DOCUMENTO DE TRABAJO 9202 POWNALL ON SMITH ON

DOCUMENTO DE TRABAJO
9202
POWNALL ON SMITH ON COLONIES
Carlos Rodríguez Braun
FACULTAD DE CIENCIAS ECONOMICAS y
EMPRESARIALES~
Campus de Somosaguas. 28023 MADRID.
UNIVERSIDAD COMPLUTENSE
POWNALL ON SMITH ON COLONIES
Carlos Rodríguez Braun
Universidad Complutense, Madrid
As
early as
the Wealth of
that
may
1776, Thomas
Pownall published a
Nations in the form of
us
help
analyse
a
a letter to
much-debated
review of
its author,
issue
in
our
discipline: Adam smith's thought on colonies.
Both friends
and enemies
of the empire
the Wealth of Nations. Accordingly, Smith's
subject
have
been
pointed out
by
took comfort
in
ambiguities on the
specialists,
from
Henry
Brougham and Jeremy Bentham in the early days of the
nineteenth century down to Bernard Semmel in 1970. 1
On
argued
later by
the other hand,
Donald winch and others have forcibly
that Smith's imperial
J.S.Nicholson and the
for no more
'project', so heartily supported
liberal imperialists, accounts
than a ballon d'essai. 2 And the
the history of
~conomic
thought at present
best textbooks in
coincide in placing
Comments by D.p.O'Brien, P.Schwartz, F.Cabrillo
are gratefully acknowledged.
and G.Tortella
1 Henry Brougham, An inquiry into the colonial policy of
the European powers (Edinburgh, 1803), Vol.l,p.7¡ Jeremy
Bentham, Economic writings, ed. W.stark (London, 1952), Vol.
1, p.194¡ Bernard Semmel, The rise of free trade imperialism
(Cambridge, 1970), pp.27-29.
2 Donald Winch, Classical political economy and colonies
(London, 1965), pp.16-17¡ cf. also his article "Science and
the legislator: Adam Smith and after", Economic Journal,
September 1983, p.505¡ A.W.Coats, "Adam Smith and the
mercantile system", A.S.Skinner and T.Wilson (eds.), Essays on
Adam Smith (Oxford, 1975), p.335.
2
Adam smith within the classical stream of hostility towards
colonies. 3
The origin
present in
of the dispute lies
the Wealth of Nations.
economic value
wider
by
of colonies
division of
monopoly and
in two
lines of argument
Qne line
stresses that the
-a ¡arger
market
labour- can surpass the
excessive regulations,
possibility
of
substituting
a new commonwealth,
improving
autonomy (representation
that
allowing for
a
huge costs imposed
and contemplates
the
considerably,
by
value
the imperial 'project', with
+ taxation) and
free trade, for
the
old mercantile colonial system.
The other line
is the classical liberal one,
emphasizing
the costs of empires in a wide variety of items, political
and
economical: they
for
their
stimulate wars
defence. In
such costs,
and draw
the end the metropolitan
suffering more
taxes
and
monopolistic markets.
If
the mother
and
the
benefits
price
because
controls,
smuggling
vast resources
will
be
consumer pays for
higher prices
country imposes
will
fostered.
prove
The
due
to
tariffs
short-lived,
best
solution,
accordingly, would be the freeing of these onerous appendices.
1
have dealt
classical economics
tried to prove
most
of
extensively with this
and the
colonial question,
that smith's faltering
his successors
should include Marx
in
issue in
the
my book on
where 1
position was
classical period
have
echoed by
-and
this
as well. There is, consequently, no clear-
3 Mark Blaug, Economic theory in retrospect (Cambridge,
1985), p.59¡ Henry W.Spiegel, The growth of economic thought
(Englewood cliffs N.J., 1971), p.357¡ D.P.Q'Brien, The
classical economists (Qxford, 1975), p.288.
3
cut
classical
agreement
in
attitude
towards
keeping away
colonies,
from
except
in
their
the mercantilistic
imperial
Additional light can be shed on these matters by
perusing
system. 4
one
of the
Letter
earliest
reviews of
the
from Governor
Pownall to
Adam
Wealth of
Nations, the
Smith. Thomas
(1722-1805), former Governor of Massachusetts and
colonial
administration, published
September, 1776,
having studied
the
an expert in
Letter in
Smith's magnum
Pownall
London
opus 'in
in
the
retreat of the summer,.5
colonies are the
Letter
major preoccupation6 of Pownall
of 1776, courteously written, and for
in this
which Adam Smith
4 Carlos Rodríguez Braun, La cuestión colonial y la
economía clásica (Madrid, 1989).
