58 



POLITICAL ECONOMY. 



Political an advantage equivalent to the largest bounty. Per- 

 Economy. haps this manufactory scarcely produces the hundredth 

 ^^y^** part of what the nation consumes of such commodities ; 

 but the hundred purchasers must compete with each 

 other to obtain the one seller's preference, and the 

 ninety-nine rejected by him will be compelled to ob- 

 tain goods by smuggling. In this case, the nation's 

 loss will be as a hundred ; its gain as one. Whatever 

 advantage may arise from giving a new manufacture 

 to a nation, certainly there are few which deserve such 

 a sacrifice, and even these might always be set agoing 

 by less expensive means. Besides, we must also take 

 into account the weighty inconveniences of establishing 

 the vexatious system of duties, of covering the frontiers 

 with an army of custom-house officers, and with another 

 not less dangerous army of smugglers, and thus of 

 training the subjects to disobedience. We must remem- 

 ber, above all, that it is not the interest of a nation to 

 produce every thing indifferently; that it ought to con- 

 fine its efforts to such goods or commodities as it can 

 manufacture at the cheapest rate; or to such as, what- 

 ever price they cost, are essential to its safety. It ought 

 to be recollected that each merchant knows his own 

 business better than government can do ; that the 

 whole nation's productive power is limited ; that in a 

 given time, it has but a given number of hands, and a 

 given quantity of capital ; that by forcing it to enter 

 upon a kind of work which it did not previously exe- 

 cute, we almost always at the same time force it to 

 abandon a kind of work which it did execute ; whilst 

 the most probable result of such a change is the aban- 

 donment of a more lucrative manufacture for another 

 which is less so, and which personal interest had de- 

 signedly overlooked. 



If the prohibitive system gives a very powerful, 

 though very expensive encouragement to rising manu- 

 factures, it can offer, in regard to such, no advantage 

 to those which are already prosperous; the sacrifice at 

 least which it imposes on consumers, is entirely use- 

 less. If the manufacture was destined for exportation, 

 government, by granting a monopoly of the interior 

 market, causes it to abandon its ancient habits to assume 

 others which probably are less advantageous. Every 

 manufacture destined for exportation gives proof of 

 not fearing the competition of foreigners. From the 

 moment that it can support competition abroad, not- 

 withstanding the expence of transport, it has still less 

 reason to dread this competition in the very place of 

 production. Thus nothing is more common than to 

 see goods prohibited which never could have been im- 

 ported with advantage, and which gained credit solely 

 by being so prohibited. 



By the prohibitive system, governments had proposed 

 to increase the number and productive powers of their 

 manufactures. It is doubtful if they rightly knew the 

 price they paid for this advantage, and the prodigious 

 sacrifices they imposed on consumers, their subjects, 

 to bring into existence an unborn class of produ- 

 cers; but they succeeded much more rapidly even 

 than speculators on political economy expected. For 

 a time they excited the bitterest complaints on the part 

 of consumers; but even these complaints ceased after- 

 wards, because sacrifices in fact had also ceased, and 

 manufactures so powerfully encouraged, had soon pro- 

 vided with profusion for the national wants. But this 

 emulation of all governments to establish manufactures 

 everywhere, has produced two strange and unexpect- 

 ed effects on the commercial system of Europe ; one 

 is the disproportionate increase of production without 



any relation to consumption ; the other is the effort of Political 

 each nation to live isolated, to suffice for itself, and re- Economy- 

 fuse every kind of foreign trade. v^-yw 



Before governments had been seized with this manu- 

 facturing ardour, the establishment of a new manufac- 

 ture had always to struggle with a crowd of national 

 habits and prejudices, which form as it were the vis 

 inertia; of the human mind. To overcome this force, it 

 was necessary to offer speculators a very manifest ad- 

 vantage ; hence a new species of industry could scarcely 

 arise without a distinct previous demand, and the mar- 

 ket was always found, before the manufacture destined 

 to occupy it. Governments, in their zeal, have not pro- 

 ceeded upon this principle; they have ordered stock- 

 ings and hats beforehand, reckoning that legs and 

 heads would be found afterwards. They have seen 

 their people well and economically clothed by stran- 

 gers, and yet have caused them to produce clothes in 

 the country itself. During war, this new production 

 was not capable of being too exactly appreciated ; but 

 when peace came, it was found that all things had 

 been made in double quantity ; and the readier the 

 mutual communication of states had become, the more 

 embarrassed were they to dispose of all their works 

 executed without orders. 



Consumers, who at the beginning had been satisfied, 

 afterwards found themselves called to unexpected gains, 

 because merchants, eager to recover their funds, were 

 forced to sell a very great quantity of goods with loss. 

 Manufacturers gave the signal for these sacrifices ; re- 

 signing themselves to a cruel loss of their capital, they 

 induced extensive merchants to furnish themselves with 

 goods beyond their custom or ability, in order to profit 

 by what appeared a good opportunity. Several of the 

 latter have been forced to experience a similar loss, 

 before their excessive supply could be introduced to 

 the shops of retail dealers ; and these again before they 

 could make them be accepted by consumers. A uni- 

 versal embarrassment was felt by manufacturers, mer- 

 chants, and retailers; and this was followed by the an- 

 nihilation of the capital destined to support industry. 

 The fruit of long saving and long labour was lost in a 

 year. Consumers have gained certainly, but their 

 gain is scarcely perceptible even to themselves. By 

 laying up a stock of goods for several years to profit 

 by their cheapness, they have also included themselves 

 in the general embarrassment, and still farther retarded 

 the period when the balance can be re-established be- 

 tween consumption and production. 



According to the former organization of Europe, all 

 states did not make pretences to all kinds of industry. 

 Some had attached themselves to agriculture, others to 

 navigation, others to manufactures ; and the condition 

 of these latter, even in prosperous times, could not 

 have appeared so worthy of envy as to demand prodi- 

 gious efforts to attain it. A miserable and degraded 

 population almost always produced these rich stuffs ; 

 these elegant ornaments, this furniture which it was 

 never destined to enjoy ; and if the men who directed 

 these unhappy workmen sometimes raised immense 

 fortunes, those fortunes were as frequently destroyed. 

 The development of nations proceeds naturally in all 

 directions ; it is scarcely ever prudent to obstruct it, 

 but it is no less dangerous to hasten it ; and the go- 

 vernments of Europe, by having onali hands attempted 

 to force nations, are at the present day loaded with a 

 population, which they have created by requiring su- 

 perfluous labour, and which they know not how to save 

 from the horrors of famine. 



