•25 



liquidation of the debt become tlie object of the 

 concurrent ^vill and desire of the nation. The liqui- 

 dation of the public debt would clear the industry 

 and dealings of the United Kingdom of the weight of 

 two hundred milHons and upwards in the money 

 prices required for commodities ; and the peculiar 

 state of the country presents the means of effecting 

 this object, without the risk of materially deranging 

 the state and condition of property, or of society.* 



Under the advantage of these explanations, the 

 trade of the British Isles, the British trade with 

 the dependencies of the empire, and tlie foreign 

 trade, will be considered in connexion, with a view 

 to show the means of establishing each according to 

 its order and bearing upon the interests of the com- 

 munity. 



The productions of the earth are the bases of all 

 trade, and the source of the wealth of nations. 



The British trade, in conimon with the trs^ide of 

 all other nations, rests upon this foundation ; — but 

 the skill and industry of the British people in 

 the prosecution of the useful arts, combined with 

 the great means actually devclo[)cd in the diblant 

 dependencies of the JJritish empire, enable then), not 

 only to trade very actively within themselves, in the 

 Jiritish Isles, and with these dependencies, but also 



' Sec A|i|ic'ii(lix, D. 



