Private fortunes remitted in 1793 £1,000,000Average ditto arising from yearsof war, the plunder ofSeringapatam, &c 300,000Increase remitted home since,in proportion to revenue 700,000____________Remitted now by the same descriptionof men £2,000,000Besides what is remitted home, those servants of the company expend immense sums in the country, living there in the greatest luxury. [end of page #198]-=-have been the cradle and the grave of most of those nations that have become rich and powerful by the means of commerce.Our West India wealth, though derived from a source still more, or at least equally, impure, and though not inferior in amount, is, for several reasons, not the cause of so much envy. It is not confined to a company, and therefore the splendour and ostentation that, in the case of the Asiatic trade, occasion envy, do not exist in that to the American islands.Our monopoly is by no means so complete, which has a double effect in our favour; for, besides preventing others from envying us so much, it prevents them from condemning us so severely.The same nations that see, in its full force, the injustice of subjecting the inhabitants of the East, in their own country, in a way that, at the worst, is not very rigorous, join cordially in robbing Africa of its inhabitants, to make them slaves in America, in a way, that, at the best, is very rigorous.Such are the baneful effects of sordid interest acting on the mind of man! But our business is not here to investigate opinions, but their result; and, in the present instance, we find that to admit participation in criminality is the only way to avoid envy and offence.The third cause for envy is likewise wanting. The commerce with the West Indies is but of a recent date, and no nation has ever owed its greatness or decline to that single source. {161} It is not like the Asiatic trade, a sort of hereditary cause of quarrel; a species of heirloom, entailing upon the possessor the envy and enmity of all other nations.The envy occasioned by the West India trade is farther diminished by the circumstance that the plantations have been raised with the money of the persons by whom they are possessed; and that if they had no original right to the soil in its barren state, the cultivation at least is owing to their capital and industry.The most solid and secure portion of our trade is that which con----{161} France was the nation that, before the revolution, gained the most by this trade; indeed, no nation has, to this date, gained so much as it did.-=-[end of page #199]sists of our manufactures at home. In those, though we excite envy, we excite no other of the hateful passions. Emulation is natural, and admiration is unavoidable, on seeing the vast progress that arts and industry have made in this country; so that England is absolutely considered as the first country in the world for manufactures.This cause of greatness and wealth operates in a more uniform and durable manner; though, like others, it has its bounds, yet the nature of them is not easily ascertained.In this there are two things essential,-- the procuring a market, and the means of supplying it. We have always yet found the means of supplying every market we have got; but we have not always been able to extend our market so much as it might have been wished.America and Russia offer new markets, as has already been observed, but, to extend our old markets, we must either reduce the price, improve the quality, or extend the credit, and invention is the only means by which these things can be done; and there is no possibility of knowing where to set bounds to invention, aided by capital and the division of labour. We are, however, not to forget that priority in point of time being one of the causes of a nation's rise, and being of a nature to be destroyed in the course of years, the superiority we enjoy may leave us, as it did other nations in former times.When a country produces the raw material, and labour is cheap, and the art established, we might suppose the superiority secure; but it is not. The cotton trade was first established in the East Indies, where the material grows, where the labour is not a tenth of the price that it is in England, and the quality of the manufactured article is good; yet machinery and capital have transplanted it to England. But the same machinery may give a superiority, or at least an equality, to some other country; it is, therefore, our business to persevere in encouraging invention, by the means that have hitherto been found so successful. {162}---{162} The law of patents, and the premiums offered by the Society of Arts, suggest improvements, and reward them when made. To those, to the security of property, and nature of the government, we chiefly owe the great improvements made in England.-=-[end of page #200]The most necessary thing for our commerce is the support of mercantile credit, without which it is in vain to expect that trade will be carried on to any great amount. In 1772, when a great failure occasioned want of confidence, the exports of the country fell off above three millions, but its imports fell off very little. {163} In 1793, when the internal credit of the mercantile people was staggered, precisely the same effect was produced. These are the only two instances of individual credit being staggered to such a degree, as to prevent mercantile men from putting confidence in each other; and they are the only two instances of any very great falling off in the exports in one year, except during the American war, when the chief branches of trade in the country were cut off or diminished.The falling off, in exports, in 1803, which was very great indeed, (being no less than one-third of the whole,) was not occasioned by the same cause, but appears to have been owing to three others of a different nature.First, the French had actually shut us out from a great extent of coast, and this occasioned a diminution of exports, which will, in part, be done away, when new channels of conveyance are found out. It will nevertheless operate in causing some diminution, as circuitous channels render goods more difficult to be introduced, and consequently dearer to the consumers.The second cause appears to have been, the uncertainty of our merchants where to send the goods, and who to trust, as the fear of the extension of French power took away confidence, and produced a sort of irresolution, which is always hurtful to business.The third cause of the diminution of trade, no doubt, arose from the cessation of that alarm about property, that has been described as having occasioned so much to be sent from the continent to England. In other words, it is the return of the pendulum which had vibrated,---{163} This is a sort of paradox: when money became scarce, the nation bought nearly as much as ever, but sold less. This is not the case with individuals, and, at first sight, does not appear natural.