COMMERCE-MONEY-BANKS. 





COMMERCE. 



r T~'HE practice of exchanging one commodity 

 J_ for another is doubtless coeval with the first 

 herding of mankind together. No man, even in 

 the rudest savage state, who lives in society, can 

 rest satisfied with such objects as he can procure 

 or fashion by his own labour. 



As mankind advance in their social condition, 

 the practice of exchanging increases ; the desires 

 and necessities become more urgent ; each person 

 finds it more profitable and agreeable to adopt 

 and hold by one fixed employment, and to sell 

 the produce of his labour for a variety of articles 

 made by others, than to attempt to make every- 

 thing for himself; and, finally, for the sake of con- 

 venience, a class of persons are engaged to conduct 

 the exchanges. In this improved condition, the 

 production of articles of general consumption is 

 called manufacturing; while that department of 

 industry in which the exchanging is transacted is 

 called trade or commerce. For still further conven- 

 ience, the business of exchanging is committed to 

 several orders of traders the wholesale merchants, 

 who, in the first instance, purchase large quantities 

 of goods from the producers ; the retail dealers, 

 who have been supplied in smaller quantities from 

 the merchants, and sell individual articles or 

 minute portions to the public ; and to these some- 

 times an intermediate dealer is added. In this 

 manner the transfer from the workshop of the 

 manufacturer to the house of the actual consumer 

 is interrupted by several distinct processes of 

 exchange, in which each seller obtains a certain 

 rofit at the expense of the person who has ulti- 

 lately to buy and use the article. Though in this 

 ay the price of the article is increased to the 

 consumer, yet the article, notwithstanding this 

 increase, costs him less than it would have 

 done, had there been no intermediate dealers. 

 It is evident that if any man wish to buy a hand- 

 kerchief, he may procure it much more cheaply 

 from any shop in which such things are sold at 

 an advance upon the original cost, than if he 

 were to travel perhaps hundreds of miles to the 

 house of the manufacturer, and there make the 

 purchase. The use of an intermediate class to 

 conduct exchanges is thus very conspicuous ; and 

 any attempt to revert generally to the original 

 practice of causing the maker to deal with the 

 consumer, would be entirely incompatible with 

 an enlarged system of trade between different 

 countries, or even between different places in the 

 same country. We say generally, because there 

 are instances in which makers may, with advan- 

 tage to themselves and the community, sell their 

 produce in small quantities or single articles to 

 the public ; but these are exceptions to a common 

 rule. It is of the greatest importance in matters 

 of trade and commerce never to prevent men from 

 dealing in whatever manner appears most bene- 

 83 



ficial and convenient to themselves, provided it be 

 conformable with strict justice. Sellers, of what- 

 ever grade, being left to consult their own interest 

 and inclinations, the public in the end, though 

 probably in a way not easily recognisable, reaps 

 the advantage. 



In order that manufactures may be produced, 

 and commerce brought in to disseminate them 

 both at home and abroad where they are wanted, 

 no species of legislative enactment is requisite 

 either to encourage or direct. The law which 

 governs production and consumption is a law 

 of nature it is the overruling principle of self- 

 interest, by which, in the long-run, only that 

 quantity of manufactures is produced which can 

 be advantageously disposed of, and only those 

 commodities purchased and consumed which 

 the wants of individuals require. And, curiously 

 enough, this principle of self-interest, if allowed 

 free scope, is uniformly competent to regulate 

 both the production and consumption of com- 

 modities, to a degree more nice and satisfactory 

 than could be attained by the best devised statutes 

 whiqh the wisest legislators could enact. The 

 grand principle, therefore, which can alone regu- 

 late commerce and manufactures is found in the 

 natural passion for gain ; and the sole essential 

 requisite for the successful advancement of mer- 

 cantile and manufacturing industry and wealth 

 among any people, is for that people to be un- 

 fettered by enactments ; each one buying and 

 selling when, where, and at what price he pleases. 



Evident as these principles now are, and re- 

 markable as have been the advantages that have 

 accrued from the opportunity given of late years, 

 by British legislation, for their practical operation, 

 they have been generally lost sight of by both 

 governments and peoples in all ages of the world, 

 and plans have been contrived to regulate that 

 which, if left alone, would have much better 

 regulated itself. To such an extent have regu- 

 lating and restrictive laws been carried in some 

 countries, that they have nearly annihilated both 

 manufactures and legitimate commerce, and re- 

 duced masses of the people to the condition of 

 paupers, besides encouraging the pernicious and 

 demoralising pursuits of the smuggler. The re- 

 strictions and regulations imposed by the state 

 upon commerce originate chiefly in the necessity 

 of raising money to meet the government or state 

 expenditure. For this end. duties are imposed 

 on certain commodities much in demand, and at 

 various stages of their manufacture, transmission, 

 and sale. When the duties are imposed upon 

 the imports from foreign countries, as is frequently 

 the case, for the additional purpose of protecting 

 home manufacturers or producers, the imposition 

 benefits only a class, or a few persons, at the 

 expense of the whole community, and therefore 

 all such duties are in the main as detrimental to 

 trade and the public welfare as those imposed for 

 the liquidation of national expenditure. 