5 Thomas pownall, A Letter from Governor Pownall to Adam
Smith, L.L.D., F.R.S., being an Examination of Several Points
of Doctrine, laid down in his 'Inquiry into the Nature and
Causes of the Wealth of Nations' (London, 1776), p.3.
6 But not the only one.
Pownall presents an interesting
critique of Smith's views on the division of labour, the
labour theory of value, and the issuing of paper money.
Pownall has a subjective approach to value, and seems to have
some understanding of money illusion. See Letter, pp. 4-23.
4
expressed
thanks. 7 The
his
issue,
as
is obvious
extensive chapter VII of book IV and the final
of the Wealth
of Nations,8 ranked
also very
from
the
pages of book V
high in
Smith's
interests.
After studying in
in
1753. Later
Cambridge, Pownall travelled to America
he was appointed governor
of Massachusetts in
1757 and of South Carolina in 1759,
though he did not take
this last
an M.P.
post: Afterwards
controversialist,
necessity
colonies
he
he was
appears
of
sorne
kind of
-an
idea
that
was
European liberals from that
that the
empire would evolve
to
have
1767-80. A
perceived
union
between
to
gain great
time onwards- but
up
noted
early
the
and
her
Britain
strength
among
to have
feared
towards an increased taxation of
the colonies and a final revolution. 9
He
did not
favour the emancipation of
the colonies, but
7 smith wrote a very polite letter to Pownall on 19
January 1777. Years later, however, he pointed out to Andreas
Holt: '1 have not thought it proper to make any direct answer
to any of my adversaries. In the second [1778] edition 1
flattered myself that 1 had obviated all the objections of
Governor Pownal (Sic). 1 find however, he is by no means
satisfied, and as Authors are not much disposed to alter the
opinions they have once published, 1 am not much surprized at
it'. A.smith, The correspondence of Adam Smith, edited by
E.C.Mossner and I.S.Ross (Oxford, 1977) pp. 224, 250. But
Smith does not seem to have introduced significant changes in
his remarks on colonies in the successive editions of his
book. Cf. Am Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth
of Nations, edited by R.H.Campbell and S.S.Skinner (Oxford,
1976), pp. 25, n.2, 50, n.15.
8 And many other published and unpublished material, such
as his 1778 memorandum on the contest with America; cf.
correspondence, pp. 380-5.
9 correspondence, p.213n. On Pownall cf. al so Dictionary
of National Biography and Dictionary of American Biography.
5
seems caught
up between the scylla
in which he resists
of the mercantil e
to introduce vast liberal changes, and the
Caribdis of his acknowledgement of
absence
great
of
empire,
reforms
the ( sad) fact that
the
bound
were
colonies
in the
for
independence.
To
the
empire issues
administration
of
colonies,
his major
devoted
he
work,
The
published anonymously
first
London in 1764, but running afterwards
in
through five subsequent
and enlarged editions under Pownall's name.
It is
no surprise,
accordingly, to find
him dealing
at
length with imperial matters in his Letter to Adam Smith.
From
the
( direct lO
'circuitous'
confused
them
and
with rapid
trade
attack on
returns)
and argues
between
and 'roundthat
Smith
system. 11 Only
the colonial
latter is to be condemned, because it implies the waste of
labour
and
commodities
old
in his
distinguishes
Pownall
(artificially expanded)
about'
the
outset,
unprofitable
the
are sent
proverb referring
charges
more than
detention
to market by
to
a
he should.
of
Tom Long
carrier that
AII other
capital,
as
the carrier -the
goes
further
and
commerce, direct and
with due and quick returns on capital, is advantageous. 12
The Letter
argues accordingly
the West India ships to call only
against the obligation
of
at English ports, instead of
10 Circuitous trade may be interpreted as being indirect,
but nonetheless worth the trouble if it adds lots of value in
the sequence of exchanges along the way.
11
Wealth of Nations, II.v.28, p.370, n.23.
