T1IE WEALTH OF NATIONS.

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ployed in the carrying trade, the country to which it belongsbecomes the emporium of the goods of all the countries whosetrade that stock carries on. But the owner of that stock ne-cessarily wishes to dispose of as great a part of those goodsas he can at home. He thereby saves himself the trouble, risk,and expense of exportation, and he will upon that account beglad to sell them at home, not only for a much smaller price,but with somewhat a smaller profit than he might expect tomake by sending them abroad. He naturally, therefore, en-deavours as much as he can to turn his carrying trade into aforeign trade of consumption. If his stock again is employedin a foreign trade of consumption, he will, for the same rea-son, be glad to dispose of at home as great a part as he canof the home goods, which he collects in order to export tosome foreign market, and he will thus endeavour, as much ashe can, to turn his foreign trade of consumption into a hometrade. The mercantile stock of every country naturally courtsin this maimer the near, and shuns the distant employment;naturally courts the employment in which the returns are fre-quent, and shuns that in which they are distant and slow;naturally courts the employment in which it can maintain thegreatest quantity of productive labour in the country to whichit belongs, or in which its owner resides, and shuns that inwhich it can maintain there the smallest quantity. It natu-rally courts the employment which in ordinary cases is mostadvantageous, and shuns that which in ordinary cases is leastadvantageous to that country.

But if in any of those distant employments, which in or-dinary cases are less advantageous to the country, the profitshould happen to rise somewhat higher than what is sufficientto balance the natural preference which is given to neareremployments, this superiority of profit will draw stock fromthose nearer employments, till the profits of all return to then-proper level. This superiority of profit, however, is a proofthat in the actual circumstances of the society, those distantemployments arc somewhat understocked in proportion toother employments, and that the stock of the society is notdistributed in the properest manner among all the differentemployments carried on in it. It is a proof that something iseither bought cheaper or sold dearer than it ought to be, andthat some particular class of citizens is more or less oppressedcither by paying more or getting less than what is suitable tothat equality, which ought to take place, and which naturally