-=-[end of page #201]through a temporary impulse, beyond the natural perpendicular. Had there been no revolution in France, and had it not been conducted on the principles it was, our trade could not have augmented so fast as it did; but a falling off of fifteen millions in one year is too much to be ascribed to that cause alone. An examination of the branches that did fall off will elucidate this.The commerce with the United States of America is one of those that has fallen off, and is the only one that does not appear to be directly connected with these causes. There are some reasons, however, for thinking that it had an indirect connection with them.Whatever interrupts our connection with the continent of Europe, or renders it unsafe, has, in some degree, the same effect with a stagnation of credit at home. This has taken place; and as it of course affected every branch of trade, that with America felt the blow amongst the rest, and, indeed, more than in proportion; for, as there is no course of exchange with any town in America, and as the credits there are long, the exportation to that country suffers in a particular manner when there is any heaviness in the money market here. Thus it was that, in 1772, the American exports suffered a diminution of two millions from the stagnation; and, in 1793, of rather more than half a million. In the former case, the American trade seems alone almost to have suffered, and, even in the latter case, it fell off more than in its just proportion.It has been observed, that the improving our manufactures at home is the most secure support of our foreign trade, which chiefly depends on superior skill, industry, and invention, the wages of labour being greatly against us. We shall consider by what stability of tenure we hold that advantage.The nation or individual that proceeds first in improvement is always uncertain how much farther it can be carried; those who follow, on the contrary, know what can be done, and therefore act with certainty and confidence. As to individuals, those who are the foremost in improvement have great difficulties to encounter; they seldom can procure the pecuniary aid necessary, and always do so with great difficulty; whereas, those who copy, without half their merit, or, [end of page #202] perhaps, without any merit at all, meet with support from every quarter. {164}From this it is very evident, that the nation the farthest advanced in invention has only to remain stationary a few years, and it will soon be overtaken, and perhaps surpassed. Holland, Flanders, and France, were all originally superior, in the arts of manufacturing most goods, to England; and, indeed, it is no great length of time since we obtained the superiority over Holland in several articles of importance, and in particular where machinery was wanting. If it were necessary, it would not be difficult to give examples, to shew with what eagerness those who imported inventions were taken by the hand, on the bare probability of success, while the inventors of machines, and of methods of manufacturing entirely new, and of still more importance, were left to grope their way, and, until crowned with success, rather considered as objects of pity than of praise or admiration. {165}It is not then altogether by a sure or lasting tenure that we hold this superiority of manufactures. We have examined several other sources of wealth, and the general conclusion is, that, without care and atten----{164} Mr. Arkwright, who produced the cotton-spinning machine, underwent great difficulties for many years; as also did Mr. Watt, the ingenious and scientific improver of the steam-engine; and, had not good fortune thrown him in the way of Mr. Boulton, a man of fortune and resource, and himself a man of genius, he probably must have languished in obscurity, and the nation remained without his admirable invention. The profits derived from the spinning-machine may, at first sight, appear the greater national advantage of the two; but it is not so in reality, for the spinning-machine only manufactures a raw material, brought from another country, cheaper than before; whereas, the steam-engine enables us to obtain raw materials from our own soil cheaper; a thing more important, more permanent, and of which we were more in want: besides this, the steam-engine is extending the scope of its utility every day; whereas, the spinning machines can go little farther. But to leave this digression, which is not altogether foreign to the purpose, and return to the facility with which inventors are followed, it is a fact, that in almost every country in Europe, money can be got by any adventurer who will propose to establish either a cotton spinning machine, or a manufactory of steam-engines; and it is a fact, that immense sums have been, and are still given, for those purposes.{165} Slitting-mills, saw-mills, the art of imitating porcelain, and of making good earthen-ware, and paper, together with a vast number of other inventions, were imported from Holland; in every one of which we have gone beyond the Dutch, just as they got the better of the Flemings in the art of curing herrings. Priority of invention is not then a permanent tenure.-=-[end of page #203]tion, this nation cannot be expected long to maintain its superiority over others, in the degree it at present enjoys.The American market, {166} and the Russian (in a smaller degree,) however, hold out a prospect of increased commerce to us, from external causes, that we cannot flatter ourselves with in the internal ones. It is to those we must look, and to those only, for the extension of the sale of our manufactures; but, even in this case, we must use efforts, for it is very seldom that a good end is effected by accident, or without a view towards its accomplishment.Having now taken a view of the situation of this country, and seen that, though it is not likely to be deprived of its commerce by conquest, like Babylon, Tyre, or Alexandria, or by a new discovery in geography and the art of navigation, like Venice and Genoa; though, indeed, it has no great appearance of sharing the fate of Spain, Portugal, or Holland, yet there are other causes that may stop its career. If it is exempt from the dangers they laboured under, it is subject to others from which they were free.We have already examined the effect of taxes and national debt on the industry of a country, even whilst augmenting in wealth; but we have not examined what that effect will be when a country comes to be on a level with other nations that do not labour under the same burthens.There is no possibility of standing long still with a burthen on the shoulders, it must either be thrown off or it will become a cause of decline. Let us endeavour to point out methods by which that may be averted, or at least procrastinated. In doing this, we are either exposing our ignorance and presumption, or doing a signal service to our country.---{166} The American exports from this country consist almost entirely in manufactures; we neither supply that country with East or West India produce. The Russians are aspiring at possessions in the West Indies, and, no doubt, will succeed; they are advancing still more rapidly in power than the Americans are in population. It was only in 1769, (not forty years ago,) that the first Russian flag was seen in the Mediterranean Sea, and now Russia stands fair to be sovereign of a number of the Greek islands; and, at any rate, by the Dardanelles, to carry on a great commerce. What may thirty years more not effect with such a country, and such a race of sovereigns?