Political Econdmy^ 1^7 
^We had always plenty to eat. If all the cotton and tobacco- 
lands are turned into wheat fields, the flour must necessarily spoil 
on oui» hands. Nor could we possibly manufacture up all the 
cottons, which we exported, to the amount of nine millions of 
dollars per annum, were they within our reach ; nor chew and 
^moke all the tobacco, cook all the fish, turn all our potash into 
-soap and glass, or find possibly any use whatever for the tar, and 
turpentine of our forests. 
Let it not be imagined that we loose nothing, because we do 
not yet seem to suffer. We slowly consume our past accumula- 
tions, while we throw on posterity the cost of our folly. To stop 
in the career of prosperity, is to retrograde : and a corrected poli- 
cy, with redoubled exertions, will, for a long time, strive in vain, 
to attain that eminence of national wealth and power, which, but 
for our want of wisdom, we might have occupied. 
There are many productions with us, as in most other coun- 
tries, which, where they grow, or are found, have little or no va- 
lue, but which may be exchanged to great advantage abroad. — 
No body here uses ginseng, but it commands in China commodi- 
ties, tne possession of which is desirable. Our oak-bark is of 
little use to us, and could hardly be consumed even if all the na- 
tion were to dress in yellow* ; in England it was exchangeable 
for objects we want. The trimmings of our sheet-iron accumu-. 
late in large heaps round our roliing-miils ; the Chinese gave 
us silks for them. The leeches of the ponds round our city — t® 
the amount of 15 to 20,000 per annum, were exported to the 
West Indies, and made several thousand dollars circulate in this 
neighbourhood. How is the community to be indemnified for 
their loss, unless indeed you were to imagine that they ought 
to be let loose on the redundant blood of our own citizens, t@ 
ence need be incun-ed by oi* on account of any citizen employed in the home 
trade. Go abroad ; at your own risk : if the profiiis will pay the insuj ance, 
goon: if not, employ yourself and your capital at home. There are mar.u- 
factures to estabhsii without number ; a population to be supplied incessantly 
calling for your articles ; lands to ciihivace without limits ; employment for 
money and lor people, that cen.uries will not satisfy. T. C, 
* It is granted, that the nation gains by exporting articles that yield a- pro- 
fit abroad and none at home. But lei us not set up a man of straw, and exult 
in the victory of demolishing him. The question is not, shall we export use-» 
less articles, or keep them at home to spoil and waste — the question is, do we 
pay too much or not, for the profi ri ey bring Under what circumstances 
■ind conditions can the expert be pnuiaitl!^ made ? T. G. 
