140 Of the Commercial System. Bk. iii. 



" can be held are not such as to encourage the in- 

 vestment of an accumulating capital, the owner of 

 this capital will naturally look towards commerce 

 and manufactures for its employment ; and, ac- 

 cording to the just reasoning of Adam Smith and 

 the Economists, finding at home both the materials 

 of manufactures, the means of subsistence, and 

 the power of carrying on their own trade with 

 foreign countries, they will probably be able to 

 conduct the business of manufacturing and carry- 

 ing for themselves at a cheaper rate than if they 

 allowed it to continue in the hands of others. As 

 long as the agricultural nations continued to ap- 

 ply their increasing capital principally to the 

 land, this increase of capital would be of the 

 greatest possible advantage to the manufacturing 

 and commercial nation. It would be indeed the 

 main cause and great regulator of its progress in 

 wealth and population. But after they had turned 

 their attention to manufactures and commerce, 

 their further increase of capital would be the 

 signal of decay and destruction to the manufac- 

 tures and commerce, which they had before sup- 

 ported. And thus, in the natural progress of 

 national improvement, and without the competi- 

 tion of superior skill and capital, a purely com- 

 mercial state must be undersold and driven out 

 of the markets by those who possess the advantage 

 of land. 



In the distribution of wealth during the pro- 

 gress of improvement, the interests of an inde- 

 pendent state in relation to others are essentially 