-=-[end of page #204]The load must be taken off, or it will crush the bearer; but how this is to be done is the difficulty. If our debt is paid off, the capital will go to other nations, for it will not find employment amongst ourselves; and this will reduce the nation, and raise others. If it continues, we sink under it; and, if we break faith with the creditors, it destroys confidence for ever; we can no longer give law, by means of our capital, to the markets in other nations, and we probably overturn the government of our own.Amongst theexteriorcauses of decline that are general, none applies so completely to Great Britain as that of the envy and enmity, occasioned by the possession of colonies we have settled, or countries we have conquered.The wealth of Britain and its power arise from agriculture, manufactures, commerce, colonies, and conquests. The envy they excite is not, however, in proportion to the wealth that arises from them, but rather to the right we have to possess them, and the consequent right that others have to contest the possession.Improved agriculture has never been a source of enmity amongst civilized nations, though it has been an object of conquest when an opportunity presented itself.Manufactures, the great source of our wealth, are, in a certain degree, beyond the reach of our enemies. Our greatest consumption for them is amongst ourselves, and if we did not export to any part of the world, except enough to procure materials, we should enjoy nearly all that we now do. Our wealth would not be very materially diminished, though our naval strength would. The means of destroying our manufactures is not then very easily to be found.The commerce with other nations, our enemies, or rivals, have a more effectual means of diminishing, by the laying on duties on our manufactures, and augmenting those duties when the goods happen to be carried in English vessels; but still the advantage we enjoy in this competition is great.Not so with our colonies and conquests. The whole imports from the East Indies, from 1700 to the present day, have only amounted [end of page #205] to 165,000,000 L. and our exports, during the same period, to 83,000,000 L. while our total exports have amounted to 1,486,000 L. during the same period. {167}There would be much affectation, and little accuracy, in attempting to make any thing like a strict comparison between the relative proportions of the wealth procured by general trade, and that procured by trade with India. The exports amount to about one-nineteenth part of the whole; and, perhaps, as they are manufactured goods, to about one-tenth part of the whole manufactures of the country exported: but the manufactures exported are not equal to one-third part of those consumed at home, so that not above one-thirtieth part of our manufacturers are maintained by the trade to India.In 1793, when the charter of the company was renewed, the India-budget stated the private fortunes acquired and brought home, at one million annually: that has probably increased since then; but it was at that time greater than it had been before: if, then, we take the annual arrival, since the year 1765, at one million, it will make forty millions, which, compared with the balance of trade during that period, amounts to about one-sixth part of the balance supposed to come into the country.How much of our national debt might be set down to the account of India, is another question. By debt contracted, and interest of debt paid, during the same period, we have disbursed the sum of 1,100,000,000 L. which is equal to more than twelve times the whole of the property acquired by our India affairs, supposing the 45,000,000 L.---{167} Comparison between the total foreign trade of the country, to that with the East Indies only, for 104 years.Total Exports. Total Balance Exports to India.in our favour.From 1700to 1760, £540,000,000 £249,000,000 £18,000,0001760 to1785, £370,000,000 £101,000,000 £25,000,0001785 to1805, £576,000,000 £142,000,000 £40,000,000____________ ____________ ____________£1,486,000,000 £492,000,000 £80,000,000____________ ____________ ____________This is about a nineteenth part of our foreign trade, and the balance is greatly against us.-=-[end of page #206]remitted, to be all gain, together with one-half of the 83,000,000 L. which surely is allowing the gain at the highest rate for both. {168}Supposing, then, that the wars that India has occasioned have cost (or the proportion of the debt they have occasioned) one-sixth part of the whole of our debt, and that the profits on goods to India, and private fortunes, came into the public treasury, there would still have been a great loss to the state; but this has not been the case, the interest of the debt has been levied on the people, and will continue to be so, till all is paid off; which, according to the plan of the sinking fund, will be in thirty-five years, so that we shall have about 750,000,000 L. more to pay, {169} supposing we have peace all that time, and continue to possess India.There is something very gloomy in this view of national affairs, and yet there is no apparent method of making it more pleasing.It is, on the contrary, very possible, that as Malta, on account of its being supposed the key to India, has cost us 20,000,000 L. within a few years, that, in less than thirty-five years, it may cost ussomethingmore; and, it is not by any means impossible, that, before that period, we may either lose India, or give it away; on either of which suppositions, the arithmetical balance of profit and loss will be greatly altered, to our farther disadvantage.On the possessions in India, and the complicated manner in which our imports (again exported) affect the nation, a volume might be written, but it would be to very little purpose, in a general inquiry of this sort. It is sufficient to shew here that the wealth obtained by that channel is not of great magnitude, in comparison either of the---{168} The nearness of the balance of trade, to the amount of debt contracted, will naturally excite attention, but it appears merely accidental, and to have not any real connection.Debt borrowed £500,000,000Interest paid £590,000,000______________£1,090,000,000{169} Let the future profits and expenses be set against each other, like the last.-=-[end of page #207]wealth acquired by foreign trade, or by our industry at home; and that, at the same time, we see that it excites more envy and jealousy than all the rest of the advantages we enjoy put together.Badly as men act in matters of interest, and much as envy blinds them in cases of rivalship, yet still there is a certain degree of justice predominant in the mind, that admits the claim of merit and true desert. Every person, who has heard the conversation, or read the opinions of people in other nations, on the wealth and greatness of England, will allow, that, as commercial men, and as manufacturers, we are the wonder of the world, and excite admiration; but, concerning our dominion over India, and our plantations in the American islands, foreigners speak very differently.In order to bring down a nation, that has risen above its level, there is followed a system of enmity in war, and rivalship in peace.The Portuguese seized on a lucky opportunity to undermine and supplant the Venecians and the Genoese, who had long been the envy of all nations, for the wealth they obtained, by the monopoly of the trade to India. The Dutch soon rivalled the Portuguese in trade, and the Flemings in manufactures; and, indeed, there is no saying in how great a variety of ways the superiority of a nation may not be pulled down.England, commencing later than any, has now obtained her full share of the commerce of the East, and of manufactures; but the nations that envy the wealth of others have always several great advantages. The nation that is highest treads in discovery, invention, &c. a new path, and is never certain how far she can go, nor how to proceed. Those who follow have, in general, but to copy, and, in doing that, it is generally pretty easy to improve. At all events, a day