=========
CHAP. I.
_Result of the foregoing Inquiry applied to Britain.--Its present State,
in what its Wealth consists, illustrated by a Chart, shewing the
Increase of Revenue and Commerce_.
Having now taken a view, and inquired into the causes that have
ruined nations that have been great and wealthy, from the earliest to
the present time; having also inquired into the causes that naturally
will operate where those did not, and that would, at a later period,
have produced the same effect; it is now the business to examine how
far and in what way the result of the inquiry applies to the British
empire.
The power and wealth of Britain, according to the definition given at
the beginning of this work, are founded not on conquests, extent of
territory, superior population, or a more favourable soil or climate, or
even in bravery; for in those it is but on a par with other nations.
The only natural advantages of Britain are, its insular situation and the
disposition of the people, and the excellent form of its government.
From the two first have arisen that good government, commerce, and
industry; and on those have arisen again a great naval power, and an
uncommon degree of wealth.
In arms, it does not appear that England is so powerful by land, in
proportion as in former times: her power must then be considered as a
naval power, and that founded principally on commerce. {153}
---
{153} Our last brilliant achievements by land were under the Duke of
Marlborough; but even then, with allies to assist, we were but a
balance to France. Before the conquest, England seems to have been
far below the level of most other nations, as a power by land. Soon
after [end of page #191] she appears to have risen above France, and
other nations, or they probably rather sunk; but, ever since England
became formidable at sea, she has lost her superiority in the army;
although she has never sunk under the level, and never, in any
instance, were her armies beat when the numbers were equal to those
of the enemy.
-=-
{Here appears at page 192 the second chart, entitled
"Chart
Representing the
Extent, Population & Revenue
-of the-
PRINCIPAL NATIONS in EUROPE
--in 1804--by
W. Playfair"}
As such then we have only to examine the foundation on which she
stands, and find in what she is vulnerable.
We must first begin with the interior situation, to follow the same
order that has been attended to in the rest of the work.
Changes of manners, habits of education, and the natural effects of
luxury, are as likely to operate on the British empire, as on some
others which they have destroyed.
From the unequal division of property, there is perhaps less danger,
but from the employment of capital there is more than almost in any
other nation.
From the abuses of law and public institutions and _l'esprit du corps_,
we run a very great risk; more indeed than under an arbitrary
government or even a republic. These last are the dangers that most
seriously threaten a nation living under a mixed government.
As to the produce of the soil becoming unequal to the maintenance of
a people addicted to luxurious habits, we have much also to fear from
that: the operation is begun, and its effects will soon be most serious:
they are already felt, and very visible.
From taxation, unproductive and idle people, we have more to fear
than most nations; and from an alteration in the manner of thinking,
and persons and property leaving the nation, we have as much as any
other nation, according to the degree of wealth that we possess; so
that, upon the whole, the interior causes of decline are such as it is
extremely necessary to guard against in the most attentive manner.
In respect to the exterior causes, we are exempt entirely from some,
from others we are not; and, in one case, we have exterior causes for
hope that no nation ever yet had.
The advancement of other nations, their enmity and envy, are full as
likely to operate against this nation as against any other that ever
existed; but as we owe none of our superiority to geographical situa-
[end of page #192] tion like the Greek islands, the Delta of Egypt, and
borders of the Mediterranean Sea, we run no risk of any discovery in
geography, or in navigation, operating much to our disadvantage.
We are not so far advanced before other nations in arts as to have any
great reason to dread that their advancement will be our ruin; but still
we must allow, that a number of external causes may combine to bring
us to their level, when the effects of our present wealth may soon
operate in reducing us under it.
Since, then, commerce is the foundation of our wealth, and since our
power, which is naval, is built upon commerce, let us begin with
taking a view of its present situation.
The increase of the trade of Britain to foreign parts, within these last
fifteen years, though a very natural effect of the causes that have
operated during that period, is not itself a natural increase, because the
causes that produced it are uncommon, temporary, and unnatural.
The East and West India trades have been both lost to France and
Holland. The French, before the revolution, had a greater share of the
West India trade than ever we had, and they could undersell us in
foreign markets.
The Dutch and French together had a very great share of the
commerce of the East; this partly accounts for the rapid increase of
English commerce since they lost theirs. Besides, the French nation
itself, which formerly consumed scarcely any English manufactures,
and supplied Germany, and many parts of Europe, with its own, has
been employed for several years in consuming its manufactured stock,
eating up its capital, and ruining its own manufactories; so that France
itself, Germany, and a great portion of the continent, have been
obliged to apply to Britain, both for manufactures and colonial
produce, as well as for the goods that come from India.
Add to this, that capital on the continent of Europe has suffered an
unexampled diminution, from a variety of causes. A great part has
been consumed in France, and in all the countries into which her
armies have penetrated, particularly in Holland; and that confidence,
[end of page #193] which serves in place of capital, has been impaired
in all countries, and ruined in many.
It has already been shewn that the want of capital prevents a poor
nation from supplying itself, and furnishes a rich one with the means
of supplying it, and, as it were, extorting usury from it by giving
credit. The misfortunes of the continent had, by this means, all of
them a direct tendency to advance the commercial prosperity of
England; but still the matter does not rest even here, for the real
capital that fled from the continent of Europe has, in part, taken refuge
in England. We have risen, (for the moment,) by their depression; and
though the advantage will be of some duration, yet we ought not to
consider it as permanent. {154}
Those causes have operated, as indeed might be expected, in a most
powerful manner, but that operation has already begun to cease. In
such uncommon and unexampled circumstances as the present, it is
impossible to forsee =sic= what may happen, yet it is scarcely possible
to suppose things will remain as they are. Terror and alarm are too
painful to continue their action long on the human mind; and even if
the cause were not diminished, the effect would become less violent
with time and custom. Again, we are not to suppose, that such times as
those of 1793 and 1794 are ever to return, therefore the alarm will be
diminished, new capital will rise up, and, as security of private
property is now understood to be the basis of all wealth and
prosperity, confidence will be restored by degrees.
The increase of trade is not then to be expected from the same causes
that have of late operated with so rapid and powerful an effect: on the
contrary, they may be expected so far to cease, as to occasion a
diminution of our exports.
This will, however, be counteracted by some circumstances, while
others will tend to augment the violence of its effects.
The trade with the American States and with Russia increase, from
---
{154} As one proof of capital taking refuge in England, the sudden
rise of stock, during the first three years of the French revolution, may
be adduced, without fear of being contradicted as to the fact, or the
assigned cause controverted. [end of page #194]
-=-
no temporary or fallacious cause. In the former country, population
very rapidly increases, and, in the latter, wealth and civilization, which
have a similar effect {155} upon the wants of a nation. These are in
favour of a manufacturing country, like England.
These two are not only, then, permanent, but augmenting causes for
our commerce; {156} they are causes that augment rapidly, and may,
with proper care, be carried to a great extent.
The superiority in the West India trade is so far of a permanent nature,
that France will never again be a formidable rival there. St. Domingo
is not only lost, but probably lost for ever, while it is expected that
Britain may retain her islands. This trade, then, may be set down as
permanent; that is to say, that there does not seem to be any immediate
cause for its decline; {157} and the government of this country is
sufficiently aware of consequences not to neglect taking every
precaution possible.
The East India trade does not, indeed, appear equally secure. There we
are powerfully rivalled by the Americans, and the merchants of other
countries; but, on the other hand, the demand for the produce of Asia
is augmenting rapidly all over the continent of Europe; so that perhaps
we may be able to maintain our ground, even though other nations
regain part of the trade they have lost.
To remain, then, in the situation in which we are, with respect to
---
{155} The great augmentation of fine fertile territory, in America, will
retard the progress of manufactures and commerce in that country, by
employing the capital and attention of the inhabitants on agriculture.
This may be the case for half a century, and, if England improves, the
circumstances may continue to operate in favour of British
manufactures for many centuries to come.
{156} The ports in the Black Sea add a new district to the commercial
world, which, in course of time, must greatly increase the demand for
such articles, as a civilized people consume. The fineness of the
climate and of the country will enable the inhabitants to gratify the
taste which civilization will bring along with it.
