not tend so much to disqualify him from being
employed in a new trade, as those of the former
from being employed in any. The manufacturer
has always been accustomed to
look for his subsistence from his labour only;
the soldier to expect it from his pay. Application
and industry have been familiar to the
one; idleness and dissipation to the other.
But it is surely much easier to change the direction
of industry from one sort of labour to
another, than to turn idleness and dissipation
to any. To the greater part of manufactures,
besides, it has already been observed, there are
other collateral manufactures of so similar a
nature, that a workman can easily transfer his
industry from one of them to another. The
greater part of such workmen, too, are occasionally
employed in country labour. The
stock which employed them in a particular
manufacture before, will still remain in the
country, to employ an equal number of people
in some other way. The capital of the
country remaining the same, the demand for
labour will likewise be the same, or very nearly
the same, though it may be exerted in different
places, and for different occupations.
Soldiers and seamen, indeed, when discharged
from the king's service, are at liberty to exercise
any trade within any town or place of
Great Britain or Ireland. Let the same natural
liberty of exercising what species of industry
they please, be restored to all his Majesty's
subjects, in the same manner as to soldiers
and seamen; that is, break down the exclusive
privileges of corporations, and repeal
the statute of apprenticeship, both which are
really encroachments upon natural liberty,
and add to those the repeal of the law of settlements,
so that a poor workman, when
thrown out of employment, either in one trade
or in one place, may seek for it in another
trade or in another place, without the fear either
of a prosecution or of a removal; and
neither the public nor the individuals will suffer
much more from the occasional disbanding
some particular classes of manufacturers, than
from that of the soldiers. Our manufacturers
have no doubt great merit with their country,
but they cannot have more than those who defend
it with their blood, nor deserve to be
treated with more delicacy.
To expect, indeed, that the freedom of trade
should ever be entirely restored in Great Britain,
is as absurd as to expect that an Oceana
or Utopia should ever be established in it.
Not only the prejudices of the public, but,
what is much more unconquerable, the private
interests of many individuals, irresistibly oppose
it. Were the officers of the army to oppose,
with the same zeal and unanimity, any
reduction in the number of forces, with which
master manufacturers set themselves against
every law that is likely to increase the number
of their rivals in the home market; were
the former to animate their soldiers, in the
same manner as the latter inflame their workmen,
to attack with violence and outrage the
proposers of any such regulation; to attempt
to reduce the army would be as dangerous as
it has now become to attempt to diminish, in
any respect, the monopoly which our manufacturers
have obtained against us. This monopoly
has so much increased the number of
some particular tribes of them, that, like an
overgrown standing army, they have become
formidable to the government, and, upon many
occasions, intimidate the legislature. The
member of parliament who supports every
proposal for strengthening this monopoly, is
sure to acquire not only the reputation of understanding
trade, but great popularity and
influence with an order of men whose numbers
and wealth render them of great importance.
If he opposes them, on the contrary,
and still more, if he has authority enough to
be able to thwart them, neither the most acknowledged
probity, nor the highest rank, nor
the greatest public services, can protect him
from the most infamous abuse and detraction,
from personal insults, nor sometimes from real
danger, arising from the insolent outrage of
furious and disappointed monopolists.
The undertaker of a great manufacture,
who, by the home markets being suddenly
laid open to the competition of foreigners,
should be obliged to abandon his trade, would
no doubt suffer very considerably. That part
of his capital which had usually been employed
in purchasing materials, and in paying his
workmen, might, without much difficulty, perhaps,
find another employment; but that part
of it which was fixed in workhouses, and in
the instruments of trade, could scarce be disposed
of without considerable loss. The equitable
regard, therefore, to his interest, requires
that changes of this kind should never
be introduced suddenly, but slowly, gradually,
and after a very long warning. The legislature,
were it possible that its deliberations
could be always directed, not by the clamorous
importunity of partial interests, but by an
extensive view of the general good, ought,
upon this very account, perhaps, to be particularly
careful, neither to establish any new
monopolies of this kind, nor to extend further
those which are already established. Every
such regulation introduces some degree of
real disorder into the constitution of the state,
which it will be difficult afterwards to cure
without occasioning another disorder.
How far it may be proper to impose taxes
upon the importation of foreign goods, in order
not to prevent their importation, but to
raise a revenue for government, I shall consider
hereafter when I come to treat of taxes.
Taxes imposed with a view to prevent, or even
to diminish importation, are evidently as destructive
of the revenue of the customs as of
the freedom of trade.