III.

live at eight or ten miles diftance from the CHA P.
nearest of them, muft learn to perform them-
felves a great mumber of little pieces of work,
for which, in more populous countries, they
would call in the affiftance of thofe workmen.
Country workmen are almost every where obliged
to apply themselves to all the different branches
of industry that have fo much affinity to one
another as to be employed about the fame fort
of materials. A country carpenter deals in every
fort of work that is made of wood: a country
fmith in every sort of work that is made of iron,
The former is not only a carpenter, but a joiner,
a cabinet maker, and even a carver in wood,
as well as a wheelwright, a plough-wright, a
cart and waggon maker. The employments of
the latter are still more various. It is impoffible
there fhould be fuch a trade as even that of a
nailer in the remote and inland parts of the
Highlands of Scotland. Such a workman at

the rate of a thousand nails a day, and three
hundred working days in the year, will make.
three hundred thousand nails in the year. But
in fuch a fituation it would be impoffible to
difpofe of one thoufand, that is, of one day's
work in the year.

As by means of water-carriage a more extenfive market is opened to every fort of industry than what land-carriage alone can afford it, fo it is upon the fea-coaft, and along the banks of navigable rivers, that industry of every kind naturally begins to fubdivide and improve itself, and it is frequently not till a long time after that

9

thofe

BOOK those improvements extend themfelves to the inI. land parts of the country. A broad-wheeled waggon, attended by two men, and drawn by eight horses, in about fix weeks time carries and brings back between London and Edinburgh near four ton weight of goods. In about the fame time a fhip navigated by fix or eight men, and failing between the ports of London and Leith, frequently carries and brings back two hundred ton weight of goods. Six or eight men, therefore, by the help of water-carriage, can carry and bring back in the fame time the fame quantity of goods between London and Edinburgh, as fifty broad-wheeled waggons, attended by a hundred men, and drawn by four hundred horfes. Upon two hundred tons of goods, therefore, carried by the cheapest landcarriage from London to Edinburgh, there must be charged the maintenance of a hundred men for three weeks, and both the maintenance, and, what is nearly equal to the maintenance, the wear and tear of four hundred horfes as well as of

fifty great waggons. Whereas, upon the fame quantity of goods carried by water, there is to be charged only the maintenance of fix or eight men, and the wear and tear of a fhip of two hundred tons burthen, together with the value of the fuperior rifk, or the difference of the infurance between land and water-carriage. Were there no other communication between those two places, therefore, but by land-carriage, as no goods could be transported from the one to the other, except fuch whofe price was very confi

derable

JII.

derable in proportion to their weight, they could CHAP. carry on but a fmall part of that commerce which at present fubfifts between them, and confequently could give but a fmall part of that encouragement which they at prefent mutually afford to each other's industry. There could be little or no commerce of any kind between the diftant parts of the world. What goods could bear the expence of land-carriage between London and Calcutta? Or if there were any fo precious as to be able to fupport this expence, with what fafety could they be tranfported through the territories of so many barbarous nations? Those two cities, however, at present carry on a very confiderable commerce with each other, and by mutually affording a market, give a good deal of encouragement to each other's industry.

SINCE fuch, therefore, are the advantages of water-carriage, it is natural that the first improvements of art and induftry fhould be made where this conveniency opens the whole world for a market to the produce of every fort of labour, and that they should always be much later in extending themselves into the inland parts of the country. The inland parts of the country can for a long time have no other market for the greater part of their goods, but the country which lies round about them, and separates them from the fea-coaft, and the great navigable riThe extent of their market, therefore, muft for a long time be in proportion to the riches and populoufnefs of that country, and confequently their improvement muft always be pof

vers.

BOOK terior to the improvement of that country. In I. our North American colonies the plantations

have constantly followed either the fea-coaft or the banks of the navigable rivers, and have scarce any where extended themselves to any confiderable distance from both.

THE nations that, according to the best authenticated history, appear to have been first civilized, were thofe that dwelt round the coaft of the Mediterranean fea. That fea, by far the greatest inlet that is known in the world, having no tides, nor confequently any waves except fuch as are caused by the wind only, was, by the smoothness of its furface, as well as by the multitude of its islands, and the proximity of its neighbouring fhores, extremely favourable to the infant navigation of the world; when, from their ignorance of the compafs, men were afraid to quit the view of the coast, and from the imperfection of the art of fhip-building, to abandon themselves to the boisterous waves of the ocean. To pafs beyond the pillars of Hercules, that is, to fail out of the Streights of Gibraltar, was, in the antient world, long confidered as a most wonderful and dangerous exploit of navigation. It was late before even the Phenicians and Carthaginians, the most skilful navigators and shipbuilders of those old times, attempted it, and they were for a long time the only nations that did attempt it.

Of all the countries on the coast of the Mediterranean fea, Egypt feems to have been the first in which either agriculture or manufactures were cultivated

III.

cultivated and improved to any confiderable C HA P. degree. Upper Egypt extends itself nowhere above a few miles from the Nile, and in Lower Egypt that great river breaks itself into many different canals, which, with the affiftance of a little art, seem to have afforded a communication by water-carriage, not only between all the great towns, but between all the confiderable villages, and even to many farm-houses in the country; nearly in the fame manner as the Rhine and the Maese do in Holland at prefent. The extent and eafinefs of this inland navigation was probably, one of the principal caufes of the early improvement of Egypt.

THE improvements in agriculture and manufactures feem likewise to have been of very great antiquity in the provinces of Bengal in the East Indies, and in fome of the eastern provinces of China; though the great extent of this antiquity is not authenticated by any hiftories of whofe authority we, in this part of the world, are well affured. In Bengal the Ganges and several other great rivers form a great number of navigable canals in the fame manner as the Nile does in Egypt. In the Eastern provinces of China too, feveral great rivers form, by their different branches, a multitude of canals, and by communicating with one another afford an inland navigation much more extenfive than that either of the Nile or the Ganges, or perhaps than both of them put together. It is remarkable that neither the antient Egyptians, nor the Indians, nor the Chinese, encouraged foreign commerce, but

feem