215 



It is to be confidered, that, in proportion, as the manufafturc which 

 imports its primum, flourifhes, the demand for the raw material will 

 encreafe, and the venders of the latter will enhance their price. — 

 Thus, the profperity of a manufafture will bring with it a tax, on its 

 own encreafe. Anderfon* obferves, that, when he wrote, Dutch flax 

 was an hundred per cent, dearer in Great Britain, than it had been, 

 twenty or thirty years before that period, when the linen manufac- 

 tures of Englfind and Scotland were in their infancy. 



When the materials are of home production, the inhabitants being 

 fupplied with them, at inconfiderable expence, may make fmall eflays 

 of their fkill, in manufafturing them ; and being always certain of re- 

 ceiving a price from the merchant, proportionate to the value of their 

 manufaftures, they will be encouraged to go on in their attempts. 

 They will produce goods, more and more valuable ; and imperceptibly 

 arrive at perfection. The legiflature will have an additional induce- 

 ment, to prefer the manufactures, which employ the raw materials of 

 the country, if the country happens to produce any particular primum, 

 in great abundance, or of diftinguilhed excellence ; fuch were antiently 

 the Jlax and papyrus of Egypt, fuch the wool of Spain, and fuch are 

 the wool and flax of Ireland. 



Suppofe equal capitals embarked in two manufactures ; one of which 

 operates on domeftic, the other, on imported raw materials; the 

 fum employed in the former, will, at all events, fet in motion 

 more produftive labour, in the country, than that engaged in the lat- 

 ter ; and the difference of the quantities of produftive labour to be fet 

 in motion, will be proportioned, to the fum, which muft be fent out of 

 the country, for the firft colt, and incident charges of the raw material 

 with interefl and a profit on that fum. But, this is not all, the ma- 



nufafture 



* Letters on Scotland, vol. ift, page 36. Quere as to the truth of the ftatement in 

 the extent he mentions ? — But though the rife in price may not be fo great, as he ftates, 

 any rife in it, fupports the argument. 



