170 
Political Arithmetic < 
port. What capital was it that bore the rest ? But in fact, the 
ioreigntrade bore but about one half of this 5 1-2 millions, for it is 
the home consumer, not the foreign consumer, that pays the tax on 
import : that tax, is a burthen not on the foreign, but on the home 
trade. Of the 35 millions required therefore, the foreign trade of 
Great Britain did not supply three. 
So in 1800, the Custom house produced about six and three- 
fourths millions. But the interest of the debt that year was 
L 20,186,507 and the demands of supply for the army, the navy, 
the ordnance, the civil list, the miscellaneous services, the interest 
of the loan, &c. as much more. But if the foreign trade can fur- 
nish as in this case, but a sixth part of the supplies required, where 
does the rest come from ? Is there any other source but the inter- 
na! commerce of agricultural and manufactured produce? Take 
any year of the last half century, and you will find, that the foreign 
trade has borne but a very small part of the national burthens. 
Where then is the great source of wealth, of tfiat powerful and 
wealthy country ? It is in her spirited agriculture : in 100 millions si* 
of farming -capital, permanently laid out in buildings, in fences, , 
in roads, in canals, in machines. In 50 millions more annually ex- 
pended in manures, in repairs, in exuberant cultivation. Here is 
the secret of 24 bushels in England, 16 in France, and 10 in this 
country. And so in her manufactures ; the intense activity and 
energy, which the high price of living requires from every body 
in England ; the wonderful skill acquired by the division of labour ; 
the great superiority of task work over day labour; and the im- 
mense capital under the direction of profound knowledge in the 
manufacturing machinery of that country, enable her inhabitants 
to bear the enormous expence of her government. 
In France under the old Regime, if a man possest 5000 louis, 
he bought a marquisate : in England a young man with 5000 gui- 
neas would enter as the junior partner of some house of repute. 
In France, a tradesman scorned to work for the Canaille, if he could 
help it in England every tradesman consults the taste of the great 
mass of customers, the middle and the lower classes of society. In uj 
France, accumulated capital was spent; in England it is employed 
for the most part in begetting capital. In France, trade is disrepu- 
table ; in England, all kinds of industry, are compatible with the 
acquirements of a scholar, and the polish of a gentleman. 
By the report on the waste lands, 22 millions of acres appear t# 
he uncultivated : of which upwards of 20 millions admit of cuitiva- 
