AN ESSAY ON THE SOUTH SEA TRADE; WITH AN INQUIRY INTO THE GROUNDS AND REASONS OF THE PRESENT DISLIKE AND COMPLAINT AGAINST THE SETTLEMENT OF A SOUTH SEA COMPANY. BY THE AUTHOR OF THE REVIEW. LONDON: PRINTED FOR 1. baker, AT THE BLACK BOY, PATERNOSTER ROW. LONDON: REPRINTED BY CHARLES REYNELL, LITTLE PULTENEY STREET; AND PUBLISHED BY J. CLEMENTS, AT 21 AND 22, IN THE SAME STREET. MDCCCXLII. AN ESSAY ON THE SOUTH SEA TRADE, ETC. A NEW trade being now to be set on foot, and in Yet, notwithstanding all this, such is the evil a new manner, with a capital stock, and by the genius of our times, that now such an undertaking encouragement of the government, it has been long is set on foot, either it is so ill digested, or the expected when some able pen would have under-persons ushering it into the world are thought so taken to guide the people of this unsettled age, disagreeable or unskilful, or the thing itself so how to think about it. ill placed in our view, that no undertaking of the There has not been in our memory an under-kind has met with such a fate as this; and if it taking of such consequence, and so generally to must go on, it seems thronged with difficulties, be engaged in; nor has there been an undertaking calculated to destroy it in its infancy. about which the people, even those who are to be concerned, have been so uneasy, their opinions of it so confused, and their knowledge of the manner and circumstances of it so small. There has not been an undertaking in this age introduced in such a method, against which so many people, upon so differing foundations, are pleased (perhaps some of them hardly knowing why) to oppose themselves. Before it was formed it had the general suffrage of all mankind, every man talked of it as a thing fit to be undertaken, worthy of the encouragement of parliament, government, Queen, and nation; the omitting it was taxed in print as a token of national blindness, and a want of judgment in the ministry or managers of all the past years of this war. The advantages the French made of it were looked upon as the great supports of the war to them, and what encouraged them to carry it on; and we were reckoned unaccountably negligent in that either we did not make those advantages ourselves, or prevent the enemy from making use of them against us. Several public printed pamphlets, disposed to ridicule the carrying on a war in Spain, have laid down this as the main point, which the first contrivers of that war should have attempted instead of it, and have made a jest of their politics for the defect; and when the great quantities of silver which the French squadrons and private merchant ships have brought home from the South Seas have been spoken of, it has been frequently accompanied with reflections and a general regret that those happy advantages should pass by us; alleging that the English nation, who are so much better qualified every way, both by their manufactures to trade with, islands to trade from, and naval strength to manage and protect that trade, should so long lie still, and leave unattempted a trade, which in the enemy's hands is so fatal to us, and which in our hands might be so fatal to them. It is needful therefore with the utmost impartiality to inquire into the case, and see where the objections lie; for against the trade itself, quasi a trade to the South Seas, nobody will, or can, raise an objection; the objection must be founded either on The manner, The method, The persons, The time of its introduction, or against some part of the proposed scheme of carrying on this trade. To inquire out this, to weigh duly the substance of the objections, and set the whole in a true light, that we may determine whether this trade is to be carried on, or no, is the design of this essay. The act of parliament, which gives the power and limits the extent of this new trade, has given it birth and a name, but has not in the least directed in what posture the persons to be concerned shall put themselves, in what manner they shall carry it on, how they shall proceed, or where they shall begin'; nor was it necessary that this should be made any part of the foundation, which principally belongs to the superstructer. The power of an act of parliament was necessary to establish a company, to give them exclusive privileges, to limit and restrain these privileges, and settle bounds between them and other trades; but how this trade is to be begun, how carried on, where they shall fix their footing, from whence to go on progressively, to the end designed, this it left entirely to the dispose of the body, to whom the power and the privilege of such trade is deputed. Now, though in the order of things we see nothing can be objected against the regularity of this proceeding, yet this seeming on one hand to leave the world in the dark, as to the manner of carrying on this trade, has on the other hand, filled us with the crude and indigested, or ill-digested notions and guesses of the town, every man giving his own opinion in such a manner, that from the variety of proposals which every one makes, from the difficulties raised, and from the objections brought up against the manner of carrying on this trade, we are now brought, by unhappy degrees, to all manner of confusion of thoughts about it, and from everybody laying down a way how to carry it on, to everybody crowding in their suspicions, their suggestions of this and that being impracticable, and the other too hazardous; one way not safe, another not just, a third not feasible, and the like; as if, because ye are not at a