I

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306 Civil Society. B. II.

principle , the exporting corn is permitted , andv in Britain even encouraged with a bounty. But,where exportation of a rude material will not in-creafe its quantity, the prohibition is good policy.For example, the exporting of rags for paper maybe prohibited ; becaufe liberty of exporting willnot occafion one yard more of linen cloth to beconfumed.

Lyons is the city of Europe where the greateRquantity of filk fluffs is made: it is at the fametime the greatefl flaple of raw filk ; the filk ofItaly, of the Levant, and of the fouth of France ,being there collected. The exportation of rawfilk is prohibited in France , with a view to leffenits price at home, and to obflrucl the filk manu-facture among foreigners. The firfl is a grofs er-ror; the prohibition of exportation producing fcar-city , not plenty: and, with refpedt to the otherview, it feems to have been overlooked, that thecommerce of the filks of Italy, of Spain , and ofthe Levant , is open to all trading nations. Thisprohibition is indeed fo injudicious, that, withoutany benefit to France , it has done irreparable mif-chief to the city of Lyons: while the commerceof raw filk, both buying and felling, was mono-polized by the merchants of that city, they hadit in their power to regulate the price ; but tocompel foreigners to go to the fountain-head,not only raifes the price by concurrence of purcha-fers, but deprives Lyons of a lucrative monopoly.The fame blunder is repeated with refpedl to rawfilk fpun and dyed. In Lyons , filk is prepared for