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cial legislation of every other country. The time will assuredly come,

"When, free as seas or wind,
Unbounded Thames shall flow for all mankind;
Whole nations enter with each swelling tide,
And seas but join the regions they divide."1

1 Pope, "Windsor Forest," line 397.

CHAPTER VI.

Different Employments of Capital and Labour-Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce, equally advantageous-The investment of Capital in different Businesses determined by the Rate of Profit which they respectively yield—Manufactures not productive of increased Mortality, nor unfavourable to the Intelligence of the Work-peopleDangers incident to the excessive growth of Manufacturcs-Influence of Commerce on Public Spirit.

IN treating of the accumulation of capital, it was shown, that the ratio of its increase is the circumstance which chiefly determines national prosperity; that an augmentation of capital is equivalent to an augmentation of the means of supporting and employing additional labourers; and that its diminution equally diminishes the comforts and enjoyments, and perhaps also the necessaries, of the labouring classes, and diffuses poverty and misery over a country and it was also shown, that the increase or diminution of the rate of profit is the great cause of the increase or diminution of capital. Now, such being the case, it seems impossible to resist coming to the conclusion, that the employments which yield the greatest profit, or in which industry is most productive, are at the same time. most advantageous. But Dr. Smith, Mr. Malthus, and others, have objected to this standard. They admit, that if two capitals yield equal profits, the employments in which they are engaged are equally beneficial for those who carry them on; but they contend, that if one of these capitals be employed in agriculture, it will be productive of greater public advantage. It is not difficult, however, to discover that this opinion rests on no good foundation; and to show that the average rate of profit is, under all circumstances, the test by which we are best able to judge which employment is most and which is least advantageous.

A capital may be employed in four different ways; viz. first, in the production of raw produce; or, second, in manufacturing and preparing raw produce for use and consumption; or, third, in transporting raw and manufactured products from one place to another according to the demand; or, fourth, in dividing particular portions of either into such small parcels as may suit the couvenience of those who want them. The capital of those who undertake the improvement or cultivation of lands, mines, or fisheries, is employed in the first of these ways; that of inaster-manufacturers in the second; that of wholesale merchants in the third; and that of retailers in the fourth. It is difficult to conceive that a capital can be employed in any way which may not be classed under one or other of these heads.

earth, as they are every other. But And it is by agri

It is unnecessary to enlarge on the importance of employing capital in the acquisition of raw produce, and especially in the cultivation of the soil. It is from the latter, including therein mines and fisheries, that the matter of all commodities that minister to our necessities, comforts, and enjoyments, is originally derived. The industry which appropriates the raw products of the offered to man by nature, preceded these are always extremely limited. culture only, or by the application of labour and capital to the cultivation of the ground, that large supplies of those raw products, which form the principal part of the food of man, can be obtained. It is not quite certain that any species of grain, as wheat, barley, rye, oats, &c. has ever been discovered growing spontaneously; and, although this must originally have been the case, the extreme scarcity of such spontaneous productions in every country with which we are acquainted, and the labour required to raise them in considerable quantities, prove, beyond all question, that it is to agriculture that we are almost exclusively indebted for them. The transition from the pastoral to the agricultural mode of life is decidedly the most

important step in the progress of society. Whenever, indeed, we compare the quantity of food, and of other raw products, obtained from a given surface of a well-cultivated country, with those obtained from an equal surface of an equally fertile country occupied by hunters or shepherds, the powers of agricultural industry in increasing useful productions appear so extraordinary, that we cease to feel surprise at the preference so early and generally given to agriculture over manufactures and commerce; and are disposed to subscribe, without hesitation, to the panegyric of Cicero, when he says, "Omnium autem rerum ex quibus aliquid acquiritur, nihil est agriculturá melius, nihil uberius, nihil dulcius, nihil homine libero dignius."

But are there any just grounds for this preference? Are manufactures and commerce really less advantageous than agriculture? Without the latter we could have no considerable supply of the materials out of which food and clothes are made; but were we unacquainted with the arts by which these materials, when procured, may be converted into food and clothes, the largest supply of them would be of little or no service. The labour of the miller who grinds the corn, and of the baker who bakes it, is as necessary to the production of bread, as that of the husbandman who tills the ground. It is the business of the agriculturist to raise flax and wool; but did not the spinner and weaver give them utility, and fit them for being made into a comfortable dress, they would be nearly, if not entirely worthless. But for the miner who digs the mineral from the bowels of the earth, we should not be supplied with the matter out of which many of our most useful implements and splendid articles of furniture are made: those, however, who compare the ore when dug from the mine with the finished articles, will, most likely, be convinced that the services of the purifiers and refiners of the ore, and of the artisans who have converted the metal to useful purposes, have been as indispensable as those of the miners.

Not only, however, is manufacturing industry, or that species of industry which fits and adapts the raw products of nature to our use, requisite to render their acquisition of any considerable value; but it is farther evident, that without its assistance these could not be obtained in any considerable quantity. The mechanic who fabricates the plough contributes as efficaciously to the production of corn as the husbandman who guides it. But the ploughwright, the mill-wright, the smith, and all those artisans who prepare tools and machines for the husbandman, are really manufacturers, and differ in no respect from those employed to give utility to wool and cotton, except that they work on harder materials. Tools and machines are the result of the labour and ingenuity of the tool and engine manufacturer; and without their aid, it is impossible that any sort of labour should ever become considerably productive.

"Distinguer," says the Marquis Garnier, "le travail des ouvriers de l'agriculture d'avec celui des autres ouvriers, est une abstraction presque toujours oiseuse. Toute richesse, dans le sens dans lequel nous la concevons, est nécessairement le résultat de ces deux genres de travail, et la consommation ne peut pas plus se passer de l'un que de l'autre. Sans leur concours simultanée il ne peut y avoir de chose consommable, et par conséquent point de richesse. Comment pourrait-on donc comparer leurs produits respectifs, puisque, en séparant ces deux espèces de travail, on ne peut plus concevoir de véritable produit, de produit consommable et ayant une valeur réelle? La valeur du blé. sur pied résulte de l'industrie du moissonneur qui recueillera, du batteur qui le séparera de la paille, de meunier et du boulanger qui le convertiront successivement en farine et en pain, tout comme elle résulte du travail du laboureur et du semeur. Sans le travail du tisserand, le lin n'aurait pas plus le droit d'être compté au nombre des richesses, que l'ortie ou tout autre végétal inutile. A quoi pourrait-il donc servir de rechercher lequel de ces deux

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