certainty which way it shall be done, or which is the best way to do it, that therefore it cannot be done at all. Whether it be the real opinion of these objectors that the thing is impracticable in itself, or whether some men, for reasons worse grounded, think it convenient, if possible, to have it appear so, is not the present debate; if the mist may be taken off by cool reasoning, and people brought to see by a clear light, they will be the less influenced by the design of any who may find it convenient, for other purposes, that this case should be as much perplexed as possible. To this end this short tract is made public, in which, if the case may be stated clearly, the false glosses, mists, and shadows, with which this age is amused, taken away, and the prejudices of people on either hand removed, perhaps we may come to a right understanding of the case. Having premised this by way of introduction, it seems naturally to lead the reader to a view of the doubts now started among us about this trade. 1. Whether this trade to the South Seas can be carried on, or no? 2. Whether the manner of proposing this trade be rational and just? It seems indispensably necessary to inquire into these things first, before we meddle with the manner how it is to be carried on, since the objections that seem most to perplex the town now, whether by design or no, are laid against the thing in general, that it will come to nothing, that it is a chimera, a sham, has nothing in it, is impracticable, will be dropped again, was taken up to serve a turn, and the like. The allegations to sustain this are such as these: 1. They say the scheme is impracticable; that you propose a thing not to be done; impossible in the general notions of trade; that this was not a season for it; that the countries you propose to trade with are in the possession of the French and Spaniards, our declared enemies; that it is time enough to talk of trading thither when you have some of the country in possession; that conquering nations is a work which does not belong to merchants and companies, whose stock will be exhausted by any attempt of that kind; that to talk of trade before conquest, and conquest before any attempt made, are equally ridiculous. 2. That when any part of this country may be taken from the enemy and possessed, it ought to be proved that the enemy shall not be in any manner able to dispossess you again, to attack or molest you; in which case commerce and trade will not only be interrupted, but entirely disappointed. 3. That neither of the nations who possess South America, viz. the French or Spaniards, will ever capitulate with you, or upon any terms, whether in peace or war, consent to a free trade, and therefore it cannot be expected that the scheme, as it is proposed, can answer the ends of trade. 4. That it is evident the affair of trade was not the main end of the proposal, but other aims are couched under this pretence, which other aims are not pleasing to the parties concerned, and therefore were glossed over with this pretended advantage, to make them pass the more easily and undiscovered with the people; but that the pretence being equally liable to objection, as the thing designed, so both together render the minds of the people more uneasy than they were before. The second question lies against the manner of proposing this trade, which they say is violent and unusual, a force upon the people against their will, inconsistent with their liberty, and that therefore it is entered upon with a general dissatisfaction, cursed by them that are to go into it, hated by those that refuse it, and ridiculed by all; that it is a mere project of a party, a contrivance to serve the turn they are carrying on by it, and to put a face of payment upon a debt which they know not what to do with, and which made them uneasy; and all this without a reality, that they might stifle the clamour of those whose just demands upon the government could no otherwise be answered. If the objectors have not full scope given them here in relating their objections, it is only because the reproaches and reflections which they study to set them off with, and which they very plentifully bestow upon the government and upon the persons who they think are the instruments of it, are left out as things which seem not to be necessary at all, either to make their argument more forcible or add to the number of reasons; and this omission, it is hoped, they will excuse in an author who is not writing to reproach any side, but to calm and quiet the minds of every side, and bring things, if possible, to a clear and right understanding. The reader will pardon the breach of order, if, in speaking of the objections, the latter come first in course; because, as they lie rather against the part already acted introductory to the South Sea trade, rather than against the part that shall afterwards be acted, they seem to demand to be first spoken to. In order to this, it may seem necessary a little historically to enter into the steps taken on every hand to introduce this affair into the world, and this, without excusing or accusing one side or other, may be sufficient to give a right view of the thing, and restore people to their temper in judging about it. In the consultations which of course employ the heads of the ministers of state, every year about the time of the sitting of the parliament, these three things are generally the chief. 1. How and where to carry on the war. When these things, in their ordinary course, came to be debated the last parliament, two things with a more than ordinary weight, seemed to press upon the public. 