{157} It would be quite foreign to the end of this inquiry to examine
into the interior state of the West India islands, or as to their
continuing subject to Great Britain. This is entirely a political affair,
unconnected with commerce, though its effects on it would be
prodigious. [end of page #195]
-=-
foreign trade, we must exert ourselves; those external causes that have
forced trade upon us, for these last fifteen years, being but of a
temporary nature.
In order to be more sensible of this necessity, let us consider a few
other circumstances.
The wealth of England, which was the envy of Europe, even previous
to the American war, in which we stood single-handed and alone
(having the three most powerful maritime nations against us, and none
to take our part) has now become more conspicuous, and much more
likely to excite envy.
Not only the situation of Britain is much more exalted, but the other
nations feel a comparison that is infinitely more humiliating; add to
this, that old attachments, and a regard to the laws of nations, and to a
balance of power in Europe, are much enfeebled, or rather nearly done
away.
Britain has alone, for some time, stood forward to resist the
innovations and power of France; and, after having at first subsidized
every nation that would fight in the common cause, it has alone
maintained the common right itself, thereby adding a double
humiliation to those who wanted means of assisting, or whose courage
had failed.
France, with all its acquisition of territory and alliance, with all that
influence over neutral nations, which terror of its arms inspires, will
never cease to combat the prosperity of England. Some other nations,
through envy or shame, stimulated by a hope of partaking in the
wealth that England loses, will either sit passive or assist. {158}
The East India trade is that which excites the greatest portion of envy,
and it will be difficult to resist its effects. This superior degree of
envy is occasioned by three principal causes:
The splendid establishments of the East India company, its fleets,
---
{158} Gratitude, some will say, may prevent this; but nations have no
gratitude, they only know their interest, and nothing retrospective is
any motive for action. We need not search into remote periods for
proofs of this, see Holland, Spain, Russia, &c. during the latter part of
the last war. [end of page #196]
-=-
and the fact that it is the greatest commercial company that does now,
or ever did, exist, constitute the first cause, not only for envy, but
for a wish to participate in the trade.
The second cause arises from the extent of our possessions, the
immensity of the territorial revenues, and the evident injustice of a
company of merchants becoming sovereigns, and holding the ancient
princes of the East, and the successors of the Great Mogul, as tributary
vassals. {159}
It is in vain that we say the people are happier than they were before
we did them the honour to become their masters. Whether this is true
or not, there is no means of proving it, besides there can be no right
established by London merchants to force the inhabitants of Hindostan
to become happy, whether they will or not.
The same pretence has been used by the French, in subduing Flanders
and Brabant, in governing Holland and Switzerland; but they have not
been able to obtain credit. The regular governments, who partitioned
Poland, have pretended the same thing; and our slave-merchants and
planters give very positive assurances that the negroes toiling on the
West India plantations are much happier than they were in their own
country; yet, in defiance of all this cloud of witnesses, there is
something in the human breast that resists and rejects such evidence;
evidence doubtful, on account of the quarter from whence it comes,
and the interests of the witnesses, as well as con-
---
{159} However we may look upon this, other nations certainly see the
matter as iniquitous and unjust; and it is well known with what
feelings such a belief is entertained.
Though the revolutions in Farther Asia have not made any part of the
basis of our inquiry, yet it is impossible, having mentioned the Mogul
empire, not to notice its rapid and terrible fall. In 1707, only ninety-
eight years ago, the Great Mogul ruled over a country equal in extent,
and little inferior in population, to France, Spain, Germany, and
England. His revenues amounted to thirty-two millions sterling,
which, at that time, was nearly equal to the whole revenues of all the
monarchs of Europe. He is now circumscribed to a territory less than
the smallest county in England, and is the vassal at will of a company
of English merchants, who, with all their greatness, do not divide
profits equal to one week of his former revenues! [end of page #197]
-=-
trary to the natural feelings of beings endowed with the power of
reason; at variance, also, with an opinion of a very ancient origin,
"that coercion and force are enemies to enjoyment."
In defiance, then, of our assertions, the other nations of Europe will
and do view this acquired territory with anger, as well as envy; and,
though it is true, that, out of the immense revenues that arise to the
company, they divide little profit, though their debts are annually
augmenting, yet individual Englishmen, it must be admitted, bring
home great fortunes.
This fact is not to be denied, and is so much the worse, that though a
government even of merchants may be supposed to obtain revenues
fairly, individuals, who rapidly acquire great wealth are always
supposed to do it by extortion or unfair means. {160}
The third cause for envy is of great antiquity. The commerce of the
East, from the earliest ages, has been that which has enriched all the
nations that ever possessed it; and, consequently, has been a perpetual
cause of envy and contention, as we have already seen, in its proper
place. For all those reasons, not one of which we can remove entirely,
the East India trade is a particular object of envy; and, unless great
care is taken, will entail the same danger on this country, as it has on
all those that ever possessed it. Tyre and Sidon, in Syria, Alexandria,
in Egypt, Venice, Genoa, the Hans Towns, and Portugal, have all been
raised and ruined by this trade, which seems to
---
{160} So far back as 1793, Mr. Dundas estimated the sums remitted
by individuals at an annual million; add to this, plunder arising from
war, (which is become as natural a state in India as peace,) and we
shall see that now the revenues and establishments are nearly doubled.
The following will not be an unfair estimate:
Private fortunes remitted in 1793 L. 1,000,000
Average ditto arising from years
of war, the plunder of
Seringapatam, &c 300,000
Increase remitted home since,
in proportion to revenue 700,000
____________
Remitted now by the same description
of men L. 2,000,000
Besides what is remitted home, those servants of the company expend
immense sums in the country, living there in the greatest luxury. [end
of page #198]
-=-
have been the cradle and the grave of most of those nations that have
become rich and powerful by the means of commerce.
Our West India wealth, though derived from a source still more, or at
least equally, impure, and though not inferior in amount, is, for several
reasons, not the cause of so much envy. It is not confined to a
company, and therefore the splendour and ostentation that, in the case
of the Asiatic trade, occasion envy, do not exist in that to the
American islands.
Our monopoly is by no means so complete, which has a double effect
in our favour; for, besides preventing others from envying us so much,
it prevents them from condemning us so severely.
The same nations that see, in its full force, the injustice of subjecting
the inhabitants of the East, in their own country, in a way that, at the
worst, is not very rigorous, join cordially in robbing Africa of its
inhabitants, to make them slaves in America, in a way, that, at the
best, is very rigorous.
Such are the baneful effects of sordid interest acting on the mind of
man! But our business is not here to investigate opinions, but their
result; and, in the present instance, we find that to admit participation
in criminality is the only way to avoid envy and offence.
The third cause for envy is likewise wanting. The commerce with the
West Indies is but of a recent date, and no nation has ever owed its
greatness or decline to that single source. {161} It is not like the
Asiatic trade, a sort of hereditary cause of quarrel; a species of
heirloom, entailing upon the possessor the envy and enmity of all
other nations.
The envy occasioned by the West India trade is farther diminished by
the circumstance that the plantations have been raised with the money
of the persons by whom they are possessed; and that if they had no
original right to the soil in its barren state, the cultivation at least is
owing to their capital and industry.
The most solid and secure portion of our trade is that which con-
---
{161} France was the nation that, before the revolution, gained the
most by this trade; indeed, no nation has, to this date, gained so much
as it did.
-=-
[end of page #199]
sists of our manufactures at home. In those, though we excite envy,
we excite no other of the hateful passions. Emulation is natural, and
admiration is unavoidable, on seeing the vast progress that arts and
industry have made in this country; so that England is absolutely
considered as the first country in the world for manufactures.
This cause of greatness and wealth operates in a more uniform and
durable manner; though, like others, it has its bounds, yet the nature of
them is not easily ascertained.
In this there are two things essential,--the procuring a market, and the
means of supplying it. We have always yet found the means of
supplying every market we have got; but we have not always been
able to extend our market so much as it might have been wished.
America and Russia offer new markets, as has already been observed,
but, to extend our old markets, we must either reduce the price,
improve the quality, or extend the credit, and invention is the only
means by which these things can be done; and there is no possibility
of knowing where to set bounds to invention, aided by capital and the
division of labour. We are, however, not to forget that priority in point
of time being one of the causes of a nation's rise, and being of a nature
to be destroyed in the course of years, the superiority we enjoy may
leave us, as it did other nations in former times.
