Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

III.

BOOK part of the country muft probably have been cultivated before the reign of Elizabeth; and a very great part of it ftill remains uncultivated, and the cultivation of the far greater part, much. inferior to what it might be. The law of England, however, favours agriculture not only indirectly by the protection of commerce, but by feveral direct encouragements. Except in times of fcarcity, the exportation of corn is not only free, but encouraged by a bounty. In times of moderate plenty, the importation of foreign corn is loaded with duties that amount to a prohibition. The importation of live cattle, except from Ireland, is prohibited at all times, and it is but of late that it was permitted from thence. Those who cultivate the land, therefore, have a monopoly against their countrymen for the two greatest and most important articles of land produce, bread and butcher's meat. Thefe encouragements, though at bottom, perhaps, as I fhall endeavour to fhow hereafter, altogether illufory, fufficiently demonftrate at leaft the good intention of the legislature to favour agriculture. But what is of much more importance than all of them, the yeomanry of England are rendered as fecure, as independent, and as refpectable as law can make them. No country, therefore, in which the right of primogeniture takes place, which pays tithes, and where perpetuities, though contrary to the fpirit of the law, are admitted in fome cafes, can give more encouragement to agriculture than England. Such, however, notwithstanding, is the ftate of its cultivation.

IV.

What would it have been, had the law given no CHAP. dire& encouragement to agriculture befides what arifes indirectly from the progrefs of commerce, and had left the yeomanry in the fame condition as in most other countries of Europe? It is now more than two hundred years fince the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth, a period as long as the course of human profperity ufually endures.

FRANCE feems to have had a confiderable fhare of foreign commerce near a century before England was diftinguished as a commercial country. The marine of France was confiderable, according to the notions of the times, before the expedition of Charles the VIIIth to Naples. The cultivation and improvement of France, however, is, upon the whole, inferior to that of England. The law of the country has never given the fame direct encouragement to agriculture.

THE foreign commerce of Spain and Portugal to the other parts of Europe, though chiefly carried on in foreign fhips, is very confiderable. That to their colonies is carried on in their own, and is much greater, on account of the great riches and extent of thofe colonies. But it has never introduced any confiderable manufactures for diftant fale into either of those countries, and the greater part of both ftill remains uncultivated. The foreign commerce of Portugal is of older ftanding than that of any great country in Europe, except Italy.

ITALY is the only great country of Europe which feems to have been cultivated and im

[blocks in formation]

III.

BOOK proved in every part, by means of foreign commerce and manufactures for diftant fale. Before the invasion of Charles the VIIIth, Italy, according to Guicciardin, was cultivated not lefs in the most mountainous and barren parts of the country, than in the plaineft and moft fertile. The advantageous fituation of the country, and the great number of independent ftates which at that time fubfifted in it, probably contributed not a little to this general cultivation. It is not impoffible too, notwithstanding this general expreffion of one of the most judicious and referved of modern hiftorians, that Italy was not at that time better cultivated than England is at prefent.

THE capital, however, that is acquired to any country by commerce and manufactures, is all a very precarious and uncertain poffeffion, till fome part of it has been fecured and realized in the cultivation and improvernent of its lands. A merchant, it has been faid very properly, is not neceffarily the citizen of any particular country. It is in a great measure indifferent to him from what place he carries on his trade; and a very trifling disgust will make him remove his capital, and together with it all the industry which it fupports, from one country to another. No part of it can be faid to belong to any particular country, till it has been spread as it were over the face of that country, either in buildings, or in the lafting improvement of lands. No veftige now remains of the great wealth, faid to have been poffeffed by the greater part of the Hans towns,

IV.

except in the obscure hiftories of the thirteenth CHA P. and fourteenth centuries. It is even uncertain where some of them were fituated, or to what towns in Europe the Latin names given to fome of them belong. But though the misfortunes of Italy in the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the fixteenth centuries greatly diminished the commerce and manufactures of the cities of Lombardy and Tufcany, thofe countries ftill continue to be among the most populous and best cultivated in Europe. The civil wars of Flanders, and the Spanish government which fucceeded them, chafed away the great commerce of Antwerp, Ghent, and Bruges. But Flanders ftill continues to be one of the richest, beft cultivated, and most populous provinces of Europe. The ordinary revolutions of war and government eafily dry up the fources of that wealth which arifes from commerce only. That which arifes from the more folid improvements of agriculture, is much more durable, and cannot be destroyed but by those more violent convulfions occafioned by the depredations of hoftile and barbarous nations continued for a century or two together; such as those that happened for fome time before and after the fall of the Roman empire in the western provinces of Europe.

BOOK

BOOK

IV.

Of Systems of political Oeconomy.

[ocr errors]

BOOK
IV.

[ocr errors]

INTRODUCTIO N.

OLITICAL œconomy, confidered as a branch of the science of a statesman or legifIntroduct. lator, proposes two diftinct objects: first, to provide a plentiful revenue or fubfiftence for the people, or more properly to enable them to provide fuch a revenue or fubfiftence for themselves; and secondly, to supply the state or commonwealth with a revenue fufficient for the public fervices. It proposes to enrich both the people and the fovereign.

THE different progress of opulence in different ages and nations, has given occafion to two different systems of political œconomy, with regard to enriching the people. The one may be called the system of commerce, the other that of agriculture. I fhall endeavour to explain both. as fully and diftinctly as I can, and shall begin with the system of commerce. It is the modern system, and is best understood in our own coun→ try and in our own times.

СНАР.

« AnteriorContinuar »