220 



as 1 h;ive ihid, a decided preference is due to the tenant in poffeHlon, (fo 

 I may call the old manufafture) of tlie capital of the country. 



Suppoilug even, that the manufacture fliould not have attained a full 

 maturity and perfeftion, and yet fliould have taken root fo generally, as 

 to be, in fome meafure, familiar to the people at large ; and to exhibit 

 certain ftamina, or even wild (hoots, that ferve to manifefl; a difpofition in 

 the inhabitants, towards that particular branch of manufafture ; and to 

 furnifh certain feminal or vital principles, which are capable of being nur- 

 tured or ripened into an eftabliflied manufadure. As, for example, where 

 the country people generally manufafture linen cloth, however coarfe, 

 frizes, ilannels, flockings, felts, though of inferior quality, and only for 

 their own ufe ; I would chufe rather to engraft a manufafture, on this 

 parent ftock, which I fee (hov/s life and vigour, than to run the hazard of 

 introducing and planting a manufafture, which is wholly new and exotic. 

 Juft fo it is, in the cultivation of plants ; if we fee them grow wild in the 

 hedges, and flourifli fpontaneoufly in the fields ; we may expeft to cultivate 

 them, with fuccefs, in the garden ; and conclude, that they are indige- 

 nous to the country, or well adapted, at leaft, to the foil and climate. 



Another point to be confidered is, not only whether a country has ac- 

 quired /kill in a manufacture ; but alfo, whether that /kill is known and 

 acknowledged ; and the excellence of the counrry in any branch of manu- 

 fafture, is clearly eflabliflied, and fo generally promulgated, that its pro- 

 duftions are fought, with a preference, in the foreign market. This cha- 

 rafter, of fuperior quality in manufaftures, is not always perfectly well 

 founded. It rauft, indeed, be well founded at the outfet, and can only 

 be acquired by induftry and fuperior fkill. The character may fubfift, 



long 



* For inftance, Englifh ferges bore a particular price, and were in fuperior etlimation in 

 the Dutch market. The criterion of the buyer is a particular manner of folding and pack- 

 ing. Great quantities of Iri^ ferges ufed to be fent to England ; they were there new 

 folded and packed, by the £ng/i/ii faflors, who received fo much per cent for their trouble, 

 and exported to the Dutch market, under the denomination of Englijh ferges. Something 

 Cmilar has been done in the making up of white linens for the Spanifti market, a confiderable 

 houfe in Dublin dealt extenlively in that way. 