When a country produces the raw material, and labour is cheap, and
the art established, we might suppose the superiority secure; but it is
not. The cotton trade was first established in the East Indies, where the
material grows, where the labour is not a tenth of the price that it is in
England, and the quality of the manufactured article is good; yet
machinery and capital have transplanted it to England. But the same
machinery may give a superiority, or at least an equality, to some
other country; it is, therefore, our business to persevere in encouraging
invention, by the means that have hitherto been found so successful.
{162}
---
{162} The law of patents, and the premiums offered by the Society of
Arts, suggest improvements, and reward them when made. To those,
to the security of property, and nature of the government, we chiefly
owe the great improvements made in England.
-=-
[end of page #200]
The most necessary thing for our commerce is the support of
mercantile credit, without which it is in vain to expect that trade will
be carried on to any great amount. In 1772, when a great failure
occasioned want of confidence, the exports of the country fell off
above three millions, but its imports fell off very little. {163} In 1793,
when the internal credit of the mercantile people was staggered,
precisely the same effect was produced. These are the only two
instances of individual credit being staggered to such a degree, as to
prevent mercantile men from putting confidence in each other; and
they are the only two instances of any very great falling off in the
exports in one year, except during the American war, when the chief
branches of trade in the country were cut off or diminished.
The falling off, in exports, in 1803, which was very great indeed,
(being no less than one-third of the whole,) was not occasioned by the
same cause, but appears to have been owing to three others of a
different nature.
First, the French had actually shut us out from a great extent of coast,
and this occasioned a diminution of exports, which will, in part, be
done away, when new channels of conveyance are found out. It will
nevertheless operate in causing some diminution, as circuitous
channels render goods more difficult to be introduced, and
consequently dearer to the consumers.
The second cause appears to have been, the uncertainty of our
merchants where to send the goods, and who to trust, as the fear of the
extension of French power took away confidence, and produced a sort
of irresolution, which is always hurtful to business.
The third cause of the diminution of trade, no doubt, arose from the
cessation of that alarm about property, that has been described as
having occasioned so much to be sent from the continent to England.
In other words, it is the return of the pendulum which had vibrated,
---
{163} This is a sort of paradox: when money became scarce, the
nation bought nearly as much as ever, but sold less. This is not the
case with individuals, and, at first sight, does not appear natural.
-=-
[end of page #201]
through a temporary impulse, beyond the natural perpendicular. Had
there been no revolution in France, and had it not been conducted on
the principles it was, our trade could not have augmented so fast as it
did; but a falling off of fifteen millions in one year is too much to be
ascribed to that cause alone. An examination of the branches that did
fall off will elucidate this.
The commerce with the United States of America is one of those that
has fallen off, and is the only one that does not appear to be directly
connected with these causes. There are some reasons, however, for
thinking that it had an indirect connection with them.
Whatever interrupts our connection with the continent of Europe, or
renders it unsafe, has, in some degree, the same effect with a
stagnation of credit at home. This has taken place; and as it of course
affected every branch of trade, that with America felt the blow
amongst the rest, and, indeed, more than in proportion; for, as there is
no course of exchange with any town in America, and as the credits
there are long, the exportation to that country suffers in a particular
manner when there is any heaviness in the money market here. Thus it
was that, in 1772, the American exports suffered a diminution of two
millions from the stagnation; and, in 1793, of rather more than half a
million. In the former case, the American trade seems alone almost to
have suffered, and, even in the latter case, it fell off more than in its
just proportion.
It has been observed, that the improving our manufactures at home is
the most secure support of our foreign trade, which chiefly depends on
superior skill, industry, and invention, the wages of labour being
greatly against us. We shall consider by what stability of tenure we
hold that advantage.
The nation or individual that proceeds first in improvement is always
uncertain how much farther it can be carried; those who follow, on the
contrary, know what can be done, and therefore act with certainty and
confidence. As to individuals, those who are the foremost in
improvement have great difficulties to encounter; they seldom can
procure the pecuniary aid necessary, and always do so with great
difficulty; whereas, those who copy, without half their merit, or, [end
of page #202] perhaps, without any merit at all, meet with support
from every quarter. {164}
From this it is very evident, that the nation the farthest advanced in
invention has only to remain stationary a few years, and it will soon be
overtaken, and perhaps surpassed. Holland, Flanders, and France,
were all originally superior, in the arts of manufacturing most goods,
to England; and, indeed, it is no great length of time since we obtained
the superiority over Holland in several articles of importance, and in
particular where machinery was wanting. If it were necessary, it
would not be difficult to give examples, to shew with what eagerness
those who imported inventions were taken by the hand, on the bare
probability of success, while the inventors of machines, and of
methods of manufacturing entirely new, and of still more importance,
were left to grope their way, and, until crowned with success, rather
considered as objects of pity than of praise or admiration. {165}
It is not then altogether by a sure or lasting tenure that we hold this
superiority of manufactures. We have examined several other sources
of wealth, and the general conclusion is, that, without care and atten-
---
{164} Mr. Arkwright, who produced the cotton-spinning machine,
underwent great difficulties for many years; as also did Mr. Watt, the
ingenious and scientific improver of the steam-engine; and, had not
good fortune thrown him in the way of Mr. Boulton, a man of fortune
and resource, and himself a man of genius, he probably must have
languished in obscurity, and the nation remained without his
admirable invention. The profits derived from the spinning-machine
may, at first sight, appear the greater national advantage of the two;
but it is not so in reality, for the spinning-machine only manufactures
a raw material, brought from another country, cheaper than before;
whereas, the steam-engine enables us to obtain raw materials from our
own soil cheaper; a thing more important, more permanent, and of
which we were more in want: besides this, the steam-engine is
extending the scope of its utility every day; whereas, the spinning
machines can go little farther. But to leave this digression, which is
not altogether foreign to the purpose, and return to the facility with
which inventors are followed, it is a fact, that in almost every country
in Europe, money can be got by any adventurer who will propose to
establish either a cotton spinning machine, or a manufactory of steam-
engines; and it is a fact, that immense sums have been, and are still
given, for those purposes.
{165} Slitting-mills, saw-mills, the art of imitating porcelain, and of
making good earthen-ware, and paper, together with a vast number of
other inventions, were imported from Holland; in every one of which
we have gone beyond the Dutch, just as they got the better of the
Flemings in the art of curing herrings. Priority of invention is not then
a permanent tenure.
-=-
[end of page #203]
tion, this nation cannot be expected long to maintain its superiority
over others, in the degree it at present enjoys.
The American market, {166} and the Russian (in a smaller degree,)
however, hold out a prospect of increased commerce to us, from
external causes, that we cannot flatter ourselves with in the internal
ones. It is to those we must look, and to those only, for the extension
of the sale of our manufactures; but, even in this case, we must use
efforts, for it is very seldom that a good end is effected by accident, or
without a view towards its accomplishment.
Having now taken a view of the situation of this country, and seen
that, though it is not likely to be deprived of its commerce by
conquest, like Babylon, Tyre, or Alexandria, or by a new discovery in
geography and the art of navigation, like Venice and Genoa; though,
indeed, it has no great appearance of sharing the fate of Spain,
Portugal, or Holland, yet there are other causes that may stop its
career. If it is exempt from the dangers they laboured under, it is
subject to others from which they were free.
We have already examined the effect of taxes and national debt on the
industry of a country, even whilst augmenting in wealth; but we have
not examined what that effect will be when a country comes to be on a
level with other nations that do not labour under the same burthens.
There is no possibility of standing long still with a burthen on the
shoulders, it must either be thrown off or it will become a cause of
decline. Let us endeavour to point out methods by which that may be
averted, or at least procrastinated. In doing this, we are either exposing
our ignorance and presumption, or doing a signal service to our
country.
---
{166} The American exports from this country consist almost entirely
in manufactures; we neither supply that country with East or West
India produce. The Russians are aspiring at possessions in the West
Indies, and, no doubt, will succeed; they are advancing still more
rapidly in power than the Americans are in population. It was only in
1769, (not forty years ago,) that the first Russian flag was seen in the
Mediterranean Sea, and now Russia stands fair to be sovereign of a
number of the Greek islands; and, at any rate, by the Dardanelles, to
carry on a great commerce. What may thirty years more not effect
with such a country, and such a race of sovereigns?
