ci Bounty , to encourage the Exportation of Corn. 423 
only fell for three fhillings and fix-pence, three 
fhillings, two fhillings and fixpence, or even 
but two fhillings; for, at all thefe prices has 
wheat been exported ? It is plain then, if the 
price of grain is lower now, than it was in any 
former period, it muft be owing to fome other 
caufe; for a bounty has a direftly contrary effeft. 
Another argument for the bounty is. That it 
encourages exportation j and, as corn is the pro¬ 
duce of our own lands, it greatly increafes the 
riches of our country. 
I anfwer—To object to the exportation of 
corn, or any other article of commerce, when it 
can be done on advantageous terms, would be 
extreme folly. But exportation, procured by 
means of a bounty, is fo far from being advan¬ 
tageous, that it deftroys, for the mod part, all 
polTibility of advantage : even of real, fubftantial 
advantage, which mud, and would happen, if 
not prevented by the bounty. Every man is 
thoroughly fenfible, that, if he purfues a bufinefs 
by which he is a lofer, the longer he continues 
in it, and the larger his dealings, the more he 
fuffers by it. Juft fo it operates in regard to 
the public ; for the public and individuals only 
differ, as greater and leffcr: and the lofs of the 
one is in exa£t proportion to that of the other. 
To fhew this, let us fuppofe, for example, as 
before, that wheat Hands the farmer in four 
fhillings a bufhel : that the prefent market price, 
E 4 however, 
