Ch. xii. Restrictions upon Liiportatioii. 187 



which would not take place naturally, ought, 

 under certain circumstances, to be maintained 

 artificially, must appear to be a most important 

 practical question. 



One of the objections to the admission of the 

 doctrine that restrictions upon importation are 

 advantageous is, that it cannot possibly be laid 

 down as a general rule that every state ought to 

 raise its own corn. There are some states so cir- 

 cumstanced that the rule is clearly and obviously 

 inapplicable to them. 



In the first place, there are many states which 

 have made some figure in history, the territories 

 of which have been perfectly inconsiderable com- 

 pared with their main town or towns, and utterly 

 incompetent to supply the actual population with 

 food. In such communities, what is called the 

 principal internal trade of a large state, the trade 

 which is carried on between the towns and the 

 country, must necessarily be a foreign trade, and 

 the importation of foreign corn is absolutely ne- 

 cessary to their existence. They may be said to 

 be born without the advantage of land, and, to 

 whatever risks and disadvantages a system merely 

 commercial and manufacturing may be exposed, 

 they have no power of choosing any other. All 

 that they can do is to make the most of their own 

 situation, compared with the situation of their neigh- 

 bours, and to endeavour by superior industry, skill, 

 and capital, to make up for so important a defi- 

 ciency. In these efforts, some states of which we 



