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.The committee are forbid to export negroes fromAfrica, or to import any African goods into Great Britain.But asthey are charged with the maintenance of forts and garrisons, theymay, for that purpose, export from Great Britain to Africa goodsand stores of different kinds.Out of the monies which they shallreceive from the company, they are allowed a sum not exceedingeight hundred pounds for the salaries of their clerks and agents atLondon, Bristol, and Liverpool, the house rent of their office atLondon, and all other expenses of management, commission, andagency in England.What remains of this sum, after defrayingthese different expenses, they may divide among themselves, ascompensation for their trouble, in what manner they think proper.By this constitution, it might have been expected that the spirit ofmonopoly would have been effectually restrained, and the first ofthese purposes sufficiently answered.It would seem, however,that it had not.Though by the 4th of George III, c.20, the fort ofSenegal, with all its dependencies, had been vested in thecompany of merchants trading to Africa, yet in the year following(by the 5th of George III, c.44) not only Senegal and itsdependencies, but the whole coast from the port of Sallee, in southBarbary, to Cape Rouge, was exempted from the jurisdiction ofthat company, was vested in the crown, and the trade to itdeclared free to all his Majesty s subjects.The company had beensuspected of restraining the trade, and of establishing some sort ofimproper monopoly.It is not, however, very easy to conceive how,under the regulations of the 23rd of George II, they could do so.Inthe printed debates of the House of Commons, not always the mostauthentic records of truth, I observe, however, that they have beenaccused of this.The members of the committee of nine, being allAdam Smith ElecBook Classics The Wealth of Nations: Book 5 987merchants, and the governors and factors, in their different fortsand settlements, being all dependent upon them, it is not unlikelythat the latter might have given peculiar attention to theconsignments and commissions of the former which wouldestablish a real monopoly.For the second of these purposes, the maintenance of the fortsand garrisons, an annual sum has been allotted to them byParliament, generally about £13,000.For the proper application ofthis sum, the committee is obliged to account annually to theCursitor Baron of Exchequer; which account is afterwards to belaid before Parliament.But Parliament, which gives so littleattention to the application of millions, is not likely to give much tothat of £13,000 a year; and the Cursitor Baron of Exchequer, fromhis profession and education, is not likely to be profoundly skilledin the proper expense of forts and garrisons.The captains of hisMajesty s navy, indeed, or any other commissioned officersappointed by the Board of Admiralty, may inquire into thecondition of the forts and garrisons, and report their observationsto that board.But that board seems to have no direct jurisdictionover the committee, nor any authority to correct those whoseconduct it may thus inquire into; and the captains of his Majesty snavy, besides, are not supposed to be always deeply learned in thescience of fortification.Removal from an office which can beenjoyed only for the term of three years, and of which the lawfulemoluments, even during that term, are so very small, seems to bethe utmost punishment to which any committee-man is liable forany fault, except direct malversation, or embezzlement, either ofthe public money, or of that of the company; and the fear of thatpunishment can never be a motive of sufficient weight to force aAdam Smith ElecBook Classics The Wealth of Nations: Book 5 988continual and careful attention to a business to which he has noother interest to attend.The committee are accused of having sentout bricks and stones from England for the reparation of CapeCoast Castle on the coast of Guinea, a business for whichParliament had several times granted an extraordinary sum ofmoney.These bricks and stones too, which had thus been sentupon so long a voyage, were said to have been of so bad a qualitythat it was necessary to rebuild from the foundation the wallswhich had been repaired with them.The forts and garrisonswhich lie north of Cape Rouge are not only maintained at theexpense of the state, but are under the immediate government ofthe executive power; and why those which lie south of that Cape,and which are, in part at least, maintained at the expense of thestate, should be under a different government, it seems not veryeasy even to imagine a good reason.The protection of theMediterranean trade was the original purpose of pretence of thegarrisons of Gibraltar and Minorca, and the maintenance andgovernment of those garrisons has always been, very properly,committed, not to the Turkey Company, but to the executivepower.In the extent of its dominion consists, in a great measure,the pride and dignity of that power; and it is not very likely to failin attention to what is necessary for the defence of that dominion
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