THE WEALTH OK NATIONS.

G85

produce of the land. The great interest of the sovereign,therefore, his revenue, is in such countries necessarily andimmediately connected with the cultivation of the land, withthe greatness of its produce, and with the value of its pro-duce. But in order to render that produce both as great andas valuable as possible, it is necessary to pvocure to it as ex-tensive a market as possible, and consequently to establishthe freest, the easiest, and the least expensive communicationbetween all the different parts of the country; which can bedone only by means of the best roads and the best navigablecanals. But the revenue of the sovereign does not, in anypart of Europe , arise chiefly from a land-tax or land-rent. Inall the great kingdoms of Europe , perhaps, the greater partof it may ultimately depend upon the produce of the land:but that dependency is neither so immediate, nor so evident.In Europe , therefore, the sovereign does not feel hiinselt sodirectly called upon to promote the increase, both in quantityand value, of the produce of the land, or, by maintaining goodroads and canals, to provide the most extensive market tor thatproduce. Though it should be true, therefore, what I appre-hend is not a little doubtful, that in some parts of Asia thisdepartment of the public police is very properly managed bythe executive power, there is not the least probability that,during the present state of things, it could be tolerably ma-naged by that power in any part of Europe .

Even those public works which are of such a nature thatthey cannot afford any revenue for maintaining themselves,but of which the convcniency is nearly confined to some par-ticular place or district, are always better maintained by a localor provincial revenue, under the management of a local andprovincial administration, than by the general revenue ot thestate, of which the executive power must always have the ma-nagement. Were the streets of London to be lighted andpaved at the expense of the treasury, is there any probabilitythat they would be so well lighted and paved as they are atpresent, or even at so small an expense? The expense, be-sides, instead of being raised by a local tax upon the inhabi-tants ol each particular street, parish, or district in London ,would, in this case, be defrayed out of the general revenueot the state, and would consequently be raised by a tax uponall the inhabitants of the kingdom, of whom the greater partderive no sort of benefit from the lighting and paving of thestreets of London .