346 THE NATURE AN1) CAUSES OK

This would be still more the case, were they to attempt, in thesame manner, to monopolize to themselves their whole expor-tation trade.

The course of human prosperity, indeed, seems scarce everto have been of so long continuance as to enable any greatcountry to acquire capital sufficient for all those three pur-poses ; unless, perhaps, we give credit to the wonderful ac-counts of the wealth and cultivation of China , of those of an-cient Egypt, and of the ancient state of Indostan. Even thosethree countries, the wealthiest, according to all accounts, thatever were in the world, are chiefly renowned for their supe-riority in agriculture and manufactures. They do not ap-pear to have been eminent for foreign trade. The ancientEgyptians had a superstitious antipathy to the sea; a super-stition nearly of the same kind prevails among the Indians ;and the Chinese have never excelled in foreign commerce.The greater part of the surplus produce of all those threecountries seems to have been always exported by foreigners,who gave in exchange for it something else for which theyfound a demand there, frequently gold and silver.

It is thus that the same capital will in any country put intomotion a greater or smaller quantity of productive labour,and add a greater or smaller value to the annual produce ofits land and labour, according to the different proportions inwhich it is employed in agriculture, manufactures, and whole-sale trade. The difference too is very great, according tothe different sorts of wholesale trade in which any part of itis employed.

All wholesale trade, all buying in order to sell again bywholesale, may be reduced to three different sorts. Thehome trade, the foreign trade of consumption, and the carry-ing trade. The home trade is employed in purchasing inone part of the same country, and selling in another, the pro-duce of the industry of that country. It comprehends boththe inland and the coasting trade. The foreign trade of con-sumption is employed in purchasing foreign goods for homeconsumption. The carrying trade is employed in transact-ing the commerce of foreign countries, or in carrying the sur-plus produce of one to another.

The capital which is employed in purchasing in one partof the country, in order to sell in another, the produce of theindustry of that country, generally replaces by every suchoperation two distinct capitals that had both been employed