4

ADVANTAGES

manufactured goods, has not been beneficial to thatcountry alone in which it is concentrated; distantkingdoms have participated in its advantages. Theluxurious natives of the East,* and the ruder inha-bitants of the African desert, are alike indebted toour looms. The produce of our factories has pre-ceded even our most enterprising travcllers.-j- Thecotton of India is conveyed by British ships roundhalf our planet, to be woven by British skill in thefactories of Lancashire : it is again set in motion byBritish capital; and, transported to the very plainswhereon it grew, is repurchased by the lords of thesoil which gave it birth, at a Cheaper price than thatat which their coarser machinery enables them tomanufacture it themselves. J

(3.) The large proportion of the population of thiscountry, who are engaged in manufactures, appearsfrom the following table deduced from a statementin an Essay on the Distribution of Wealth, by theRev. R. Jones.—

* “ The Bandana handkerchiefs manufactured at Glasgow “ have long superseded the genuine ones, and are now con-“ sumed in large quantities both by the natives and Chinese .”—Crawfurd’s Indian Archipelago , vol. iii. p. 505.

t Captain Clappcrton, when on a visit at the court of the Sul-tan Bello , states, that “ provisions were regularly sent me from“ the sultan’s table on pewter dishes with the London stamp;“ and I even had a piece of meat served up on a white wasli-“ hand basin of English manufacture.”—Clapperton’s Journey,p. 88.

J At Calicut , in the East Indies (whence the cotton clothcalled calico derives its name), the price of labour is one-seventhof that in England, yet the market is supplied from British looms.