20.13. 13. What it is that destroys this Liberty.
Wherever commerce
subsists, customs are established. Commerce is the exportation and
importation of merchandise, with a view to the advantage of the state:
customs are a certain right over this same exportation and importation,
founded also on the advantage of the state. Hence it becomes necessary
that the state should be neutral between its customs and its commerce,
that neither of these two interfere with each other, and then the
inhabitants enjoy a free commerce.
The farming of the customs destroys commerce by its injustice and
vexations, as well as by the excess of the imposts: but independent of
this, it destroys it even more by the difficulties that arise from it,
and by the formalities it exacts. In England, where the customs are
managed by the king's officers, business is negotiated with a singular
dexterity: one word of writing accomplishes the greatest affairs. The
merchant needs not lose an infinite deal of time; he has no occasion for
a particular commissioner, either to obviate all the difficulties of the
farmers, or to submit to them.
