The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. 06

by Unknown

This petition discloses objects of so much weight in those scales, in which the political and commercial interests of the nations of Europe are now balancing, that it is worth while to transmit some observations, which have been made upon it, which will lay open the whole subject, with all its connexions. They were written in French by M. Cerisier.

"It is to have a false idea of things, to think and to say, that Holland and Zealand, taking an unjust advantage of their victories, and of the weakness of their enemies, have dictated, with arms in their hands, the outrageous and despotic conditions of holding their ports shut up. We have only to cast our eyes upon the geographical situation of Antwerp, we have only to recollect the first events of the Belgic Revolution, to acknowledge this error. The city of Antwerp for a long time made a part of the Belgic confederation; she entered into the union of Utrecht, as she had entered into the pacification of Ghent, she was even for several years the centre of the new Republic; it was not until 1585, that she fell back under the yoke of the Spaniards. But the Duke of Parma, in retaking Antwerp, could not equally make himself master of all the forts situated below that city, towards the mouth of the Scheldt. The confederates continued masters of these, and even retook some places, which had been taken from them in the course of the war. Thus they remained masters of the lower navigation of this river, an advantage, which they caused to be confirmed to them in the treaty of peace. In casting our eyes on the other hand, on the memorable siege of Antwerp, it is to this city that it is necessary to impute the misfortune of having an useless port, since, by a more vigorous and wise defence, she would have remained in the union, with all the advantages which resulted from it.

"Zealand and the city of Amsterdam, have always held the slavery of the port of Antwerp of much importance. But it is very far from being true, that this city, by recovering the liberty of her navigation, would be able to draw away any considerable part of their commerce. The maritime places of the United Provinces have had for several ages, and many years before the revolution, a great navigation and a flourishing commerce; this has been demonstrated by modern authors. See the Tableau de l'Histoire des Provinces Unies, et la Richesse de la Hollande. It is an error then to believe, that they were raised upon the ruins of Ghent, Bruges, and Antwerp; although we cannot deny, that they have received some augmentation from them.

"But it is England, which has drawn the greatest advantages from them. The cause is evident; it is, that the same troubles, which chased commerce from these cities, agitated at the same time Holland, Zealand, Friesland, and the neighboring Provinces. The factions of the Houcks and the Cabeliaux, the Schieringers, and the Vetkopers, the Litchembergs, and the Gunterlings, the Hekeren, and the Bronkhorst, have nearly at the same time for many years, torn almost the whole country, which forms at this day the Republic of the United Provinces, in the times when Flanders was a prey to the most violent intestine dissensions, when Ghent and Bruges held the Emperor Maximilian in prison; and when the chastisements inflicted on these two cities, drove out the industry, and commerce, which enriched them. The United Provinces were the centre of the rebellion and the theatre of the most afflicting calamities, when the cruelties of the Spaniards chased commerce from the city of Antwerp. The most violent causes, in fact, are necessary to drive commerce from a country where she has fixed her residence. The powerful houses of commerce, the immense funds necessary to carry it on, the credit, the industry, do not transplant themselves easily from one country to another.

"We ought not to impute to slavery the fall of the commerce of the Austrian Low Countries. We must ascend to that epocha, when the fiscal and religious despotism of Spain carried into the Low Countries the yoke of civil servitude and the flames of the Inquisition. Commerce cannot harmonise with slavery, with the tyrannical exaction of imposts, with persecutors, or with hangmen. It was principally to London, that industry, and the merchants of Louvain, Ghent, Bruges, and Antwerp, fled. Although Holland and Zealand were at the same time a prey to similar misfortunes, and even still more terrible, they found themselves in a condition to raise a powerful marine, to beat their ancient masters, and to seize upon their spoils in the Indies. It was upon their courage, upon their navigation, upon their establishments in the Indies, and not upon the mouth of the Scheldt, that they laid the foundations of a commerce, the richest and most extensive that ever was.

