]04 COMMERCE. 



insomuch that, if all commerce and intercourse should, by an 

 extraordinary casualty, be at an end, the country which 

 abounds in gold and silver alone, would be exposed to the ca- 

 lamities of wretchedness and want. But as, in the natural and 

 established order of causes and efFe6ts, they are followed by 

 the comm.oditics essential to the existence of man, their pro- 

 prietors will constantly reap advantages proportioned to their 

 more or less flourishing condition. They are a kind of river^ 

 on which all things useful and necessary are navigated and 

 transported ; commerce being nothing more than the well- 

 rope, without which the water enclosed in the depth beneath 

 would not be of any utility. To proportion to the extent of 

 the latter, the amount of the specie which should be drawn 

 from the mines, belongs to the government ; and on this head 

 a competent idea cannot be formed, unless the annual im- 

 portation into Peru be first considered. 



SECTION II. 



As the balance of trade varies in proportion to the abun- 

 dance or scarcity, it is impossible to calculate precisely the 

 annual introdu6lion, consumption, and value of the efFe6ls ; 

 at the same time that the reports of the custom-houses have the 

 defe6t of not being accompanied by the prices of the merchan- 

 dizes ; that being a mystery reserved for the secret observations 

 of the merchant, on which he is to found his meditated and 

 allowed profits, and which could not be exa<Sled by the su- 

 preme authority, without an odious and unnecessary verifi- 

 cation that would be destru6live of the freedom of the con- 

 tra6ts. 



The calculation formed on the number of the consumers 



would 



