132 Political Economy. 
The essential condition of a great division of labour, of the 
general use of machines, and of all the most valuable improve- 
ments of civilized society, is enlarged activity, and an extensive 
scale of operation. — There must be much travelling, and much 
conveyance of property, before we can think of stage coaches^ 
turnpikes, and steam-boats. There must be a vast deal of convey- 
ance of property, before there be question of canals, and rail roads. 
-—The aggregate industry of a country becomes productive o 
aggregate benefits^ which are large^ ivhich are immense^ precisely 
in proportion as the magnitude of the total exertions ad7nits of the 
performance of every single operation in the larger way. 
Would the industry of the city, and county, of Philadelphia be 
what it is, if no intercourse existed beyond the county line ? Would 
the state of Pennsylvania be what she is, if no commercial inter- 
course existed with the adjoining, and distant states ? Would this 
trade, now so beneficial to her, be less so, other circumstances re- 
maining the same, if the erection of separate governments in New 
England, in the Carolinas, or in Kentucky, transformed it, from a 
domestic, into a foreign trade ? Or can it be imagined that a com- 
mercial intercourse with the island of Cuba, admitted to be benefi- 
cial if it could be called home trade, should cease to be so, merely 
because that island forms no part of our political union 
But, if industry, from the reasons stated, becomes produc- 
tive of wealth, in proportion as the different branches of it can be 
pursued largely^ foreign trade must be productive of wealth, be- 
cause it swells the number of consumers, which put every branch 
in motion, with additional millions, all over the world. 
4. Foreign trade is beneficial^ because it is the surest means of 
preventing.^ both want\ and waste. 
From the necessary effects of competition the prices of every 
species of produce of the grovv^th of a country, which has no fo- 
* It cannot only be Imagined, but demonstrated. If the political union of 
the United States, were reversed, so that the commerce between Philadelphia 
and New-Orleans, which is now home trade, should become foreign trade, the 
value would be lessened by the change of laws, by political jealousies, politi- 
cal restrictions, and the chance of political hostilities induced by mercantile 
squabbles : none of which hazards exist at present. T. C. 
j- How far it prevents r^ant, let the present state of England determine ; 
one eighth of wliose pi)pulation are now paupers, not^oithstanding the war, 
which has found employment for so many. The poor’s rates of that country 
amount to six millions sterling, and the charitable contributions toward the 
support of the poor, to about one million more. T. C. 
