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BOOK proved in every part, by means of foreign com

III.

merce and manufactures for diftant fale.

Before the invafion 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 plainest and most fertile, The advantageous fituation of the country, and the great number of independent states 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 moft judicious and referved of modern historians, 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 improvement 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 difguft 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 fpread as it were over the face of that country, either in buildings, or in the lasting 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 fome 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, best cultivated, and moft 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 thofe more violent convulfions, occafioned by the depredations of hoftile and barbarous nations, continued for a century or two together; fuch as thofe that happened for fome time before and after the fall of the Roman empire in the western provinces of Europe.

BOOK IV.

OF SYSTEMS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY.

BOOK
IV.

INTRODUCTION.

POLITICAL œconomy, confidered as

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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 themfelves; and fecondly, to fupply the ftate or commonwealth with a revenue fufficient for the public fervices. It propofes to enrich both the people and the fovereign.

The different progrefs of opulence in different ages and nations, has given occafion to two dif ferent fyftems of political economy, with regard to enriching the people. The one may be called the fyftem of commerce, the other that of agri. culture. I shall endeavour to explain both as fully and diftinctly as I can, and fhall begin. with the fyftem of commerce. It is the modern fyftem, and is best understood in our own country and in our own times.

OF THE PRINCÍPLE OF THE MERCANTILE SYSTEM.

139

CHAP. I.

Of the Principle of the commercial, or mercantile

THA

Syftem.

I.

HAT wealth confifts in money, or in gold CHA P. and filver, is a popular notion which naturally arifes from the double function of money, as the inftrument of commerce, and as the measure of value. In confequence of its being the inftrument of commerce, when we have money we can more readily obtain whatever elfe we have cccafion for, than by means of any other commodity. The great affair, we always find, is to get money. When that is obtained, there is no difficulty in making any fubfequent purchafe. In confequence of its being the measure of value, we estimate that of all other commodities by the quantity of money which they will exchange for. We fay of a rich man that he is worth a great deal, and of a poor man that he is worth very little money. A frugal man, or a man eager to be rich, is faid to love money; and a careless, a generous, or a profufe man, is faid to be indifferent about it. To grow rich is to get money; and wealth and money, in fhort, are, in common language, confidered as in every respect fynonymous.

A rich country, in the fame manner as a rich man, is fuppofed to be a country abounding in money; and to heap up gold and filver in any

country

BOOK country is fuppofed to be the readiest way to IV. enrich it. For fome time after the discovery of

America, the first enquiry of the Spaniards, when they arrived upon any unknown coaft, ufed to be, if there was any gold or filver to be found in the neighbourhood? By the information which they received, they judged whether it was worth while to make a fettlement there, or if the country was worth the conquering. Plano Carpino, a monk, fent ambaffador from the King of France to one of the fons of the famous Gengis Khan, fays that the Tartars ufed frequently to ask him, if there was plenty of fheep and oxen in the kingdom of France? Their enquiry had the fame object with that of the Spaniards. They wanted to know if the country was rich enough to be worth the conquering. Among the Tartars, as among all other nations of fhepherds, who are generally ignorant of the ufe of money, cattle are the inftruments of commerce and the meafures of value. Wealth, therefore, according to them, confifted in cattle, as according to the Spaniards it confifted in gold and filver. Of the two, the Tartar notion, perhaps, was the neareft to the truth.

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Mr. Locke remarks a diftinction between money and other moveable goods. All other moveable goods, he fays, are of fo confumable a nature, that the wealth which confifts in them cannot be much depended on, and a nation which abounds in them one year may, without any exportation, but merely by their own wafte and extravagance, be in great want of them the

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