COLONY. A colony is a settlement formed by the inhabitants of any nation, in some part of the world unoccupied by any other civilized nation. The mo tives for forming them have been vari ous.
In colonies there is generally abund ance of good land ; hence the necessaries of life are usually to be had in plenty, by any one who will take the trouble ne cessary to produce them ; and, conse quently, population usually has a ten dency to increase with great rapidity. The inhabitants of some parts of the United States are said to have doubled in fifteen years, at the time those coun tries were colonies of Great Britain.
The policy of the mother countries with regard to colonies has usually been intended to make the colonists buy the goods of the mother country as dear as possible, and sell their own productions as cheaply as possible. Hence the trade of colonies usually has been confined, by strict commercial laws, wholly to the mother country.
The consequence of' these regulations has probably been, that in the colonial trade the merchants and manufacturers have sold their goods dearer, and bought colonial produce cheaper, than they other wise might have done, though even this may be doubted ; but most certainly the inhabitants of the colony have bought dearer, and sold cheaper, than they other wise would. The prosperity of the colo ny therefore has been impeded ; their progress towards opulence has been less rapid than it wouldhave been under other circumstances; and'the mother country has always had a poorer and smaller mar ket for her commodities than she other wise would have had. The profits per cent. have been perhaps greater, but the whole amount of profit derived front the colony trade has most certainly been less.