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counts of the wealth and cultivation of China, CHAP. of those of ancient Egypt, and of the ancient state of Indoftan. Even those three countries, the wealthieft, according to all accounts, that ever were in the world, are chiefly renowned for

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their fuperiority in agriculture and manufactures. They do not appear to have been eminent for foreign trade. The ancient Egyptians had a fuperftitious antipathy to the fea; a fuperftition nearly of the fame kind prevails among the Indians; and the Chinese have never excelled in foreign commerce. The greater part of the furplus produce of all those three countries feems to have been always exported by foreigners, who gave in exchange for it fomething elfe for which they found a demand there, frequently gold and filver.

It is thus that the fame capital will in any country put into motion a greater or fmaller quantity of productive labour, and add a greater or smaller value to the annual produce of its land and labour, according to the different pro. portions in which it is employed in agriculture, manufactures, and wholesale trade. The difference too is very great, according to the different forts of wholesale trade in which any part of it is employed.

All wholesale trade, all buying in order to fell again by wholesale, may be reduced to three different forts. The home trade, the foreign trade of confumption, and the carrying trade. The home trade is employed in purchafing in one part of the fame country, and felling in another,

II.

BOOK the produce of the industry of that country. It comprehends both the inland and the coafting trade. The foreign trade of confumption is em. ployed in purchafing foreign goods for home confumption. The carrying trade is employed in tranfacting the commerce of foreign countries, or in carrying the furplus produce of one to another.

The capital which is employed in purchafing in one part of the country in order to fell in another the produce of the industry of that country, generally replaces by every fuch operation two diftinct capitals that had both been employed in the agriculture or manufactures of that country, and thereby enables them to continue that employment. When it fends out from the refidence of the merchant a certain value of commodities, it generally brings back in return at least an equal value of other commodities. When both are the produce of domestic industry, it neceffarily replaces by every fuch operation two distinct capitals, which had both been employed in fupporting productive labour, and thereby enables them to continue that support. The capital which fends Scotch manufactures to London, and brings back English corn and manufactures to Edinburgh, neceffarily replaces, by every fuch operation, two British capitals which had both been employed in the agriculture or manufactures of Great Britain.

The capital employed in purchafing foreign goods for home-confumption, when this purchase is made with the produce of domeftic industry, replaces

replaces too, by every fuch operation, two dif-CHAP. tinct capitals: but one of them only is employed in fupporting domeftic industry. The capital which fends British goods to Portugal, and brings back Portuguese goods to Great Britain, replaces by every fuch operation only one British capital. The other is a Portuguese one. Though the returns, therefore, of the foreign trade of

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confumption should be as quick as those of the home-trade, the capital employed in it will give but one-half the encouragement to the industry or productive labour of the country.

A

But the returns of the foreign trade of consumption are very feldom so quick as those of the home-trade. The returns of the home-trade generally come in before the end of the year, and fometimes three or four times in the year. The returns of the foreign trade of confumption feldom come in before the end of the year, and fometimes not till after two or three years. capital, therefore, employed in the home-trade will fometimes make twelve operations, or be fent out and returned twelve times, before a capital employed in the foreign trade of confumption has made one. If the capitals are equal, therefore, the one will give four and twenty times more encouragement and support to the industry of the country than the other.

The foreign goods for home-confumption may fometimes be purchased, not with the produce of domestic industry, but with fome other foreign goods. These last, however, must have been purchased either immediately with the produce

of

BOOK of domestic industry, or with something else II. that had been purchased with it; for, the cafe of war and conqueft excepted, foreign goods can never be acquired, but in exchange for fomething that had been produced at home either immediately, or after two or more different exchanges. The effects, therefore, of a capital employed in fuch a round-about foreign trade of confumption, are, in every respect, the fame as thofe of one employed in the most direct trade of the fame kind, except that the final returns are likely to be still more distant, as they must depend upon the returns of two or three distinct foreign trades. If the flax and hemp of Riga are purchased with the tobacco of Virginia, which had been purchased with British manufactures, the merchant must wait for the returns of two distinct foreign trades before he can employ the fame capital in repurchasing a like quantity of British manufactures. If the tobacco of Virginia had been purchased, not with British manufactures, but with the fugar and rum of Jamaica which had been purchased with those manufactures, he must wait for the returns of three. If those two or three distinct foreign trades should happen to be carried on by two or three distinct merchants, of whom the second buys the goods imported by the first, and the third buys those imported by the fecond, in order to export them again, each merchant indeed will in this cafe receive the returns of his own capital more quickly; but the final returns of the whole capi. tal employed in the trade will be just as flow as

ever.

Whether the whole capital employed in CHAP.

fuch a round-about trade belong to one merchant or to three, can make no difference with regard to the country, though it may with regard to the particular merchants. Three times a greater capital must in both cafes be employed, in order to exchange a certain value of British manufactures for a certain quantity of flax and hemp, than would have been neceffary, had the manufactures and the flax and hemp been directly exchanged for one another. The whole capital employed, therefore, in fuch a round-about foreign trade of confumption, will generally give less encouragement and fupport to the productive labour of the country, than an equal capital employed in a more direct trade of the fame kind.

Whatever be the foreign commodity with which the foreign goods for home-confumption are purchased, it can occafion no effential difference either in the nature of the trade, or in the encouragement and fupport which it can give to the productive labour of the country from which it is carried on. If they are purchased with the gold of Brazil, for example, or with the filver of Peru, this gold and filver, like the tobacco of Virginia, muft have been purchased with fomething that either was the produce of the industry of the country, or that had been purchased with fomething elfe that was fo. So far, therefore, as the productive labour of the country is concerned, the foreign trade of confumption which is carried on by means of gold and filver, has all

the

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