tem, the trade with France would be incomparably more important and valuable, than that with Russia, the United States, or any other country. (Dict. Art, Havre.) Why, says Mr. Hodgskin, should any individuals of this country not be freely permitted to exchange all or any part of the produce of their industry, for the produce of some other industrious men living in France or Spain, as well as for the produce of the unhappy slaves in our own colonies? What has the fact of having different governments to do with trade, that it should be restrained or interdicted? If it be advantageous for the inhabitants of the Scotch hills to attend only to rearing cattle, importing cutlery and cloth from Yorkshire, it must also be advantageous for the people on the south coast of England to exchange their produce, for the produce of the people on the opposite side of the channel; with whom they are naturally and geographically much closer connected, than with Ireland or Scotland. The English channel can make no more difference in this respect, than the Irish channel, or than the Tweed. The trade which is beneficial when carried on by the subjects of the same state, is equally beneficial when they have different masters. (Popular Pol. Econ.)

23. All exchanges might have been carried on of themselves;thus, he who had a quantity of wheat, and wished to exchange some of it for a quantity of leather, if he could have found any one who wanted wheat, and had leather to dispose of, would have attained his object. But to estimate the value of all articles, by their relation to some one in particular, and by a tacit understanding, for this to be universally taken in exchange, is evidently facilitating intercourse. Different nations have adopted a great variety of articles, for this purpose; perhaps few more remarkable, than the one formerly used in Sumatra; where, Dr. Leyden, in his account of the languages and literature of the Indo-Chinese nations, tells us, the ancient inhabitants are said originally to have had no other money than the skulls of their enemies. No articles have so generally prevailed as the precious metals, which are now used over a great part of the world. Notwithstanding the peculiar aptitude of the precious metals for a medium of exchange, they had not been used for that purpose in Mexico, when it was first discovered. Park tells us, that in the early intercourse of the Mandingoes with the Europeans, the article that attracted most notice was iron. Its utility in forming the instruments of war and husbandry made it preferable to all others, and iron soon became the measure, by which the value of all other commodities was ascertained. Thus, a certain quantity of goods, of whatever denomination, appearing to be equal to a bar of iron, constituted a bar of that particular merchandise. For instance, twenty leaves of tobacco were considered as a bar of iron, and a gallon of spirits as a bar of rum.

Farther to facilitate exchange, paper has been adopted in many countries; but this, except in its representative character, possesses no value whatever. With us, the circulating medium is copper, silver, and gold; notes payable on demand, and bills payable after a certain time has elapsed. The amount of the precious metals employed as a circulating medium, is utterly inconsiderable, if we compare the value of such metals with the whole number of mankind that circulates them. Wealth may be divided into lands, houses, and that which is moveable. Of the last there are two classes, natural and artificial. Thus, a flock of sheep may be called natural wealth, and under this head, that which has not life, or all raw produce. Artificial wealth comprehends every thing manufactured, as a bale of cloth, the furniture of a house; and under this head shipping may be classed. As to the miscalled weath, denominated funded property, we must say nothing of our own country's, but the nature of that of Russia may be thus explained. The Russian government-misruling Russia, without right, taxes the people of that country in prospective: i. e., they sell part of the produce of the labour of future years; but this, it is obvious, cannot be wealth, until it is created. When, therefore, men speak of having thousands in the Russian funds, it simply means that the Russian government has promised to levy a tax on its people, and pay it over to the fundholders; as long as the Russians will allow them to do so. That this mode of impoverishing some, to enrich others, ought to be altogether abolished will be shown in its proper place, as well as that lands and houses cannot be alienated from their lawful owners except for a limited time. Moveable wealth is therefore that only, which can be accumulated by some, to the prejudice of others.

24. Should any thing that has been advanced, or that may be advanced, appear strange to the reader, it is incumbent on him to consider, that the whole human race, throughout its generations, being under the divine law; whatever applies to or is lawful or unlawful, in any particular combination of circumstances, for any man, in any country or any age; is lawful or unlawful, for any and consequently all others, in all countries, and in all ages so circumstanced. As a test of the truth of what is insisted on, let the reader's questions be-how would the operation of this affect-not myself, or my family only, not thousands of human beings only, not millions of human beings only,-but hundreds and thousands of millions of human beings,necessarily, both in time and eternity? And as nothing can be done but in association, let him take his view, not as to the action of one or a few individuals only, but the combined action of a thousand millions of human beings through a thousand generations; and their influence on each other, from such combined action! Suppose, as to political and commercial opposi

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tion; every individual of the whole human race, throughout its genertions, was to do all that lay in him to promote them, and that both were to prevail, as extensively and as powerfully as possible; -or, on the contrary, that both were to be utterly banished from among men what in either case would be the consequences? remembering that no line can possibly be drawn between these extremes, as if political and commercial opposition are unlawful before God, they should be utterly banished out of the world:-thus, alone, then can any matter be rightly estimated. Let none, therefore, object that our morality is too rigid. Immorality is necessarily attended with suffering to those who are the agents of it, and generally to other persons. The Most High, as the Maker and Preserver of men, can never tolerate the slightest infractions of his laws; seeing that it is inconsistent with Infinite Love to cause or permit men to suffer, except for being unrighteous. So far, therefore, from any human being insisting on a too rigid morality, our highest conceptions can never at all comprehend that perfect holiness, God requires of all his creatures: i. e., in order that they may be perfectly happy. One circumstance alone must, we think, convince every good man, that political and commercial opposition are utterly opposed to the divine will: namely, that they are so eagerly pursued, and by so many; and yet our Lord tells us, that, 'strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.'