12 Letter, pp. 24-26.
shipping directly at
note that
this
AnalogouslY,
foreign markets for the West
should
be done
'in
British
Americans should be permitted to go
Spain, purchase there certain articles and
to America -but,
again, they should
merchants'. Pownall proceeds to
with
carry them dire
be purchased
separate round-about trade and
monopoly, never losing sight of the main thing:
wherever
the
trade,
monopoly would
it should
hath occasioned
should
this
not take
any such
be relaxed;
object
colonies
are
place;
to be
a
round-about
and wherever
it
round-about operation,
it
always
and end,
create
however keeping
namely, that
considered
so
as
in view
far
as our
an institution,
established and directed to encrease the
naval force
of
that
force
the operations of
their
monopoly,
which
our
marine empire,
and
derives in
any degree from
commercial
powers,
engrafts
so
them upon
indispensable,
so
far
our
far as
that
internal
and ought never
establishment, is
to be
departed from
or relaxed. 13
Historians of economic
the
liberal
elements
In
elements in
in classical
this regard
support
of
matters he
endorsed
mercantilism
it is noteworthy that
Pownall
eye to
the Act of
and
the
economics, particularly
monopoly,
sees
thought have long recognized
eye
should
with
mercantilist
in Adam smith.
after this full-fledged
state
Smith, the
Navigation precisely
13 Letter, pp. 26-27.
both
that
in
latter
these
having
on the grounds that
n
7
defence is
opulence. 14
more important than
not only wise but, judiciously applied,
Monopoly
is thus
necessary. And Pownall
sums up his eulogy of circuitous-trade with the colonies:
the thing which of all others tends most to
and
extend
the
manufactures,
provided
should
that
course in
American
be
trade in
markets
allowed
its
for
and
British
encouraged,
circuition
an orbit that hath
increase
keeps
its
Great Britain for
its
center. 1S
From
the
mid-eighteenth
increasing wave
for
reforming
relaxation of
of opinion
the
the
trade; in the case
trade
was
century onwards,
throughout Europe
empires.
strict
The
monopoly
exception of
precisely what
about the
view
need
favoured
regulations
one port,
freer trade but still confined
suggested the
was an
of
a
colonial
of countries like spain, where the colonial
restricted to
of foreigners. In
majority
there
the éclairées
to nationals, to
favoured a
the exclusion
the eighteenth century practically no
emancipation of the
Josiah Tucker.
colonies, with the
And Pownall argues
Smith is aiming
at, not only
voice
notable
that this
to break
is
up the
monopoly privileges to companies but to dismember the empire.
This prompt and
author of
hasty conclusion is very unlike
'the Treatise on
it savours
unpracticed
more of
surgeon,
the puzzled
who
14 Wealth of Nations, IV.ii.30.
15 Letter, p. 27.
the wealth of
is
nations',
inexperience of
more
the
ready with
an
his
8
amputation
knife,
than prepared
in
the
skill
of
healing medicines. 16
After disputing
never
furnished
Smith's assertion that
any
military force,
the
the colonies have
Letter goes
on to
tackle the question of monopoly and prices. 17
Freedom of colonial
and lower
prices, says
trade should result in lower
Smith. Possibly,
with disagreeable consequences,
prices
could
agrees Pownall,
he adds. He argues that
deprive England
from
necessary articles,
would be taken by foreigners. Horeover, price
down profits in the
up
the relative
but
lower
that
falls would drag
mother country and colonies, but will push
return
of
the highly
corn-farms; the colonies will
competitive
markets in our
American
consequently switch from tobacco
and other 'exotick' commodities to corn,
European
profits
'rivalling us at
the
home commodity, and to the depression
of our agriculture' .18
Like
most
enemies
of
free
consider the beneficial effects
costs. The same applies
artificially
capital
prof1t
high
from other
rates
in
Pownall
of a market
in
branches of
the whole
colony
not
expanded by lower
trade,
employment,
economy
higher
by
attracting
keep prices
than they
and
would
occasion a change in direction rather
than an actual addition to Britain's trade. In
Pownall's view,
16 Letter, p. 37.
17 Wealth of Nations, IV.vii.c.64, p.614, n.49.
18 Letter, p. 40.
does
to his criticism of Smith's point that
profits
otherwise have been, and
trade,
9
Smith
ignored
eighteenth
the
evidence. Foreign
century, showing
that Britain's
trade had
increased noticeably, and
and
activities
the
immensely.19
connected
This
may
Pownall's statistical
not have
trade
more in
trade,
done
so
perfectly true,
but
had
imply that trade
a freer
the
trade with Europe
it,
been
answer does not
increased even
in
that her colonial
with
well have
figures
could
environment, as
it
happened in fact after his lifetime.
