If the tobacco of Virginia had been purchased,
not with British manufactures, but with
the sugar and rum of Jamaica, which had
been purchased with those manufactures, he
must wait for the returns of three. If those
two or three distinct foreign trades should
happen to be carried on by two or three distinct
merchants, of whom the second buys
the goods imported by the first, and the third
buys those imported by the second, in order
to export them again, each merchant, indeed,
will, in this case, receive the returns of his
own capital more quickly; but the final returns
of the whole capital employed in the
trade will be just as slow as ever. Whether
the whole capital employed in such a round-about
trade belong to one merchant or to
three, can make no difference with regard to
the country, though it may with regard to the
particular merchants. Three times a greater
capital must in both cases be employed, in order
to exchange a certain value of British
manufactures for a certain quantity of flax
and hemp, than would have been necessary,
had the manufactures and the flax and hemp
been directly exchanged for one another. The
whole capital employed, therefore, in such a
round-about foreign trade of consumption,
will generally give less encouragement and
support to the productive labour of the country,
than an equal capital employed in a more
direct trade of the same kind.
Whatever be the foreign commodity with
which the foreign goods for home consumption
are purchased, it can occasion no essential
difference, either in the nature of the trade,
or in the encouragement and support which it
can give to the productive labour of the country
from which it is carried on. If they are
purchased with the gold of Brazil, for example,
or with the silver of Peru, this gold
and silver, like the tobacco of Virginia, must
have been purchased with something that either
was the produce of the industry of the
country, or that had been purchased with
something else that was so. So far, therefore,
as the productive labour of the country is concerned,
the foreign trade of consumption, which
is carried on by means of gold and silver, has
all the advantages and all the inconveniences
of any other equally round-about foreign trade
of consumption; and will replace, just as fast,
or just as slow, the capital which is immediately
employed in supporting that productive
labour. It seems even to have one advantage
over any other equally round-about
foreign trade. The transportation of those
metals from one place to another, on account
of their small bulk and great value, is less expensive
than that of almost any other foreign
goods of equal value. Their freight is much less,
and their insurance not greater; and no goods,
besides, are less liable to suffer by the carriage.
An equal quantity of foreign goods, therefore,
may frequently be purchased with a smaller
quantity of the produce of domestic industry,
by the intervention of gold and silver, than
by that of any other foreign goods. The demand
of the country may frequently, in this
manner, be supplied more completely, and at
a smaller expense, than in any other. Whether,
by the continual exportation of those
metals, a trade of this kind is likely to impoverish
the country from which it is carried on
in any other way, I shall have occasion to examine
at great length hereafter.
That part of the capital of any country
which is employed in the carrying trade, is
altogether withdrawn from supporting the productive
labour of that particular country, to
support that of some foreign countries. Though
it may replace, by every operation, two distinct
capitals, yet neither of them belongs to
that particular country. The capital of the
Dutch merchant, which carries the corn of
Poland to Portugal, and brings back the
fruits and wines of Portugal to Poland, replaces
by every such operation two capitals,
neither of which had been employed in supporting
the productive labour of Holland;
but one of them in supporting that of Poland,
and the other that of Portugal. The
profits only return regularly to Holland, and
constitute the whole addition which this trade
necessarily makes to the annual produce of the
land and labour of that country. When, indeed,
the carrying trade of any particular
country is carried on with the ships and sailors
of that country, that part of the capital
employed in it which pays the freight is distributed
among, and puts into motion, a certain
number of productive labourers of that
country. Almost all nations that have had
any considerable share of the carrying trade
have, in fact, carried it on in this manner.
The trade itself has probably derived its name
from it, the people of such countries being
the carriers to other countries. It does not,
however, seem essential to the nature of the
trade that it should be so. A Dutch merchant
may, for example, employ his capital in transacting
the commerce of Poland and Portugal,
by carrying part of the surplus produce of the
one to the other, not in Dutch, but in British
bottoms. It may be presumed, that he actually
does so upon some particular occasions.
It is upon this account, however, that the carrying
trade has been supposed peculiarly advantageous
to such a country as Great Britain,
of which the defence and security depend
upon the number of its sailors and shipping.
But the same capital may employ as many
sailors and shipping, either in the foreign trade
of consumption, or even in the home trade,
when carried on by coasting vessels, as it
could in the carrying trade. The number of
sailors and shipping which any particular capital
can employ, does not depend upon the
nature of the trade, but partly upon the bulk
of the goods, in proportion to their value, and