It would be impossible for any people living on the banks of the Nile, where the finest linen was once manufactured, to rival the cloths of Silesia, or of Ireland: as well might we think to bring back the commerce with India to Alexandria by the Red Sea.
The fine manufactures of India, notwithstanding the materials are all found in the country, the lowness of labour, and the antiquity of their establishment, are, in many cases, unable to keep their ground against the invention and industry of Europeans. The art of making porcelain-ware, from a want of some of the materials, has not, in every respect, equalled that manufactured in China; but in everything else, except material, it excels so much, that the trade to that country in that article is entirely over.
Many of the finest stuffs are nearly sharing the same fate, and they all probably will do so in time. Those whom we hope to surpass are determined to remain as they are, while Europeans aim at going as far in improvement as the nature of things will allow.
But the nations that follow others in arts are not always confined to imitation, though we have seen that even there they have a great advantage. It frequently happens that they get hold of some invention which renders them superior, in a particular line, to those whom they only intended to imitate.
When the superiority of a nation arises from the natural produce of the earth, such as valuable minerals, then it is very difficult for others to rival it with advantage; and it is very unwise of any nation to employ its efforts in rivalling another in an article where nature has given to the other a decided advantage; and it is equally ill-judged of a nation to neglect cultivating the advantages which she enjoys from nature, as they are the most permanent and their possession the most certain of any she can enjoy.
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If nations were to consider in what branches of manufacture they are best fitted to excel, it would save much rivalship, misunderstanding, and jealousy; at the same time that it would tend greatly to increase the general aggregate wealth of mankind. It is not to industry and effort alone that mankind owe wealth, but to industry and effort well directed.
This is well explained in the excellent Inquiry into the Causes of the Wealth of Nations, and it is to be regretted that this truth is not more generally understood; for it would contribute still more to the peace and happiness of mankind, than to their commercial wealth.
There is not, however, any subject on which nations are so apt to err, and, indeed, the error is natural enough, if the ambition of a rival is not checked by judgement and attention to circumstances.
When a nation is particularly successful in one branch of manufacture more than in any other, it is generally because some peculiar circumstances give it an advantage. This ought to operate as a reason for doubting whether it might be prudent to attempt to rival a nation in an object in which it had particular advantages; but quite the contrary is the case; a rival nation aims directly at the thing in which another excels the most, and frequently fails when, in any other object, she might have proved successful. {171}