NOTES ON ECONOMICAL SCIENCE. 99 



Commerce is an appointment of the All-wise and infinitely benevo- 

 lent Author of Nature, for equalizing, as nearly as may be, the 

 advantages of different climates, soils, mineral productions, and other 

 variable circumstances in the world's condition, by each region sending 

 the superabundance useless to itself, of what it best produces, to other 

 parts, and obtaining in return what is there best produced, thus at once 

 conferring and receiving blessings and extending civilisation, knowledge 

 and enjoyment. The very principle of commercial exchange is that 

 what is cheap in one place bears a high value in another, so that 

 interchange enriches both, whilst paying well for the industry 

 employed in carrying, and offering in the most convenient manner. 

 There are two great errors respecting commerce not yet sufficiently 

 removed from the popular mind : one, that what is gained by exchange 

 is lost by one party to be gained by the other, whilst really each makes 

 the most of what he has to dispose of, be it goods or circulating 

 medium, which is but a commodity conveniently representing a com- 

 mand over a certain amount of goods of various kinds, and advantage 

 to one party by loss to the other only occurs where fraud is practised 

 or where mis-information has caused ill-judged proceedings. The 

 other great error is, believing a nation to be the better off the more 

 completely it can supply every thing within itself, which is called 

 being independent of other nations ; and it is even supposed to be an 

 advantage and a sort of merit to do without what cannot be produced 

 at home, or to be content with an inferior article, home-made, in pre- 

 ference to a better, imported. The real independence of nations con- 

 sists in their industry giving them command of all desirable things 

 from all quarters. That industry should be employed in whatever 

 way seems likely to yield the greatest surplus above our own require- 

 ments. It is egregious folly to try and produce at home what we can 

 obtain cheaper or better by exchange from abroad ; and the fancy that 

 such a proceeding can increase our national wealth, is a mere blunder. 

 In a very rude state of society, individuals are obliged to do almost all 

 things for themselves, and, in consequence, do most of them badly and 

 with great loss of time. Division of labour is a grand means for 

 increasing the quantity and improving the quality of all desirable 

 things. Territorial division of labour — a most just and expressive 

 name for commerce — has the additional advantage that, from the diff- 

 erent natural productions above and under the ground, of different 

 regions, it supplies us with many things which we could not possibly 