In a second step,
own
ground. Even
the Letter tries to
if trade had
with the division of labour,
been diverted, what
there is a division
and one cannot engage in all trades.
concentrate in
the branch
meet Smith on
his
of it? As
of commerce,
ls it not advantageous to
where the most succulent
to be reaped? lf a country can maintain a
profit is
monopoly on the most
profitable channels it
has
surely
commerce,
acquired that
which
ascendancy
is always
better
in trade
understood
and
than
explained.
Pownall immediately sees that
quantity
and higher
interests.
He
assuming a
low
finds
the combination of
price
may be
harmful for
the
solution,
however,
price-elasticity
of the
smaller
the country's
by
explicitly
demand for
British
exports:
although those
extent, yet
enjoyas
high [profit]
raising the
rates may
profit of
much, and produce in
confine the
the dealing,
trade as
we
much, as if
19 Letter, p. 41. Another statistical dispute in Wealth of
Nations, p.461, n.30.
10
we did more business of less profits. 20
of
One
channelling
Smith's
the
opposing
arguments
of capital towards the colonial trade
forceful
was that it
represents a
distant trade, less
beneficial than a trade with
neighbouring
countries,
of
because
its
collecting
frequent return. Pownall replies that profit
trade were
roughly in
line with
a
less
rates in colonial
profit rates
in other
monopolized trade, and that the capital employed
non-
in America is
not unprofitable to Great Britain:
like that
for
portion of the
seed,
it
is
harvest which is
the matrix
of
a
detained
succeeding and
encreased production; by operating
to advance
farther
consequently
the
is creating
and
these
population
extending
improvements,
of these
new
countries, it
for
our
productive labour calls forth that labour faster
and
to more
a
and
advantage,
returned and
market,
than the
demands
same capital
directly
vested in British goods could do; as it
encreases this market in
calls
whose
still
forth more
a constant progression,
manufacturers; gives
a
it
spring to
agriculture; and extends the commerce of Great
Britain. 21
Keep the
trade and extend the
market, was
not this Adam
20 Letter, p. 42. It should be noted that it is not free
demand inelasticity that Pownall is referring to but the
closed, restricted trade with the colonies; high profit rates
had little effect on total export demand because the colonies
had to buy from Great Britain.
21 Letter, p. 43. Wealth of Nations, IV.vii.c.3B, pp. 601,
n.IB, 602, n.21.
l
11
smith's central
find
a
theme after all? In fact, it
misunderstanding of
fails to
notice that those
diminished
costs -it
In
other words,
theory: Pownall,
were Smith's
is interesting
knew sorne of the effects
described them ably,
Smith's
was noto Here we
goals provided
to
recall that
of freeing a monopolized
except the crucial one of
Smith
does
not
confusion underlies
remark that
the imperial
Pownall
cost-lowering.
support every
Pownall's bitter
they
market, and
proposal
artificial market-creation, regardless of the effect
The
again,
of
on costs.
reaction at Smith's
system was only
appropriated for
a
nation of shopkeepers. 22
Taking up
disturbs
the idea that
the
excessively
equilibrium
one of its
bOdies,
artificially
reasons to
with
made
of
the twelve
of colonial
economy,
trade
blowing
treats with
by
smith
fact
in
He mocks
that the
American colonies
connection
with
Smith's five
been an
of
the
ad hoc
interruption of
had not
up
irony the
'convulsions, apoplexy, or death'
expanded trade. 23
explain the
the
parts, Pownall
organicist remarks about
social
the monopoly
trade
econornic
22 Letter, pp. 44-45.
See also Wealth of Nations,
IV.vii.c.63, p.613, n.46. In fact, Pownall (p. 44 n) misquotes
Smith, who separates a nation of shopkeepers frorn a nation
whose governrnent is influenced by shopkeepers. only if the
case is the latter, Smith concludes rather sarcastically, then
the old colonial system is fit.
