364 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II. 



We have already had occasion to observe, that trade and 

 commerce are calculated to stimulate the industry of productive 

 countries, provided their inhabitants possess the desire for 

 foreign products. Trade becomes a greater stimulus to in- 

 vention and enterprise amongst peoples who are compelled 

 to import necessaries from foreign parts. 



Productive countries, i. e., such as support their popu- 

 lations abundantly, are self-sufficient; their inhabitants are 

 not anxious for intercourse with strangers, they do not take 

 the initiative in commerce, but are rather passive in bartering 

 for foreign commodities which appear to them useful or curious. 

 So long as poor countries are ignorant of the abundance exist- 

 ing elsewhere, their efforts may remain nugatory, until some few 

 who had been cast away, return and make known their discoveries 

 to their own people. The insular or geographical position of 

 the country is as influential at the outset as in the development 

 of commerce. In order to take the initiative in commerce, 

 (which is a more powerful lever in civilization than a mere pas- 

 sive acquiescence, but at the same time presupposes a higher 

 civilization), a series of inventions, arts, and contrivances are 

 requisite, in order to overcome the difficulties of transit by 

 land and water, and natural or artificial products, either of 

 native or foreign growth, must be collected for exportation. 

 The observation of natural phenomena, especially of the move- 

 ments of celestial bodies, becomes essential to the navi- 

 gator, whilst the agriculturist takes only an interest in the 

 changes of the weather and the seasons. Thus trade stimu- 

 lates inquiry into the connexion and the laws of natural 

 phenomena ; whilst elsewhere it is a religious motive which 

 directs the attention to the motions of celestial bodies, and the 

 gradual production of a calendar. It is unnecessary further 

 to dwell on the variety of impulses to physical and mental 

 activity, directly or indirectly, given by commerce. Though in 

 this, as in many other things, the most obvious inventions and 

 discoveries have been long in being made, and many efforts 

 have remained fruitless ; still, these very efforts act beneficially 

 on subsequent exertions, by the stimulus they have given to 

 mental efforts. 



