No Injury Is Done Thereby To Anyone, But A Great Benefit Is
Conferred Upon The Whole Population Of Holland And Its
Dependencies, Since The Produce Of The State Monopolies Saves
Them From The Weight Of A Heavy Taxation.
Had the Government not
kept the nutmeg trade of Banda in its own hands, it is probable
that the whole of the islands would long ago have become the
property of one or more large capitalists.
The monopoly would
have been almost the same, since no known spot on the globe can
produce nutmegs so cheaply as Banda, but the profits of the
monopoly world have gone to a few individuals instead of to the
nation.
As an illustration of how a state monopoly may become a state duty,
let us suppose that no gold existed in Australia, but that it had
been found in immense quantities by one of our ships in some small
and barren island. In this case it would plainly become the duty of
the state to keep and work the mines for the public benefit, since
by doing so, the gain would be fairly divided among the whole population
by decrease of taxation; whereas by leaving it open to free trade
while merely keeping the government of the island; we should certainly
produce enormous evils during the first struggle for the precious
metal, and should ultimately subside into the monopoly of some wealthy
individual or great company, whose enormous revenue would not
equally benefit the community. The nutmegs of Banda and the tin
of Banca are to some extent parallel cases to this supposititious
one, and I believe the Dutch Government will act most unwisely if
they give up their monopoly.
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