Some general Considerations.
THOUGH commerce be subject to great revolutions, yet it is possible that certain physical causes, as the quality of the soil or the climate, may fix its nature for ever.
We at present carry on the trade of the Indies merely by means of the silver which we send thither. The Romans carried annually thither about fifty millions of sesterces; and this silver, as ours is at present, was exchanged for merchandises which were brought to the west. Every nation, that ever traded to the Indies, has constantly carried bullion, and brought merchandises in return.
It is Nature itself that produces this effect. The Indians have their arts adapted to their manner of living. Our luxury cannot be theirs, nor theirs our wants Their climate neither demands nor permits hardly any thing which comes from us. They go in a great measure naked: such cloaths as they have the country itself furnishes; and their religion, which is deeply rooted, gives them an aversion for those things that serve for our nourishment. They want, therefore, nothing but our bullion, to serve as the medium of value, and for this they give us merchandises in return, with which the frugality of the people, and the nature of the country, furnishes them in great abundance. Those ancient authors, who have mentioned the Indies, describe them just as we now find them, as to their policy, customs, and manners. The Indies have ever been the same Indies they are at present; and, in every period of time, those who traded to that country must carry specie thither, and brought none in return.