A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels - Volume 18 / Historical Sketch of the Progress of Discovery, Navigation, and / Commerce, from the Earliest Records to the Beginning of the Nineteenth / Century, By William Stevenson

by Robert Kerr; William Stevenson

But there are other causes to which we must ascribe the extension of British manufactures and commerce; of these we shall only enumerate what we regard as the principal and the most powerful: the stimulus which any particular improvement in manufactures gives to future and additional improvements, or rather, perhaps, the necessity which it creates for such additional improvements; the natural operation of enlarged capital; the equally natural operation of encreased wealth among the various classes of the community; the peculiar circumstances in which Britain has been placed since the termination of the war which deprived her of her American colonies; and, lastly, her national debt. A short view of each of these particulars will, we believe, sufficiently account for the present unparalleled state of British manufactures and commerce.

The direct effect of improvement in the mode of manufacturing any article, by the introduction of a more powerful machinery, is to encrease the quantity, and to lower the price of that article. Hence it follows, that those who manufacture it on the old plan must be undersold, unless they also adopt such machinery; and as knowledge, both speculative and practical, has greater chance to improve in proportion as it is spread, from this cause, as well as from the more powerful cause of rival interests, wherever improvements in manufactures have begun and been extended, they are sure to advance.

That this is not theoretical doctrine requires only an appeal to what has been effected, and is yet effecting in Britain, to prove. A very curious, interesting, and instructive work might be written on the improvements in the cotton machinery alone, which have been made in this country during the last forty years: we mean interesting and instructive, not merely on account of the tacts relative to mechanical ingenuity which it would unfold, but on account of the much higher history which it would give of the mechanism of the human mind, and of the connections and ramifications of the various branches of human knowledge. In what state would the commerce of Great Britain have been at this time, if the vast improvements in the machinery for spinning cotton had not been made and universally adopted?--and how slowly and imperfectly would these improvements have taken place, had the sciences been unconnected, or greater improvements, which at first were unseen or deemed impracticable, not been gradually developed, as lesser improvements were made. The stimulus of interest, the mutual connection of various branches of science, and above all the unceasing onward movement of the human mind in knowledge, speculative as well as practical, must be regarded as the most powerful causes of the present wonderful state of our manufactures, and, consequently, of our commerce.

2. The natural operation of enlarged capital is another cause of our great commerce. There is nothing more difficult in the history of mankind--not the history of their wars and politics, but the history of their character, manners, sentiments, and progress in civilization and wealth--[as->than] to distinguish and separate those facts which ought to be classed as causes, and those which ought to be classed as effects. There can be no doubt that trade produces capital; and, in this point of view, capital must be regarded as an effect: there can be as little doubt, that an increase of capital is favourable to an increase of commerce, and actually produces it; in this point of view, therefore, capital must be regarded as a cause. As in the physical world action and reaction are equal, so are they, in many respects, and under many circumstances, in the moral and intellectual world; but, whereas in the physical world the action and reaction are not only equal but simultaneous, in the moral and intellectual world the reaction does not take place till after the immediate and particular action from which it springs has ceased.

To apply these remarks to our present subject, it is unnecessary to point out in what manner trade must increase capital; that capital, on the other hand, increases trade, is not, perhaps, at first sight, quite so obvious; but that it must act in this manner will be perceptible, when, we reflect on the advantages which a large capital gives to its possessor. It enables him to buy cheaper, because he can buy larger quantities, and give ready money; buying cheaper, he can sell cheaper, or give longer credit, or both; and this must ensure an increase of trade. It enables him immediately to take advantage of any improvement in the mode of manufacturing any article; and to push the sale of any article into countries where it was before unknown. Such are some of the more important effects on commerce of large capital; and these effects have been most obviously and strikingly shewn in the commercial history of Britain for the last thirty years, and thus give a practical confirmation to the doctrine, that capital, originally the creature of trade, in its turn gives nourishment, rigour, and enlarged growth to it.

3. Encreased wealth among the various classes of the community, may be viewed In the same light as capital; it flows from increased trade, and it produces a still further increase of trade. The views, and desires, and habits of mankind, are like their knowledge, they are and must be progressive: and if accompanied, as they generally are, by increased means, they must give birth to increased industry and skill, and their necessary consequences, increased trade and wealth.

