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of the reprefentation of burghs in the states ge- CHAP. neral of all the great monarchies in Europe.

Order and good government, and along with them the liberty and security of individuals, were, in this manner, established in cities, at a time when the occupiers of land in the country were exposed to every fort of violence. But men in this defenceless state naturally content themfelves with their necessary subsistence; because to acquire more might only tempt the injustice of their oppreffors. On the contrary, when they are fecure of enjoying the fruits of their industry, they naturally exert it to better their condition, and to acquire not only the necessaries, but the conveniencies and elegancies of life. That industry, therefore, which aims at fomething more than neceffary subsistence, was established in cities long before it was commonly practifed by the occupiers of land in the country. If in the hands of a poor cultivator, oppreffed with the fervitude of villanage, some little stock should accumulate, he would naturally conceal it with great care from his master, to whom it would otherwife have belonged, and take the first opportunity of running away to a town. The law was at that time so indulgent to the inhabitants of towns, and so defirous of diminishing the authority of the lords over those of the country, that if he could conceal himself there from the pursuit of his lord for a year, he was free for Whatever stock, therefore, accumulated in the hands of the industrious part of the inhabitants of the country, naturally took refuge in cities,

ever.

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воок cities, as the only fanctuaries in which it could be III. fecure to the perfon that acquired it.

The inhabitants of a city, it is true, must always ultimately derive their fubfiftence, and the whole materials and means of their industry, from the country. But those of a city situated near either the fea-coast or the banks of a navigable river, are not neceffarily confined to derive them from the country in their neighbourhood. They have a much wider range, and may draw them from the most remote corners of the world, either in exchange for the manufactured produce of their own industry, or by performing the office of carriers between diftant countries, and exchanging the produce of one for that of another. A city might in this manner grow up to great wealth and fplendor, while not only the country in its neighbourhood, but all those to which it traded, were in poverty and wretchedness. Each of those countries, perhaps, taken fingly, could afford it but a small part, either of its subsistence, or of its employment; but all of them taken together could afford it both a great fubfiftence and a great employment. There were, however, within the narrow circle of the commerce of those times, fome countries that were opulent and industrious. Such was the Greek empire as long as it fubfifted, and that of the Saracens during the reigns of the Abaffides. Such too was Egypt till it was conquered by the Turks, fome part of the coaft of Barbary, and all those provinces of Spain which were under the government of the Moors.

The

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The cities of Italy seem to have been the first CHAP. in Europe which were raised by commerce to any confiderable degree of opulence. Italy lay in the centre of what was at that time the improved and civilized part of the world. The crufades too, though, by the great waste of stock and deftruction of inhabitants which they occafioned, they must necessarily have retarded the progress of the greater part of Europe, were extremely favourable to that of fome Italian cities. The great armies which marched from all parts to the con. quest of the Holy Land, gave extraordinary encouragement to the shipping of Venice, Genoa, and Pifa, fometimes in transporting them thither, and always in fupplying them with provifions. They were the commiffaries, if one may fay fo, of those armies; and the most deftructive frenzy that ever befel the European nations, was a fource of opulence to those républics.

The inhabitants of trading cities, by importing the improved manufactures and expenfive luxuries of richer countries, afforded fome food to the vanity of the great proprietors, who eagerly purchased them with great quantities of the rude produce of their own lands. The commerce of a great part of Europe in those times, accordingly, confifted chiefly in the exchange of their own rude, for the manufactured produce of more civilized nations. Thus the wool of England used to be exchanged for the wines of France, and the fine cloths of Flanders, in the fame manner as the corn in Poland is at this

воок day exchanged for the wines and brandies of III. France, and for the filks and velvets of France and Italy.

A taste for the finer and more improved manufactures, was in this manner introduced by foreign commerce into countries where no fuch works were carried on. But when this taste became fo general as to occafion a confiderable demand, the merchants, in order to fave the expence of carriage, naturally endeavoured to eftablish some manufactures of the fame kind in their own country. Hence the origin of the first manufactures for distant sale that feem to have been established in the western provinces of Europe, after the fall of the Roman empire.

No large country, it must be observed, ever did or could fubfift without fome fort of manufactures being carried on in it; and when it is faid of any fuch country that it has no manufactures, it must always be understood of the finer and more improved, or of fuch as are fit for diftant fale. In every large country, both the clothing and houshold furniture of the far greater part of the people, are the produce of their own industry. This is even more universally the cafe in those poor countries which are commonly faid to have no manufactures, than in those rich ones that are faid to abound in them. In the latter, you will generally find, both in the clothes and houshold furniture of the lowest rank of people, a much greater proportion of foreign productions than in the former.

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Those manufactures which are fit for diftant CHAP. fale, feem to have been introduced into different countries in two different ways.

Sometimes they have been introduced, in the manner above mentioned, by the violent operation, if one may fay fo, of the stocks of particular merchants and undertakers, whoeftablished them in imitation of fome foreign manufactures of the fame kind. Such manufactures, therefore, are the offspring of foreign commerce, and fuch feem to have been the ancient manufactures of filks, velvets, and brocades, which flourished in Lucca, during the thirteenth century. They were banished from thence by the tyranny of one of Machiavel's heroes, Caftruccio Castracani. In 1310, nine hundred families were driven out of Lucca, of whom thirty-one retired to Venice, and offered to introduce there the filk manufacture*. Their offer was accepted; many privileges were conferred upon them, and they began the manufacture with three hundred workSuch too feem to have been the manufactures of fine cloths that anciently flourished in Flanders, and which were introduced into England in the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth; and fuch are the prefent filk manufactures of Lyons and Spital-fields. Manufactures introduced in this manner are generally employed upon foreign materials, being imitations of foreign manufactures. When the Venetian manu

men.

* See Sandi Istoria Civile de Vinezia, Part 2. vol. i. page 247, and 256.

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