The Sun.
London, England, 1806-09-12 00:00:00

ENGLIS!' 111ANUF,ICTURES.

The following Observations are extraaed fh-,,en the
admirable Answer of -M. GENTZ to HAUTEU/VE'S
s' Etat de la France A la Fin de l'An 8."

" The colonial trade of the English, notwithstnnd-
ing its magnitude; is only a scvondary objca in the
general mass of British industry. It*own manufac-
tures arc by far the "most, fruitful source of that part
of the power and riches of this nation which is de-
rived from connuexe.

After having .endeavound to point .out the real
nature of the colonial monopoly of de-English, arid
to shew with how little justice the tornmercial su-
periotity of Great Britain can in that respeEt be
termed tyrannically oppressite, or even prejudicial,
to other nations ; I have only now to:examine whe-
ther such complaints are boner founded when ap-
plied to.dealiiigs.of the English in their own Mann-
-
faCtures.

•
" The Author of the .tat de la France, and a
thousand writers besides, have described the prefer-
ence obtained by the English manufadures in every
market of Europe as an insuppOrtable yoke, a pain-
ful and humiliating servitude to all other. nations.
It is only by the impoverishment of Europe, say
they, that England rises to,vn unnatural degree of
wealth ; as this wealth increases, the power is like-
wise augmented.of straitening, confirming, and per-
petuating the galling fetters in which all Govern-
ments and Countries languish in helpless inactivity.
The annihilation of independent industry leiids to
the destrudion of all liberty : the commercial sove-
reignty the English is made the foundation of
their political despotism, and England becomes more
and more the law-giver and tyrant of Europe.
A very slight examination of this unfavourable
picture issuflicient to shew that the grounds of com-
plaint upon which it is founded are in many respeds
'equivocal, arbitrary, untenable, and absurd. The'
decided and almost exclusive preference given to
English ManufaCtures in the -Markets of Europe is
not the effeet of compulsion, but of choice ; it is a
preference freely given, continued, and confirmed ;
for England has no means of introducing her produc-
tions, and putting them oft by force in any part of
Europe. Were the success of these produetions as'
de;truelive to the. industry,
.and as conducive to the
degradation and dependence of all other countries as
it is here desCribed, it would be impossible to conceive
why so many nations snbinitted to- the yoke they
might at any time throw off. For, supposing obsti-
nate nrejudiceS, or unaccountable fascination,7 to
possess the people, would not their Governments use
'every effort to bar the access of this conspluing poison
to their dominions- ?

." The force of these arguments must strike the
meanest Capacity, 'although it were unable to distih
ou ish the relations of cause 'and' effea in a great
regular phenomenon ; and it is not a little surprising
that such obvious considerations should not long
since have destroyed all-the flimsy tissues of so-
phistry.,
" Upon these complaints of the tyrantous op-
pression connected with the industry of the British
nation, it naturally occurs to ask, how does this in-.
dustry, so detested and abhorred, this pretended
cause of such misfortunes, such misery and ruin to
the rest of Europe ; how does it maintain so peace-
ably its once acquired Prerogative ? Why do not all
Governments and individuals combine to exclude the
manufaaures of Great Britain from every market ;
and thus by one manly effbrt break through the fet-
ters that encumber them ?—The answer is obvious
—their interest fdrbids it ; for though they have no
distina conception of the nature of that interest,
there is a vague sentiment of advantage which impels.
them.more poWerfully than the visionary hypothesis
of prejudice or ignorance. Let us now endeavour
to develop:: this vague sentiment ; let us,divest it of
the obscurity in which it is involved.
" The superiority of Great Britain in European
manufaalure; likeher ascendant in colonial commerce,
is founded upon two distinet principles, one positive
and the other negative.
" The first is the intrinsic excellence of the pro-
duaions of het' industry ; in other words, the result
of the peculiar advantages 14 which England is en-
abled, with less eftbrt than other nations, to prepare
manufactures of equal goodness, or with the same
application of labouf to deliver them better ; by
which means she brings her articles to market 'at a
lower price when equally good, at the same price
When
.sunerior in. quality, and-very often both more
perfect and more cheap. The reason of this intrinsic
and peCuliar excellence of British manufactures is
obvious ; it . is. owing to the progress of every art
among the English, to the extensive use and im-
provement of machinery, to the largeness of their
capitals, to the ingenuity and enterprising spirit. of
the people ; it is' a consequence of the character and
habits, the polity, and Constitution of the nation,
which all contribute to produce and secure those ad-
vantages. •
" The negative principle of this ascendant is
.the
comparative weakness and indolence of other na-
tions, their ignorance of political economy, their
neglect of many branches orindustry, and their
necessary dependence on the activity of foreigners;
all, more or less, consequences of their own faults.
" The demand for British manufactures in the
most cultivated countries of Europe, and among
'nations which have likewise carried industry to great
perfection, is a consequence and proof of the posi-
tive superiority of that of the English. It is by that
alone they have acquired, and do still retain, the mar-
kets of Germany, of most of the Northern Powers,
arid of France before and since the Revolution.

" Upon this, which I have called the negative
superiority of the English, is founded the ascendant
of"their industry in Portugal, and mure especially in
RuSsia. It is not merely in the shape of commercial
intercourse that it prevails in those countries ; it is
there internally productive. The British adventurers,
with British capital and British labour, engage in the
domestic trade, and develOpe the interior resources
of the country : there they establish manufa6tories
on their own account. Russia and Portugal would
not, however, exclude the English from their mar-
kets by the mere improvement of their native.in-
dustry ; for were they as highly cultivated as France
and Germany, they would still, like France and Oer-
many, prefer the produCe of British labour even to
their own, on account of its. peculiar, excellenCe.
But the exclusive prevalence of the manufactures,