-=-
[end of page #204]
The load must be taken off, or it will crush the bearer; but how this is
to be done is the difficulty. If our debt is paid off, the capital will go
to other nations, for it will not find employment amongst ourselves; and
this will reduce the nation, and raise others. If it continues, we sink
under it; and, if we break faith with the creditors, it destroys
confidence for ever; we can no longer give law, by means of our
capital, to the markets in other nations, and we probably overturn the
government of our own.
Amongst the _exterior_ causes of decline that are general, none
applies so completely to Great Britain as that of the envy and enmity,
occasioned by the possession of colonies we have settled, or countries
we have conquered.
The wealth of Britain and its power arise from agriculture,
manufactures, commerce, colonies, and conquests. The envy they
excite is not, however, in proportion to the wealth that arises from
them, but rather to the right we have to possess them, and the
consequent right that others have to contest the possession.
Improved agriculture has never been a source of enmity amongst
civilized nations, though it has been an object of conquest when an
opportunity presented itself.
Manufactures, the great source of our wealth, are, in a certain degree,
beyond the reach of our enemies. Our greatest consumption for them
is amongst ourselves, and if we did not export to any part of the world,
except enough to procure materials, we should enjoy nearly all that we
now do. Our wealth would not be very materially diminished, though
our naval strength would. The means of destroying our manufactures
is not then very easily to be found.
The commerce with other nations, our enemies, or rivals, have a more
effectual means of diminishing, by the laying on duties on our
manufactures, and augmenting those duties when the goods happen to
be carried in English vessels; but still the advantage we enjoy in this
competition is great.
Not so with our colonies and conquests. The whole imports from the
East Indies, from 1700 to the present day, have only amounted [end of
page #205] to 165,000,000 L. and our exports, during the same period,
to 83,000,000 L. while our total exports have amounted to 1,486,000
L. during the same period. {167}
There would be much affectation, and little accuracy, in attempting to
make any thing like a strict comparison between the relative
proportions of the wealth procured by general trade, and that procured
by trade with India. The exports amount to about one-nineteenth part
of the whole; and, perhaps, as they are manufactured goods, to about
one-tenth part of the whole manufactures of the country exported: but
the manufactures exported are not equal to one-third part of those
consumed at home, so that not above one-thirtieth part of our
manufacturers are maintained by the trade to India.
In 1793, when the charter of the company was renewed, the India-
budget stated the private fortunes acquired and brought home, at one
million annually: that has probably increased since then; but it was at
that time greater than it had been before: if, then, we take the annual
arrival, since the year 1765, at one million, it will make forty millions,
which, compared with the balance of trade during that period, amounts
to about one-sixth part of the balance supposed to come into the
country.
How much of our national debt might be set down to the account of
India, is another question. By debt contracted, and interest of debt
paid, during the same period, we have disbursed the sum of
1,100,000,000 L. which is equal to more than twelve times the whole
of the property acquired by our India affairs, supposing the
45,000,000 L.
---
{167} Comparison between the total foreign trade of the country, to
that with the East Indies only, for 104 years.
Total Exports. Total Balance Exports to India.
in our favour.
From
1700
to 1760,
L540,000,000 L249,000,000 L18,000,000
1760 to
1785,
L370,000,000 L101,000,000 L25,000,000
1785 to
1805,
L576,000,000 L142,000,000 L40,000,000
____________ ____________ ____________
L1,486,000,000 L492,000,000 L80,000,000
____________ ____________ ____________
[Transcriber's note: L=GBP/Pounds Sterling.]
This is about a nineteenth part of our foreign trade, and the balance
is greatly against us.
-=-
[end of page #206]
remitted, to be all gain, together with one-half of the 83,000,000 L.
which surely is allowing the gain at the highest rate for both. {168}
Supposing, then, that the wars that India has occasioned have cost (or
the proportion of the debt they have occasioned) one-sixth part of the
whole of our debt, and that the profits on goods to India, and private
fortunes, came into the public treasury, there would still have been a
great loss to the state; but this has not been the case, the interest of
the debt has been levied on the people, and will continue to be so, till
all is paid off; which, according to the plan of the sinking fund, will be
in thirty-five years, so that we shall have about 750,000,000 L. more to
pay, {169} supposing we have peace all that time, and continue to
possess India.
There is something very gloomy in this view of national affairs, and
yet there is no apparent method of making it more pleasing.
It is, on the contrary, very possible, that as Malta, on account of its
being supposed the key to India, has cost us 20,000,000 L. within a
few years, that, in less than thirty-five years, it may cost us
_something_ more; and, it is not by any means impossible, that, before
that period, we may either lose India, or give it away; on either of
which suppositions, the arithmetical balance of profit and loss will be
greatly altered, to our farther disadvantage.
On the possessions in India, and the complicated manner in which our
imports (again exported) affect the nation, a volume might be written,
but it would be to very little purpose, in a general inquiry of this sort.
It is sufficient to shew here that the wealth obtained by that channel is
not of great magnitude, in comparison either of the
---
{168} The nearness of the balance of trade, to the amount of debt
contracted, will naturally excite attention, but it appears merely
accidental, and to have not any real connection.
Debt borrowed L500,000,000
Interest paid L590,000,000
______________
L1,090,000,000
[Transcriber's note: L=GBP/Pounds Sterling.]
{169} Let the future profits and expenses be set against each other,
like the last.
-=-
[end of page #207]
wealth acquired by foreign trade, or by our industry at home; and that,
at the same time, we see that it excites more envy and jealousy than all
the rest of the advantages we enjoy put together.
Badly as men act in matters of interest, and much as envy blinds them
in cases of rivalship, yet still there is a certain degree of justice
predominant in the mind, that admits the claim of merit and true
desert. Every person, who has heard the conversation, or read the
opinions of people in other nations, on the wealth and greatness of
England, will allow, that, as commercial men, and as manufacturers,
we are the wonder of the world, and excite admiration; but,
concerning our dominion over India, and our plantations in the
American islands, foreigners speak very differently.
In order to bring down a nation, that has risen above its level, there is
followed a system of enmity in war, and rivalship in peace.
The Portuguese seized on a lucky opportunity to undermine and
supplant the Venecians and the Genoese, who had long been the envy
of all nations, for the wealth they obtained, by the monopoly of the
trade to India. The Dutch soon rivalled the Portuguese in trade, and
the Flemings in manufactures; and, indeed, there is no saying in how
great a variety of ways the superiority of a nation may not be pulled
down.
England, commencing later than any, has now obtained her full share
of the commerce of the East, and of manufactures; but the nations that
envy the wealth of others have always several great advantages. The
nation that is highest treads in discovery, invention, &c. a new path,
and is never certain how far she can go, nor how to proceed. Those
who follow have, in general, but to copy, and, in doing that, it is
generally pretty easy to improve. At all events, a day must arrive when
the nation that is highest, ceasing to proceed, the others must overtake
it.
As the nation that is farthest advanced is ignorant of the improvements
that may be made, it does not feel what it wants; and, like a man in
full health, will give no encouragement to the physician. The countries
that follow behind act differently; and they generally, in order [end of
page #208] to protect their rising manufactures, impose duties on
similar ones imported; thus preventing a competition between old
established manufactures, and those recently begun.
So far as priority of settlement, or of invention, give a superiority to a
nation over others, the equalizing principle acts with a very natural
and evident force; but, when the manners and modes of thinking of a
people have once taken a settled turn, in addition to their proficiency
in manufactures, it does not appear easily to be altered.
The Germans excelled at working in metals, and possessed most of the
arts, in a superior degree to any other people in Europe, a few
centuries ago. In some arts they have been surpassed by the French, in
more by the Dutch, and in nearly all by the English. {170}
Conquests and colonies are wrested from nations suddenly and by
force; arts and manufactures leave them in time of peace, silently and
by degrees, without noise or convulsion; but the consequences are not
the less fatal on that account; nor, indeed, is the effect slower, though
more silent. Though colonies or conquests pass away at once, such
changes only take place after a long chain of causes have prepared the
way for them; whereas, manufactures are perpetually emigrating from
one country to another: the operation, though slow and silent, is
incessant, and the ultimate effect great beyond calculation.
