Go to and raise silk. You can do it, and those who cannot set themselves to work we will set them to work gathering straw, and making straw hats and straw bonnets; we will set others to gathering willow, and others to making baskets; we will set others to gathering flags and rushes, and to making mats, and bottoming chairs and making carpets. 12:202.
As I told the people, when we first came into this valley in 1847, there is plenty of silk in the elements here, as much as in any other part of the earth. 9:32.
The capitalists may say, 'What are we to do with our means?' Go and build factories and have one, two, or three thousand spindles going. Send for fifty, a hundred, or a thousand sheep and raise wool. Some of you go to raising flax and build a factory to manufacture it, and do not take every advantage and pocket every dollar that is to be made. You are rich and I want to turn the stream so as to do good to the whole community. 13:36.
Commerce—It may be said that we shall always be poor without commerce; we shall always be poor with it, unless we command it; and unless we can do this, we are better without it. 11:134.
But, again, with regard to this railroad; when it is through, even in ordinary times it opens to us the market, and we are at the door of New York, right at the threshold of the emporium of the United States. We can send our butter, eggs, cheese, and fruits and receive in return oysters, clams, cod fish, mackerel, oranges, and lemons. Let me say more to you—do up your peaches in the best style, for they will want them. 12:54.
Whatsoever administers to the sustenance, comfort and health of mankind forms the basis of the commerce of the world. Gold and silver in coin are only valuable as mediums to facilitate exchange. They can be made useful to us and add to our comfort when made into cups, plates, etc., in our household economy. 10:227.
Recollect that in trading there is great advantage in turning over your capital often. 13:35.
Are our merchants honest? I could not be honest and do as they do; they make five hundred percent on some of their goods, and that, too, from an innocent, confiding, poor, industrious people. 11:114.
Capital and Labor—All the capital there is upon the earth is the bone and sinew of workingmen and women. Were it not for that, the gold and the silver and the precious stones would remain in the mountains, upon the plains and in the valleys, and never would be gathered or brought into use. The timber would continue to grow, but none of it would be brought into service, and the earth would remain as it is; but it is the activity and labor of the inhabitants of the earth that bring forth the wealth. Labor builds our meeting-houses, temples, court houses, fine halls for music and fine school houses; it is labor that teaches our children, and makes them acquainted with the various branches of education, that makes them proficient in their own language and in other languages, and in every branch of knowledge understood by the children of men; and all this enhances the wealth and the glory and the comfort of any people on the earth. 16:66.
We say to the-Latter-day Saints, work for these capitalists, and work honestly and faithfully, and they will pay you faithfully. I am acquainted with a good many of them, and as far as I know them, I do not know but every one is an honorable man. They are capitalists, they want to make money, and they want to make it honestly and according to the principles of honest dealing. If they have means and are determined to risk it in opening mines you work for them by the day. Haul their ores, build their furnaces and take your pay for it, and enter your lands, build houses, improve your farms, buy your stock, and make yourselves better off. 14:85.