little respect for foreign trade. Your beggarly
commerce! was the language in which the
mandarins of Pekin used to talk to Mr. De
Lange, the Russian envoy, concerning it[44].
Except with Japan, the Chinese carry on,
themselves, and in their own bottoms, little
or no foreign trade; and it is only into one
or two ports of their kingdom that they even
admit the ships of foreign nations. Foreign
trade, therefore, is, in China, every way confined
within a much narrower circle than that
to which it would naturally extend itself, if
more freedom was allowed to it, either in
their own ships, or in those of foreign nations.
Manufactures, as in a small bulk they frequently
contain a great value, and can upon
that account be transported at less expense
from one country to another than most parts
of rude produce, are, in almost all countries,
the principal support of foreign trade. In
countries, besides, less extensive, and less favourably
circumstanced for inferior commerce
than China, they generally require the support
of foreign trade. Without an extensive
foreign market, they could not well flourish,
either in countries so moderately extensive as
to afford but a narrow home market, or in
countries where the communication between
one province and another was so difficult, as
to render it impossible for the goods of any
particular place to enjoy the whole of that
home market which the country could afford.
The perfection of manufacturing industry, it
must be remembered, depends altogether
upon the division of labour; and the degree
to which the division of labour can be introduced
into any manufacture, is necessarily
regulated, it has already been shewn, by the
extent of the market. But the great extent
of the empire of China, the vast multitude of
its inhabitants, the variety of climate, and
consequently of productions in its different
provinces, and the easy communication by
means of water-carriage between the greater
part of them, render the home market of that
country of so great extent, as to be alone sufficient
to support very great manufactures,
and to admit of very considerable subdivisions
of labour. The home market of China
is, perhaps, in extent, not much inferior to
the market of all the different countries of
Europe put together. A more extensive
foreign trade, however, which to this great
home market added the foreign market of all
the rest of the world, especially if any considerable
part of this trade was carried on in
Chinese ships, could scarce fail to increase
very much the manufactures of China, and
to improve very much the productive powers
of its manufacturing industry. By a more
extensive navigation, the Chinese would naturally
learn the art of using and constructing,
themselves, all the different machines made
use of in other countries, as well as the other
improvements of art and industry which are
practised in all the different parts of the
world. Upon their present plan, they have
little opportunity of improving themselves by
the example of any other nation, except that
of the Japanese.
The policy of ancient Egypt, too, and that
of the Gentoo government of Indostan, seem
to have favoured agriculture more than all
other employments.
Both in ancient Egypt and Indostan, the
whole body of the people was divided into
different casts or tribes each of which was
confined, from father to son, to a particular
employment, or class of employments. The
son of a priest was necessarily a priest; the
son of a soldier, a soldier; the son of a labourer,
a labourer; the son of a weaver, a weaver;
the son of a tailor, a tailor, &c. In both
countries, the cast of the priests holds the
highest rank, and that of the soldiers the
next; and in both countries the cast of the
farmers and labourers was superior to the casts
of merchants and manufacturers.
The government of both countries was particularly
attentive to the interest of agriculture.
The works constructed by the ancient
sovereigns of Egypt, for the proper distribution
of the waters of the Nile, were famous in
antiquity, and the ruined remains of some of
them are still the admiration of travellers.
Those of the same kind which were constructed
by the ancient sovereigns of Indostan,
for the proper distribution of the waters
of the Ganges, as well as of many other rivers,
though they have been less celebrated, seem
to have been equally great. Both countries
accordingly, though subject occasionally to
dearths, have been famous for their great fertility.
Though both were extremely populous,
yet, in years of moderate plenty, they were
both able to export great quantities of grain to
their neighbours.
The ancient Egyptians had a superstitious
aversion to the sea; and as the Gentoo religion
does not permit its followers to light a
fire, nor consequently to dress any victuals,
upon the water, it, in effect, prohibits them
from all distant sea voyages. Both the
Egyptians and Indians must have depended
almost altogether upon the navigation of other
nations for the exportation of their surplus
produce; and this dependency, as it must
have confined the market, so it must have
discouraged the increase of this surplus produce.
It must have discouraged, too, the
increase of the manufactured produce, more
than that of the rude produce. Manufactures
require a much more extensive market than
the most important parts of the rude produce
of the land. A single shoemaker will make
more than 300 pairs of shoes in the year;