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such only as we require for use or sale ; and our sales, as 
now, would consist of such things as are wanted abroad. 
Therefore our boasted “ commercial profits” are actual draw- 
backs from those profits on our productions which they 
would yield in the above supposed case. In fact, an expense 
which nobody would incur but as the means of selling his 
goods in the best market. Thus we may freely admit the 
necessity of this expense, and submit to it as an evil, but 
only to avoid the greater evil of not selling our goods at 
home except by greater reductions in price of them than 
the cost of the exports. 
The cases above put are so self-evident that it may seem 
impertinent to offer them in the way of causes and effects 
in relation to the sources of wealth, yet they will not be 
found irrelevant upon a careful enquiry into the actual 
fountains from whence our vast accumulations of national 
wealth have, in recent times, so rapidly sprung. The 
wealth and the population of Great Britain remained almost 
stationary during nearly all of the 18th century, but 
towards the close of that and in the first quarter of the 
present century the spirit of industrial enterprise began to 
spread its influence over the whole face of society. This 
spirit had its rise in and was mainly fostered by the great 
inventions and discoveries — mechanical and chemical — -then 
gradually beginning to unfold their mighty powers, destined 
to be so widely subjected to man’s will, and to become sub- 
stitutes for his feeble handicrafts, through so many branches 
of labour, for supplying the wants of society, which we have 
since witnessed. To duly appreciate the vast importance of 
employing these new powers, we must look back to the 
difficulties that were to be met with and overcome by the 
chief leaders, in rendering them subservient to man’s uses, 
namely, to James Watt, to Richard Arkwright and Jede- 
diah Strutt, to Robert Fulton, and a few years later to the 
elder Stephenson. These men were truly the pioneers in 
