LECTURE XVII

Summary

We have seen of how great importance it is that it should be distinctly ascertained, at the first foundation of a colony, out of what fund its preparatory expenses are to be defrayed. We have seen the dangers attending the practice of borrowing on the credit of a future and contingent fund, such as the general revenue of a young colony; an experiment, indeed, which is not very likely to be soon repeated. We have seen that the only available fund, to serve as security for loans, is that derived from the sale of land; a fund which is most copious precisely in those early stages of the existence of the settlement during which the general revenue is as yet of trifling amount. Let us briefly examine, to what extent this fund can be safely anticipated.

Let us suppose that a fixed portion of it is devoted to the purpose of procuring labour, and another fixed portion, as proposed in a former lecture, to other specified purposes. It appears to have been lately suggested in many quarters, that it is desirable to raise money on the credit of the former portion of the fund, in order to send out a larger number of emigrants in the first instance. It admits, of course, of easy proof, that the greater the number of emigrants originally sent out, the less exorbitant the wages of labour will be; the greater attraction will be afforded to capitalists, the greater scope given to enterprise, the greater stimulus to the purchase of land.