С thofe European countries of which the wealth c HAP. depends very much upon their commerce and IV. manufactures, with the rapid advances of our North American colonies, of which the wealth is founded altogether in agriculture. Through the greater part of Europe, the number of inhabitants is not supposed to double in less than five hundred years. In feveral of our North Ameri can colonies, it is found to double in twenty or five-and-twenty years. In Europe, the law of primogeniture, and perpetuities of different kinds, prevent the divifion of great estates, and thereby hinder the multiplication of fmall proprietors. A finall proprietor, however, who knows every part of his little territory, views it with all the affection which property, especially finall property, naturally infpires, and who upon that account takes pleasure not only in cultivating but in adorning it, is generally of all improvers the moft industrious, the moft intelligent, and the moft fuccefsful. The fame regulations, befides, keep fo much land out of the market, that there are always more capitals to buy than there is land to fell, fo that what is fold always fells at a monopoly price. The rent never pays the intereft of the purchase-money, and is befides burdened with repairs and other occafional charges, to which the intereft of money is not liable. To purchase land is every-where in Europe a most unprofitable employment of a small capital. For the fake of the fuperior fecurity, indeed, a man of moderate circumstances, when he retires from bufinefs, will fometimes chufe to lay out his K 2 BOOK his little capital in land. A man of profeffion III. too, whofe revenue is derived from another fource, often loves to fecure his favings in the fame way. But a young man, who, instead of applying to trade or to some profeffion, should employ a capital of two or three thoufand pounds in the purchase and cultivation of a small piece of land, might indeed expect to live very happily, and very independently, but muft bid adieu, for ever, to all hope of either great fortune or great illustration, which by a different employment of his stock he might have had the same chance of acquiring with other people. Such a perfon too, though he cannot aspire at being a proprietor, will often difdain to be a farmer. The fmall quantity of land, therefore, which is brought to market, and the high price of what is brought thither, prevents a great number of capitals from being employed in its cultivation. and improvement which would otherwife have taken that direction. In North America, on the contrary, fifty or fixty pounds is often found a fufficient flock to begin a plantation with. The purchase and improvement of uncultivated fand, is there the most profitable employment of the finalleft as well as of the greateft capitals, and the most direct road to all the fortune and illuftration which can be acquired in that country. Such land, indeed, is in North America to be had almoft for nothing, or at a price much below the value of the natural produce; a thing impoffible in Europe, or, indeed, in any country where all lands have long been private IV. private property. If landed eftates, however, CHAP. were divided equally among all the children, upon the death of any proprietor who left a numerous family, the eftate would generally be fold. So much land would come to market, that it could no longer fell at a monopoly price. The free rent of the land would go nearer to pay the intereft of the purchase-money, and a fmall capital might be employed in purchafing land as profitably as in any other way. England, on account of the natural fertility of the foil, of the great extent of the fea-coaft in proportion to that of the whole country, and of the many navigable rivers which run through it, and afford the conveniency of water carriage to fome of the most inland parts of it, is perhaps as well fitted by nature as any large country in Europe, to be the feat of foreign commerce, of manufactures for diftant fale, and of all the improvements which thefe can occafion. From the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth too, the English legislature has been peculiarly attentive to the interests of commerce and manufactures, and in reality there is no country in Europe, Holland itself not excepted, of which the law is, upon the whole, more favourable to this fort of industry. Commerce and manufactures have ac cordingly been continually advancing during all this period. The cultivation and improvement of the country has, no doubt, been gradually advancing too: But it feems to have followed flowly, and at a distance, the more rapid progrefs of commerce and manufactures. The greater III. BOOK Its rude produce being charged with lefs carriage, the traders could pay the growers a better price for it, and yet afford it as cheap to the confumers as that of more diftant countries. Secondly, the wealth acquired by the inhabitants of cities was frequently employed in purchafing fuch lands as were to be fold, of which a great part would frequently be uncultivated. Merchants are commonly ambitious of becoming country gentlemen, and when they do, they are generally the best of all improvers. A merchant is accustomed to employ his money chiefly in profitable projects; whereas a mere country gen tleman is accustomed to employ it chiefly in expence. The one often fees his money go from him and return to him again with a profit: the other, when once he parts with it, very seldom expects to fee any more of it. Thofe different habits naturally affect their temper and difpofition in every fort of bufinefs. A merchant is commonly a bold; a country gentleman, a timid undertaker. The one is not afraid to lay out at once a large capital upon the improvement of his land, when he has a probable profpect of raifing the value of it in proportion to the expence. The other, if he has any capital, which is not always the case, seldom ventures to em ploy it in this manner. If he improves at all, it is commonly not with a capital, but with what he can fave out of his annual revenue, Whoever has had the fortune to live in a mercantile town fituated in an unimproved country, muft have frequently obferved how much more fpirited the IV. the operations of merchants were in this way, CHA P. than those of mere country gentlemen. The habits, befides, of order, ceconomy and atten. tion, to which mercantile bufinefs naturally forms a merchant, render him much fitter to execute, with profit and fuccefs, any project of improvement. Thirdly, and lastly, commerce and manu-. factures gradually introduced order and good government, and with them, the liberty and fecurity of individuals, among the inhabitants of the country, who had before lived almoft in a continual state of war with their neighbours, and of fervile dependency upon their fuperiors. This, though it has been the leaft obferved, is by far the most important of all their effects. Mr. Hume is the only writer who, fo far as I know, has hitherto taken notice of it. In a country which has neither foreign commerce, nor any of the finer manufactures, a great proprietor, having nothing for which he can exchange the greater part of the produce of his lands which is over and above the maintenance of the cultivators, confumes the whole in ruftic hofpitality at home. If this furplus produce is fufficient to maintain a hundred or a thousand men, he can make ufe of it in no other way than by maintaining a hundred or a thoufand men, He is at all times, therefore, furrounded with a multitude of retainers and dependants, who having no equivalent to give in return for their maintenance, but being fed entirely by his bounty, must obey him, for the fame reafon that fol, 1 4 diers |