171 
Political Arithmetic „ 
tion. Suppose being cultivated, the produce per acre might be 
Ss. sterling. Then would the waste lands of that kingdom become 
a 
source of wealth to the nation beyond the profit of the wnole fo 
reign trade. 
Next to Great Britain, France of all the great European powers*, 
has the largest proportion of foreign trade. F ranee contains 1 •> 1 r 
(722,71 1 acres : that is ISO millions of acres exclusive of roads, 
The proportion of produce between England and France per acre 
is as 2 4 to 16. From the data furnished by A. \ oung in his tour to 
[ France, v. 1 p. 282, 341, et seq. I calculate the gross amount oi the 
produce of lands in France at 30s. sterling per acre, or 200 mil- 
lions; and as the manufactures of that country are greatly less va* 
luable than those of England, I should not rate the whole amount 
of the home trade of that kingdom beyond 225 millions, (1792-3). 
There is no getting at accuracy in these matters ; especially situa- 
ted as I am ; but luckily, the principles in question, do not need 
'any thing more than a reasonable approximation to truth. 
I have no modern facts as to the Commerce oi France. M. Ar- 
nould in his Balance du Commerce, states the average exports of 
jj France from 1784 to 1788, at 354,423,000 livres ; or about fifteen 
j and a half millions sterling ; the average for the same period m Great 
Britain would giye sixteen and a half millions. Can the power and 
prosperity of either country at that period, be ascribed to the mer- 
it chant 5 s gain of tw elve and a half or 1 5 per cent, on these insignificant 
sums ? ought we not rather to look for it in the excess of industry 
over expenditure, in the 200 or 225 millions of home trade ? Es- 
pecially when it is considered that immediately previous to tne 
war of 1793, the taxes of Great Britain (exclusive oi fythe, Roach 
and Poor Tax) amounted to near 20, and of France to 25 millions ? 
We are surprized at the exertions of Great Britain, and her 
full equality in power to France, when the population and the ter- 
ritory of the latter country is so much greater. But we shall won- 
I der no longer, when we consider that under the bold expenditure 
of farming capital in Great Britain, the quantity of agricultural 
! produce of both countries is nearly equal, and the manufacturing 
produce of the latter country, much greater. Wealth arises Irom 
land, and labour, and capital, being employed productively, instead 
of land being kept waste, labour unemployed, and capital dissipated 
in fruitless luxury. 
But let us turn our eyes to our own country. Our population 
amounts now (1800) to about five millions. Suppose 5 acres pet 
