l8oo. upon the Cidtlvai'i-on of Fhit< in RuJJia-, ^c. C91 



mud hnporty to the extent of whatever our manufactures or 

 tonfumption exceeds our home growth, from foreign countries, 

 at leaft at the fame, if not at a yet greater expence, than the 

 grofs fum at which the valuation is here dated? And if fuch 

 an accumulation of fimilar operations be fuppofed to take 

 place, as to extend itfelf all ov^r the nation, to what a degree 

 might not its population be carried, fince the population of 

 any given fpot, or country, naturally depends on, oris in pro- 

 portion to, the means of fubfi Hence which it affoids ; of 

 confequence, its manufaiStures, trade, and revenue, are in 

 the fame ratio ? 



It may be indeed objecled, that grain, as the firfl and grand 

 neceflary of life, ought to be the firll object. But this pofi- 

 tion feems only allowable, when combined with certain local 

 circumftances, and particularly when it is taken for granted^ 

 that the cultivator is folely and abfoluteJy dependent on the 

 growth of the identical fpot on which he lives, or of his own 

 lands, for his daily fubfilience ; as may be fuppofed to have 

 been the cafe of Adam and his family, in the primitive ilate of 

 man ; or that would be the cafe of England, or of any other 

 illand, abfolutely fecluded from nil communication with other 

 people or countries •, becaufe, if the contrary is admitted, that 

 is, that the individual, confequently any given number of in- 

 dividuals, as compofmg a nation, may as eafily, in the concur- 

 rence of reciprocal wants, or at a market, buy any given pro- 

 portion of corn, as of wool, flax, or hemp, the chief part of 

 what he eats, is the whole of that material without which he 

 cannot earn his bread. "We need only farther fuppofe, what 

 experience has afcertained to be a matter of fa£l;, viz. that 

 the general or average produce of thofe parts of our liemi- 

 fphere, which lay within the compafs of fuch an intercourfe or 

 exchange of reciprocal neceflaries, is equal to its general con- 

 fumption, in order to find reafon to conclude, that that maxim, 

 though applicable in fome, does not apply to all fituations ; 

 and that, though it ought not to be loft fight of in any cafe, it 

 may, under fome circumdances, be carried to a prejudicial 

 degree ; and particularly in fuch a cafe, when the economi't, 

 who has the choice of cultivating any one of t^ivj articles, ^i-/-^ 

 of which he mufl. have, does not, from prejudice, or other 

 motives, prefer that which would render (or, which is ex- 

 actly the fame thing, would cod him) the mofl money : For 

 who, to fubftitute another comparifon, forefeeing that he will 

 want both wheat and oats, and having a piece of ground on 

 which he can grow both, or either y would not fow wheat on- 

 ly, and take his chance of being able to lay in the oats, and 

 to gain a furplus Vvith the exccfs of the value which the 



wheat 



