of a corporation to hinder the reft of the inha-
bitants from employing any workmen but them-
felves, fo it is the intereft of the merchants and
manufacturers of every country to fecure to them-
felves the monopoly of the home market. Hence
in Great Britain, and in moft other European
countries, the extraordinary duties upon almost
all goods imported by alien merchants. Hence the
high duties and prohibitions upon all those foreign
manufactures which can come into competition
with our own. Hence too the extraordinary
restraints upon the importation of almost all forts
of goods from those countries with which the
balance of trade is fuppofed to be disadvantageous;
that is, from those against whom national animofity
happens to be most violently inflamed.

The wealth of a neighbouring nation, how-
ever, though dangerous in war and politics, is
certainly advantageous in trade. In a ftate of
hoftility it may enable our enemies to maintain
fleets and armies fuperior to our own; but in a
ftate of peace and commerce it must likewise
enable them to exchange with us to a greater
value, and to afford a better market, either for
the immediate produce of our own industry, or
for whatever is purchased with that produce.
As a rich man is likely to be a better customer
to the industrious people in his neighbourhood,
than a poor, fo is likewise a rich nation. A rich
man, indeed, who is himself a manufacturer, is a
very dangerous neighbour to all those who deal in
the fame way. All the rest of the neighbourhood,
W. of N. 2.

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however, by far the greatest number, profit by the good market which his expense affords them.. They even profit by his underfelling the poorer workmen who deal in the fame way with him. The manufacturers of a rich nation, in the fame manner, may no doubt be very dangerous rivals. to those of their neighbours. This very competition, however, is advantageous to the great body of the people, who profit greatly befides by the good market which the great expense of such a nation affords them in every other way. Privatepeople who want to make a fortune, never think of retiring to the remote and poor provinces of the country, but refort either to the capital, or to fome of the great commercial towns. They know, that, where little wealth circulates, there is little to be got, but that where a great deal is in motion, fome fhare of it may fall to them. The fame maxims which would in this manner direct the common fense of one, or ten, or twenty individuals, fhould regulate the judgment of one, or ten, or twenty millions, and fhould make a whole nation regard the riches of its neighbours, as a probable cause and occafion for itself to acquire riches. A nation that would enrich itself by foreign trade, is certainly most likely to do so when its neighbours are all rich, industrious, and commercial nations. A great nation surrounded on all fides by wandering favages and poor barbarians might, no doubt, acquire riches by the cultivation of its own lands, and by its own interior commerce, but not by foreign trade. It seems to have been

in this manner that the ancient Egyptians and the modern Chinese acquired their great wealth. The ancient Egyptians, it is faid, neglected foreign commerce, and the modern Chinese, it is known, hold it in the utmoft contempt, and fcarce deign to afford it the decent protection of the laws. The modern maxims of foreign commerce, by aiming at the impoverishment of all our neighbours, fo far as they are capable of producing their intended effect, tend to render that very commerce infignificant and contemptible.

It is in confequence of these maxims that the commerce between France and England has in both countries been fubjected to fo many dif couragements and reftraints. If thofe two countries, however, were to confider their real intereft, without either mercantile jealousy or national animofity, the commerce of France might be more advantageous to Great Britain than that of any other country, and for the same reason that of Great Britain to France. France is the, nearest neighbour to Great Britain. In the trade between the fouthern coaft of England and the northern and north-western coafts of France the returns might be expected, in the fame manner as in the inland trade, four, five, or fix times in the year. The capital, therefore, employed in this trade, could in each of the two countries keep in motion four, five, or fix times the quantity of industry, and afford employment and fubfiftence to four, five, or fix times the number of people, which an equal capital could do in the