must arrive when the nation that is highest, ceasing to proceed, the others must overtake it.As the nation that is farthest advanced is ignorant of the improvements that may be made, it does not feel what it wants; and, like a man in full health, will give no encouragement to the physician. The countries that follow behind act differently; and they generally, in order [end of page #208] to protect their rising manufactures, impose duties on similar ones imported; thus preventing a competition between old established manufactures, and those recently begun.So far as priority of settlement, or of invention, give a superiority to a nation over others, the equalizing principle acts with a very natural and evident force; but, when the manners and modes of thinking of a people have once taken a settled turn, in addition to their proficiency in manufactures, it does not appear easily to be altered.The Germans excelled at working in metals, and possessed most of the arts, in a superior degree to any other people in Europe, a few centuries ago. In some arts they have been surpassed by the French, in more by the Dutch, and in nearly all by the English. {170}Conquests and colonies are wrested from nations suddenly and by force; arts and manufactures leave them in time of peace, silently and by degrees, without noise or convulsion; but the consequences are not the less fatal on that account; nor, indeed, is the effect slower, though more silent. Though colonies or conquests pass away at once, such changes only take place after a long chain of causes have prepared the way for them; whereas, manufactures are perpetually emigrating from one country to another: the operation, though slow and silent, is incessant, and the ultimate effect great beyond calculation.A good government, and wise laws, that protect industry and property, and preserve, in purity, the manners of the people, are the most difficult obstacles for a rival nation to overcome. Prosperity, which is founded upon that basis, is of all others the most secure. There are sometimes customs and habits that favour industry, the operation of which is not perceptible to those who wish to imitate and rival successful and wealthy nations.In general, it is not to be expected that the southern nations can come in competition with those living in more northerly climates in---{170} The individual German workmen have not been excelled by the workmen of any other nation, but the German nation itself has been outdone.-=-[end of page #209]those manufactures, where continued or hard labour is necessary. Nature has compensated the inhabitants of such countries for this incapacity, by giving them a fine climate, and, in general, a fertile soil; and, when they do justice to it, they may live affluent and happy. But, since industry and civilization have got into northern countries, it is impossible for the southern ones to rival them in manufactures.It would be impossible for any people living on the banks of the Nile, where the finest linen was once manufactured, to rival the cloths of Silesia, or of Ireland: as well might we think to bring back the commerce with India to Alexandria by the Red Sea.The fine manufactures of India, notwithstanding the materials are all found in the country, the lowness of labour, and the antiquity of their establishment, are, in many cases, unable to keep their ground against the invention and industry of Europeans. The art of making porcelain-ware, from a want of some of the materials, has not, in every respect, equalled that manufactured in China; but in everything else, except material, it excels so much, that the trade to that country in that article is entirely over.Many of the finest stuffs are nearly sharing the same fate, and they all probably will do so in time. Those whom we hope to surpass are determined to remain as they are, while Europeans aim at going as far in improvement as the nature of things will allow.But the nations that follow others in arts are not always confined to imitation, though we have seen that even there they have a great advantage. It frequently happens that they get hold of some invention which renders them superior, in a particular line, to those whom they only intended to imitate.When the superiority of a nation arises from the natural produce of the earth, such as valuable minerals, then it is very difficult for others to rival it with advantage; and it is very unwise of any nation to employ its efforts in rivalling another in an article where nature has given to the other a decided advantage; and it is equally ill-judged of a nation to neglect cultivating the advantages which she enjoys from nature, as they are the most permanent and their possession the most certain of any she can enjoy.[end of page #210]If nations were to consider in what branches of manufacture they are best fitted to excel, it would save much rivalship, misunderstanding, and jealousy; at the same time that it would tend greatly to increase the general aggregate wealth of mankind. It is not to industry and effort alone that mankind owe wealth, but to industry and effort well directed.This is well explained in the excellent Inquiry into the Causes of the Wealth of Nations, and it is to be regretted that this truth is not more generally understood; for it would contribute still more to the peace and happiness of mankind, than to their commercial wealth.There is not, however, any subject on which nations are so apt to err, and, indeed, the error is natural enough, if the ambition of a rival is not checked by judgement and attention to circumstances.When a nation is particularly successful in one branch of manufacture more than in any other, it is generally because some peculiar circumstances give it an advantage. This ought to operate as a reason for doubting whether it might be prudent to attempt to rival a nation in an object in which it had particular advantages; but quite the contrary is the case; a rival nation aims directly at the thing in which another excels the most, and frequently fails when, in any other object, she might have proved successful. {171}The changes of the taste and manners of mankind, as well as discoveries in arts and science, lay a foundation for political changes; but it is an irregular foundation for change; its operation is sometimes in favour of, and sometimes against the same nation, and it never can be calculated beforehand.As the nations that have improved in manufactures the latest have always carried them to the greatest perfection, it is natural to inquire how this happens.The exertion of the mind and body are both of them greatly aug----{171} How many ridiculous attempts have been made, in the north, to rival the Italians in raising silk, and by enlightened men too; but it is not sufficient to be enlightened, it is necessary to follow a proper train of reasoning.-- Good natural sense sometimes supplies the place of regular reasoning, and, as if it were intuitively, arrives at a true conclusion.-=-[end of page #211]
Private fortunes remitted in 1793 £1,000,000
Average ditto arising from years
of war, the plunder of
Seringapatam, &c 300,000
Increase remitted home since,
in proportion to revenue 700,000
____________
Remitted now by the same description
of men £2,000,000
Besides what is remitted home, those servants of the company expend immense sums in the country, living there in the greatest luxury. [end of page #198]
-=-
have been the cradle and the grave of most of those nations that have become rich and powerful by the means of commerce.