A

CHAP. III.

PERFECT ASSOCIATION.

WHAT we chiefly want, is a controlling and directing power by which the various parts of our commercial system may be so fitted and adapted to each other, as to produce a harmonious instead of an incongruous whole. (Social System, by John Gray.)

Galileo declared that the earth revolved round the sun. Men had been taught to believe the contrary. Galileo was imprisoned, compelled to retract his state. ment, and admit that the sun whirled round the earth. (Prize Essay on Competition and Co-operation.)

1. It has been laid down that in this, the land and the productive powers are under the controul of the government, formed so as to secure to all the members an equal share of the political right, and of the property in the land,-and of course, also, their personal liberty. And these things it does, more fully, than by any other mode, by which a government can be constituted.

2. It is plain, says a writer on political economy, that the great practical problem of this science, must resolve itself into a discussion of the means, whereby labour may be rendered most efficient; or whereby the greatest amount of necessary, useful, and agreeable products, may be obtained with the least quantity of labour. (Sup. Ency. Brit.)

3. Let us endeavour to furnish a solution of this problem. Labour operating on the land being the sole source of wealth and the land being unchangeable, in supplying the wants of men, to give their labour a right direction, is the great object.

4. Consequently, labour less perfectly associated than it might be, or altogether unemployed, is lost wealth.

5. ASSOCIATED LABOUR, THEREFORE, IS THAT ALONE, WHICH, under the DIVINE BLESSING, CONSTITUTES HUMAN POWER. The enormous wealth of Britain, says Say, is less owing to her own advances in scientific acquirements, high as she ranks in that department, than to the wonderful practical skill of her adventurers, in the useful application of knowledge, and the superiority of her workmen, in rapid and masterly execution. Homer tells us, in the Odyssey, b. 20, that twelve women were daily employed in grinding corn for the family consumption of Ulysses; whose establishment is not represented as larger than that of a private gentleman of fortune of modern days. In poor countries, we frequently find a product carried through all its stages by the same workman, from mere want of the capital requisite for a judicious division of the different operations. (Pol. Econ.) Little more than half a century has elapsed, says Mr. McCulloch, since the British cotton manufacture was in its infancy; and it now forms the principal business carried on in this country, affording an advantageous field for the accumulation and employment of millions upon millions of capital, and of thousands upon thousands of workmen! The skill and genius by which these astonishing results have been achieved, have been one of the main sources of our power: they have contributed in no common degree to raise the British nation to the high and conspicuous place she now occupies. Nor is it too much to say, that it was the wealth and energy derived from the cotton manufacture, that bore us triumphantly through the late dreadful contest; at the same time, that it gives us strength to sustain burdens, that would have crushed our fathers, and could not be supported by any other people. (Dict. Art Cotton.) The cotton imported into Great Britain in 1781, amounted only to 5,198,778 pounds;-in 1830, the quantity was 259,856,000 pounds. As to the iron trade, the quantity of pig iron manufactured in England and Wales in 1750 was 22,000 tons;-in 1827, the quantity produced in England, Wales, and Scotland, was 690,000 tons. Speaking of English pottery, an intelligent foreigner thus remarks: its excellent workmanship, its solidity, the advantage

which it possesses of sustaining the action of fire, its fine glaze, impenetrable to acids, the beauty and convenience of its form, and the cheapness of its price, have given rise to a commerce so active and universal, that in travelling from Paris to Petersburg, from Amsterdam to the farthest part of Sweden, and from Dunkirk to the extremity of the South of France, one is served at every inn upon English ware. Spain, Portugal, and Italy, are supplied with it; and vessels are loaded with it for both the Indies and the continent of America-(M. Faujas de St. Fond.) As the revenue of the post-office indicates to a certain extent the state of commerce, we may observe, that in 1722, it was £201,804; in 1830, £2,053,720.-According to Mr. Jacob, the value of the precious metals, annually applied to ornamental and luxurious purposes, may be estimated in thousands of pounds sterling as follows: by Great Britain, 2457; France, 1200; Switzerland, 350; remainder of Europe, 1605.-The last example we shall notice of the importance of rightly associating labour, is, that in 1678, an agreement was made to run a coach between Edinburgh and Glasgow, a distance of 44 miles; which was to be drawn by six horses, and to perform the journey in three days going, and three days returning. In 1826 passengers were conveyed by steam between Liverpool and Manchester, a distance of 31 miles, in an hour and a half, and sometimes less! By the power of steam, says an anonymous writer, every machine to which it is applied, receives, not an addition, but a multiplication of force. The power thus produced in 1820, was computed to be equal to 320,000 horses, or about 2,240,000 men. At this moment, steam, on account of its many new applications, and the improvements made in the manner of employing it, may perform the work of near 3,000,000 of men in the United Kingdom. (Quart. Rev. June, 1826.)

6. The whole art of production and distribution, then, consists in rightly associating labour.

7. Exactly in the ratio this is understood and practised, will power increase or the accumulation of wealth augment, until, as has already been intimated, there is a plenitude for all.

8. Or as it may be otherwise expressed, the wealth of a country is its labour, operating on the land; and such labour and land will be productive, in the exact ratio of the labour being more perfectly associated.

9. On this, therefore, the wealth of nations depends.

10. And what is of considerable importance, though at present little thought of, production and consumption, or supply and demand, will by attention be kept in just relation.

11. We are born, says a great writer, with faculties and powers capable almost of any thing-such, at least, as would carry us farther than can be easily imagined; but it is only the exer