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THE NATURE AND CAUSES OE

dred and sixty-nine thousand five hundred pounds a year.The orderly, vigilant, and parsimonious administration ofsuch aristocracies as those of Venice and Amsterdam is ex-tremely proper, it appears from experience, for the manage-ment of a mercantile project of this kind. But whether sucha government as that of England; which, whatever may beits virtues, has never been famous for good economy; which,in time of peace, has generally conducted itself with the sloth-ful and negligent prolusion that is perhaps natural to monar-chies; and in time of war has constantly acted with all thethoughtless extravagance that democracies are apt to fall into;could be safely trusted with the management of such a pro-ject, must at least be a good deal more doubtful.

The post-office is properly a mercantile project. The go-vernment advances the expense of establishing the differentoffices, and of buying or hiring the necessary horses or car-riages, and is repaid with a large profit by the duties uponwhat is carried. It is perhaps the only mercantile projectwhich has been successfully managed by, 1 believe, every sortof government. The capital to be advanced is not very con-siderable. There is no mystery in the business. The re-turns are not only certain, but immediate.

Princes, however, have frequently engaged in many othermercantile projects, and have been willing, like private per-sons, to mend their fortunes by becoming adventurers in thecommon branches of trade. They have scarce ever suc-ceeded. The profusion with which the affairs of princes arealways managed,renders it almost impossible thattheyshould.The agents of a prince regard the wealth of their master asinexhaustible; are careless at what price they buy; are care-less at what price they sell; are careless at what expense theytransport his goods from one place to another. Those agentsfrequently live with the profusion of princes, and sometimestoo, in spite of that profusion and by a proper method ofmakino- up their accounts, acquire the fortunes of princes.It was°thus, as we are told by Machiavel , that the agents ofLorenzo of Medicis, not a prince of mean abilities, carried onhis trade. The republic of Morence was several times ob-liged to pay the debt into which their extravagance had in-volved him. Me found it convenient, accordingly, to giveup the business of merchant, the business to which his familyhad originally owed their fortune, and in the latter part ofhis life to employ both what remained of that fortune, and