Our West India wealth, though derived from a source still more, or at least equally, impure, and though not inferior in amount, is, for several reasons, not the cause of so much envy. It is not confined to a company, and therefore the splendour and ostentation that, in the case of the Asiatic trade, occasion envy, do not exist in that to the American islands.
Our monopoly is by no means so complete, which has a double effect in our favour; for, besides preventing others from envying us so much, it prevents them from condemning us so severely.
The same nations that see, in its full force, the injustice of subjecting the inhabitants of the East, in their own country, in a way that, at the worst, is not very rigorous, join cordially in robbing Africa of its inhabitants, to make them slaves in America, in a way, that, at the best, is very rigorous.
Such are the baneful effects of sordid interest acting on the mind of man! But our business is not here to investigate opinions, but their result; and, in the present instance, we find that to admit participation in criminality is the only way to avoid envy and offence.
The third cause for envy is likewise wanting. The commerce with the West Indies is but of a recent date, and no nation has ever owed its greatness or decline to that single source. {161} It is not like the Asiatic trade, a sort of hereditary cause of quarrel; a species of heirloom, entailing upon the possessor the envy and enmity of all other nations.
The envy occasioned by the West India trade is farther diminished by the circumstance that the plantations have been raised with the money of the persons by whom they are possessed; and that if they had no original right to the soil in its barren state, the cultivation at least is owing to their capital and industry.
The most solid and secure portion of our trade is that which con-
---
{161} France was the nation that, before the revolution, gained the most by this trade; indeed, no nation has, to this date, gained so much as it did.
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[end of page #199]
sists of our manufactures at home. In those, though we excite envy, we excite no other of the hateful passions. Emulation is natural, and admiration is unavoidable, on seeing the vast progress that arts and industry have made in this country; so that England is absolutely considered as the first country in the world for manufactures.
This cause of greatness and wealth operates in a more uniform and durable manner; though, like others, it has its bounds, yet the nature of them is not easily ascertained.
In this there are two things essential,-- the procuring a market, and the means of supplying it. We have always yet found the means of supplying every market we have got; but we have not always been able to extend our market so much as it might have been wished.
America and Russia offer new markets, as has already been observed, but, to extend our old markets, we must either reduce the price, improve the quality, or extend the credit, and invention is the only means by which these things can be done; and there is no possibility of knowing where to set bounds to invention, aided by capital and the division of labour. We are, however, not to forget that priority in point of time being one of the causes of a nation's rise, and being of a nature to be destroyed in the course of years, the superiority we enjoy may leave us, as it did other nations in former times.
When a country produces the raw material, and labour is cheap, and the art established, we might suppose the superiority secure; but it is not. The cotton trade was first established in the East Indies, where the material grows, where the labour is not a tenth of the price that it is in England, and the quality of the manufactured article is good; yet machinery and capital have transplanted it to England. But the same machinery may give a superiority, or at least an equality, to some other country; it is, therefore, our business to persevere in encouraging invention, by the means that have hitherto been found so successful. {162}
---
{162} The law of patents, and the premiums offered by the Society of Arts, suggest improvements, and reward them when made. To those, to the security of property, and nature of the government, we chiefly owe the great improvements made in England.
-=-
[end of page #200]
The most necessary thing for our commerce is the support of mercantile credit, without which it is in vain to expect that trade will be carried on to any great amount. In 1772, when a great failure occasioned want of confidence, the exports of the country fell off above three millions, but its imports fell off very little. {163} In 1793, when the internal credit of the mercantile people was staggered, precisely the same effect was produced. These are the only two instances of individual credit being staggered to such a degree, as to prevent mercantile men from putting confidence in each other; and they are the only two instances of any very great falling off in the exports in one year, except during the American war, when the chief branches of trade in the country were cut off or diminished.
The falling off, in exports, in 1803, which was very great indeed, (being no less than one-third of the whole,) was not occasioned by the same cause, but appears to have been owing to three others of a different nature.
First, the French had actually shut us out from a great extent of coast, and this occasioned a diminution of exports, which will, in part, be done away, when new channels of conveyance are found out. It will nevertheless operate in causing some diminution, as circuitous channels render goods more difficult to be introduced, and consequently dearer to the consumers.
The second cause appears to have been, the uncertainty of our merchants where to send the goods, and who to trust, as the fear of the extension of French power took away confidence, and produced a sort of irresolution, which is always hurtful to business.
The third cause of the diminution of trade, no doubt, arose from the cessation of that alarm about property, that has been described as having occasioned so much to be sent from the continent to England. In other words, it is the return of the pendulum which had vibrated,
---
{163} This is a sort of paradox: when money became scarce, the nation bought nearly as much as ever, but sold less. This is not the case with individuals, and, at first sight, does not appear natural.
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through a temporary impulse, beyond the natural perpendicular. Had there been no revolution in France, and had it not been conducted on the principles it was, our trade could not have augmented so fast as it did; but a falling off of fifteen millions in one year is too much to be ascribed to that cause alone. An examination of the branches that did fall off will elucidate this.
The commerce with the United States of America is one of those that has fallen off, and is the only one that does not appear to be directly connected with these causes. There are some reasons, however, for thinking that it had an indirect connection with them.