Had the views, desires, and habits of mankind, and especially of the inhabitants of Europe and the United States, continued as they were fifty years ago, it is absolutely impossible that one half of the goods manufactured in Great Britain could have been disposed of; and unless these additional and enlarged views, desires, and habits, had been accompanied with commensurate means of gratifying them, our manufactures and commerce could not have advanced as they have done. Minutely and universally divided as human labour is, no one country can render its industry and skill additionally productive, without, at the same time, the industry and skill of other countries also advance. No one nation can acquire additional wealth, unless additional wealth is also acquired in other nations. Before an additional quantity of commodities can be sold, additional means to purchase them must be obtained; or, in other words, increased commerce, supposes increased wealth, not only in that country in which commerce is increased, but also in that where the buyers and consumers live.

4. Since the termination of the American war, Britain has been placed in circumstances favourable to her commerce: the human mind cannot long be depressed; there is an elasticity about it which prevents this. Perhaps it is rather disposed to rebound, in proportion to the degree and time of its restraint. It is certain, however, that the exhaustion produced by the American war speedily gave place to wonderful activity in our manufactures and commerce; and that, at the commencement of the first French revolutionary war, they had both taken wonderful and rapid strides. The circumstances, indeed, of such a country as Britain, and such a people as the British, must be essentially changed,--changed to a degree, and in a manner, which we can hardly suppose to be brought about by any natural causes,--before its real wealth can be annihilated, or even greatly or permanently diminished. The climate and the soil, and all the improvements and ameliorations which agriculture has produced on the soil, must remain: the knowledge and skill, and real capital of the inhabitants, are beyond the reach of any destroying cause: interest must always operate and apply this knowledge and skill, unless we can suppose, what seems as unlikely to happen as the change of our climate and soil, the annihilation of our knowledge and skill, or that interest should cease to be the stimulating cause of industry; unless we can suppose that political and civil freedom should be rooted out, and individual property no longer secure.

Circumstances, however, though they cannot destroy, must influence, beneficially or otherwise, the wealth and commerce of a country; and it may happen that circumstances apparently unfavourable may become beneficial. This was the case with Britain: during the American war, her manufactures and commerce languished; during the French wars they increased and throve most wonderfully. The cause of this difference must be sought for principally in the very artificial and extraordinary circumstances in which she was placed during the French war: and of these circumstances, the most powerfully operative were her foreign loans; her paper circulation; the conquests and subsequent measures of Bonaparte on the continent; and her superiority at sea. Foreign loans necessarily rendered the exchange unfavourable to Britain; an unfavourable exchange, or, in other words, a premium on bills, in any particular country, enabled the merchant to sell his goods there at a cheaper rate than formerly, and consequently to extend his commerce there. The paper circulation of Britain,--though a bold and hazardous step, and which in a less healthy and vigorous state of public credit and wealth than Britain enjoyed could not have been taken, or, if taken, would not have produced nearly the beneficial effects it did, and would have left much more fatal consequences than we are at present experiencing,--undoubtedly tended to increase her commerce; and the very stimulus which it gave to all kinds of speculation has been favourable to it. The ruinous consequences of such speculation, though dreadful, are comparatively of short duration; whereas it is impossible that speculation should be active and vigorous, with commensurate means, without improving manufactures, and opening new channels for commerce; and these effects must remain. In what manner the measures of Bonaparte on the continent, and our superiority at sea, were favourable to our commerce, it is unnecessary to explain.

Lastly. It only remains to explain how our national debt has been beneficial to our commerce. Necessity, if it is not absolutely overpowering, must act as a stimulus to industry as well as interest: the desire to avoid evil, and the desire to obtain good, are equally powerful motives to the human mind. In the same manner as an increase of family, by creating additional expense, spurs a man to additional industry; so the certainty that he must pay additional taxes produces the same effect. Individuals may contrive to shift the burden from themselves, and pay their taxes by spending less; but there can be no doubt that the only general, sure, and permanent fund, out of which additional taxes can be paid, must arise from the fruits of additional industry. We wish to guard against being taken for the advocates for taxation, as in any shape a blessing: we are merely stating what we conceive to be its effect. But we should no more regard taxation as a blessing, because it increased commerce, than we should regard it as a blessing to a man, that, from any cause, he was obliged to work fourteen hours a day instead of twelve. In both cases, increased labour might be necessary, but it would not the less be an evil.