Great Expence and a lofing Trade deftruEiive, 
275 
If upon the faireft face of the argument, the advantages 
and disadvantages of drinking tea being fet againft each 
other, it is injurious to the community ; fhall we continue the 
ufe of it againft conviction ? We muft grant that it is fometimes 
dangerous to check induftry, though it be exercifed to fupport 
luxury : but at the fame time refleCt, that if the money we 
lay out and circulate in tea, was employed in flax, raw silk, 
and fuch like, it would keep more hands in motion to manu- 
facture them ; it would give employment to a greater number 
of people ; and would not fuch employment be more advanta- 
geous ? The fhip-builder and the feaman would be employed ; 
and as the grocer buys tea of the east-india company to fell 
to the consumer, the draper and mercer would buy the linen 
and filk fo manufactured, of the manufacturer, and fell them 
to the confumer. And fuppofing that all thefe were expend- 
ed in fuperfluous fhow, in garments totally unnecessary, would 
not this be a reasonable gratification, in a political view, com- 
pared with the employment of our own people in the tea trade ? 
We fhould abound in cloaths, which is one of the eftential 
necessaries of life : and if we did not confume all that we 
manufactured, whatever we might fell to foreigners (on a view 
of the comparifon now before us) would be a clear gain to the 
nation ; whereas tea produces nothing; all is funk, buried, 
and annihilated. We only fee its effeCts in idlenefs, and the va- 
rious diftempers I have mentioned. 
Or if the queftion was how to promote industry, moft ad- 
vantageoufty, in lieu of our tea trade, fuppofing every branch of 
N n 2 our 
