622 THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF

neglected; but the producers, whose interest has been socarefully attended to; and among this latter class our mer-chants and manufacturers have been by far the principal ar-chitects. In the mercantile regulations, which have beentaken notice of in this chapter, the interest of our manufac-turers has been most peculiarly attended to ; and the interest,not so much of the consumers as that of some other sets ofproducers, has been sacrificed to it.

CHAP. IX.

Of the agricultural Systems, or of those Systems of politicalEconomy which represent the Produce of Land as eitherthe sole or the principal Source of the Revenue and Wealthof every Country.

The agricultural systems of political economy will not re-quire so long an explanation as that which 1 have thought itnecessary to bestow upon the mercantile or commercial system.

That system which represents the produce of land as thesole source of the revenue and wealth of every country has,so far as I know, never been adopted by any nation, and it atpresent exists only in the speculations of a few men of greatlearning and ingenuity in France . It would not, surely, beworth while to examine at great length the errors of a systemwhich never has done, and probably never will do any harmin any part of the world. I shall endeavour to explain, how-ever, as distinctly as I can, the great outlines of this very in-genious system.

Mr. Colbert, the famous minister of Lewis XIV. was a manof probity, of great industry and knowledge of detail; of greatexperience and acuteness in the examination of public ac-counts, and of abilities, in short, every way fitted for intro-ducing method and good order into the collection and ex-penditure of the public revenue. That minister had unfor-tunately embraced all the prejudices of the mercantile system,in its nature and essence a system of restraint and regulation,and such as could scarce fail to be agreeable to a laboriousand plodding man of business, who had been accustomed toregulate the different departments of public offices, and toestablish the necessary checks and controls for confining eachto its proper sphere. The industry and commerce of a greatcountry he endeavoured to regulate upon the same model asthe departments of a public office; and instead of allowing