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of any other markets which previously lay open to 

 them. In which case there would be a transference 

 of expenditure from old to new articles of demand 

 the formation of a new foreign trade, we admit, but at 

 the expense either of the home trade, or of another 

 foreign trade that had been formerly in existence. 

 The extent of our foreign trade is, in fact, limited by 

 the means, or by the extent of human maintenance in 

 the hands of our inland consumers. The opening of 

 a new market can do no more for the general wealth 

 of our country, than the setting up of a new stall can 

 add to the wealth of consumers at a fair. It may 

 present new commodities more agreeable to the taste 

 of purchasers, or even old commodities at a cheaper 

 rate than before. Either of these is an undoubted 

 advantage to customers. But it cannot add to the 

 amount of purchase money ; so that if a new stall be 

 resorted to, it must be by a partial forsaking of the 

 old ones. 



The same is true of the world at large, where each 

 new country that is opened for commercial enterprise 

 may add to the number and variety of our nation's 

 markets, yet not add to the general amount of its 

 marketing. There is thus a natural, and, for the 

 time, an insuperable barrier in the way of the exten- 

 sion of foreign trade. It is necessarily limited by the 

 wealth of consumers at home. And hence the 

 mockery of those splendid anticipations which dazzle 

 the fond eye of speculators, when either by political 

 changes, or by the abolition of monopoly, a new 

 country is laid open to their enterprises. The dream 