1. The payment of the debt; and thi srequired two considerations. 1. To pay the principal debt; or 2. To establish a fund for the payment of the interest redeemable, and until redeemed, by parliament. 1. A vast debt, which, whether by the misconduct of the former managers, or by the necessity of the public affairs, is not to the purpose here, was lying upon the nation in the several offices of the navy, victualling, ordnance, &c., 2. The falling upon the enemy in their Ameritogether with other deficiencies, amounting to can plantations; and this also had two branches. several millions, which as justice on the one hand 1. The dispossessing the French of the footcalled loudly upon them to make good, so on the ing they had gained among the Spaniards; toother hand the public credit was touched by it;gether with gaining such a possession in that and if some provision was not made for it, there was reason to fear parliamentary credit would receive a blow which would not be easy to recover, and which might be fatal to all the schemes and proposals for funds and loans which might follow, since the people who had trusted the government with such great sums of money, would too much influence the future lending and lenders of money, if no care was taken to make payment to them, whose debts were so just as well as so great. 2. The second weight was the long omitted article of attacking the enemy in that most sensible part from whence they derived so eminently their chief support, and from whence the sinews of war (viz. their money) were constantly supplied to them, I mean their colonies in America; the omission of which seemed a most unaccountable neglect in former times and persons, and the attempting which seemed so inviting at this time, on two accounts. First, as it would interrupt the advantageous commerce of the enemy; and secondly, as it would open a door of trade to our people, which they never yet had an opportunity to meddle with, and this occasion being lost, we were not to hope for another. Note. This last notion is founded on the treaty of the general confederacy, called more commonly the grand alliance, wherein by the 6th article it is stipulated that, "it shall be lawful for his royal majesty of Great Britain, and the lords, the states general, by common advice, and for the benefit and enlargement of the navigation and commerce of their subjects, to seize by their forces what land and cities they can, belonging to the Spanish dominion in the Indies, and whatsoever they shall so take, shall be their own."Vide the Treaty of the Grand Alliance,' p. 68. Note. This is the occasion, which, as above, it is humbly presumed may never happen again, and therefore was not now to be omitted. : These two material articles coming into consideration at the same time, it came into the heads of some, whose thoughts were more especially intent upon applying proper remedies to both these maladies, that perhaps some method might be found out to cure them both with one plaster, or, as we say more vulgarly, kill both these birds with one stone. To explain it more fully a scheme is formed, wherein it is suggested, that bringing both cases together, viz. the debt which was to be paid, and the attacking the enemy in America, which was necessary to|| be done, one might be so made assisting and concurring to and with the other, that both might be with the more ease effected and brought to pass. In examining nicely the state of these several cases, it appeared they were to be naturally divided into two heads of proposals contained in the following abridgement : part of America, now called New Spain, as might It is unhappy that a design big with so many advantages has met with this misfortune, that the joining together these two, though great and just prospects, has been casually and eventually the ruin of both; not that we grant them yet ruined, but that the difficulties started, and the uneasinesses among us raised at the beginning, are the causes of ruinous quarrels, breaches, and clamours about it, which is the most easy to prove are founded upon the want of a right understanding and distinguishing the case; by which also, if perhaps in the contriving and joining these great events together any mistake has been made, it might with ease come to be rectified, without gratifying those who seem glad of private mistakes, in order to push on the greater mistake, viz. the design of rendering the whole abortive and ineffectual. To distinguish, therefore, rightly of this matter, and thereby come to a clear understanding in it, we ought to debate it two ways. 1. In its separate pre-existent state, as a debt, and as a trade respectively. 2. In the now conjoined circumstance, as blended together, whereby the debt and the trade is called, though wrong and erroneously, one South Sea stock. In its separate or pre-existent state we find, as before, two things upon the wheel; or to speak more plain, the ministry had two things upon their hands, either of them necessary to be done, and both having their respective difficulties in the management. 1. The debt of the navy, ordnance, victualling, &c., it is no part of this work to inquire how the government came to be embarrassed with so great a debt unprovided for; whether the concealing it from the nation so long, or the very being a debt, may be laid to any man's door, or no, is not the case here; perhaps the writer of these sheets differs something from every side in his opinion, and may reserve that opinion to |