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 until very recently
maintained. Nutmegs and cloves arc not necessaries of life; they
are not even used as spices by the natives of the Moluccas, and
no one was materially or permanently injured 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 monopoly which we so long maintained
in India was in much worse. As long as we keep up a system of
excise and customs on articles of daily use, which requires an
elaborate array of officers 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.
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