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II.

BOOK the advantages and all the inconveniencies of any other equally round-about foreign trade of confumption, and will replace just as fast or just as flow the capital which is immediately employed in fupporting that productive labour. It feems even to have one advantage over any other equally round-about foreign trade. The tranfportation of those metals from one place to another, on account of their fimall bulk and great value, is less expensive than that of almost any other foreign goods of equal value. Their freight is much less, and their infurance not greater; and no goods, befides, are lefs liable to fuffer by the carriage. An equal quantity of foreign goods, therefore, may frequently be purchased with a smaller quantity of the produce of domeftic industry, by the intervention of gold and filver, than by that of any other foreign goods. The demand of the country may fre quently, in this manner, be supplied more completely and at a smaller expence than in any other. Whether, by the continual exportation of those metals, a trade of this kind is likely to impoverish the country from which it is carried on, in any other way, I shall have occafion to examine at great length hereafter.

That part of the capital of any country which is employed in the carrying trade, is altogether withdrawn from fupporting the productive labour of that particular country, to fupport that of fome foreign countries. Though it may replace by every operation two distinct capitals, yet neither of them belongs to that particular country.

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country. The capital of the Dutch merchant, CHAP. which carries the corn of Poland to Portugal, and brings back the fruits and wines of Portugal to Poland, replaces by every fuch operation two capitals, neither of which had been employed in fupporting the productive labour of Holland; but one of them in supporting that of Poland, and the other that of Portugal. The profits only return regularly to Holland, and conftitute the whole addition which this trade necessarily makes to the annual produce of the land and labour of that country. When, indeed, the carrying trade of any particular country is carried on with the ships and failors of that country, that part of the capital employed in it which pays the freight, is distributed among, and puts into motion, a certain number of productive labourers of that country. Almost all nations that have had any confiderable share of the carrying trade have, in fact, carried it on in this manner. The trade itself has probably derived its name from it, the people of fuch countries being the carriers to other countries. It does not, however, feem effential to the nature of the trade that it should be fo. A Dutch merchant may, for example, employ his capital in transacting the commerce of Poland and Portugal, by carrying part of the furplus produce of the one to the other, not in Dutch, but in British bottoms. It may be prefumed, that he actually does so upon fome particular occafions. It is upon this account, however, that the carrying trade has been supposed pecu

liarly advantageous to fuch a country as Great

VOL. III.

F

Britain,

воок Britain, of which the defence and security deII. pend upon the number of its failors and shipping: But the fame capital may employ as many failors and shipping, either in the foreign trade of consumption, or even in the home-trade, when carried on by coafting veffels, as it could in the carrying trade. The number of failors and shipping which any particular capital can employ, does not depend upon the nature of the trade, but partly upon the bulk of the goods in proportion to their value, and partly upon the diftance of the ports between which they are to be carried; chiefly upon the former of those two circumstances. The coal-trade from Newcastle to London, for example, employs more shipping than all the carrying trade of England, though the ports are at no great distance. To force, therefore, by extraordinary encouragements, a larger share of the capital of any country into the carrying trade, than what would naturally go to it, will not always necessarily increase the shipping of that country.

The capital, therefore, employed in the hometrade of any country will generally give encouragement and support to a greater quantity of productive labour in that country, and increase the value of its annual produce more than an equal capital employed in the foreign trade of confumption: and the capital employed in this latter trade has in both these respects a still greater advantage over an equal capital employed in the carrying trade. The riches, and fo far as power depends upon riches, the power of every country, must always be in proportion to CHAP. the value of its annual produce, the fund from which all taxes must ultimately be paid. But the great object of the political economy of every country, is to increase the riches and power of that country. It ought, therefore, to give no

V.

preference nor fuperior encouragement to the foreign trade of confumption above the hometrade, nor to the carrying trade above either of the other two. It ought neither to force nor to allure into either of those two channels, a greater share of the capital of the country than what would naturally flow into them of its own accord.

Each of those different branches of trade, however, is not only advantageous, but necefsary and unavoidable, when the course of things, without any constraint or violence, naturally introduces it.

When the produce of any particular branch of industry exceeds what the demand of the country requires, the furplus must be fent abroad, and exchanged for fomething for which there is a demand at home. Without such exportation, a part of the productive labour of the country must cease, and the value of its annual produce diminish. The land and labour of Great Britain produce generally more corn, woollens, and hard ware, than the demand of the home market requires. The surplus part of them, therefore, must be fent abroad, and exchanged for fomething for which there is a demand at home. It is only by means of fuch exportation, that this surplus can acquire a value sufficient to

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BOOK compenfate the labour and expence of produc II. ing it. The neighbourhood of the fea coast, and the banks of all navigable rivers, are advantageous fituations for industry, only because they facilitate the exportation and exchange of fuch furplus produce for fomething else which is more in demand there.

When the foreign goods which are thus purchased with the furplus produce of domestic industry exceed the demand of the home-market, the furplus part of them must be fent abroad again, and exchanged for fomething more in demand at home. About ninety-fix thousand hogsheads of tobacco are annually purchased in Virginia and Maryland, with a part of the furplus produce of British industry. But the demand of Great Britain does not require, perhaps, more than fourteen thousand. If the remaining eighty-two thousand, therefore, could not be fent abroad and exchanged for fomething more in demand at home, the importation of them must cease immediately, and with it the productive labour of all those inhabitants of Great Britain, who are at present employed in preparing the goods with which these eighty-two thousand hogsheads are annually purchased. Those goods, which are part of the produce of the land and labour of Great Britain, having no market at home, and being deprived of that which they had abroad, must cease to be produced. The most round-about foreign trade of confumption, therefore, may, upon fome occafions, be as necessary for fupporting the produc

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