WEALTH OF NATIONS. 161 



attempt altogether. The supposition that two nations 

 can only gain by trade when each imports an equal 

 value of commodities from the other, and that if one 

 imports more it loses, is perfectly absurd, and betokens a 

 complete inattention to the nature of trade as well as of 

 money. If both import from each other an equal value 

 of goods, so far from neither gaining, both gain, and 

 nearly in an equal degree. The benefit of England in 

 receiving the wines of France, which it cannot grow, is 

 equal to the benefit of France in receiving from England 

 the coal, which it cannot raise, or the steam-engines, 

 which it cannot make. If there were no balance at 

 all on the year's account, not only all the coal and 

 machinery, but all the marketable goods in England 

 would be the more valuable in amount, because all could 

 be exchanged for wines, and not only all the wines, but all 

 the silks and other goods of France would be more 

 valuable, because they could be exchanged for our coals 

 or our engines. The interest of each nation is to obtain 

 a vent for the produce which it has no occasion for, 

 and a supply of the things which it wants. Its labour 

 and its capital is thus most profitably employed; its 

 comforts are provided for, and its wealth is increased. 

 If it can buy cheaper than it can raise or make, it is 

 more profitably employed in importing than in producing, 

 for the very same reason that it is more profitable for 

 the farmer to buy his ploughs and his clothes than to 

 make them. Where it can buy cheapest and sell dearest, 

 there ought it to resort for the very same reason that 

 it is more profitable for a farmer to buy of the workman 

 in the next parish who makes ploughs or clothes better 

 and cheaper than the workman in his own parish. The 



M 



