It is very natural and very common for those who wield the power of a great nation, to trust to the exertion of that power, when the moment of necessity arrives; but that will seldom, if ever, be found to answer. The time for the efficacy of remedy will be past before the evil presents itself in the form of pressing necessity; and that very power, which can so effectually be applied in other cases, in this will be diminished, and found unequal to what it has to perform.
[end of page #288]
Application of the present Inquiry to Nations in general.
IF there is a lesson taught by political economy that is of greater importance than any other, it is, that industry, well directed, is the way to obtain wealth; and that the modes by which nations sought after it in the early and middle ages, by war and conquest, are, in comparison, very ineffectual.
Notwithstanding that princes themselves are now convinced of the truth of this, by a strange fatality, the possession of commercial wealth has itself become the cause of wars, not less ruinous than those that formerly were the chief occupation of mankind.
It was discovered a few centuries ago, that small principalities, and even single cities, acquired more wealth by industry, than all the mighty monarchs of the middle ages did by war; but we are not yet advanced to the ultimate end of the lessons that experience and reason give in regard to the interests of nations, with regard to wealth and power.
To suppose that mankind will ever live entirely at peace is absurd, and is to suppose them to change their nature. Such a reverie would only suit one of the revolutionists of France; but let us hope that there is still a possibility to lessen the causes of quarrels amongst nations. The true principles of political economy lead to that, and the object is sufficiently important.
By agriculture and manufactures; that is, by producing such things as are conducive to the happiness of man, the aggregate wealth of mankind can alone be increased.
By commerce, which consists in conveying or selling the produce of industry, the aggregate wealth of mankind is not increased, but its distribution is altered. {219}
---