Whatever interrupts our connection with the continent of Europe, or renders it unsafe, has, in some degree, the same effect with a stagnation of credit at home. This has taken place; and as it of course affected every branch of trade, that with America felt the blow amongst the rest, and, indeed, more than in proportion; for, as there is no course of exchange with any town in America, and as the credits there are long, the exportation to that country suffers in a particular manner when there is any heaviness in the money market here. Thus it was that, in 1772, the American exports suffered a diminution of two millions from the stagnation; and, in 1793, of rather more than half a million. In the former case, the American trade seems alone almost to have suffered, and, even in the latter case, it fell off more than in its just proportion.
It has been observed, that the improving our manufactures at home is the most secure support of our foreign trade, which chiefly depends on superior skill, industry, and invention, the wages of labour being greatly against us. We shall consider by what stability of tenure we hold that advantage.
The nation or individual that proceeds first in improvement is always uncertain how much farther it can be carried; those who follow, on the contrary, know what can be done, and therefore act with certainty and confidence. As to individuals, those who are the foremost in improvement have great difficulties to encounter; they seldom can procure the pecuniary aid necessary, and always do so with great difficulty; whereas, those who copy, without half their merit, or, [end of page #202] perhaps, without any merit at all, meet with support from every quarter. {164}
From this it is very evident, that the nation the farthest advanced in invention has only to remain stationary a few years, and it will soon be overtaken, and perhaps surpassed. Holland, Flanders, and France, were all originally superior, in the arts of manufacturing most goods, to England; and, indeed, it is no great length of time since we obtained the superiority over Holland in several articles of importance, and in particular where machinery was wanting. If it were necessary, it would not be difficult to give examples, to shew with what eagerness those who imported inventions were taken by the hand, on the bare probability of success, while the inventors of machines, and of methods of manufacturing entirely new, and of still more importance, were left to grope their way, and, until crowned with success, rather considered as objects of pity than of praise or admiration. {165}
It is not then altogether by a sure or lasting tenure that we hold this superiority of manufactures. We have examined several other sources of wealth, and the general conclusion is, that, without care and atten-
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{164} Mr. Arkwright, who produced the cotton-spinning machine, underwent great difficulties for many years; as also did Mr. Watt, the ingenious and scientific improver of the steam-engine; and, had not good fortune thrown him in the way of Mr. Boulton, a man of fortune and resource, and himself a man of genius, he probably must have languished in obscurity, and the nation remained without his admirable invention. The profits derived from the spinning-machine may, at first sight, appear the greater national advantage of the two; but it is not so in reality, for the spinning-machine only manufactures a raw material, brought from another country, cheaper than before; whereas, the steam-engine enables us to obtain raw materials from our own soil cheaper; a thing more important, more permanent, and of which we were more in want: besides this, the steam-engine is extending the scope of its utility every day; whereas, the spinning machines can go little farther. But to leave this digression, which is not altogether foreign to the purpose, and return to the facility with which inventors are followed, it is a fact, that in almost every country in Europe, money can be got by any adventurer who will propose to establish either a cotton spinning machine, or a manufactory of steam-engines; and it is a fact, that immense sums have been, and are still given, for those purposes.
{165} Slitting-mills, saw-mills, the art of imitating porcelain, and of making good earthen-ware, and paper, together with a vast number of other inventions, were imported from Holland; in every one of which we have gone beyond the Dutch, just as they got the better of the Flemings in the art of curing herrings. Priority of invention is not then a permanent tenure.
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tion, this nation cannot be expected long to maintain its superiority over others, in the degree it at present enjoys.
The American market, {166} and the Russian (in a smaller degree,) however, hold out a prospect of increased commerce to us, from external causes, that we cannot flatter ourselves with in the internal ones. It is to those we must look, and to those only, for the extension of the sale of our manufactures; but, even in this case, we must use efforts, for it is very seldom that a good end is effected by accident, or without a view towards its accomplishment.
Having now taken a view of the situation of this country, and seen that, though it is not likely to be deprived of its commerce by conquest, like Babylon, Tyre, or Alexandria, or by a new discovery in geography and the art of navigation, like Venice and Genoa; though, indeed, it has no great appearance of sharing the fate of Spain, Portugal, or Holland, yet there are other causes that may stop its career. If it is exempt from the dangers they laboured under, it is subject to others from which they were free.
We have already examined the effect of taxes and national debt on the industry of a country, even whilst augmenting in wealth; but we have not examined what that effect will be when a country comes to be on a level with other nations that do not labour under the same burthens.
There is no possibility of standing long still with a burthen on the shoulders, it must either be thrown off or it will become a cause of decline. Let us endeavour to point out methods by which that may be averted, or at least procrastinated. In doing this, we are either exposing our ignorance and presumption, or doing a signal service to our country.
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{166} The American exports from this country consist almost entirely in manufactures; we neither supply that country with East or West India produce. The Russians are aspiring at possessions in the West Indies, and, no doubt, will succeed; they are advancing still more rapidly in power than the Americans are in population. It was only in 1769, (not forty years ago,) that the first Russian flag was seen in the Mediterranean Sea, and now Russia stands fair to be sovereign of a number of the Greek islands; and, at any rate, by the Dardanelles, to carry on a great commerce. What may thirty years more not effect with such a country, and such a race of sovereigns?
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The load must be taken off, or it will crush the bearer; but how this is to be done is the difficulty. If our debt is paid off, the capital will go to other nations, for it will not find employment amongst ourselves; and this will reduce the nation, and raise others. If it continues, we sink under it; and, if we break faith with the creditors, it destroys confidence for ever; we can no longer give law, by means of our capital, to the markets in other nations, and we probably overturn the government of our own.
