In 1602, the British nation could not possibly have paid for the expence of such a navy as it possessed in 1701, and in 1701, the resources of the nation were not equal to the expence of the navy of 1801. The reason is, that since 1602, the sciences have developed immense resources. Chemistry and mechanics have multiplied the produce of productive labour, and increased the riches of every nation in Europe; the commerce of China and the East-Indies has been opened; Russia and Sweden have become civilized and commercial; South America, the West India islands, and North America, have, from a few hundred persons, grown to a population of at least twenty-five millions; who have created a vast and productive commerce, of which there was no conception two centuries ago. Agriculture has every where been improved; the earth produces more for a given labour; manufactures are carried on, in various degrees of perfection, in every country and district of country, which, creating surplus wealth to pay for luxuries, returns millions of riches on so enterprising and commercial a people as the English, which, added to their own improvements in mechanism, manufactures, and agriculture, enables the government, at this day, to expend thirteen millions of pounds sterling, annually, on their marine. Yet the people in general live better, have more enjoyments, and because they have more enjoyments, they are in reality not more oppressed than the people of 1625, who paid only fifty thousand pounds to the marine. Such is the natural consequence of a general cultivation of the useful arts; but a just government and a wise people, should take care that the wealth which the useful arts give to them, should not be uselessly expended.
As imports and exports are the consequence of increased population and industry, the following will shew how the expences of the British marine have not only kept pace, but gained on her sources of wealth.
Table of British Imports, Exports, and Expence of the Marine, in pounds sterling.
In 1701
| Imports | 5,869,609l. |
| Exports | 7,621,053l. |
| Total | 13,490,662l. |
Expence of the Marine
1,046,397l. or one thirteenth of the whole imports and exports.
In 1798
| Imports | 46,963,000l. |
| Export of British manufactures | 33,602,000l. |
| Export of foreign goods | 14,387,000l. |
| Total | 94,952,000l. |
Expence of the Navy