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the fish from the waters; and it is the produce of the surfaceof the earth which extracts the minerals from its bowels.

The produce of land, mines, and fisheries, when their na-tural fertility is equal, is in proportion to the extent andproper application of the capitals employed about them.When the capitals are equal, and equally well applied, itis in proportion to their natural fertility.

In all countries where there is tolerable security, everyman of common understanding will endeavour to employwhatever stock he can command, in procuring either presentenjoyment or future profit. If it is employed in procuringpresent enjoyment, it is a stock reserved for immediate con-sumption. If it is employed in procuring future profit, itmust procure this profit, either by staying with him, or bygoing from him. In the one case it is a fixed, in the other itis a circulating capital. A man must be perfectly crazy who,where there is tolerable security, does not employ all thestock which he commands, whether it be his own, or borrowedof other people, in some one or other of those three ways.

In those unfortunate countries, indeed, where men arecontinually afraid of the violence of their superiors, theyfrequently bury and conceal a great part of their stock, inorder to have it always at hand to carry with them to someplace of safety, in case of their being threatened with any ofthose disasters to which they consider themselves as at alltimes exposed. This is said to be a common practice inTurkey, in Indostan, and, I believe, in most other govern-ments of Asia . It seems to have been a common practiceamong our ancestors during the violence of the feudal go-vernment. Treasure-trove was in those times considered asno contemptible part of the revenue of the greatest sovereignsin Europe . It consisted in such treasure as was found con-cealed in the earth, and to which no particular person couldprove any right. This was regarded in those times as soimportant an object, that it was always considered as belong-ing to the sovereign, and neither to the finder nor to theproprietor of the land, unless the right to it had been con-veyed to the latter by an express clause in his charter. Itwas put upon the same looting with gold and silver mines,which, without a special clause in the charter, were neversupposed to be comprehended in the general grant of thelands, though mines ot lead, copper, tin, and coal were, asthings of smaller consequence.

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