A good government, and wise laws, that protect industry and property,
and preserve, in purity, the manners of the people, are the most
difficult obstacles for a rival nation to overcome. Prosperity, which is
founded upon that basis, is of all others the most secure. There are
sometimes customs and habits that favour industry, the operation of
which is not perceptible to those who wish to imitate and rival
successful and wealthy nations.
In general, it is not to be expected that the southern nations can come
in competition with those living in more northerly climates in
---
{170} The individual German workmen have not been excelled by the
workmen of any other nation, but the German nation itself has been
outdone.
-=-
[end of page #209]
those manufactures, where continued or hard labour is necessary.
Nature has compensated the inhabitants of such countries for this
incapacity, by giving them a fine climate, and, in general, a fertile soil;
and, when they do justice to it, they may live affluent and happy. But,
since industry and civilization have got into northern countries, it is
impossible for the southern ones to rival them in manufactures.
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.
[end of page #210]
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}
The changes of the taste and manners of mankind, as well as
discoveries in arts and science, lay a foundation for political changes;
but it is an irregular foundation for change; its operation is sometimes
in favour of, and sometimes against the same nation, and it never can
be calculated beforehand.
As the nations that have improved in manufactures the latest have
always carried them to the greatest perfection, it is natural to inquire
how this happens.
The exertion of the mind and body are both of them greatly aug-
---
{171} How many ridiculous attempts have been made, in the north, to
rival the Italians in raising silk, and by enlightened men too; but it is
not sufficient to be enlightened, it is necessary to follow a proper train
of reasoning.--Good natural sense sometimes supplies the place of
regular reasoning, and, as if it were intuitively, arrives at a true
conclusion.
-=-
[end of page #211]
mented by success, and diminished by any thing of a contrary
description. The rising nation has always an increased energy, and that
which is about being rivalled a sort of discouragement and dismay.
This is one cause, but there are others.
So far as methods of working and machinery are connected, the
imitating nation has the advantage; it copies the best sort of machine,
and the best manner of working at once. The workmen have neither an
attachment to the old inferior methods, nor do they use old inferior
machines, to avoid the expense of new ones. {172} In short, they
adopt all improvements without much additional expense; and, as
men's minds are always more occupied in thinking about a new object
than an old one, they are even more likely to make improvements.
As to difficulties in rivalling a nation in skill, in any mechanical art,
there are none. The only difficulties in manufactures are in the
inventions and improvements, and those have been overcome by the
leading nation, and are no difficulties to that which follows. There are,
indeed, some arts which require particular talents, and a real exertion
of genius; but those are so few in number, and have so little
connection with the common affairs of mankind, or the wealth of
nations, that they do not deserve to be noticed.
There is nothing in the art of weaving, or working in metals, or in any
other material for common use, that is of such difficulty but that any
man, with a common capacity, may do it nearly as well as any other
man. The habits and manners of mankind, their disposition to labour,
and the nature of the government under which they live, may
encourage or discourage manufacturing; but both the strength and
capacity of any of the natives of Europe, taking them on an average,
are fully sufficient to enable them to excel in any work.
---
{172} Where machines are very expensive, new improvements, that
require other machinery, are sometimes crushed and rejected on that
account. To adopt them, a man must sometimes begin by sacrificing
half his fortune, by destroying his old machinery.
There have been several instances of this seen, particularly in the
making of iron, when it was proposed to convert the rough gueze into
good malleable iron bar, by rolling it at a welding heat, instead of
hammering it by a forge-mill.
-=-
[end of page #212]
{Here appears at page 212 the third chart, entitled
"Chart
Shewing the Amount of the
Exports and Imports
-of-
ENGLAND
to and from all parts
from 1800 to 1805"}
The British nation has begun to seek for wealth from agriculture. It
had long been the mode to pay attention and give the preference to
manufactures; but the current is, for the present, set in, in another
direction. Calculation has, till of late, been confined to mercantile
men; but, after all, they have not carried it to a very great length: and,
as to their speculative wisdom, it consists chiefly in taking a ready
advantage of some immediate object.
EXPLANATION OF PLATE NO. III.
The space from right to left is divided into years, each line
representing the year marked under and above. From the beginning of
the last century, till the year 1770, every tenth year only is expressed,
and the average amount of exports and imports only is shewn; but,
from 1770 to the present time, every year is separately represented by
a line going from the top to the bottom.
The divisions from top to bottom are millions of pounds sterling, each
representing a million, measuring from the bottom, the number of
millions indicated is marked on the right margin.
As the exports, which are expressed by a red line, increased or
diminished, the red line rises or falls, crossing the division
representing the year at the line which indicates the number of
millions to which the exports amounted that year.
The yellow line is drawn on the same principle, and represents the
imports for the same years; the difference between the two, which is
stained green, being the balance for or against England.
Thus, for example, we see that, till the year 1775, the exports rose
very fast, and were far above the imports, but that then their
proportion begun =sic= to vary; insomuch that, in 1781, the yellow
line rose above the red, when the balance in favour of England turned
against it, to the amount of a million for one year. In 1782, the balance
again became favourable; but, though the trade was increasing, the
balance was once more, in 1785, against England; ever since which it
has been more or less in our favour.
The difference between the two lines is stained pale green, when the
balance was favourable, but of a pale red when against England.
[end of page #213]
The advantages proposed by this mode of representing matters are the
same that maps and plans have over descriptions, and dimensions
written in figures; and the same accuracy is in one case as the other;
for, whatever quantities can be expressed in numbers may be
represented by lines; and, where proportional progression is the
business, what the eye does in an instant, would otherwise require
much time.
The impression is not only simple, but it is as lasting in retaining as it
is easy in receiving. Such are the advantages claimed for the invention
twenty years ago, when it first appeared; the claim has been allowed
by many, and not objected to, so far as the inventor knows, either in
this or in any other country.
EXPLANATION OF PLATE NO. IV.
Chart of revenue, from the time of Queen Elizabeth to the present day.
Till the accession of William III. in 1688, the materials for this are not
altogether accurate; but they are not far wrong, and indeed, the low
state of the revenue, previous to that period, is such that it is a matter
of little importance whether or not they are very exact. It is
represented here rather as a contrast to the present high revenue, and a
matter of curiosity, than as being of much importance.
The pale red part expresses the free revenue, or what is over, after
paying the interest of our debt.
This free revenue has not increased so fast as the value of money has
decreased, previous to the year 1793; and certainly, at that time, the
annual sum of 7,000,000 L. was no equal to 4,000,000 L. in the reign
of Queen Anne.
The green part shews the annual interest of the national debt, and
proves, beyond contradiction, that, under such a system, expenses of
war (for the whole debt has been contracted for wars) augment in
much more than a simple proportion.
The yellow part, bounded by a curved line, shews the manner in which
the sinking fund will increase in its operation of paying off the debt,
on the supposition that the nation continues to borrow as it has [end of
page #214] done for the last twelve years; setting apart one per cent.
on every new loan, for its liquidation.
As comparative views are the great object of these charts, a yellow
dotted line is made, representing the amount of the revenue of France
during the same period, till 1789, when the revolution stopped its
progress; since which its amount has not been regularly known. {173}
---
{173} The author published an Atlas, containing twenty-seven charts
of the different branches of commerce, revenue, and finance, of
England, which was translated into French. The fifth edition, much
improved, and brought to the present time, is now printing, and will be
published in November.
-=-
[end of page #215]
CHAP. III. [=sic=--error in printer's copy, should read II.]
_Of Education, as conducted in England.--Amelioration proposed.--
Necessity of Government interfering, without touching the Liberty of
the Subject_.
The importance of education has been already mentioned, as it in
general regards all nations, and certainly when we have examples to
shew what are the lasting and terrible consequences of degradation of
national character and manners, it is impossible to pay too strict an
attention to that subject.
The natural tendency in a nation, while growing richer, to alter its
character, owing to the different manner in which the children are
educated and brought up, applies particularly to England, and to every
nation getting rich by trade or manufactures. In another part, it has
been observed, that where the wealth of a country circulates amongst
the labouring classes first, it alters the manner of living more than
when it originates with the higher; it produces, also, a greater change
on the education of children.
No part of the general inquiry is so particularly applicable to England,
in an excessive degree, as that relative to education. In proportion as
ignorant people arrive at that sort of affluence, which manufactures
and trade produce, in that same proportion do they ruin their children.
