*vi PREFACE. 



facture are necefTariiy ruinous. The 

 very contiary is my opinion ; extenfive 

 manufactures, and a flourifliing com- 

 merce, are the very beft friends of agri- 

 culture, as I have endeavoured to fhew 

 more at large in my Political Arithme- 

 tic. What I would urge here is, that 

 trade is an admirable thing; but a 

 trading government a moft pernicious 

 cne. Protect and encourage merchants 

 and manufacturers in every exertion of 

 their induftry; but lifiien not to them 

 in the legiflature. They never yet 

 were the fathers of a fcheme that had 

 not monopoly for its principle. It has 

 been the fatality of our government to 

 attend to them on every occafion. We 

 are, at this moment, in the full ma- 

 turity of the evils which a legflature, 

 influenced by traders, can bring upon 

 a country. Nor can 1 without aflo- 

 nifhment view the commercial jealoufy 

 that has arfen in Europe in the iaft 50 

 years. Other nations have caught of 

 u; the commercial fptit. They have 

 attributed the effects of the nobleft and 



moft 