Amongst theexteriorcauses of decline that are general, none applies so completely to Great Britain as that of the envy and enmity, occasioned by the possession of colonies we have settled, or countries we have conquered.
The wealth of Britain and its power arise from agriculture, manufactures, commerce, colonies, and conquests. The envy they excite is not, however, in proportion to the wealth that arises from them, but rather to the right we have to possess them, and the consequent right that others have to contest the possession.
Improved agriculture has never been a source of enmity amongst civilized nations, though it has been an object of conquest when an opportunity presented itself.
Manufactures, the great source of our wealth, are, in a certain degree, beyond the reach of our enemies. Our greatest consumption for them is amongst ourselves, and if we did not export to any part of the world, except enough to procure materials, we should enjoy nearly all that we now do. Our wealth would not be very materially diminished, though our naval strength would. The means of destroying our manufactures is not then very easily to be found.
The commerce with other nations, our enemies, or rivals, have a more effectual means of diminishing, by the laying on duties on our manufactures, and augmenting those duties when the goods happen to be carried in English vessels; but still the advantage we enjoy in this competition is great.
Not so with our colonies and conquests. The whole imports from the East Indies, from 1700 to the present day, have only amounted [end of page #205] to 165,000,000 L. and our exports, during the same period, to 83,000,000 L. while our total exports have amounted to 1,486,000 L. during the same period. {167}
There would be much affectation, and little accuracy, in attempting to make any thing like a strict comparison between the relative proportions of the wealth procured by general trade, and that procured by trade with India. The exports amount to about one-nineteenth part of the whole; and, perhaps, as they are manufactured goods, to about one-tenth part of the whole manufactures of the country exported: but the manufactures exported are not equal to one-third part of those consumed at home, so that not above one-thirtieth part of our manufacturers are maintained by the trade to India.
In 1793, when the charter of the company was renewed, the India-budget stated the private fortunes acquired and brought home, at one million annually: that has probably increased since then; but it was at that time greater than it had been before: if, then, we take the annual arrival, since the year 1765, at one million, it will make forty millions, which, compared with the balance of trade during that period, amounts to about one-sixth part of the balance supposed to come into the country.
How much of our national debt might be set down to the account of India, is another question. By debt contracted, and interest of debt paid, during the same period, we have disbursed the sum of 1,100,000,000 L. which is equal to more than twelve times the whole of the property acquired by our India affairs, supposing the 45,000,000 L.
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{167} Comparison between the total foreign trade of the country, to that with the East Indies only, for 104 years.
Total Exports. Total Balance Exports to India.
in our favour.
From 1700
to 1760, £540,000,000 £249,000,000 £18,000,000
1760 to
1785, £370,000,000 £101,000,000 £25,000,000
1785 to
1805, £576,000,000 £142,000,000 £40,000,000
____________ ____________ ____________
£1,486,000,000 £492,000,000 £80,000,000
____________ ____________ ____________
This is about a nineteenth part of our foreign trade, and the balance is greatly against us.
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remitted, to be all gain, together with one-half of the 83,000,000 L. which surely is allowing the gain at the highest rate for both. {168}
Supposing, then, that the wars that India has occasioned have cost (or the proportion of the debt they have occasioned) one-sixth part of the whole of our debt, and that the profits on goods to India, and private fortunes, came into the public treasury, there would still have been a great loss to the state; but this has not been the case, the interest of the debt has been levied on the people, and will continue to be so, till all is paid off; which, according to the plan of the sinking fund, will be in thirty-five years, so that we shall have about 750,000,000 L. more to pay, {169} supposing we have peace all that time, and continue to possess India.
There is something very gloomy in this view of national affairs, and yet there is no apparent method of making it more pleasing.
It is, on the contrary, very possible, that as Malta, on account of its being supposed the key to India, has cost us 20,000,000 L. within a few years, that, in less than thirty-five years, it may cost ussomethingmore; and, it is not by any means impossible, that, before that period, we may either lose India, or give it away; on either of which suppositions, the arithmetical balance of profit and loss will be greatly altered, to our farther disadvantage.
On the possessions in India, and the complicated manner in which our imports (again exported) affect the nation, a volume might be written, but it would be to very little purpose, in a general inquiry of this sort. It is sufficient to shew here that the wealth obtained by that channel is not of great magnitude, in comparison either of the
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{168} The nearness of the balance of trade, to the amount of debt contracted, will naturally excite attention, but it appears merely accidental, and to have not any real connection.
Debt borrowed £500,000,000
Interest paid £590,000,000
______________
£1,090,000,000
{169} Let the future profits and expenses be set against each other, like the last.
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wealth acquired by foreign trade, or by our industry at home; and that, at the same time, we see that it excites more envy and jealousy than all the rest of the advantages we enjoy put together.
Badly as men act in matters of interest, and much as envy blinds them in cases of rivalship, yet still there is a certain degree of justice predominant in the mind, that admits the claim of merit and true desert. Every person, who has heard the conversation, or read the opinions of people in other nations, on the wealth and greatness of England, will allow, that, as commercial men, and as manufacturers, we are the wonder of the world, and excite admiration; but, concerning our dominion over India, and our plantations in the American islands, foreigners speak very differently.
In order to bring down a nation, that has risen above its level, there is followed a system of enmity in war, and rivalship in peace.
The Portuguese seized on a lucky opportunity to undermine and supplant the Venecians and the Genoese, who had long been the envy of all nations, for the wealth they obtained, by the monopoly of the trade to India. The Dutch soon rivalled the Portuguese in trade, and the Flemings in manufactures; and, indeed, there is no saying in how great a variety of ways the superiority of a nation may not be pulled down.
