142 Political Economy^ 
You next advert to “ the comparative importance of the foreign 
trade, and home trade, in point of amount.^'* — You endeavour to 
shew, that the amount of the iatter trade, even in England, whose 
foreign trade is now the most extensive, dvrindles into insignifi- 
cance, when compai'ed with the amount of the former, which con» 
firms you in the opinion that the foreign trade ought to be relin- 
quished. 
In order to prove the relative inferiority, in England, of fo- 
reign to domestic trade, you have recourse to the custom house 
documents. You shew 
“ That previously to the year 1794 the amount of the exports 
of Great Britain have never exceeded twenty five millions of 
pounds sterling per annum,"’’ — let it be granted I 
And you state that the merchants profits cannot be estimated 
“ at more than 12 J per cent.”-- -I do not object to it. 
“ Which, on the 25 millions exported from Great Britain, and 
3|- millions, exported from Ireland, makes 12J per cent on 28^ 
millions, or, about 3|- millions sterling.” — The calculation is cor- 
rect ! 
From which you conclude “ That the foreign trade of Great 
Britain and Ireland, at one of the most prosperous periods of 
British commerce, was not worth to the nation more than three 
millions and a half of pounds sterling,”— a conclusion to which 
I can by no means agree. 
You have, evidently, fallen into an error, so frequently com- 
mitted by political writers, and which I have already noticed in 
another place— error of confounding the national gain, with 
the mercantile profits. 
They ai’e so very different, that the national gains are oftertr 
large, in proportion as the profits of the merchant are small. Nay 
the nation often gains, and immensely too, while the merchant ac- 
tually incurs loss. 
Suppose us at peace, trade open, fiour at eight dollars per bar^? 
r.el, and an account arriving of a failure of crops in England, in, 
consequence of incessant rains during the month of August. Flour 
rises to ^12 per barrel — 200,000 barrels are bought by our mer- 
chants, from our millers, at that price ; they are exported in our 
own vessels. They cost, delivered in England, in consequence 
its value. But if it can be profitably pursued without requiring national pro= 
’ cction by means of a navy fit to enter into competition with the great nav^ 
powers cf Europe, then it becomes worth pursuing. T. C. 
