1792. ox manufactures and agriculture. 449 
wholly, or chiefly employed, in the concerns of do- 
mestic econemy; and in the providing of food, tools, 
-cloathing, 8c. for the comfortable subsistence of 
ene another. Of course, manufactures, and all that 
division of labour which is necefsary for carrying 
on either agriculture, or other arts with economy, 
may, and indeed must there prevail, before the state 
can attain its utmost degree of perfection. Manu- 
factures, when thus carried on for domestic accom- 
modation, necefsarily promote agriculture ; and the 
demand for these, by being steady, never produces 
those dangerous fluctuations to which manufactures, 
for foreign consumption, are so remarkably subjec- 
ted. Trade, likewise, inas far as it tends to facili- 
tate the interchange of commodities within the state, 
will here be a necefsary afsistant; but foreign 
trade, and the manufacture of goods-for the ac- 
_commodation of other nations, seems to be in no 
degree necefsary to the well being of the state; 
but is evidently calculated to disturb that political 
tranquillity on which the happinefs of the people, 
the stability of the state, and its progrefsive im- 
provement, so materially depend*. 
On these principles, it would seem, that the 
Chinese system of government has been founded on 
wisdom ; as, by adhering to the domestic and agri- 
cultural systems, that country has continued for a 
series of ages, now innumerable, in an uninterrupted 
progrefs of improvement; till the productivenefs of 
* For the effects of foreign trade, compared with domestic traffic, see the 
sensible remarks of Dr Smith in his efsay on the Wealth of Nations. 
VOL, Xil. It 
