232 ADAM SMITH. 



or clothes better and cheaper than the workman in his 

 own parish. The only balance to be considered by 

 rational men as affecting the progress of any nation's 

 riches, is that of production and consumption : when 

 it consumes more goods than it produces, it will be 

 impoverished ; when it consumes less, it will be en- 

 riched by accumulation. But this accumulation will 

 be going on, and the national wealth be increasing, 

 while the exportation of specie by the balance of trade 

 is going on during the whole time. For half a century 

 together this appears to have gone on in the North 

 American States before the Revolution ; and yet, 

 though the currency was almost entirely paper, no 

 part of the world had made greater or more rapid 

 strides towards wealth and prosperity. 



iii. It does not appear that drawbacks are exposed 

 to serious objections upon any principle. If any com- 

 modity is taxed at home, and cannot be re-exported 

 with the weight of the duty upon it, there seems no 

 reason why the whole or the greater part of the tax or 

 duty should not be repaid upon the exportation. 

 Care must, of course, be taken to prevent clandestinely 

 retaining or re-landing the goods for home consump- 

 tion ; and Dr. Smith considers the exportation to our 

 colonies, which can only receive goods through us, as 

 not a case for drawback, because the impost must be 

 paid by the colonists, if they want the goods. 



iv. Bounties stand in a very different predicament, 

 if we take care to distinguish between real and only 

 apparent bounties. A real bounty is the payment of 

 something to encourage the exportation of goods not 

 subject to any such impost at home. An apparent 

 bounty is the payment of something to encourage the 

 exportation of goods which are either directly subject 

 to a tax, or made of, or with, articles subject to a tax 

 as refined sugar made of taxed raw sugar, or gun- 

 powder made of saltpetre that has paid duty. These 

 apparent bounties are, in reality, drawbacks, and fall 



