28

THE NATURE AND CAUSES Of

vers of Africa are at too great a distance from one another togive occasion to any considerable inland navigation. Thecommerce besides which any nation can carry on by meansof a river which does not break itself into any great numberof branches or canals, and which runs into another territorybefore it reaches the sea, can never be very considerable;because it is always in the power of the nations who possessthat other territory to obstruct the communication betweenthe upper country and the sea. The navigation of the Da­ nube is of very little use to the dili'erent states of Bavaria ,Austria, and Hungary , in comparison of what it would be ifany of them possessed the whole of its course till it falls intothe Black Sea .

CHAP. IV.

Of the Origin and Use of Money.

When the division of labour has been once thoroughly es-tablished, it is but a very small part of a man’s wants, whichthe produce of his own labour can supply. He supplies thefar greater part of them by exchanging that surplus part ofthe produce of his own labour, which is over and above hisown consumption, for such parts of the produce of othermen’s labour as he has occasion for. Every man thus livesby exchanging, or becomes in some measure a merchant, andthe society itself grows to be what is properly a commercialsociety.

But when the division of labour first began to take place,this power of exchanging must frequently have been verymuch clogged and embarrassed in its operations. One man,we shall suppose, has more of a certain commodity than hehimself has occasion for, while another has less. The formerconsequently would be glad to dispose of, and the latter topurchase, a part of this superfluity. But if this latter shouldchance to have nothing that the former stands in need of, noexchange can be made between them. The butcher has moremeat in his shop than he himself can consume, and the brewerand the baker would each of them be willing to purchase apart of it. But they have nothing to offer in exchange, ex-cept the different productions of their respective trades, andthe butcher is already provided with all the bread and beerwhich he has immediate occasion for. No exchange can, inthis case, be made between them. He cannot be their mer-