The Teachings of History
Everywhere and at all times has the well-being of the nationbeen in equal proportion to the intelligence, morality, andindustry of its citizens; according to these, wealth has accrued orbeen diminished; but industry and thrift, invention and enterprise,on the part of individuals, have never as yet accomplished aught ofimportance where they were not sustained by municipal liberty, bysuitable public institutions and laws, by the State administrationand foreign policy, but above all by the unity and power, of thenation.
History everywhere shows us a powerful process of reciprocalaction between the social and the individual powers and conditions.
In the Italian and the Hanseatic cities, in Holland and England, inFrance and America, we find the powers of production, andconsequently the wealth of individuals, growing in proportion tothe liberties enjoyed, to the degree of perfection of political andsocial institutions, while these, on the other hand, derivematerial and stimulus for their further improvement from theincrease of the material wealth and of the productive power ofindividuals.
The real rise of the industry and power of England dates onlyfrom the days of the actual foundation of England's nationalfreedom, while the industry and power of Venice, of the HanseTowns, of the Spanish and Portuguese, decayed concurrently withtheir loss of freedom.However industrious, thrifty, inventive, andintelligent, individual citizens might be, they could not make upfor the lack of free institutions.History also teaches thatindividuals derive the greater part of their productive powers fromthe social institutions and conditions under which they are placed.
The influence of liberty, intelligence, and enlightenment overthe power, and therefore over the productive capacity and wealth ofa nation, is exemplified in no respect so clearly as in navigation.
Of all industrial pursuits, navigation most demands energy,personal courage, enterprise, and endurance; qualifications thatcan only flourish in an atmosphere of freedom.In no other callingdo ignorance, superstition, and prejudice, indolence, cowardice,effeminacy, and weakness produce such disastrous consequences;nowhere else is a sense of self-reliance so indispensable.Hencehistory cannot point to a single example of an enslaved peopletaking a prominent part in navigation.The Hindoos, the Chinese,and the Japanese have ever strictly confined their efforts to canaland river navigation and the coasting trade.In ancient Egyptmaritime navigation was held in abhorrence, probably becausepriests and rulers dreaded lest by means of it the spirit offreedom and independence should be encouraged.The freest and mostenlightened states of ancient Greece were also the most powerful atsea; their naval power ceased with their freedom, and however muchhistory may narrate of the victories of the kings of Macedonia onland, she is silent as to their victories at sea.
When were the Romans powerful at sea, and when is nothing moreheard of their fleets? When did Italy lay down the law in theMediterranean, and since when has her very coasting trade falleninto the hands of foreigners? Upon the Spanish navy the Inquisitionhad passed sentence of death long ere the English and the Dutchfleets had executed the decree.With the coming into power of themercantile oligarchies in the Hanse Towns, power and the spirit ofenterprise took leave of the Hanseatic League.
Of the Spanish Netherlands only the maritime provinces achievedtheir freedom, whereas those held in subjection by the Inquisitionhad even to submit to the closing of their rivers.The Englishfleet, victorious over the Dutch in the Channel, now tookpossession of the dominion of the seas, which the spirit of freedomhad assigned to England long before; and yet Holland, down to ourown days, has retained a large proportion of her mercantile marine,whereas that of the Spaniards and the Portuguese is almostannihilated.In vain were the efforts of a great individualminister now and then under the despotic kings of France to createa fleet, for it invariably went again to ruin.
But how is it that at the present day we witness the growingstrength of French navigation and naval power? Hardly had theindependence of the United States of North America come to life,when we find the Americans contending with renown against the giantfleets of the mother country.But what is the position of theCentral and South American nations? So long as their flags wave notover every sea, but little dependence can be placed upon theeffectiveness of their republican forms of government.Contrastthese with Texas, a territory that has scarcely attained topolitical life, and yet already claims its share in the realm ofNeptune.
But navigation is merely one part of the industrial power of anation -- a part which can flourish and attain to importance onlyin conjunction with all the other complementary parts.Everywhereand at all times we see navigation, inland and foreign trade, andeven agriculture itself, flourish only where manufactures havereached a high state of prosperity.But if freedom be anindispensable condition for the prosperity of navigation, how muchwore must it be so for the prosperity of the manufacturing power,for the growth of the entire producing power of a nation? Historycontains no record of a rich, commercial, and industrial communitythat was not at the same time in the enjoyment of freedom.
Manufactures everywhere first brought into operation improvedweans of transport, improved river navigation, improved highways,steam navigation and railways, which constitute the fundamentalelements of improved systems of agriculture and of civilisation.