J98
Were peace to prevail over tlie whole world, and were it ne-ver to be interrupted by the ambition of eonque*st, the iniqui-tous spirit of monopoly, or the absurd jealousies of trade, &c, itis possible that nations of mere manufacturers or traders mightsubsist in security and abundance, precisely as the inhabitants ofour towns enjoy security of subsistence from the surplus produceof the agriculture of the surrounding country, though they pos-sess no more territory than what is covered by their houses, andthe causeways of their streets. But, considering the numberlesscauses of hostility that may arise betwixt independent nations, anation of mere manufacturers and traders, depending upon thewill of other nations for food, must stand upon a very precariousfooting. Were other nations to enact navigation laws for encou-ragement of their own carrying trade ; were they to attempt,however prematurely or unprofitably, to force on manufactures athome, by absolute prohibitions, or duties amounting to the pro-hibition of importation of foreign manufactures;—were even themere caprice of fashion to annihilate the demand for such manu-factures as were in use to be prepared for their market; or wereany cause of irritation to induce them suddenly to shut theirports;—it must, then, inevitably follow, that the dependent na-tion (however rich in commercial wealth,—in fixed capital, vest-ed in manufacturing machinery and in shipping,—or in ware-houses, replenished with all manner of manufactured goods),must, at once, find all such wealth to have become absolutely ofno value, and that the inhabitants must inevitably perish for wantof food. The more there is in any nation of a population, de-pendent upon commerce and manufactures, above what its ownagriculture can feed, the nearer it approaches to this perilousand precarious state, f
When the commerce and manufactures of a nation have grownupon the surplus produce of its agricultural industry (as afford-ing a vent for that surplus produce, and as exciting to the pro-duction of a still increasing surplus), which is the natural orderin which these subjects would proceed, if left to their own spon-taneous arrangement; under such circumstances, the commer-cial and manufacturing population, though it will invariably over-take, yet it will never'outrun the national means of subsistence,so much as to expose the people to those dreadful calamities towhich a dependent nation of merchants and manufacturers may,without great stretch of probability, be supposed to lie open.
sprang up on (he coast of the Mediterranean, composed of those who fled fromthe fury of those barbarians who overturned the Roman Empire, are instancesof nations reduced by violent causes to depend almost entirely for subsistenceupon manufactures and commerce.
f See, upon this subject, Mai thus, Rook iii. Chap. 9. His views deservemost serious consideration.