date

1820 May 10 Emancipation Spanish
1820 May 10

Emancipation Spanish

It is not therefore to any such account as the advantage /exercise/ of exercising dominion that any money freely obtained for even equivalent can with propriety be set down.

For the obtaining of money /or [...?] with/ by the exercise of dominion there remains but these other conceivable sources. terms 1. One is taxation: 2. the other is receit of the produce of mines of land containing mines: of land in the shape /name/ of rent.

First as to money obtained by taxes. Whether even for a moment in any one of the provinces the people will without equivalent submitt to pay to be remitted to Spain for the use of the people in Spain any money on this score seems in no small degree doubtful. That they would not for any considerable length of time seems altogether certain.

As the business of government can not in Spanish America any more than in Spain be carried on without money, nor money extracted from the people otherwise than by taxes, what is necessary for the carrying on of the government in Spanish America, must at any rate be provided by taxes imposed on the people of the several Spanish American provinces. If then by or for the people of Spain in case of their burthens money to any amount is, by taxes on the people of /in/ Spanish America, to be raised in Spanish America, any such money must, all of it, be extracted /raised/ /levied/ in addition to whatsoever is extracted from the people of Spanish America for the carrying on of the business of government there, and by so much will the weight of the burthen borne by them in this shape be encreased.
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    Description: 1820 June 7

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    '.6. Creoles repugnant

    Spanish America would be for [...?] of [...?] or Ireland was: and with great advantage

    If, on the news of the unexpected change from government despotism to a government in so great /high/ a degree popular, if under the intoxication produced by so felicitous a result, despotism to throw itself /themselves/ into the arms of their liberators, and not only into their arms, but at their feet should [...?] the amount be found very extensively prevalent the wonder would /need/ not be great. But that at the end of a certain interval, when the intoxication had had time to subside, and experience had taken place of hope and confidence, this /a/ disposition /to self-sacrifice/ should continue unchanged, seems far too much to be expected.

    One of two things. Either, to the people of Spain and their rulers, the dominion over Spanish America would manifestly not be of any the smallest use, or in a variety of points and to a great extent, a sacrifice of the interest of the many in America to those of the few in Europe would have to be made. Take a few examples.

    1 In America money would have to be raised by taxes to be sent without equivalent to save taxes to you in Europe

    2. From America, money the proceeds of [...?] would be to be suit for the same purpose.

    3. Under the notion of benefiting the [...?] class among you, restriction would be to be imposed on the production and export of the produce of industry in these distant regions on the productions of the industry of these your American subjects.

    4. To make fortunes for the purpose of their being spent among you and for your benefit. Others in Spanish America, would under the new Constitution, or under the old despotism be to be filled by the choice of your rulers.
  • Title: [[clxii. 3] 1820 July 24 Emancipation]
    Description: [clxii. 3]

    1820 July 24

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    Summary

    I Creoles willing

    The only sources from which any such supply can be looked for are - taxation at large, Mine-rents or Mine-taxes - duties and restraints on production and trade.

    1. To Taxation at large, for such a purpose, voluntary submission could not long, on any tolerably assured grounds, be expected. It was by the opposite determination that the yoke of England was cast off by the American United States.

    2. Payment of money to Spain by the occupiers of mines in Spanish America, whether under the name of rents or taxes would be considered as submission to taxation: if levied at all the contributions thus levied uopon the fruits of the land and labour of the people in Spanish America ought to be applied (they would think) in easement of the taxes borne by the people of the province or state in which the mines are situated, and not to the enrichment of strangers at so vast a distance. (a)

    3. By restraints in production and trade imposed on the subject many by the ruling few, no net advntage in a pecuniary shape is derivable by any body: by those by whom, or those for the sake of whom, they are imposed. In so far as taxes on trade are imposed, correspondent restraints upon trade are indeed among the inseperable consequences: but from this net advantage is received or is now so expected, beyond the mere produce of the tax. (b)

    4. Money which by Spaniards sent from Spain might be received in the shape of official emolument attached to official situations in Spanish America. From this source no relief in respect diminution of taxes would be experienced by the subject many in Spain: the benefit would be engrossed by the ruling few in that country.

    Note (a) According to Townsend Journey through Spain II 413. 2d.

    Edition King's utmost-exigible mine rent, on silver no more than 10 per cent; on gold, than 5 per Cent.

    Note (b) In England this has of late been publickly recognized by persons of all descriptions. Merchants, Ministers, Members of the House of Lords Members of the House of Commons - not a dissenting voice. In Debates of both Houses in July 1820.
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    Description: 1820 June 4

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    '.5. People Sufferers

    But of any real profit to be shared among you, the Spanish people by means of any such cramping arrangements, the expectation is illusory. If for the purpose of enabling you to get from them a higher price than you could if they were at liberty to get the commodities in question or the equivalent from foreign nations they are precluded /prevented/ from getting them from foreign nations, and thus the competition between you and foreigners excluded, still there is other competetion which on this supposition would not be excluded, and that is the competition of your mercantile men one with another.

    If in exportation to Spanish America an extraordinary tax were imposed on goods sent from Spain, this would be a direct tax on the Spanish-Americans and the production of those same goods in Spain would be proportionably discouraged and narrowed

    If on importation into Spain, an extraordinary tax was imposed on goods sent from Spanish America this would be a direct tax on the Spaniards, and the production those same goods in Spanish America proportionably discouraged and narrowed.

    Thus in no such indirect shape could any profit be extracted, through the medium of the dominion, from the people of Spanish America, for the easement and benefit of the Spanish people.