The manners, the nature of the government, and the way of thinking of
the people, all lead to this in England; and so far as it is possible to
observe the effect, it may be said to appear as if it operated with
rapidity at the present period.
Many volumes have been written on education, by the ablest men; but
it has already been observed, that they have all treated the subject in a
manner much too intricate and complex. Fully aware of the
importance, they seem to have thought that it could not be treated too
much at length, or investigated too minutely; and, by this means, what
they have said is little applicable to general purposes; for, if to educate
a man for common life were a difficult complicated operation, it
would very seldom be performed. [end of page #216]
{Here appears at page 216 the fourth and final chart, entitled
"Chart
Representing the
Increase of the Annual Revenues
-of-
ENGLAND AND FRANCE,
from the beginning of the 17th Century to
the present time"}
The word education itself appears to be misapplied or misunderstood,
owing, probably, to its original construction and use, and no other
word having been substituted in its place.
By education was meant, in former times, the teaching to read and
write; and these accomplishments, which, at that time, distinguished a
gentleman from the lower classes, and, by that means, education is
still considered as only applying to the learning of what is taught at
schools or universities. It is principally in this light that those who
have written on it have viewed it, though in fact _well brought up
(bien eleve)_ comes nearer to the meaning than being _well learnt_,
which is equivalent to well educated.
In this, as in every other thing, the end in view should never be
forgotten; but, as it happens with respect to the middling and lower
orders, it is forgotten so soon as affluence has made a little progress in
a country.
The education of the higher classes is generally pretty well conducted;
and, indeed, human beings, when beyond the reach of want, who do
not inherit the necessity derived from Adam, of gaining their bread by
the sweat of their brows, require much more teaching than others,
whose conduct is regulated by necessity, and who have not the means
of giving way to the passions that beset human nature.
With respect, however, to the higher classes, it is scarcely possible for
a government to interfere to much purpose. Those who are possessed
of fortune will act according to inclination; and, in respect to this class
of society, in England, it is already in less need of reform or
interference than any others, while the lower and middling classes
require it more.
There is no possibility for an ignorant man to become of any
importance in this country, even with the aid of wealth and fortune.
An immoral character, or a mean selfish one, has not a much better
chance, while, by talents and good conduct, every thing desirable may
be obtained: perhaps, nothing further can be done to excite men of
rank and fortune to emulation and virtue.
With respect to the learned professions, the modes by which students
are brought up to them are by no means unexceptionable; but that is
not a point of very great national importance; at any rate, [end of page
#217] it is not the part in which England stands the most in need of
attention {174} and interference from the government of the country.
The two classes to whom bringing up, as it is generally understood,
would apply better than the word education, are the middle rank of
society, and the lower order of people in trade.
The middle rank of society is, in all countries, the most important in
point of principles and manners. To keep it pure is always of the
highest importance, and it is the most difficult, for there a baneful
change is the most apt to take place.
Gentlemen of rank, in all countries, resemble each other very nearly;
not, perhaps, in exterior, because that depends on fashion, which is
arbitrary, but in mind and manners there is less difference than
between men in a second rank of society.
The lower orders, so far as they are forced, by necessity, to labour,
resemble each other also; they are pressed by necessities and passions
on one side, and the desire of rest on the other; and a fair allowance
being made for variety of climate, of circumstances, and of natural
dispositions, there is nothing very different amongst them. {175}
What applies with respect to the higher and lower orders does not
---
{174} Our lawyers (barristers) are probably superior to those of any
other nation, and the clergy are, at least, equal. This is not, indeed,
saying a great deal; but it is so difficult, in matters of religion, to
temper zeal, and draw a line between emulation and fanaticism, that,
perhaps, it is better that they should be a little remiss than righteous
overmuch. It is not in the education of churchmen, but in the manner
of paying and providing for them, that the error lies; and that subject is
treated elsewhere.
{175} Cervantes, in his admirable romance of Don Quixote, paints the
mind of a gentleman, which all countries will acknowledge to be like
the truth. The madness apart, the manner of thinking and acting was
that of the gentleman of Spain, France, Germany, or England. Neither
was he the gentleman of the fifteenth or eighteenth century, but of any
other century. His dress was Spanish; his madness and manners
belonged to the ages of chivalry and romance, but the mind and
principles of the gentleman suited all ages and all countries.
Sancho, again, barring likewise his oddities, is the peasant of all
countries; studying to live as well as he can, and labour as little as he
may. In short, a mind continually occupied about personal wants, and
alive to personal interest. In the middle ranks of society there is no
such similarity.
-=-
[end of page #218]
apply at all to the middling classes, nor even to the most wealthy class
of labourers in a manufacturing country: in those we can find no fixed
character; it is as variable as the circumstances in which the
individuals are placed, and it is there that a government should
interfere. It should interfere in guiding the richer classes of working
people, and the middling ranks, in the education of their children, and
in assisting those of the lower orders, who are too much pressed upon
by indigence.
The end in view in all education is to make the persons, whether men
or women, fill their place well and properly in life; and this is only to
be done by setting a good example, instilling good principles,
accustoming them, when young, to good habits; and, above all, by
teaching them how to gain more than they are habituated to spend.
It follows from this, that industry, and a trade, are the chief parts of
education, that reading and writing are not, being but of a very
doubtful utility to the labouring class of society.
On this subject, it is absolutely necessary to advert to what Dr. Smith
says relative to apprenticeships; the opinion of so great a writer is of
too much importance not to be examined, and refuted, if found wrong.
Apprenticeships, or teaching a trade, is the basis of the future
happiness and prosperity of the individual in the lower and middle
classes. On this subject, however, Mr. Smith says quite the contrary.
That the idleness of apprentices is well known, that their inducement
to industry is small, and that, as to what they have to learn, a few
weeks, or sometimes a few days, would, in most cases, be sufficient.
In short, he maintains, that they would learn better, be more
industrious and useful, if employed on wages, than if bound for a term
of years; and, finally, that there were no apprentices amongst the
ancients. As to there being no apprentices in the ancient world, if that
was the case, is no argument with respect to the present state of things;
for, while most part of working men were slaves, there could not
possibly be much occasion for apprentices; but are we quite certain,
that the freed men, so often mentioned, were not people who had
served apprenticeships? Freed men are so often mentioned, that there
must have been probably something else to which they owed their
freedom, besides the goodwill or [end of page #219] caprice of their
masters, particularly as that goodwill must have been exercised to
deserving objects, and consequently the sacrifice made in giving
liberty was the greater. {176}
As men cultivated difficult arts; that is, as luxury increased, it must
have become difficult to get labour done by slaves, merely by
compulsive means; there must have been bargain and mutual interest
settled between the master and the slave, so as to accomplish the end
intended. {177} Amongst rewards to a slave, liberty, at a certain
period, is not only the greatest, but is the only one that effectually
serves the slave; for, while he remains the property of a master, his
rewards can consist of little else than good treatment, as all property
given is liable to be taken back again.
Supposing, however, the point yielded, and that there were no
apprentices in the early ages; but that the practice originated in the
days of ignorance; in the dark ages, under the feudal system, together
with the invention of corporations and privileged bodies, against
whose existence the whole set of economists have leagued together, as
the Greeks did against Troy; still the obscurity of the origin is no
objection. A constitution like that of Britain, for example, is not an
invention of antiquity; it took its rise in the dark ages and in times of
ignorance, but it is not for that the less an object of admiration. Many
other examples may be furnished of the admirable things that took rise
in the dark ages; and amongst them, not the least, is the abolition of
slavery itself. {178}
Let us, however, examine the effect of apprenticeships in those places
where they can be compared with persons brought up entirely free.
---
{176} We may form some idea of the difficulty of getting work done
by people in no way interested in the success, by the workhouses in
this country. The smallest quantity, and of the most simple nature, is
all we get done, because the overseers are ignorant, and the nation
inattentive, and the labour compulsive.
{177} In Egypt, and most other ancient countries, the son followed, by
law, the trade of his father: this was equivalent to an apprenticeship.
{178} Whether it arose from the mixture of a northern with the
southern people, or from what other cause, it is certain, that, during
the ages of ignorance, the foundation was laid for almost all that is
great, at the present time.
-=-
[end of page #220]
If there are trades, where it is true, (as Mr. Smith affirms,) that the art
of working may be learnt in a few weeks, what are the consequences?
