A third answer is, that any nation who would open its ports to all manner of foreign importation, without being assured of a reciprocal permission from all its neighbours, would, I think, very soon be ruined; and if this be true, it is a proof that a balance of trade is a possible supposition, and that proper restrictions upon importation may turn to the advantage of a state.
In order to promote industry, a statesman must act, as well as permit and protect. Could ever the woollen manufacture have been introduced into France, from the consideration of the great advantage England had drawn from it, if the King had not undertaken the support of it, by granting many privileges to the undertakers, and by laying strict prohibitions on all foreign cloths? Is there any other way of establishing a new manufacture any where?
Laying, therefore, trade quite open would have this effect, it would destroy at first, at least, all the luxurious arts; consequently, it would diminish consumption; consequently, diminish the quantity of circulating cash; consequently, it would promote hoarding; and consequently, would bring on poverty in all the states of Europe. Nothing, I imagine, but an universal monarchy, governed by the same laws, and administred according to one plan well concerted, can be compatible with an universally open trade. While there are different states, there must be different interests; and when no one statesman is found at the head of these interests, there can be no such thing as a common good; and when there is no common good, every interest must be considered separately. But as this scheme of laying trade quite open, is not a thing likely to happen, we may save ourselves the trouble of inquiring more particularly into what might be its consequences; it is enough to observe, that they must, in their nature, be exceedingly complex, and if we have mentioned some of them, it has only been to apply principles, and shew how consequences may follow one another: to foretel what must follow is exceedingly difficult, if not impossible.
In discoursing[discoursing] of the balance of trade, I have hitherto considered it only so far as the specie of a country is augmented by it. In the subsequent book, when we shall have occasion to bring this subject once more upon the carpet, I shall shew how a balance may be extremely favourable without augmenting the mass of the precious metals; to wit, by providing subsistence for an additional number of inhabitants; by increasing the quantity of shipping, which is an article of wealth; by constituting all other nations debtors to it; by the importation of many durable commodities, which may be considered also as articles of wealth; as a well furnished house, a well stored cellar, an ample wardrobe, and a fine stable of horses, are articles which enhance the value of the inheritance of a landed man.
Then we shall have occasion to shew how industry heightens the permanent value of a nation, as agriculture increases its annual produce.
CHAP. XXX.
Miscellaneous Questions and Observations relative to Trade and Industry.
It is now time to draw to a conclusion of this book. The subject of trade and industry is inexhaustible, if considered in all its branches, and traced through every consequence. My intention has been to inquire into the original principles which influence general operations, and which, less or more, enter into every combination. I have represented trade in its infancy, manhood, and old age; and have endeavoured to prescribe a general regimen of health for every period. It is sufficient to be thoroughly master of the principles, to be able to apply them to particular cases, providing every circumstance be exactly known.
The intention of this chapter, is, to review some parts of our subject, which I think have not received all the light necessary to be thrown upon them, to suggest some remarkable differences between antient and modern oeconomy, with regard to circulation and industry; and, in general, to lay certain circumstances together, which may point out the spirit of modern times, from which we are endeavouring to extract a set of consistent principles. Every thing which points out relations is useful; because we know nothing, but through this channel. Now certain relations are too frequently taken for granted, and nothing is more essential in political reasonings, than to point them out clearly, to proceed by the shortest steps, and still to keep experience and matter of fact before our eyes, when we draw a conclusion from a general proposition. Let the conclusion appear ever so just, if, when compared with experience, a disagreement appears, it is ten to one we have overlooked some circumstance, which ought to have entred into the combination.
To illustrate this, let me cite a mistake of my own, which I purposely left uncorrected, in the second chapter of the first book, where I very confidently declare, that a statesman, who, upon certain occasions, which seem favourable for raising great sums upon a people, increases taxes only in proportion to the interest of the money borrowed, must be shortsighted and regardless of futurity. This, I remember, appeared to me at the time I wrote, so clear and evident, that I thought I ran no risk in making it enter into a preliminary chapter. But when I came to look a little more particularly into the matter, I found I had been grosly mistaken; as I hope to shew evidently in its proper place. Had every such mistake been treated with the same indulgence, I should have been more employed in the correction of my own blunders, than in the prosecution of my subject. People who reason with tolerable exactness on such subjects, generally fall into mistakes, from the generality of their propositions. These may commonly be true enough, within the compass of the author’s combinations at the time, and yet may not be true in every other case. From which I infer, that every one of my readers, who can form combinations more extensive than mine, will find sufficient matter for criticism in every page of this inquiry. So much the better: it is by such criticisms and discussions, that particular branches of knowledge are brought to the certainty of science.