I.

prepare work for more diftant fale. The fmith CHA P. erects fome fort of iron, the weaver fome fort of linen or woollen manufactory. Thofe different manufactures come, in procefs of time, to be gradually fubdivided, and thereby improved and refined in a great variety of ways, which may eafily be conceived, and which it is therefore unneceffary to explain any further.

In feeking for employment to a capital, manufactures are, upon equal, or nearly equal profits, naturally preferred to foreign commerce, for the fame reafon that agriculture is naturally preferred to manufactures. As the capital of the landlord or farmer is more fecure than that of the manufacturer, fo the capital of the manufacturer being at all times more within his view and command, is more fecure than that of the foreign merchant. In every period, indeed, of every fociety, the furplus part both of the rude and manufactured produce, or that for which there is no demand at home, must be sent abroad, in order to be exchanged for fomething for which there is fome demand at home. But whether the capital, which carries this furplus produce abroad, be a foreign or a domeftic one, is of very little importance. If the fociety has not acquired fufficient capital both to cultivate all its lands, and to manufacture, in the completeft manner, the whole of its rude produce, there is even a confiderable advantage that that rude produce fhould be exported by a foreign capital, in order that the whole ftock of the fociety may be employed in more useful purposes. The

wealth

III.

BOOK wealth of ancient Egypt, that of China and Indoftan, fufficiently demonftrate that a nation may attain a very high degree of opulence, though the greater part of its exportation trade be carried on by foreigners. The progrefs of our North American and Weft Indian colonies would have been much lefs rapid, had no capital but what belonged to themfelves been employed in exporting their furplus produce.

According to the natural courfe of things, therefore, the greater part of the capital of every growing fociety is, firft, directed to agriculture, afterwards to manufactures, and last of all to foreign commerce. This order of things is fo very natural, that in every fociety that had any territory, it has always, I believe, been in fome degree, obferved. Some of their lands must have been cultivated before any confiderable towns could be established, and some fort of coarse induftry of the manufacturing kind must have been carried on in thofe towns, before they could well think of employing themfelves in foreign

commerce.

But though this natural order of things muft have taken place in fome degree in every fuch fociety, it has, in all the modern ftates of Europe, been, in many refpects, entirely inverted. The foreign commerce of fome of their cities has introduced all their finer manufactures, or fuch as were fit for diftant fale; and manufactures and foreign commerce together, have given birth to the principal improvements of agriculture. The manners and cuftoms which the nature of their

4

I.

their original government introduced, and which C H A P. remained after that government was greatly altered, neceffarily forced them into this unnatural and retrogade order.

CHAP. II.

Of the Difcouragement of Agriculture in the ancient State of Europe after the Fall of the Roman Empire.

WH

II.

HEN the German and Scythian nations C H A P. over-ran the western provinces of the Roman empire, the confufions which followed fo great a revolution lafted for feveral centuries. The rapine and violence which the barbarians exercifed against the ancient inhabitants,interrupted the commerce between the towns and the country. The towns were deferted, and the country was left uncultivated, and the western provinces of Europe, which had enjoyed a confiderable degree of opulence under the Roman empire, funk into the lowest state of poverty and barbarifm. During the continuance of those confufions, the chiefs and principal leaders of thofe nations, acquired or ufurped to themselves the greater part of the lands of thofe countries. A great part of them was uncultivated; but no part of them, whether cultivated or uncultivated, was left without a proprietor. All of them were en groffed

VOL. III.

OF THE DISCOURAGEMENT OF AGRICULTURE

BOOK groffed, and the greater part by a few great próIII. prietors.

This original engroffing of uncultivated lands, though a great, might have been but a tranfitory evil. They might foon have been divided again, and broke into fmall parcels either by fucceffion or by alienation. The law of primogeniture hindered them from being divided by fucceffion: the introduction of entails prevented their being broke into fmall parcels by alienation.

When land, like moveables, is confidered as the means only of fubfiftence and enjoyment, the natural law of fucceffion divides it, like them, among all the children of the family; of all of whom the fubfiftence and enjoyment may be fuppofed equally dear to the father. This natural law of fucceffion accordingly took place among the Romans, who made no more diftinction be-tween elder and younger, between male and female, in the inheritance of lands, than we do in the diftribution of moveables. But when land was confidered as the means, not of fubfiftence merely, but of power and protection, it was thought better that it should defcend undivided to one. In thofe diforderly times, every great landlord was a fort of petty prince. His tenants were his fubjects. He was their judge, and in fome refpects their legislator in peace, and their leader in war. He made war according to his own difcretion, frequently against his neighbours, and fometimes againft his fovereign. The fecurity of a landed cftate, therefore, the protection

II.

which its owner could afford to thofe who dwelt CHA P. on it, depended upon its greatnefs. To divide it was to ruin it, and to expofe every part of it to be oppreffed and fwallowed up by the incurfions of its neighbours. The law of primogeniture, therefore, came to take place, not immediately, indeed, but in procefs of time, in the fucceffion of landed estates, for the fame reason that it has generally taken place in that of monarchies, though not always at their first institution. That the power, and confequently the fecurity of the monarchy, may not be weakened by divifion, it muft defcend entire to one of the children. To which of them fo important a preference shall be given, must be determined by fome general rule, founded not upon the doubtful diftinctions of personal merit, but upon fome plain and evident difference which can admit of no difpute. Among the children of the fame family, there can be no indifputable difference but that of fex, and that of age. The male fex is univerfally preferred to the female; and when all other things are equal, the elder every-where takes place of the younger. Hence the origin of the right of primogeniture, and of what is called lineal fucceffion.

.

Laws frequently continue in force long after the circumstances, which firft gave occafion to them, and which could alone render them reafonable, are no more. In the present state of Europe, the proprietor of a fingle acre of land is as perfectly fecure of his poffeffion as the proprietor of a hundred thoufand. The right of primoge niture,

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