Economic Democracy

⁷² British policy on the colony trade was more liberal and less oppressive, even if it were dictated by the same mercantile spirit as that of other nations.

⁷³ Except their foreign trade, English colonists had completely liberty to manage their own affairs their own way.

It is equal to the liberty of their fellow-citizens at home.

It is secured in the same way by representatives of the people.

They claim the sole right of imposing taxes to support the colony government.

The authority of this assembly over-awes the executive power.

As long as he obeys the law, the meanest and the most obnoxious colonist has nothing to fear from the resentment of the governor.

The colony assemblies are like the house of commons in England.

• They are not always an equal representation of the people, but close enough.

The executive power cannot corrupt the colony assemblies because it receives its support from the mother country.

The colony assemblies are more influenced by their constituents.

• The councils correspond to the house of lords in Great Britain.
• They are not composed of an hereditary nobility.

In some of the colonies, as in three of the governments of New England, those councils are not appointed by the king.

They are chosen by the representatives of the people.

There is no hereditary nobility in the English colonies.

In all of them, as in all free countries, the descendant of an old colony family is more respected than an upstart of equal merit and fortune.

But he is only more respected.

He has no privileges which can be troublesome to others.

Before the start of the present disturbances, the colony assemblies had legislative and some executive power.

In Connecticut and Rhode Island, they elected the governor.

In the other colonies, they appointed the revenue officers who collected the taxes imposed by those assemblies.

There is more equality among the English colonists than among the people of Britain.

• Their manners are more republican.
• Their governments are more republican too, particularly those three provinces of New England.

⁷⁴ On the contrary, the absolute governments of Spain, Portugal, and France take place in their colonies.

Because of the great distance, the discretionary powers delegated by such governments to their inferior officers are naturally exercised with more than ordinary violence.

“Under all absolute governments there is more liberty in the capital than in any other part of the country.”

The sovereign himself can never have interest or inclination to pervert the justice or to oppress the people.

• In the capital, his presence over-awes all his inferior officers.
• In the remoter provinces, those officers can more safely exercise their tyranny because the complaints of the people are less likely to reach the sovereign.

The European colonies in America are more remote than the most distant provinces of the greatest empires of the past.

Since the world began, the government of the English colonies is the only one which could give perfect security to the people of a very distant province.

The administration of the French colonies was always conducted with more gentleness and moderation than the Spanish and Portuguese.

This superiority of conduct is suitable to the French character.

The nature of a nation’s government forms the nation’s character.

It is suitable to nature of the French government which is more legal and free than those of Spain and Portugal.

Though it is more arbitrary and violent than that of Great Britain.

⁷⁵ The superiority of the English policy chiefly appears in the progress of the North American colonies.

The progress of the French sugar colonies has been equal and superior to the progress of most English sugar colonies.

The English sugar colonies enjoy a free government as those in English colonies in North America.

But the French sugar colonies are not discouraged from refining their own sugar.

More importantly, the genius of the French colonial government naturally introduces a better management of their negro slaves.