which, if pursued in the same way as it has been hitherto, is likely to cost, immense expense, without being likely to bring any profit; for the effects of the monopoly of the colony trade, it has been shown, 1645 are, to the great body of the people, mere loss instead of profit. It is surely now time that our rulers should either realize this golden dream, in which they have been indulging themselves, perhaps, as well as the people; or, that they should awake from it themselves, and endeavour to awaken the people. If the project cannot be completed, it ought to be given up. If any of the provinces of the British empire cannot be made to contribute towards the support of the whole empire, it is surely time that Great Britain should free herself from the expense of defending those provinces in time of war, and of supporting any part of their civil or military establishments in time of peace, and endeavour to accommodate her future views and designs to the real mediocrity of her circumstances.

Appendix 1646

The two following Accounts are subjoined in order to illustrate and confirm what is said in the Fifth Chapter of the Fourth Book, 1647 concerning the Tonnage bounty to the White Herring Fishery. The Reader, I believe, may depend upon the accuracy of both Accounts.

An Account of busses fitted out in Scotland for eleven Years, with the number of empty barrels carried out, and the number of barrels of herrings caught, also the bounty at a medium on each barrel of seasteeks, and on each barrel when fully packed.
Years Number of busses Empty barrels carried out Barrels of herrings caught Bounty paid on the busses
£ s. d.
1771 29 5,948 2,832 2,085 0 0
1772 168 41,316 22,237 11,055 7 6
1773 190 42,333 42,055 12,510 8 6
1774 248 59,303 56,365 16,952 2 6
1775 275 69,144 52,879 19,315 15 0
1776 294 76,329 51,863 21,290 7 6
1777 240 62,679 43,313 17,592 2 6
1778 220 56,390 40,958 16,316 2 6
1779 206 55,194 29,367 15,287 0 0
1780 181 48,315 19,885 13,445 12 6
1781 135 33,992 16,593 9,613 12 6
Total 2,186 550,943 378,347 155,463 11 0
Seasteeks 378,347 Bounty at a medium for each barrel of seasteeks, £0 8 2¼
⅓ deducted 126,115⅔ But a barrel of seasteeks being only reckoned two-thirds of a barrel fully packed, one-third is deducted, which brings the bounty to £0 12 3¾
Barrels full packed 252,231⅓
And if the herrings are exported, there is besides a premium of £0 2 8
So that the bounty paid by Government in money for each barrel, is £0 14 11¾
But if to this, the duty of the salt usually taken credit for as expended in curing each barrel, which at a medium is of foreign, one bushel and one-fourth of a bushel, at 10 s. a bushel, be added, viz. £0 12 6
The bounty on each barrel would amount to £1 7 5¾
If the herrings are cured with British salt, it will stand thus, viz. Bounty as before £0 14 11¾
—but if to this bounty the duty on two bushels of Scots salt at 1 s. 6 d. per bushel, supposed to be the quantity at a medium used in curing each barrel is added, to wit, £0 3 0
The bounty on each barrel will amount to £0 17 11¾
And,
When buss herrings are entered for home consumption in Scotland, and pay the shilling a barrel of duty, the bounty stands thus, to wit as before £0 12 3¾
From which the 1 s. a barrel is to be deducted £0 1 0
£0 11 3¾
But to that there is to be added again, the duty of the foreign salt used in curing a barrel of herrings, viz. £0 12 6
So that the premium allowed for each barrel of herrings entered for home consumption is £1 3 9¾
If the herrings are cured with British salt, it will stand as follows, viz. Bounty on each barrel brought in by the busses as above £0 12 3¾
From which deduct the 1 s. a barrel paid at the time they are entered for home consumption £0 1 0
£0 11 3¾
But if to the bounty the duty on two bushels of Scots salt at 1 s. 6 d. per bushel, supposed to be the quantity at a medium used in curing each barrel, is added, to wit, £0 3 0
The premium for each barrel entered for home consumption will be £0 14 3¾

Though the loss of duties upon herrings exported cannot, perhaps, properly be considered as bounty; that upon herrings entered for home consumption certainly may.

An account of the quantity of foreign salt imported into Scotland, and of Scots salt delivered duty free from the works there for the fishery, from the 5th of April 1771 to the 5th of April 1782, with a medium of both for one year.
Period Foreign salt imported Scots salt delivered from the works
Bushels Bushels
From the 5th of April 1771, to the 5th of April 1782. 936,974 168,226
Medium for one year 85,179⁵⁄₁₁ 15,293³⁄₁₁

It is to be observed that the Bushel of Foreign Salt weighs 84  lb. that of British Salt 56  lb. only.

Endnotes

  1. John Rae, Life of Adam Smith, 1895, p. 284. ↩

  2. John Rae, Life of Adam Smith, 1895, p. 285. ↩

  3. John Rae, Life of Adam Smith, 1895, p. 324. ↩

  4. Below, here and here. ↩

  5. See here, as well as the passages referred to in the previous note. ↩

  6. Here, here, here. ↩

  7. Rae, Life of Adam Smith, 1895  p. 362. ↩

  8. John Rae, Life of Adam Smith, 1895, p. 323. ↩

  9. John Rae, Life of Adam Smith, 1895, p. 362. ↩

  10. Edition 4 alters “this” to “the.” ↩

  11. Edition 4 omits “present.” ↩

  12. They are frequently found at the end of existing bound copies of the second edition. The statement in Rae, Life of Adam Smith, p. 362, that they were published in 1783 is a mistake; cp. the “Advertisement to the Third Edition” above. ↩

  13. Rae, Life of Adam Smith, p. 362. ↩

  14. Corrected to “Hope” in edition 5. The celebrated firm of Hope, merchant-bankers in Amsterdam, was founded by a Scotchman in the seventeenth century (see Sir Thomas Hope in the Dictionary of National Biography). Henry Hope was born in Boston, Mass., in 1736, and passed six years in a banking house in