23 Wealth of Nations, IV.vii.c.43.
-~
12
catastrophe. 24
Imperial
commerce
was, after
all,
not
that
important, because the productive powers of trade
continue to be
in some other
actuated, and its circulation to
channels, though
our American
run
artery
is obstructed. 25
This
ideas
passage
that Smith
colonies, "but
by the
to
indirectly
could have put
actually did noto
classical economists in
prove the
small economic
Smith's theorem, now
'what
indicates
is annually
two
forward in
his criticism of
These ideas, widely
associated with the
the empire,
regularly consumed
the principIe that 'the general
of
never
society can
exceed
what
used
were
name of Turgot, that
annually spent', and
the
employed
discussing colonies, and
importance of
saved is as
interconnected
the
as what is
industry
capital of
the
society can employ'.
24 Letter, p. 44. The five reasons were: 'First, those
colonies, in preparing themselves for their non-importation
agreement, drained Great
Britain completely of all
the
tommodities which were fit for their market: secondly, the
extraordinary demand of the spanish Flota has, this year,
drained Germany and the North of many commodities, linen in
particular, which used to come into competition, even in the
British market, with the manufactures of
Great Britain:
thirdly, the peace between Russia and Turkey has occasioned an
extraordinary demand from the Turkey market, which, during the
distress of the country, and while a Russian fleet was
cruizing in the Archipelago, had be en very poorly supplied:
fourthly,
the
demand of
the north of Europe
for the
manufactures of Great Britain, has been increasing from year
to year for sorne time past: and fifthly, the late partition
and consequential pacification of Poland, by opening the
market of that great country, have this year
added an
extraordinary demand from thence to the increasing demand of
the North'. Wealth of Nations, IV.vii.c.45. Smith remarked
that all these events were transitory and accidental, except
the fourth.
25 Letter, pp. 44-45.
13
This backs the hypothesis
that Smith was, in fact, a less
thorough anti-colonialist than
ideas
to be. The two
might have been put into motion by Smith to answer a key
economic question
on colonies: what
of the disappearance of the
of
what he appears
Smith's
empire? It is a
ambiguous views
matter -perhaps
would be the
because his
that
revealing feature
he didn't
dwell upon
economic model, followed
to its ultimate consequences, would have forced
an
extreme
case, ignores
Smith's
standpoint. 26
anticolonialist
these ideas, and indeed
reasoning
that
consequence
could
have
this
through
him to present
pownall,
in
any
disregards any part
of
favourably
to
looked
colonies. 27
Pownall
al so
trade attracts
only
happen,
because
the
high
the
capital away from
he
says,
enlarged
increase the
that
confronts
at
the
activity
objection that
land improvement. This
beginning
in
demand for agricultural
profits
won't push
monopolized
of
colonial
colonization,
commerce
goods. He also
interest
will
rates
will
believes
upwards.
The
Letter adopts a Keynesian tone avant la lettre
the rate of
the
rates of
interest does not necessarily depend
profit
made
by
money,
but
on
on
the
26 of course, one can argue that there is no 'economic
model' in smith, in the sense of being fully separated from
the political one, and say that precisely because Smith mixes
both dimensions he does not conclude by proposing unilateral
emancipation.
27 Wealth of Nations, II.iii.1S and IV.ii.3. Cf. also
C.Rodríguez Braun, op.cit., pp. 51-2. It can be noted that the
two ideas as such are really not destructive of colonies, if
the point of the level at which savings are invested, and
capital employed, in terms of profit, is not taken into
account.
14
proportion
quantity
influx
of
demand
which,
of
for the
and the
riches,
use
velocity
of
to
the
with which,
the
in consequence
it
of
an advancing
mercantile prosperity, brings into circulation.
High absolute
supply
profits increase
of money,
and so the
both the
effect on
demand
for and
the
interest rates levels
may be neutral. 28
Having met
satisfaction,
point
Smith's economic criticisms
Pownall
ends bis
Letter
of empire to
by admitting
his
Smith's
that monopoly restrains economic activity, but accepting
monopoly for political reasons. Pownall indulges
at the outset
in a mechanical metaphor:
Any regulation
which
direction, and
keeps in that
operation, must
gives
check and
motrix, with which the body
a direct
course. Just
confines any body
a
confined
line of direction
destroy part
as the
off in
central force,
which
commercial activity
and
off
which requires the
colony-trade to observe Great Britain as
check
in
part of the
which it would have flown
from that orbit: So the monopoly,
certainly
vis
to circulate round that center
projectile force with
of
any
of the
moving would fly
any given orbit, doth check and diminish
doth
course
diminish
with which it
its center,
part
of
is at all
that
points
in exertion to fly off in a tangent.
