THE WEALTH OF NATIONS. 277

Though for 'want of fuch regulations the fo-ciety. fhould never acquire the propofed manu-faciure, it would not, upon that account, necef-farily be the poorer in any one period of itsduration. In every period of its. duration itswhole capital and induftry might frill have beenemployed, though upon different objects, in themanner that was molt advantageous at the time.In every period its revenue might have been thegreateffc which its capital could afford , and bothcapital and revenue might have been augmentedwith the greateft poflible rapidity.

The natural advantages which one country hasover another in producing particular commoditiesare fometimes fo great, that it is acknowledgedby all the world to be in vain to flruggle withthem. By means of glaffes, hotbeds, and hot-walls, very good grapes can be railed in Scot-land , and very good wine too can be made ofthem at about thirty times the expenfe for whichat leaft equally good can be brought from fo-reign countries. Would it be a reafonable lawto prohibit the importation of all foreign wines,merely to encourage the making of claret andburgundy in Scotland ? But if there would bea manifeft abfurdity in turning towards any em-ployment , thirty times more of the capital andinduftry of the country, than would be neceffaryto purchafe from foreign countries an equalquantity of the commodities wanted , there mu ftbe an abfurdity, though not altogether fo gla-ring , yet exactly of the fame kind , in turning