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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 would 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 di-
vided 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 sub-
side into the monopoly of some wealthy individual or great company, whose enormous rev-
enue 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 Govern-
ment will act most unwisely if they give up their monopoly.
Even the destruction of the nutmeg and clove trees in many islands, in order to restrict
their cultivation to one or two where the monopoly could be easily guarded, usually made
the theme of so much virtuous indignation against the Dutch, may be defended on similar
principles, and is certainly not nearly so bad as many monopolies we ourselves have till
very recently maintained. Nutmegs and cloves are not necessaries of life; they are not even
used as spices by the natives of the Moluccas, and no one was materially or permanently in-
jured by the destruction of the trees, since there are a hundred other products that can be
grown in the same islands, equally valuable and far more beneficial in a social point of
view. It is a case exactly parallel to our prohibition of the growth of tobacco in England, for
fiscal purposes, and is, morally and economically, neither better nor worse. The salt mono-
poly which we so long maintained in India was much worse. As long as we keep up a sys-
tem of excise and customs on articles of daily use, which requires an elaborate array of of-
ficers and coastguards to carry into effect, and which creates a number of purely legal
crimes, it is the height of absurdity for us to affect indignation at the conduct of the Dutch,
who carried out a much more justifiable, less hurtful, and more profitable system in their
Eastern possessions. I challenge objectors to point out any physical or moral evils that have
actually resulted from the action of the Dutch Government in this matter; whereas such evils
are the admitted results of every one of our monopolies and restrictions. The conditions of
the two experiments are totally different. The true 'political economy' of a higher, when
