394 VEGETABLE SUBsTAKICES. 



man makes in the knowledge of right principles of ex- 

 change with his fellow men, he multiplies his power 

 of procuring a constant and equal supply of what con- 

 duces to (he support and comfort of life, at the least 

 expenditure of labour that is, at the cheapest cost. 

 In the infancy of societies, when there is little exchange, 

 and when that little is conducted upon principles 

 which allow scarcely any freedom of industry, famine 

 invariably indicates the want of that civilization which 

 would produce plenty. The fluctuating production of 

 the seasons is not counteracted by the natural balance 

 of an open market; the people, without refinement, 

 and therefore without any luxuries, living habitually 

 upon the lowest food, have no stores to fall back 

 upon when they are compelled to retrench their 

 consumption; and, above all, the want of intercourse 

 with other great bodies of mankind confines that 

 consumption to the limited produce of their own dis- 

 trict or country. It is a beautiful arrangement of 

 Providence, and one which will probably lead to the 

 ultimate civilization of the entire world, that one 

 country has the means, in its climate, or soil, or other 

 natural sources of riches, of directing the labour of its 

 inhabitants into channels of production which cannot 

 be so profitably followed, if they can be followed at 

 all, by the people of another country. When man- 

 kind are more advanced in knowledge than they are 

 now, the territorial division of labour will be held in 

 as great esteem as the personal division of labour. 

 When this happens, France will see that her real 

 interests are to cultivate her vines, and leave to the 

 West Indies to cultivate their sugar-canes. The im- 

 perfect exchanges of nations resulting from prohib- 

 itory laws, existing by the force of popular preju- 

 dices, produce the same effects, though perhaps not 

 so fatal in degree, as the imperfect exchanges between 

 districts of the same country. There are legitimate 



