Foreign Commerce. A? 
wealth, on population, on happiness, and on 
national power. 
In estimating its influence on wealth, it will 
be necessary to observe a strict uniformity in 
the meaning which we attach to that word. 
Mr. Spence, the author of the ingenious 
pamphlet entitled “Britain independent of 
Commerce,” has involved the argument in 
much confusion, by attaching no precise 
meaning to the term wealth. For, though he 
sets out with a formal definition of it, we 
find him in the course of his reasonings, 
sometimes considering wealth as consisting in 
every thing that man, as molded by habit, 
esteems valuable ; and, at other times, restrict- 
ing it to those articles which man would value 
if his taste were always correct. At present, I 
shall use the term in the first of these accepta- 
tions, that is, as including those commedities 
which man actually values, and for which he 
is willing to part with some other valued 
' article in exchange. The meaning of the 
term value we shall restrict in the same man- 
ner; we shall consider the value of every 
commodity as fixed by the quantity of any 
other that will be given in exchange for it. 
While we adhere to these definitions, it is 
susceptible of complete demonstration that 
foreign commerce increases the wealth of 
