188 AN INQUIRY INTO THE NATURAL LAWS WHICH 



manufactures, and maintained some great undertaking at an annual 

 loss, he would not benefit his country, — since he would annually 

 diminish the capital possessed within it, and would create expectations 

 of employment which must ultimately be disappointed. But in pro- 

 tected manufactures, the real loss is divided amongst all the consumers 

 in the form of increased price above what they need pay. It may be 

 left to any man of sense to judge whether a country profits by such 

 means. 



The evil of money going out of a country is the merest fancy. Men 

 produce that they may enjoy or accumulate. In producing, they in- 

 crease national wealth ; in enjoying, they of necessity employ the 

 industry of others ; in accumulating, they increase the capital which 

 is the grand means of national progress. What they want, they 

 should get where they please, which will generally be where it is best 

 and cheapest. They exchange their own produce either for what they 

 want or for something which will purchase what they want ; and to 

 the country it matters not which — the saving made by the cheapness 

 of a foreign production being employed at home, and whether what 

 the individual produces or what he obtains in exchange for it, called 

 money or not, is sent to purchase what he wants, being perfectly in- 

 different. The proper estimate of national wealth has nothing to do 

 with money brought into or sent out of a country. If our industry 

 produces something which many persons want, at least as cheaply as 

 it can be supplied by others, then we are increasing our own wealth 

 and our country's ; and the latter addition is not a mere verbal one, 

 for the presence of our wealth in our country is naturally a means of 

 employing its labour, and promoting, with advantage to us personally, 

 improvements which benefit all our neighbours. What we produce is 

 intended to be exchanged either for what we immediately want, or 

 what we find it expedient to hold as a means of satisfying future 

 wants, or promoting further production. If we were compelled to 

 exchange only for what is produced near us, our enjoyments and means 

 of profit would be greatly limited, and consequently we should have 

 much less inducement to industry in producing, to the great diminu- 

 tion of national wealth. Some countries can, from their climate, 

 produce what we could not obtain at any cost : some can produce 

 things which we want, from natural or incidentally acquired facilities, 

 much more cheaply than they could possibly be obtained by us at 

 home. We exchange a portion of our produce for these things ; 



