partly upon the distance of the ports between
which they are to be carried; chiefly upon
the former of those two circumstances. The
coal trade from Newcastle to London, for example,
employs more shipping than all the carrying
trade of England, though the ports are
at no great distance. To force, therefore, by
extraordinary encouragements, a larger share
of the capital of any country into the carrying
trade, than what would naturally go to it,
will not always necessarily increase the shipping
of that country.
The capital, therefore, employed in the
home trade of any country, will generally
give encouragement and support to a greater
quantity of productive labour in that country,
and increase the value of its annual produce,
more than an equal capital employed in the
foreign trade of consumption; and the capital
employed in this latter trade has, in both these
respects, a still greater advantage over an
equal capital employed in the carrying trade.
The riches, and so far as power depends upon
riches, the power of every country must always
be in proportion to the value of its annual
produce, the fund from which all taxes
must ultimately be paid. But the great object
of the political economy of every country,
is to increase the riches and power of that
country. It ought, therefore, to give no preference
nor superior encouragement to the foreign
trade of consumption above the home
trade, nor to the carrying trade above either of
the other two. It ought neither to force nor
to allure into either of those two channels a
greater share of the capital of the country,
than what would naturally flow into them of
its own accord.
Each of those different branches of trade,
however, is not only advantageous, but necessary
and unavoidable, when the course of
things, without any constraint or violence, naturally
introduces it.
When the produce of any particular branch
of industry exceeds what the demand of the
country requires, the surplus must be sent
abroad, and exchanged for something for
which there is a demand at home. Without
such exportation, a part of the productive
labour of the country must cease, and
the value of its annual produce diminish.
The land and labour of Great Britain produce
generally more corn, woollens, and hardware,
than the demand of the home market requires.
The surplus part of them, therefore, must be
sent abroad, and exchanged for something for
which there is a demand at home. It is only
by means of such exportation, that this surplus
can acquire a value sufficient to compensate
the labour and expense of producing it. The
neighbourhood of the sea-coast, and the banks
of all navigable rivers, are advantageous situations
for industry, only because they facilitate
the exportation and exchange of such surplus
produce for something else which is more in
demand there.
When the foreign goods which are thus purchased
with the surplus produce of domestic
industry exceed the demand of the home market,
the surplus part of them must be sent
abroad again, and exchanged for something
more in demand at home. About 96,000
hogsheads of tobacco are annually purchased
in Virginia and Maryland with a part of the
surplus produce of British industry. But the
demand of Great Britain does not require,
perhaps, more than 14,000. If the remaining
82,000, therefore, could not be sent abroad,
and exchanged for something more in
demand at home, the importation of them must
cease immediately, and with it the productive
labour of all those inhabitants of Great Britain
who are at present employed in preparing the
goods with which these 82,000 hogsheads are
annually purchased. Those goods, which are
part of the produce of the land and labour of
Great Britain, having no market at home, and
being deprived of that which they had abroad,
must cease to be produced. The most round-about
foreign trade of consumption, therefore,
may, upon some occasions, be as necessary for
supporting the productive labour of the country,
and the value of its annual produce, as
the most direct.
When the capital stock of any country is
increased to such a degree that it cannot be all
employed in supplying the consumption, and
supporting the productive labour of that particular
country, the surplus part of it naturally
disgorges itself into the carrying trade, and
is employed in performing the same offices
to other countries. The carrying trade is the
natural effect and symptom of great national
wealth; but it does not seem to be the natural
cause of it. Those statesmen who have been
disposed to favour it with particular encouragement,
seem to have mistaken the effect and
symptom for the cause. Holland, in proportion
to the extent of the land and the number
of its inhabitants, by far the richest country in
Europe, has accordingly the greatest share of
the carrying trade of Europe. England, perhaps
the second richest country of Europe, is
likewise supposed to have a considerable share
in it; though what commonly passes for the
carrying trade of England will frequently,
perhaps, be found to be no more than a round-about
foreign trade of consumption. Such
are, in a great measure, the trades which carry
the goods of the East and West Indies and of
America to the different European markets.
Those goods are generally purchased, either
immediately with the produce of British industry,
or with something else which had been
purchased with that produce, and the final returns
of those trades are generally used or consumed
in Great Britain. The trade which is
carried on in British bottoms between the different