226 Political Economy. 
a reward for public services, or resorted to as a measure 
of necessity for the public welfare. That such supplies 
cannot be obtained upon terms equally favourable at home, 
is proved by their being sought abroad ; as no one en- 
counters the hazard of foreign commerce, but for the 
sake of the profit which attends it. If commercial dis- 
tricts should be obliged to purchase such supplies at 
home, it must be at an advanced price. The direct pub- 
lic benefit would be the same, with a different division of 
the profit. The commercial districts would lose, and 
the supplying districts would gain. And it may well be 
questioned, whether domestic industry is entitled to great- 
er advantage over foreign competition, at the expence of 
mercantile labour and capital, and against the domestic 
consumer, than at all times exists by means of the duties 
upon imports, which it is the concern of a wise govern- 
ment judiciously to regulate. Were it the case that sup- 
plies derived from foreigners, might be furnished by labor 
and capital otherwise unemployed, a monopoly might 
^vell be contended for ; but the greatest effect that can be 
produced, among an enlightened and industrious people, 
is a change of employment, by the prosecution of busi- 
ness more or less profitable.^ 
There is, perhaps, no difficulty in discovering the ad- 
vantages of commerce to individuals, and even to parti- 
cular districts : it is in estimating its national bearings, 
that obscurity is found to exist. Arguments drawn from 
a balance of trade, even if official values could be fully 
relied upon, appear to be altogether fallacious ; the 
amount of freight and expences being unknown. 
* The duty on imports may furnish, in some measure, an in- 
demnification to supplying and manufacturing di'^tricts, for any 
disadvantage they may suffer, from a preference granted to the 
shipping of maritime districts over foreign vessels. 
