English Mercantilist Thought and the Matter of Colonies from the 17Th to the First Half of the 18Th Century

English Mercantilist Thought and the Matter of Colonies from the 17th to the First Half of the 18th Century

Alain Clément

European colonization began in the early 16th century with the discovery of the Americas.1 One of the primary reasons behind the voyages of discovery was the shortage of ready money during the 15th century, which hampered the ex- pansion of European trade. The Americas and Africa came to be included in the world economic circuit primarily as sources of silver and gold, and of la- bour through the Atlantic slave trade.2 A growing taste for foodstuffs such as sugar promoted the cultivation of new lands outside Europe.3 And there was the quest to break the Venetian and Genoese monopoly in spices and silk from the East.4 The colonial adventure was therefore, from the outset, an economic, commercial and financial undertaking although not without its political, religious and humanistic motives.5 Expeditions from Portugal and Spain were fol- lowed by others from France, from 1524 onwards under François I, albeit very modestly,6 from Holland in 1595 for largely financial motives, and finally from England in the early 17th century for both commercial7 and religious motives, prompting both territorial and commercial forms of colonization. However, it is important not to overlook the point that all these motives for embarking on colonial ventures were underpinned also by the economic theory of the time with its own contingent of debates and controversies. I will study more pre- cisely the British case.

1 Note from the editors: This is a first draft prepared by Alain Clément for the conference orga- nized in Fiskars in 2016. His sudden death in 2017 prevented him to complete or adapt his fi- nal paper. 2 Bartolomé Benassar, ‘L’explosion planétaire (1415–vers 1570)’, in Pierre Léon (ed.), Histoire économique et sociale du monde, tome 1 (Paris, Armand Colin 1977), 416–426. 3 Jean Meyer, Histoire du sucre (Paris, Desjonquères 1989). 4 Jacques Brasseul, Histoire des faits économiques (Paris, Armand Colin 1997). 5 Marc Ferro, Histoire des colonisations (Paris, Le Seuil 1994) ; Andrew Fitzmaurice, Humanism and America, an intellectual history of English colonisation, 1500–1625 (Cambridge University Press 2003). 6 Jean Meyer et alii, Histoire de la France coloniale (Paris, Armand Colin 1991). 7 Immanuel Wallerstein, The modern world system, t. 1–2 (New-York, Academic Press 1974–1980).

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This was the great age of mercantilism when the pecuniary concerns of the ruling classes and thinkers alike contrasted with Aristotelian disdain for profit. Private enrichment was desirable because it was also indirectly the enrichment of Prince and State. Mercantilist policy was about a favorable balance of trade.8 In this intellectual context, the colonial venture was highly significant for mercantilists because it could bolster the power and wealth of the State. It was a source of political power (competition among nations was continued in colonial conquests), a source of monetary enrichment (all states coveted gold and silver from overseas), and a source of enrichment through the supply of commodities (pepper and other spices, cotton, silk, indigo, coffee, tobacco, sugar, etc.) needed for the home nation’s manufacturing activities. Although there was a general consensus in favour of colonization, deep divergences remained about how colonization and enrichment were inter- connected. Essentially there were three attitudes towards colonization. Colo- nization for settlement (Section 1) involved the colonized land being devel- oped economically so as to enrich the home nation through exclusive trade, with such colonies being held to be mere extensions of the nation: Robinson,9 Pollexfen,10 Child,11 Barbon,12 North,13 Cary,14 and Davenant,15 Gee,16 Defoe,17 Berkeley.18

8 Andrea Finkelstein, Harmony and the Balance: An Intellectual History of Seventeenth- Century English Economic Thought (Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press 2000). 9 Henry Robinson, Certain Proposals (London, 1652). 10 John Pollexfen, England and East India inconsitent in their manufactures (London, 1697). 11 Josiah Child, A New Discourse of Trade (London, J. Hodges 1668; new ed. 1690). 12 Nicholas Barbon, A Discourse of Trade (London 1690; Reprint by Jacob H. Hollander, Balti- more, John Hopkins University, 1905). 13 Dudley North, Discourses upon Trades (London 1691), in J.-R. McCulloch (ed.), Early Eng- lish Tracts on Commerce (London, 1856; Reprint Cambridge University Press 1954), 505–540. 14 John Cary, An essay on the state of England (Bristol 1695); John Cary, A Discourse concern- ing the East- India trade showing how it is unprofitable to the kingdom of England (London, E. Baldwin 1695), in Lars Magnusson (ed.), Mercantilism, vol. 2 (London, Routledge 1995). 15 Charles Davenant, ‘An essay on the East India trade’ (London 1696), in The Political and Commercial Works, Collected and Revised by Sir Charles Whitworth (London, R. Horsfield 1771; Reprint Gregg Press, 1967), i, 85–123. 16 Joshua Gee, The trade and navigation of Great-Britain considered (London, Bettesworth & Hicht, 1729), in Lars Magnusson, Mercantilism, vol. 4, 18–137. 17 Daniel Defoe, Giving alms, no charity, and Employing the Poor (London 1704); Daniel Defoe, A plan of the English commerce (London, Rivington 1728; Reprint Oxford, Blackwell 1974). 18 George Berkeley, An essay toward preventing the ruin of Great-Britain (London, J. Roberts, 1721), Reprint in Alexander Campbell Fraser (ed.), The works of George Berkeley, vol. 4,