■worth the while of thefe adventurers to make their purchafes
at the Cape, rather than continue their voyage to India or
China.
Such an entrepot might likewife be the means of opening a
lucrative branch of trade with the Weft Indies; a trade that
would not only put a flop to that which, of late years, the Americans
have fo fuccefsfully carried on, but might open a new
fource for colonial produce, efpecially for its wines, which,
with a little more attention and management in the manufacture,
might be made to fuperfede thofe of Madeira, that are now
confumed there to a very confiderable amount, notwithftanding
their enormous prices, which limit their confumption to the
higher ranks of the iflanders. Good Cape Madeira might be
delivered, at any, of the Weft India iilands, at lefs than one-
fourth of the expence of real Madeira.
A new branch of trade might alfo be opened between the
Cape and New South Wales, the latter fupplying the former
with coals, of which they have lately difcovered abundant
mines, in exchange for wine, cattle, butter, and articles of
clothing.
If, however, the. Eaft India Company, after making the experiment,
ihould find it injurious to its interefts to continue the
Cape as an emporium for Indian produce j it will always be in
its power to reduce it to the fame ftate in which it remained
whilft in the hands-of the Dutch ; to clog it as much as poffible
with duties and difficulties, fuificient to deter all ihips, except
their
their own, from trading to i t ; and, in Ihort, to allow them no
other commerce than the purchafe of provifions in exchange for
bills or hard money. It will always be at their difcretion to
admit or to fend away all foreign adventurers. By the exifting
laws of the colony, no perfon can refide there, but by fpecial
licence ; and the Governor is authorized to fend away.whomfo-
ever he may be inclined to confider as an improper perfon to
remain in the fettlement.
If the experiment ihould fucceed, the obvious refult would
be an exclufive trade to India and China veiled in the Englifh
Eaft India Company. The commerce carried on by the Americans,
their only dangerous rivals at prefent, would be diverted
into another channel, or, at all events, would fuffer a confiderable
reduction. Should the Dutch ever rife again as an independent
nation, they would find it expedient to court the
friendfhip and alliance of Great Britain in the Eaft ; and, in the
prefent low ftate of their finances, would be well fatisfied with
the exclufive privilege of the fpice-trade, and with any portion
of the carrying-trade that Great Britain might think proper to
affign to them. Any encroachment on the part of this nation
might eafily be checked, by a refufal of the ufual accommodations
at the Cape, without which their trade and navigation tn
the Eaftern Seas muft totally be fuperfeded. If, at a peace,:
they are to become a dependency of France, direCtly or indirectly,
the Cape in , our hands will always enable us to cramp
their commerce to the eaft ward. ,As to France, having neither
credit nor capital, without Ihipping and without manufactures,