be the richer man of the two. He would have CHAP. a stock of goods of fome kind or other, which, though it might not be worth all that it cost, would always be worth fomething. No trace or vestige of the expence of the latter would remain, and the effects of ten or twenty years profufion would be as completely annihilated as if they had never existed. 1 As the one mode of expence is more favourable than the other to the opulence of an individual, so is it likewife to that of a nation. The houses, the furniture, the clothing of the rich, in a little time become useful to the inferior and middling ranks of people. They are able to purchase them when their fuperiors grow weary of them, and the general accommodation of the whole people is thus gradually improved, when this mode of expence becomes univerfal among men of fortune. In countries which have long been rich, you will frequently find the inferior ranks of people in poffeffion both of houses and furniture perfectly good and entire, but of which neither the one could have been built, nor the other have been made for their use. What was forinerly a feat of the family of Seymour, is now an inn upon the Bath road. The marriage bed of James the First of Great Britain, which his Queen brought with her from Denmark, as a present fit for a fovereign to make to a fovereign, was, a few years ago, the ornament of an alehouse at Dunfermline. In fome ancient cities, which either have been long stationary, or have gone fomewhat to decay, you will fometimes fcarce 4 II. BOOK scarce find a fingle house which could have been built for its present inhabitants. If you go into those houses too, you will frequently find many excellent, though antiquated pieces of furniture, which are still very fit for use, and which could as little have been made for them. Noble palaces, magnificent villas, great collections of books, statues, pictures, and other curiofities, are frequently both an ornament and an honour, not only to the neighbourhood, but to the whole country to which they belong. Versailles is an ornament and an honour to France, Stowe and Wilton to England. Italy still continues to command fome fort of veneration by the number of monuments of this kind which it poffeffes, though the wealth which produced them has decayed, and though the genius which planned them feems to be extinguished, perhaps from not having the fame employment.' The expence too, which is laid out in durable commodities, is favourable, not only to accumulation, but to frugality. If a person should at any time exceed in it, he can easily reform without expofing himfelf to the cenfure of the public. To reduce very much the number of his servants, to reform his table from great profusion to great frugality, to lay down his equipage after he has once fet it up, are changes which cannot escape the obfervation of his neighbours, and which are supposed to imply fome acknowledgement of preceding bad conduct. Few, there. fore, of those who have once been so unfortunate as to launch out too far into this fort of expence, III. have afterwards the courage to reform, till ruin CHAP. and bankruptcy oblige them. But if a perfon has at any time, been at too great an expence in building, in furniture, in books or pictures, no imprudence can be inferred from his changing his conduct. These are things in which further expence is frequently rendered unneceffary by former expence; and when a person stops short, he appears to do fo, not because he has exceeded his fortune, but because he has fatisfied his fancy..... : The expence, besides, that is laid out in durable commodities, gives maintenance, commonly, to a greater number of people, than that which is employed in the most profufe hofpitality. Of two or three hundred weight of provifions, which may fometimes be ferved up at a great feftival, one-half, perhaps, is thrown to the dunghill, and there is always a great deal wasted and abufed. But if the expence of this entertainment had been employed in fetting to work mafons, carpenters, upholsterers, mechanics, &c. a quantity of provifions, of equal value, would have been diftributed among a still greater number of people, who would have bought them in penny-worths and pound weights, and not have loft or thrown away a fingle ounce of them. In the one way, befides, this expence maintains productive, in the other unproductive hands. In the one way, therefore, it increafes, in the other, it does not increase, the exchangeable value of the annual produce of the land and labour of the country. I would II. BOOK. I would not, however, by all this be understood to mean, that the one fpecies of expence always betokens a more liberal or generous spirit than the other. When a man of fortune spends his revenue chiefly in hofpitality, he shares the greater part of it with his friends and companions; but when he employs it in purchasing fuch durable commodities, he often spends the whole upon his own perfon, and gives nothing to any body without an equivalent. The latter species of expence, therefore, especially when directed towards frivolous objects, the little ornaments of dress and furniture, jewels, trinkets, gewgaws, frequentlyindicates, not only a trifling, but a base and selfish disposition. All that I mean is, that the one fort of expence, as it always occafions some accumulation of valuable commodities, as it is more favourable to private frugality, and, consequently, to the increase of the public capital, and as it maintains productive, rather than unproductive hands, conduces more than the other to the growth of public opulence. CHAP. CHAP. IV. Of Stock lent at Interest. THE stock which is lent at interest is always CHAP. confidered as a capital by the lender. He expects that in due time it is to be restored to him, and that in the mean time the borrower is to pay him a certain annual rent for the use of it. The borrower may use it either as a capital, or as a stock referved for immediate confumption. If he uses it as a capital, he employs it in the maintenance of productive labourers, who reproduce the value with a profit. He can, in this cafe, both restore the capital and pay the interest without alienating or encroaching upon any other fource of revenue. If he ufes it as a stock referved for immediate consumption, he acts the part of a prodigal, and diffipates in the maintenance of the idle, what was deftined for the fupport of the industrious. He can, in this cafe, neither restore the capital nor pay the interest, without either alienating or encroaching upon fome other fource of revenue, fuch as the property or the rent of land. The stock which is lent at interest is, no doubt, occafionally employed in both these ways, but in the former much more frequently than in the latter. The man who borrows in order to spend will foon be ruined, and he who lends to him will generally have occafion to repent of his folly. VOL. III. D IV. |