Extracts^ &c. 99 



and all kinds of agricultural stock ; and to awaken the industry of the common 

 people, and tempt them to apply their labour to the most useful purposes. Trade 

 may appear to enrich a country more than agriculture, by more immediately intro- 

 ducing into it the gold and silver of other nations; but gold and silver are not 

 either industry, food, raiment, or dwelling, and they are of use only as they act as 

 stimulants to produce either some or all of these. How far they do this (securing 

 independance at the same time), must be determined, before their value is appre- 

 ciated. Money is the exciter of labour ; and if, when we have got it, we send it 

 again abroad to excite the labour of foreigners, towards the supplying us with any 

 one article requisite for our strength or comfort which niigiu have been provided 

 by our own industry, we shall have lost, and they have gained, a certain portion of 

 power and industry, or real wealth. 



A farmer who, in the course of a few years, doubles a capital of j^iODO. may 

 have added much more to the force, and to the mass of comfort in his country 

 than the manufacturer, who in the same time may have made 10 of his £^1000. 

 In the one case, the nation may possess, instead of so many acres capable of pro- 

 ducing food for twenty families, as many, producing food for forty families; and 

 instead of several idle and beggarly peasants, at least as many laborious, healthy, 

 well clad, and well lodged labourers, all fond of comfort, and of course having 

 many wants ; in other words, all exciteable to the utmost exertion of their 

 powers. These labourers, by their earnings under the farmer, may each of them 

 have procured a cow and a pig, and converted a piece of a common near them, 

 into a field and garden, capable of supporting them. In the other case, after the 

 manufacturer's retreat with his ^^10,000. the nation may contain a large cotton 

 work more than it had before, just of as much value as the wood and bricks con- 

 tained in it; and the knowledge of spinning and piecing cotton threads, obtained 

 by tW'O or three hundred individuals, at the expense of their health, their morals, 

 and their agricultural knowledge and inclination. If government considers only 

 the facility of raising a loan, the unapplied £".10,000. in the hands of the manufac- 

 turer, will be compared with the farmer's /'.looo, and the exertions of the first 

 estimated as of the greatest value ; but short-sighted indeed must be the politician 

 who forms his judgment of the utility of men's occupations from no other source 

 than the possible ultimate gain in money of a single individual at the head ol a 

 concern. The manufacturer may be growing rich, while his manufactory is 



