A. D» 1670. 551 



one (and the diligent obfervance whereof may be very irfefal and ne- 

 ccflary in many refpeds), is Kkewjle liable to great variations on lundry 

 accounts, occalioned from the accidents which frequently happen in the 

 public concerns of nations, by wars, famines, revolutions. &c. More- 

 over, there is no eflablifhed and direcT: courfe of exchange with fundry 

 countries to which we trade: fuc'n as i'Dland, Sweden, Denmark, Nor- 

 way, Ruffia, Turkey, Barbary, Sicily, the Canaries, &c. For thefe rea- 

 fons, this fcience of exchanges, though a very ingenious inquiry, and 

 wliich, when applied ro this or that particular country, may often be 

 extremely uleful, will not, however, fully aniwer the character of an ade- 

 quate rule to judge of the nation's profit or lofs by our general trade. 



The third, lafl, and fureft, rule to judge of the general balance, i. e. 

 of the lofs or gain of the trade of any nation, is, by the increafe or de 

 creafe of its general commerce and fliipping. Yet even then we mull 

 not frame our judgment rafhly, or for a few years only : for nations, 

 like private merchants, may make a great ftir in fliipping, exportations, 

 and importations, and may feem to have a mighty gainful commerce, 

 when perhaps in a few years longer all this feeming gainful bufinefs 

 may prove a confiiming trade, and a vifible decay may loon follow in 

 the whole body politic. Our {hips may lie unemployed ; our failors 

 may be gone into foreign fervice ; our manufidurers and artificers out 

 of bufinefs ; our goods uncalled tor ; our cufi:oms falling fliort ; our 

 poors' rates increafed, &c. Thefe are the fad and fui"e figns to a na- 

 tion of a declining commerce. But on the contrary, if a nation has 

 for a long feries of years been increafing in all the above particulars ; 

 if the number of our merchant fhlps (and confequently of our ma- 

 riners) be vifibly mcreafed, and itill increafing ; if there be a greater 

 general appearance of wealth and fplendour than in former times, viz. in 

 plate, jewels, houfehold furniture, equipages, apparel, libraries, paintings, 

 medals, &c. which, infi:ead of being only confined to a few of the great 

 ones, as in old times, are become diftufed araongft the middling gentry 

 and merchants, and even arm ngfi: the middling clafs of traders and ma- 

 nufadurers ; if the prices of lands keep up and increafe ; ^^"d there is a- 

 greater appearance of money everywhere than formerly ; then we may 

 undoubtedly pronounce that nation to be in a thriving condition. And 

 that this is the prefent happy cafe of Great Britain, and even of Ire- 

 land, whilft we are now writing", is clearly demonftrable and obvious. 



Neither do the complaints of our increafing luxury at all militate againfi; 

 this pofition ; fince luxury, more or lefs, is, and always wirll be, the con- 

 coniitant of increafing wealth and commerce. Nor will it be of any 

 folid weight to objed: that Ibme particular branches of trade are decay- 

 ing, if we increafe at leaft as much, or more, in fome other branches. 

 If we have, for inftance, long fince loft the market of France, and per- 

 haps partly of Italy and Turkey, for woollen goods, how much more- 