England, commencing later than any, has now obtained her full share of the commerce of the East, and of manufactures; but the nations that envy the wealth of others have always several great advantages. The nation that is highest treads in discovery, invention, &c. a new path, and is never certain how far she can go, nor how to proceed. Those who follow have, in general, but to copy, and, in doing that, it is generally pretty easy to improve. At all events, a day must arrive when the nation that is highest, ceasing to proceed, the others must overtake it.
As the nation that is farthest advanced is ignorant of the improvements that may be made, it does not feel what it wants; and, like a man in full health, will give no encouragement to the physician. The countries that follow behind act differently; and they generally, in order [end of page #208] to protect their rising manufactures, impose duties on similar ones imported; thus preventing a competition between old established manufactures, and those recently begun.
So far as priority of settlement, or of invention, give a superiority to a nation over others, the equalizing principle acts with a very natural and evident force; but, when the manners and modes of thinking of a people have once taken a settled turn, in addition to their proficiency in manufactures, it does not appear easily to be altered.
The Germans excelled at working in metals, and possessed most of the arts, in a superior degree to any other people in Europe, a few centuries ago. In some arts they have been surpassed by the French, in more by the Dutch, and in nearly all by the English. {170}
Conquests and colonies are wrested from nations suddenly and by force; arts and manufactures leave them in time of peace, silently and by degrees, without noise or convulsion; but the consequences are not the less fatal on that account; nor, indeed, is the effect slower, though more silent. Though colonies or conquests pass away at once, such changes only take place after a long chain of causes have prepared the way for them; whereas, manufactures are perpetually emigrating from one country to another: the operation, though slow and silent, is incessant, and the ultimate effect great beyond calculation.
A good government, and wise laws, that protect industry and property, and preserve, in purity, the manners of the people, are the most difficult obstacles for a rival nation to overcome. Prosperity, which is founded upon that basis, is of all others the most secure. There are sometimes customs and habits that favour industry, the operation of which is not perceptible to those who wish to imitate and rival successful and wealthy nations.
In general, it is not to be expected that the southern nations can come in competition with those living in more northerly climates in
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{170} The individual German workmen have not been excelled by the workmen of any other nation, but the German nation itself has been outdone.
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those manufactures, where continued or hard labour is necessary. Nature has compensated the inhabitants of such countries for this incapacity, by giving them a fine climate, and, in general, a fertile soil; and, when they do justice to it, they may live affluent and happy. But, since industry and civilization have got into northern countries, it is impossible for the southern ones to rival them in manufactures.
It would be impossible for any people living on the banks of the Nile, where the finest linen was once manufactured, to rival the cloths of Silesia, or of Ireland: as well might we think to bring back the commerce with India to Alexandria by the Red Sea.
The fine manufactures of India, notwithstanding the materials are all found in the country, the lowness of labour, and the antiquity of their establishment, are, in many cases, unable to keep their ground against the invention and industry of Europeans. The art of making porcelain-ware, from a want of some of the materials, has not, in every respect, equalled that manufactured in China; but in everything else, except material, it excels so much, that the trade to that country in that article is entirely over.
Many of the finest stuffs are nearly sharing the same fate, and they all probably will do so in time. Those whom we hope to surpass are determined to remain as they are, while Europeans aim at going as far in improvement as the nature of things will allow.
But the nations that follow others in arts are not always confined to imitation, though we have seen that even there they have a great advantage. It frequently happens that they get hold of some invention which renders them superior, in a particular line, to those whom they only intended to imitate.
When the superiority of a nation arises from the natural produce of the earth, such as valuable minerals, then it is very difficult for others to rival it with advantage; and it is very unwise of any nation to employ its efforts in rivalling another in an article where nature has given to the other a decided advantage; and it is equally ill-judged of a nation to neglect cultivating the advantages which she enjoys from nature, as they are the most permanent and their possession the most certain of any she can enjoy.
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If nations were to consider in what branches of manufacture they are best fitted to excel, it would save much rivalship, misunderstanding, and jealousy; at the same time that it would tend greatly to increase the general aggregate wealth of mankind. It is not to industry and effort alone that mankind owe wealth, but to industry and effort well directed.
This is well explained in the excellent Inquiry into the Causes of the Wealth of Nations, and it is to be regretted that this truth is not more generally understood; for it would contribute still more to the peace and happiness of mankind, than to their commercial wealth.
There is not, however, any subject on which nations are so apt to err, and, indeed, the error is natural enough, if the ambition of a rival is not checked by judgement and attention to circumstances.
When a nation is particularly successful in one branch of manufacture more than in any other, it is generally because some peculiar circumstances give it an advantage. This ought to operate as a reason for doubting whether it might be prudent to attempt to rival a nation in an object in which it had particular advantages; but quite the contrary is the case; a rival nation aims directly at the thing in which another excels the most, and frequently fails when, in any other object, she might have proved successful. {171}
The changes of the taste and manners of mankind, as well as discoveries in arts and science, lay a foundation for political changes; but it is an irregular foundation for change; its operation is sometimes in favour of, and sometimes against the same nation, and it never can be calculated beforehand.
As the nations that have improved in manufactures the latest have always carried them to the greatest perfection, it is natural to inquire how this happens.
The exertion of the mind and body are both of them greatly aug-
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{171} How many ridiculous attempts have been made, in the north, to rival the Italians in raising silk, and by enlightened men too; but it is not sufficient to be enlightened, it is necessary to follow a proper train of reasoning.-- Good natural sense sometimes supplies the place of regular reasoning, and, as if it were intuitively, arrives at a true conclusion.
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