PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

A'gricultuI"lJ, and Commf:rci. 459
wrought good.~ for articles which require no fal'ther
preparcltion, as for \\Tine, oil, tea, ~ugar, &c. r!'his
aJso.as~ists emf,loyment; because, when the country is
5tockE(j with one kind of olanufacture, it renews the
demand by ceverting it into another:' but it is in.
ferior to the f:wmer, as it promotes rll1s end bYDne
side oniy of the bargain-by what it carries out.­
The Jast, the kwe~t, and mo~t disadvantageous species
of commerce, is the exportation of raw makrials in
return for wrought gootls: as when 'Wool is sent
abroad to purchase velvets; hides or peltry to procure
~hors, hats, or linen cloth. 1'his trade is un-
,favourable to populations because it leaves no room
or demand for employment, eit_ber in what it takes
out of the C(iUlltry, or in what it briilgs into it. Its
operation on bc)th sides is noxiou~. . By its exports
it diminishes the very subject upon which the indus- ,
try of the inhabitants ought to be exercised; by its
imports it lessens the encouragement of that indu try,
in the same proporlion that it'.~upplies ttle consumption
of the country with the produce of foreign labour.
Of difft.)r~~nt branches of 111{lnufactfJr?,
.
those are~
~
in their Dclture, the nlost bent~~ cial, in which the
price of the wr·:)ught article exceeds in the highest
proportion that of -the raw fllaterial: for this ex
cess measures the quantity of enlployment, or, in oth-
. f:r \,rords, the nun"lber of n',anulacturers which each
branch su~tairls. l'he poduce of the ground is neverthe
most advantageous article ot- f()reigll conlmerce •.
Under a perfect state of public economy, the soil of
the country f bOll td be applied sclely to the rai~ing of",
provision for the inhabitants, and its trade be supplied
by their indtl~trJ". A nation u,ill never reaGh its
proper extent of population, so long as its principal
commerce consists in the exportation of com and cattle,
or even of wine, oil, tobacco, madder, indigo"
timber; because these last articles take up that surface
which oU'ght to be covered with the materials
of human ~tJbsjste:lce.
It must b~ rlerE! however noticed, that we have all
along considered the inhabitants of a country a.