125 
Political Economy. 
sirable commodities, the enjoyment of which we must forego,’^ if 
we stay at home. 
2. Because it brings into full^ and extensive ofieration^ jiroduc^ 
live of ‘lOealth — all the advantages peculiar to a country^ physical^ 
as ivell as intellectual and moral. 
Without foreign trade, every natural, or attained advantage of 
a country, however great, or peculiar, is only improvable commeur 
surately with the consuming capacity of its inhabitants. 
If Pennsylvania, for instance, contained an abundance of clay, 
ilint, and other materials for pottery, superior in quality to any o- 
ther in the world, the Pennsylvania pottery would not, on that ac- 
count, if never exported, command any extraordinary price at 
home. Nothing can procure an advantage in exchange that is 
common to all. From the supposed abundance of the good mate- 
rial, and the necessary effects of competition, the pottery would be 
brought to market at the lowest price, at which it could be afforded, 
so as to yield a living to those engaged in the business. But, if 
the sales of Pennsylvania pottery, from the preference given to 
the ware, extended to all the civilized portions of the earth, it might 
^0 happen that the supply could not keep pace, with a demand so 
vast, which would cause an increase of price, and a greater propor-- 
donate gain.f Or, if the supply kept pace with the demand, and 
the prices remained unaltered— still thousands of potters would 
owe a comfortable subsistence to the clay, instead of a few hundred 
only, whom the business at most could have supported without 
exportation. 
Nor v/ould other trades be deserted, on account of the great 
* Not at all : the nations who have them, will bring them to us, if we have 
wherewithal to pay for them. Are not we ourselves so anxious to export tiiese 
articles, that our merchants complain incessantly of Great Britain v/ho wuU 
not permit us to sell them in the West Indies for Rum and Sugar, in Holland 
for Gin, in Italy for Anchovies and Olives, and so on ? T. C. 
f All these supposed advantages of foreign commerce, proceed upon the 
supposition, not of reasonable, but unreasonable gain : a circumstance that al- 
ways and inevitably, works its own destruction. Or, of an over-populated 
country, that calls for every possible exertion and every source of employment 
to keep its inhabitants from starving. This may be the case in Eirgiand, but 
cannot be so here for a long time to come. Nor is it true, that what is com- 
mon to all, can procure no advantage in exchange. Labour judiciously and 
industriously bestowed, can give exchangeable value to any material however 
common, in the home as well as in the foreign trade. Connecticut can sell her 
tubs, her onions, her coffins, even in the Cnited States : so can Rhode Island 
her straw bonnets, her cotton twist, her home made woollen, &c, T. G.- 
