THE WEALTH OF NATIONS. 771

the revenue of the state of which he had the disposal, in pro-jects and expenses more suitable to his station.

No two characters seem more inconsistent than those oftrader and sovereign. If the trading spirit of the EnglishEast India Company renders them very bad sovereigns; thespirit of sovereignty seems to have rendered them equallybad traders. While they were traders only they managedtheir trade successfully, and were able to pay from their pro-fits a moderate dividend to the proprietors of their stock.Since they became sovereigns, with a revenue which, it issaid, was originally more than three millions sterling, theyhave been obliged to beg the ordinary assistance of govern-ment in order to avoid immediate bankruptcy. In theirformer situation, their servants in India considered them-selves as the clerks of merchants : in their present situation,those servants consider themselves as the ministers of sove-reigns.

A state may sometimes derive some part of its public re-venue from the interest of money, as well as from the profitsof stock. If it has amassed a treasure, it may lend a part ofthat treasure, either to foreign states, or to its own subjects.

The canton of Berne derives a considerable revenue bylending a part of its treasure to foreign states; that is, byplacing it in the public funds of the different indebted nationsof Europe, chielly in those of France and England. Thesecurity of this revenue must depend, first, upon the securityot the funds in which it is placed, or upon the good faith ofthe government which has the management of them; and,secondly, upon the certainty or probability of the continuanceof peace with the debtor nation. In the case of a war, thevery first act of hostility, on the part of the debtor nation,might be the forfeiture of the funds of its creditor. This po-licy of lending money to foreign states is, so far as I know,peculiar to the canton of Berne.

The city of Hamburgh* has established a sort of publicpawn-shop, which lends money to the subjects of the stateupon pledges at six per cent, interest. This pawn-shop orLombard, as it is called, affords a revenue, it is pretended,to the state of a hundred and fifty thousand crowns, which atfour and sixpence the crown, amounts to 33,750/. sterling.

The government of Pennsylvania , without amassing anytreasure, invented a method of lending, not money indeed,

* See Meuioircs concvnmnt les Droits el Impositions en Europe; tome i. p. ?;i.