Political realism,
that every country
however, compels Pownall to
recognize
must assure its separate existence,
28 Letter, pp. 46-47.
'until
15
some
commercial millenium
machine loses speed
and
this
shall melt
particular.
the
into one'.
when its direction is forcefully
the same happens when trade is
damages
down all
world
On the
at
altered,
artificially oriented. But
large,
contrary, she
A
not
Great
derives
Britain
from her
in
colonies
'force, revenue and every commercial advantage'. 29
Thus
the Letter
concludes. One
might legitimately
ask,
whatever happened to the pro-colonialist Adam Smith?
According
to Pownall
imperial project,
later, he
hailed
there is
no
as extremely
totally disregards as
such persono
Smith's
important one
century
unrealistic, bearing in
mind
the strife that was going on in America:
1 should here have proceeded to
your
plans of
the
Britain should
America;
all
but
adopt in
discussion
shall ever
ground of colonial
may
then be
present
now at
think
laya
state of
on that
Great
towards
events suspends
head.
rational,
If future
sound and
true
government, the proposing of such
shall not
be withheld. At
jacta est alea, the fate of
this country is
proper, and
the hazard
reason, is to
here
which you
her future conduct
the present
political
events
system,
the consideration of
of events,
decide. 1 am
about things
29 Letter, pp. 47-48.
30 Letter, p. 48.
afraid we
which once
dear, but are no more. 30
which force, and
were,
not
are reasoning
and were
most
16
Pownall
would then
Smith
discount
'project',
as
stand
with modern
pro-imperialist
said
above, is
commentators
Smith's
view.
merely
a
ballon
who
imperial
d'essai and
should not be taken seriously.
This
loose
interpretation
ends.
If
dismemberment
Adam
of
is
plausible,
Smith
the
was
empire,
but
really
why
it
in
didn't
leaves sorne
favour
he
use
of
the
all
his
theoretical ammunition against it?
If he
really was against the preservation of the colonial
link, why did he go
into the trouble of proposing an
project? Smith's liberal
He himself
imperialism may be
reckoned Utopian.
says so explicitly. But mark that
the possibility
of a universal free
would not be sensible to
imperial
trade as
he had spoken of
Utopian -and it
argue that because of that
he wasn't
in favour of free trade. 31
A
more reasonable view is to accept that one may speak of
the empire in more than one
Letter is very much
A possible
of
sense, and to this view
a propos.
answer to why
Pownall completely ignored
Smith's support for the colonies -a
all hidden in the
Pownall's
all
support that is not at
Wealth of Nations- is that Pownall perceived
,
that smith
and himself
Smith was not against
were talking
about different
any conceivable empire: what he (and for
that matter all his classical successors,
as
the
main
target
things.
for
criticism
was
Marx included) chose
the
mercantilistic
31 It is interesting to recall that the word utopia
appears only twice in the Wealth of nations, in connection
with free trade and the imperial union: see IV.ii.43 and
V.iii.68.
17
empire. And
that was
precisely Pownall's empire,
the one
he
had administered, and in which he was not prepared to admit
so
great a change as he saw advocated in the Wealth of Nations.
The fact that Pownall saw Smith as his opponent
the future
,
of the
colonies is
because they appeared to be on
both preferred
illuminating
in this
by the legislative
America. Moreover, Smith followed
in several imperial ideas,
regard,
the same side, insofar as
an empire reinforced
between Britain and
regarding
they
union
Pownall
among them the eventual move of the
empire's seat to America. 32
They
aiming
differ, however,
at a
new empire, while
old one, with sorne
of them
of
in one
Pownall wants
point. Smith
is
to maintain the
minor reforms. And history would prove both
right. The renewed British
smith's
critical
ideas. And
the
empire would
empire cherished
take up sorne
by Pownall
was
coming indeed to an end.
32 A.Smith, Correspondence, pp. 379-80, and Wealth of
Nations, IV.vii.c.79. Thomas pownall, The Administration of
Colonies, 4th. ed.
(London, 1768), pp. 37-9, 168. The moving
of the empire seat accross the Atlantic could have been taken
also from Benjamin Franklin, who was associated with pownall,
visited Great Britain during the preparation of the Wealth of
Nations, and met Hume and smith. Years later, on a demographic
basis, Jeremy Bentham would present a similar possibility with
regard to Spain. Cf. C.Rodríguez Braun, op.cit., pp. 48-9, 534, 128, and A.Smith, Correspondence, pp.379-80.