At the age of sixteen or seventeen, a boy can get as much money as he
will be able to earn at any future time in his life; he will be able to get
as much as a man, who has a wife and five or six children to maintain.
There will be required a very great share of moderation and wisdom,
indeed, under such circumstances, to prevent such a boy from wasting
his money in ways that will incapacitate him from living easy when he
shall become a father of a family himself, or from idling away the
spare time that his gains afford him. He will, naturally, do part of
both: but the way that is generally done is this. Without controul from
a master, and totally independent of parents, who are quite left behind
in poverty, (not having more to maintain their whole family than the
youth himself earns,) he despises them, saves a little money at first,
and purchases finery. The novelty of dress soon wears off, and the
more immediate pleasures of eating, drinking, and keeping company,
as it is termed, take the lead. The consequence of the same is idleness
and rags. Ashamed to shew himself amongst persons of better
conduct, the youth changes his place of residence and work; habit has
got hold of him, and labour becomes hateful; a soldier's life appears
the best for a youth of such a description; and, it is an undoubted fact,
that, at those places where trades are carried on, that can be learnt in a
short time, {179} there are more recruits obtained for the army than in
any other districts of equal population. It is also an undoubted fact,
that, in these same districts, the most respectable people bind their
sons apprentices; and, in doing so, they are guided by experience, and
affection for their children, not by interested motives.
---
{179} This is not the case with many trades, and Mr. Smith is under a
mistake as to the fact; but, granting it to be true, the places in
question, Birmingham, Sheffield, Manchester, and other towns where the
division of labour reduces every operation to great simplicity, are the
best for recruiting the army. In those places, all respectable people,
who can afford it, bind their sons apprentices, to prevent the danger.
-=-
[end of page #221]
In the other case, again, where a trade is not easily learnt, how is skill
to be obtained but by an apprenticeship. The bringing the son up to his
father's trade, a practice that prevails in the eastern parts of Asia, is
one way; parental authority needs not the aid of a written indenture;
but, where this is not the case, who is to teach a youth, if he is not to
be bound for a certain number of years, but to go away as soon as he
has learnt a trade? The father, in some cases, may be able to pay for
his son learning the trade, and this experiment has sometimes been
tried, but generally with very imperfect success. The youth, for the
most part, in those cases, considers himself as independent of the
master, and gives himself very little trouble to learn his business.
Where the reward of the master, or rather the remuneration for his
pains and trouble, is to arise from the labour of the boy, the master is
interested in his learning; and the other feels an obligation, as well as
an interest in learning. Though the apprentice is not absolutely paid
for what he does, he finds his ease, his importance, and comfort, all
depend on his proficiency; and, with young minds, such motives are
much more powerful, and act through a better channel than avarice.
The power that the legislature gives to a master over his apprentice
appears not only to be wise but necessary; and, if rewards for earning
a trade could be given, in addition to that without infringing on liberty,
or burthening the state, it would be a great advantage.
But learning a trade is not the only advantage of an apprenticeship; a
good moral conduct, fidelity, and attention to his duties, are all
acquired at the same time, or ought to be so; whereas, the youth who,
at an early age, is left without control, is apt to learn just the
contrary.
Where people have fortune, circumstances give them a control over
their children by expectancies; but, where there is no fortune, and
children must provide for themselves, an apprenticeship is a substitute
for expectancies, which appears highly necessary; and it is wonderful
how so discriminating and profound a man as Dr. Smith could
overlook so material a circumstance. It shews how far prejudice, and
an [end of page #222] opinion once adopted, will lead men of the first
judgement and genius astray; {180} for it is not to be supposed that
any person will stand forward of himself to maintain an opinion
against which experience speaks so decidedly.
To learn a trade, and be taught a good moral conduct, and attention to
one's duty, is certainly the essential part of education, both in the
lower and middling classes; and that portion of education, which
appears to have got an exclusive title to the name, reading and writing,
are, with the working classes, a very inferior object.
One of the duties of government, then, is to watch over the education
of the children of the middling and lower orders, which has a tendency
to grow worse, as the nation advances in wealth.
In England, the pride of the middling classes is to have their children
educated at boarding-schools, where the business of eating, sleeping,
dressing, and exercise, is pretty well understood; where the branches
of education, pretended to be taught, are little attended to, (writing,
and some exterior accomplishments, of which the father and mother
can judge, excepted,) where moral conduct, the duties in life, and the
conduct necessary to be followed, are scarcely once thought of.
It is true, that, till a certain age, it is generally not known for what
particular line of life a young man is intended; but, there are certain
things necessary to every line of life, and those should never be
neglected. The habits contracted at schools are very often of a sort
never to be got the better of; and how can good habits be contracted
when no attention is bestowed on the subject?
The consequence of this is, that, when the good sense of the father or
mother, or of the boy himself, does not correct the evil, he is bred up
to consider himself as born to be waited on, and provided for, without
any effort of his own; he is led to suppose that he is to indulge
---
{180} In the notes upon the Wealth of Nations, this case is argued, but
the matter is too important not to be examined on every occasion and
opportunity. The opinion here alluded to is that general way of
thinking, respecting corporations, privileges, and regulations, or
restraints of every sort imposed on trade, which the writers on political
economy, in general, think ought all to be entirely done away.
-=-
[end of page #223]
in a life similar to that his father leads at home, where a few
indulgencies =sic= are the natural consequences of age, and the fair
returns for a life employed in care and industry.
In England, it would be absolutely necessary to make school-masters
undergo an examination; not only at first, and before the school should
be licensed, but the boys should be examined twice a year, and the
result enregistered, so that the business would really be to learn
something, and not merely to spend the time.
The small proficiency made in the schools, in England, and around
London in particular, is incredible. It is even difficult to conceive how
the boys avoid learning a little more than they generally do, during
eight or ten years. {181} The masters pretend, for the most part, to
teach boys Latin, by way of teaching them English, but without almost
ever accomplishing it. In arithmetic, the common rules are taught, but
scarcely ever decimal fractions, and almost never book-keeping, so
useful and so easy an art.
Writing and spelling are better taught, perhaps, than in any other
country, and, certainly, those are great advantages; but, according to
the time and money spent, it is the least that can be expected. Here we
may remark, that those are the only acquirements with the proficiency
in which the father and mother are necessarily acquainted; it therefore
gives reason for thinking, that, if the same check were held in other
branches of their education, they would be excited to make equal
progress.
When the time comes that it is fixed on what line of life a young man
is to adopt, then there should be schools for different branches, where
---
{181} Without contesting the point, whether dead languages are of
any use, it will be allowed that the study costs pretty dear. Three-
quarters of the time, for seven years employed on that is equal to five
years employed constantly, and twenty pounds a year, at least, is the
expense. Not above one in one hundred learns to read even Latin
decently well, that is one good reader for every 10,000 L. expended.
As to speaking Latin, perhaps, one out of one thousand may learn that,
so that there is a speaker for each sum of 100,000 L. spent on the
language. It will, perhaps, be said, that Latin is necessary to the
understanding English, but the Greeks, (particularly at Athens,) who
learnt no language but their own, understood and spoke it better than
the people of any other country.
-=-
[end of page #224]
there should be knowledge taught, analogous to the profession. For the
mercantile line, for agriculture, for every line of life, boys should be
prepared; and, above all, it should never be neglected to instil into
them the advantages of attention to industry, to doing their duty, and
in every case making themselves worthy of trust.
Public examinations, such honours and rewards as would be
gratifying, but not expensive, for those that excelled, would produce
emulation. Though, perhaps, it is not of very great importance to excel
in some of the studies to which a young man applies at school, yet it is
of great importance to be taught that habit of application that produces
excellence.
With regard to the education of the lower classes, it would be no great
additional burthen to the nation if there were proper schools
established in every parish in the kingdom, at the expense of the
public, in order that there might be a proper control over those who
teach, and over what is taught. {182} Without going so far as to
compel people of the lower classes to send their children to school,
they might be induced to do it for a short time, and, at all events, care
should be taken that the teachers were fit for the office they undertake.
In no country do the lower classes neglect the care of their children
more, or set them a worse example, than in England; they are mostly
brought up as if the business of eating and drinking were the chief
purpose of human existence; they are taught to be difficult to please,
and to consider as necessary what, in every other nation in Europe, is
considered, by the same rank of people, as superfluous.
