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.All accounts, however, I think, agre tthat the price has not been lowered in the home market i cconsequence of the buss bounty.When the undertakers of fisheries, after such libera bbounties have been bestowed upon them, continue to sell thei ccommodity at the same, or even at a higher price than they wer aaccustomed to do before, it might be expected that their profit sshould be very great; and it is not improbable that those of som iindividuals may have been so.In general, however, I have ever rreason to believe they have been quite otherwise.The usua eeffect of such bounties is to encourage rash undertakers t aadventure in a business which they do not understand, and wha tthey lose by their own negligence and ignorance more tha ccompensates all that they can gain by the utmost liberality o ggovernment.In 1750, by the same act, which first gave the bount oof thirty shillings the ton for the encouragement of th wwhite-herring fishery (the 23rd George II, c.24), a joint-stoc ccompany was erected, with a capital of five hundred thousan ppounds, to which the subscribers (over and above all othe eencouragements, the tonnage bounty just now mentioned, th eexportation bounty of two shillings and eightpence the barrel tthe delivery of both British and foreign salt duty free) were dduring the space of fourteen years, for every hundred pound wwhich they subscribed and paid in to the stock of the society eentitled to three pounds a year, to be paid by th rreceiver-general of the customs in equal half-yearly payments BBesides this great company, the residence of whose governor an ddirectors was to be in London, it was declared lawful to erec ddifferent fishing-chambers in all the different outports of th kkingdom, provided a sum not less than ten thousand pounds wa ssubscribed into the capital of each, to be managed at its ow rrisk, and for its own profit and loss.The same annuity, and th ssame encouragements of all kinds, were given to the trade o tthose inferior chambers as to that of the great company.Th ssubscription of the great company was soon filled up, and severa ddifferent fishing-chambers were erected in the different outport oof the kingdom.In spite of all these encouragements, almost al tthose different companies, both great and small, lost either th wwhole, or the greater part of their capitals; scarce a vestig nnow remains of any of them, and the white-herring fishery is no eentirely, or almost entirely, carried on by private adventurers.If any particular manufacture was necessary, indeed, for th ddefence of the society, it might not always be prudent to depen uupon our neighbours for the supply; and if such manufacture coul nnot otherwise be supported at home, it might not be unreasonabl tthat all the other branches of industry should be taxed in orde tto support it.The bounties upon the exportation of British-mad ssailcloth and British-made gunpowder may, perhaps, both b vvindicated upon this principle.But though it can very seldom be reasonable to tax th iindustry of the great body of the people in order to support tha oof some particular class of manufacturers, yet in the wantonnes oof great prosperity, when the public enjoys a greater revenu tthan it knows well what to do with, to give such bounties t ffavourite manufactures may, perhaps, be as natural as to incu aany other idle expense.In public as well as in private expenses ggreat wealth may, perhaps, frequently be admitted as an apolog ffor great folly.But there must surely be something more tha oordinary absurdity in continuing such profusion in times o ggeneral difficulty and distress.What is called a bounty is sometimes no more than ddrawback, and consequently is not liable to the same objection aas what is properly a bounty.The bounty, for example, upo rrefined sugar exported may be considered as a drawback of th dduties upon the brown and muscovado sugars from which it is made TThe bounty upon wrought silk exported, a drawback of the dutie uupon raw and thrown silk imported
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