"If all the Low Countries had remained attached to the confederation, they would all have partaken of the riches, the industry, the power, and the grandeur of the United Provinces. The Austrian Low Countries were not able to recover their brilliant commerce, because they had lost it. To repair this loss, it would have been necessary, that Holland and England, filled with their manufactures, should have had the complaisance to send them back all these manufactures with their riches, their workmen, and their raw materials. It was only Louis the Fourteenth who could in this respect take Philip the Second for a model. If the Flemish and the Brabantians, should have again a source of raw materials, and of workmen, would it be easy to recall industry and naturalise it there, after so long an exile? The little progress of commerce in those countries has many other causes, besides the subjugation of one of its brooks. It is necessary to look for them in the multitude and enormity of the duties imposed upon merchandises, which enter, or go out of the Austrian dominions, duties, which are repeated from one Province, and even from one city to another; it is necessary to look for them in the tyrannical and insolent inquisition of officers, with whom the frontiers are covered, in the fiscal and iniquitous subjection, to which packages and travellers are exposed; the former to a search, which exposes the goods to be spoiled, and the other to an indecent and odious inspection. They have forced women to strip themselves, even to their shifts, to discover, with a scandalous avidity, effects subject to these odious taxes.

"A part of the commerce of Germany, and several Provinces of France with Holland, would have no other market than the Low Countries, if the imposts and the collection of them were not tyrannical. The merchants of St Quentin, of Rheims, of Paris, will all tell you, that the lawns, wines, and modes, which they send into the countries situated upon the Baltic, would be embarked at Ostend, without those armies of inquisitors like highwaymen, who drive away, by a perpetual restraint, commerce, the friend of liberty. Add to this, the delays, and the dearness of land-carriage, interrupted with barriers, in the countries, where there are no canals; all these obstacles do not only hurt the commerce of transportation, but also that of importation and exportation. The foreigner, finding so many difficulties in spreading his superfluities in those countries, is the less capable of taking off theirs.

"Moreover, how many ameliorations may be made in the natural resources of that country? Before they allow themselves in uncertain speculations abroad, they should carry to the highest point, industry at home. There are even reformations, which are very difficult, and without which these countries will never hold the balance against countries, in which the number, the celibacy, the riches, and the laziness of the clergy, do not devour the industry of the people. Is the slavery of the Scheldt then the cause, that Louvain is peopled only with students and professors? Malines filled with attornies and judges? That Mons, Tournay, Ypres, Ghent, and Bruges, are no longer more than carcasses? If there were a means of reviving these cities, would it not be by the enlargement and the safety of the port of Ostend?

"Even if the ports of Ostend, of Nieuport, and Antwerp offered roads free, safe, and commodious, would business fly to them for refuge, and abandon the ports of Hamburg, Dantzick, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Middleburg, Dunkirk, Rouen, Nantes, Rochelle, Bordeaux, the Elbe, the Somme, the Seine, the Loire, the Garonne, and the ports of the three kingdoms of Great Britain, where it enjoys all the advantages and facilities, which it can desire? The English themselves, who dazzle at this day the Austrian Low Countries with the hope of a free and flourishing commerce, would not they be the first to oppose this revolution, if it had any appearance of success? It is their jealousy of the prosperity of Amsterdam, which makes them clamor against the subjection of the Scheldt. But they would clamor much louder, if the liberty of the Scheldt should restore to the Low Countries the hope of recovering their ancient commerce. All States seek with emulation to augment the national industry. Russia, and even other northern States, are making efforts and sacrifices to procure for themselves manufactures. All countries, even Spain and Portugal, begin to perceive that these things are more useful than autos-da-fe. The Austrian Low Countries have them also. But could they augment them at the expense of other countries; especially at a time, when so many States pique themselves in having a warlike marine to maintain their commerce and their national industry?

"But, it will be said, is it not manifest that the navigation of Antwerp being opened, commerce, by reascending the river, would diffuse her benign influence throughout all the extent of an agreeable, and fertile territory, full of canals and great roads, &c.? I answer again, why would not the ports of Bruges, Ghent, Ostend, and Nieuport produce the same effect? It is even apparent, that these ports would lose by the new outlet of Antwerp, the little commerce which remained to them. In that case, Brabant would only raise itself on the ruins or at the expense of Flanders. The liberty of this river would enrich perhaps the interior of the country, but it would certainly impoverish the coasts of the sea. They say it is unjust to hold the Scheldt shut up; but would it not, on the contrary, be the height of injustice to open again a navigation, assured to the Hollanders by the natural consequence of a revolution universally ratified, and by a long possession? What man, what State, would be authorised to appropriate a thing to itself because it was for his convenience? This rule, it is true, has in our days effected the dismemberment of Poland, the invasion of Silesia, and the present war of England against Holland. But in taking away the property of the Dutch, with what right can one find fault with the violence of Russia?