Although the lower orders have as good a right as the most affluent to
indulge in every enjoyment they can afford, yet to teach this to
children, without knowing what may be their lot, is doing both them
and society an injury. A great number of crimes arise from early
indul-
---
{182} As there are between nine and ten thousand parishes, twenty
pounds given in each, to which the schoolmaster would be allowed to
add what those who were able could pay, might perhaps answer the
purpose, and would not amount to a great sum.
-=-
[end of page #225]
gence of children, and from neglecting to instil into them those
principles which are necessary to make them go through life with
credit and contentment. {183}
The Spartans used to shew their youth slaves or Helots in a state of
intoxication, in order to make them detest the vice of drunkenness; but
this was the exhibition of a contemptible and mean person in a
disgraceful situation. The effect is very different when children see
those they love and respect in this state; it must have the effect of
either rendering the parent contemptible, or the vice less odious, it
perhaps has some effect both ways; but, at all events, it must operate
as a bad example, and, amongst the lower classes, it is a very common
one.
When a nation becomes the slave of its revenue, and sacrifices very
=sic= thing to that object, abuses that favour revenue are difficult to
reform; but surely it would be well to take some mode to prevent the
facility with which people get drunk, and the temptation that is laid to
do so. The immense number of public houses, and the way in which
they give credit, are undoubtedly, in part, causes of this evil. It would
be easy to lessen the number, without hurting liberty, and it would be
no injustice if publicans were prevented from legal recovery for beer
or spirits consumed in their houses, in the same manner that payment
cannot be enforced of any person under twenty-one years of age,
unless for necessaries. There could be no hardship in this, and it would
produce a great reform in the manners of the lower orders.
There are only three modes of teaching youth the way to well-doing,--
by precept, by example, and by habit at an early age. Precept,
without example and habit, has but little weight, yet how can a child
have either of these, if the parents are encouraged and assisted in
living a vicious life? Nations and individuals should guard
---
{183} The French, before the revolution, were not be =sic=
considered as a more virtuous people than the English, yet there were
fewer crimes, and less dissipation amongst the lower orders than in
England, and more amongst the higher. The French, particularly the
mothers, have less affection for their children, yet they brought them
up better, both in habits and in principles.
-=-
[end of page #226]
against those vices to which they find they have a natural disposition;
and drinking and gluttony are the vices to which the common people
in this country are the most addicted.
Whatever other things may be taught, let this truth be instilled into all
children brought up to earn their bread, that in proportion to their
diligence will be their ease and enjoyment, and that this world is a
world of sorrow and grief to the idle and the ignorant; that knowledge
does not consist in being able to read books, but in understanding
one's business and duty in life, and that industry consists in doing it.
Female education, in England, requires as much reform as that of the
other sex; but, though the subject is not much less important, it is
perhaps still more difficult. It has been remarked, by those who have
travelled abroad, that, in other countries, women are in general not
better, but rather worse dressed than men of the same rank: in England
it is different; for, at an early age, the women are dressed, both as to
style and quality of clothes, far above their rank. This might, perhaps,
not be difficult to account for, but it undoubtedly is a misfortune, and
one that is greatly increased by the mode of education and manner of
thinking; for the main and indispensable virtue of that amiable sex
excepted, (for which Englishwomen are highly distinguished,) perhaps
no women in the world are brought up in a more frivolous unmeaning
manner. The French women, with all their vivacity and giddy airs,
have more accomplishment; {184} and, as they speak their mind
pretty plainly, they have, on many occasions, testified surprise to find
English ladies, who had studied music for years, who could scarcely
play a tune, and who, after devoting years to the needle, were
incapable of embroidering a pin-cushion.
Novels, a species of light, insipid, and dangerous reading, are the bane
of English female education. They teach a sort of false romantic
sentiment, and withdraw the mind from attention to the duties of
---
{184} The emigrants have taught to ladies of rank, fashions; and to
those of an inferior class, arts and industry. The English women did
not know half what they could do, till the French came amongst them,
about twelve years ago.
-=-
[end of page #227]
life, at a time when it should be taught to learn their high importance.
In female education the government should interfere; for the education
of the mother will always have an influence on the education of the
son, as her conduct in life must have on that of her husband.
As one general observation, relative to the education given at most
public schools, it may be observed, that, whilst much time is taken up
in teaching things that can never probably be of great utility, that
species of knowledge that does not belong to any particular class, but
which is of the utmost importance, is left to chance and to accident.
While a boy is tormented with learning a dead language he is left to
glean, as in a barren field, for all those rules of conduct on which the
prosperity and happiness of his future life depends. {185}
A public education is, in many respects, better than a private one for
boys, but, in some things, it is inferior: consequently those who can
afford it, and wish to give their sons the most complete education, try
to unite the advantages of both, by sending them to a public school,
under the care of a private tutor. It is not in the power of the middling
classes to do this; but modes should be adopted to give the boys, either
by books or public lectures, those instructions, relative to moral
conduct, to prudence, behaviour, &c. which a private tutor gives to
those under his particular charge.
As to female education, it is a difficult subject: one great improvement
would, nevertheless, be not to allow above a certain number in any
one seminary; to have people of irreproachable conduct over them,
and, wherever the parents can, to bring them home at the age of
thirteen or fourteen. The public education ought certainly to finish at
an early age, and, in all cases, with respect to females, a private is
much preferable to a public education. {186}
---
{185} The most virtuous of the Roman emperors attributed to his
preceptors every one of those excellent qualities he possessed. The
ancient education of Greece and Rome was very different from that of
the moderns.
{186} Since this was written, we understand a book for this very
purpose is about to be printed, with the professed design of uniting the
advantages of a public and private education.
-=-
[end of page #228]
CHAP. III.
_Of the Effects of Taxation in England_.
What has been said of the increase of taxes, their tendency to ruin a
nation, and bring on its decline, together with the counteraction
occasioned by the continuance of necessity, as being applicable to all
nations in general, applies, in every sense, to England, and even more
to England than to any other nation. Taxes are carried to greater
excess than in any other country; and, as England flourishes by trade
and manufactures, (the price of which taxes enhance,) they gradually
tend to shut foreign markets against us. This has already been
explained; we, however, still have to inquire into the particular
manner in which it operates upon this country.
That the system of taxation, though irregular in England, is less so
than in any other country, in proportion to the extent to which it has
been carried, is true; but still, however, if a number of the most
troublesome and ill-contrived taxes were done away, and others
established in their place, it would be a great advantage.
Greater danger arises from the augmentation of taxes in a wealthy
country than in a poor one, when they stretch beyond the proper line,
because the general prosperity hinders the effect from being visible,
till it has advanced beyond the power of remedy; whereas, in a poor
country, the injury is soon felt.
The invention and industry of this country have been most
wonderfully increased by the necessity of exertion, under the
protection of good laws, which rendered property secure. But we trust
too much to our resources, and, like men in health and vigour, are the
most likely to injure our constitution.
The most part of the arts, in point of manufacturing, seem to have
come to nearly the last degree of perfection, so far as abbreviation of
labour can carry them. [end of page #229]
The division of labour, and the modes of working in the iron and
metal branches, have not of late been in any material degree improved
in our towns, the most famous for them; and as to any particular gift
of bringing things to perfection, or reducing prices, it does not appear
to be confined to England. Watches and fire-arms are two of the most
ingenious and nice branches of metal manufactures; yet, at Liege, the
latter is carried to greater perfection than at Birmingham, and London
and Lancashire are outdone by Switzerland, in the former. Those,
indeed, are not manufactures of which the taste or form is constantly
altering; but they are a proof of the ability to work with equal
advantage, both as to quality and price, with the manufacturers of this
country.
The next great branches are the weaving. For silks, France has always
had the advantage of us; and our fine woollen cloths have never
equalled those of Louvier and Sedan for quality, although, in point of
price, they have the advantage.
In linens, we enjoy no particular pre-eminence; and, in the American
market, we are beginning to be undersold by those of Silesia. For a
second quality of woollen cloth, and for the manufacture of cotton, in
all its branches, we still have the superiority; but our great advantage,
the cause of the general preference to our manufactures is the long
credit we give, which, if it should ever cease to be practicable, would
ruin not one, but all our manufactures, nearly at a stroke.