted by any nation in the world.

Key Concepts

• The maintenance of this monopoly has hitherto been the principal, or more properly, perhaps, the sole end and purpose of the dominion which Great Britain assumes over her colonies.
• Whatever expense Great Britain has hitherto laid out in maintaining this dependency, has really been laid out in order to support this monopoly.
• The late war was altogether a colony quarrel;
• This whole expense is, in reality, a bounty which has been given in order to support a monopoly.
• Under the present system of management, therefore, Great Britain derives nothing but loss from the dominion which she assumes over her colonies.

Context

Central evaluative passage where Smith tallies the military and fiscal costs of imperial dominion and reclassifies them as a concealed subsidy to the mercantile monopoly, concluding that the empire is a net loss to Britain.