Ch. ix. Of the Commercial Sijsiem. 141 



different from those of a particular province, in 

 relation to the kingdom to which it belongs, a 

 point which has not been sufficiently attended 

 to. If agricultural capital increases, and agricul- 

 tural profits diminish in Sussex, the overflowing 

 stock will go to London, Manchester, Liverpool, 

 or some other place where it can probably be 

 engaged in manufactures or commerce more ad- 

 vantageously than at home. But if Sussex were 

 an independent kingdom, this could not take 

 place ; and the corn which is now sent to London 

 must be withdrawn to support manufacturers and 

 traders living within its confines. If England, 

 therefore, had continued to be separated into the 

 seven kingdoms of the Heptarchy, London could 

 not possibly have been v^'hat it is ; and that dis- 

 tribution of wealth and population which takes 

 place at present, and which we may fairly presume 

 is the most beneficial to the whole of the realm, 

 would have been essentially changed, if the ob- 

 ject had been to accumulate the greatest quantity 

 of wealth and population in particular districts, 

 instead of the whole island. But at all times the in- 

 terest of each independent state is to accumulate 

 the greatest quantity of wealth within its limits. 

 Consequently, the interest of an independent 

 state, with regard to the countries with which it 

 trades, can rarely be the same as the interest of a 

 province with regard to the empire to which it 

 belongs ; and the accumulation of capital which 

 would occasion the withdrawing of the exports 

 of corn in the one case, would leave them per- 

 fectly undisturbed in the other. 



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