IV. What would it have been, had the law given no CHAP. direct 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 distinguished 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 agri culture. 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 those colonies. But it has never introduced any confiderable manufactures for distant fale into either of those countries, and the greater part of both ftill remains uncultivated. The foreign commerce of Portugal is of older standing 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 BOOK proved in every part, by means of foreign commerce and manufactures for diftant fale. Before the invafion of Charles the VIIIth, Italy, according to Guicciardin, was cultivated not lefs in the moft 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 moft 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 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 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 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 obfcure 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 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 deftroyed but by thofe more violent convulfions occafioned by the depredations of hoftile and barbarous nations continued for a century or two together; fuch as those that happened for fome time before and after the fall of the Roman empire in the western provinces of Europe. BOOK BOOK BOOK IV. Of Systems of political Oeconomy. INTRODUCTION. SOLITICAL œconomy, confidered as a branch of the science of a ftatefman or legiIntroduct. flator, proposes two distinct 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 fecondly, to fupply the ftate or commonwealth with a revenue fufficient for the publick 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 fyftems of political economy, with regard to enriching the people. The one may be called the fyftem of commerce, the other that of agriculture. I fhall endeavour to explain both as fully and distinctly as I can, and shall begin with the fyftem of commerce. It is the modern fyftem, and is beft understood in our own country and in our own times. СНАР. CHAP. I. Of the Principle of the commercial, or mercantile TH 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 occafion 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 subsequent 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 carelefs, 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 short, are, in common language, confidered as in every refpect 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 |