on a small than on a large amount of goods."4
Whilst the commerce of Spain was thus burdened by enormous impositions, the colonies were of course cramped in all their energies. There could be no independent action of trade, manufacture, or even agriculture, under such a system.
America,—under the tropics and in the temperate regions, abounding in a prolific soil,—was not allowed to cultivate the grape or the olive, whilst, even some kinds of provisions which could easily have been produced on this continent were imported from Spain.
Such were some of the selfish and unnatural means by which the Council of the Indies,—whose laws have been styled, by some writers, beneficent—sought to drain America of her wealth, whilst they created a market for Spain. This was the external code of oppression; but the internal system of this continent, which was justified and enacted by the same council, was not less odious. Taxation, without representation or self government, was the foundation of our revolt; yet, the patient colonies of Spain were forced to bear it from the beginning of their career, so that the idea of freedom, either of opinion or of impost, never entered the minds of an American creole.