1820 May 9

Emancipation Spanish

'.5. People Sufferers

1. First then I say, setting aside the ruling few themselves, of whom afterwards, it would be against the interest of the Spanish people at large, that their rulers should in any shape exercise dominion over the people of Spanish America in the several provinces or any one of them. This is the position: the reasons follow

2. Neither in many nor in any other shapes would they upon the balance of the account be gainers.

3. On the contrary in that and other shapes they would be sufferers.

If they were gainers an any shape /respect/ it would be either in the shape of money or in the shape of power

In the shape /respect/ of money they would not be to gainers. On the contrary they would on the balance of the account be great sufferers

If by such dominion they were gainers in respect of money, it would be either by money received by them or to their use either for an a /a complete/ equivalent given by /to/ them, or without any such equivalent.

If for an equivalent, this is in other words by the profit made by trading with them. But to make profit from a people by means of trade carried on with them it is not necessary to exercise dominion over them, as more than over any other people - those of France and England for example - whom they trade with

If by means of their dominion they were to make in trading with their possessions any profit more than they would make without exercising any such dominion, there would not be money received from them for an equivalent given to them. It would be money received in some way or other by an indirect tax: a tax of which [...?] [...?] the burthen would not be the less heavily felt.