markitect-main/examples/infospace-with-history/artifacts/sources/book-2-chapter-05.md

id, title, book, chapter, artifact_type

id	title	book	chapter	artifact_type
book-2-chapter-05	OF THE DIFFERENT EMPLOYMENTS OF CAPITALS.	2	5	content

CHAPTER V. OF THE DIFFERENT EMPLOYMENTS OF CAPITALS.

  Though all capitals are destined for the maintenance of productive labour
  only, yet the quantity of that labour which equal capitals are capable of
  putting into motion, varies extremely according to the diversity of their
  employment; as does likewise the value which that employment adds to the
  annual produce of the land and labour of the country.

  A capital may be employed in four different ways; either, first, in
  procuring the rude produce annually required for the use and consumption
  of the society; or, secondly, in manufacturing and preparing that rude
  produce for immediate use and consumption; or, thirdly in transporting
  either the rude or manufactured produce from the places where they abound
  to those where they are wanted; or, lastly, in dividing particular
  portions of either into such small parcels as suit the occasional demands
  of those who want them. In the first way are employed the capitals of all
  those who undertake improvement or cultivation of lands, mines, or
  fisheries; in the second, those of all master manufacturers; in the third,
  those of all wholesale merchants; and in the fourth, those of all
  retailers. It is difficult to conceive that a capital should be employed
  in any way which may not be classed under some one or other of those four.

  Each of those four methods of employing a capital is essentially
  necessary, either to the existence or extension of the other three, or to
  the general conveniency of the society.

  Unless a capital was employed in furnishing rude produce to a certain
  degree of abundance, neither manufactures nor trade of any kind could
  exist.

  Unless a capital was employed in manufacturing that part of the rude
  produce which requires a good deal of preparation before it can be fit for
  use and consumption, it either would never be produced, because there
  could be no demand for it; or if it was produced spontaneously, it would
  be of no value in exchange, and could add nothing to the wealth of the
  society.

  Unless a capital was employed in transporting either the rude or
  manufactured produce from the places where it abounds to those where it is
  wanted, no more of either could be produced than was necessary for the
  consumption of the neighbourhood. The capital of the merchant exchanges
  the surplus produce of one place for that of another, and thus encourages
  the industry, and increases the enjoyments of both.

  Unless a capital was employed in breaking and dividing certain portions
  either of the rude or manufactured produce into such small parcels as suit
  the occasional demands of those who want them, every man would be obliged
  to purchase a greater quantity of the goods he wanted than his immediate
  occasions required. If there was no such trade as a butcher, for example,
  every man would be obliged to purchase a whole ox or a whole sheep at a
  time. This would generally be inconvenient to the rich, and much more so
  to the poor. If a poor workman was obliged to purchase a month’s or six
  months’ provisions at a time, a great part of the stock which he employs
  as a capital in the instruments of his trade, or in the furniture of his
  shop, and which yields him a revenue, he would be forced to place in that
  part of his stock which is reserved for immediate consumption, and which
  yields him no revenue. Nothing can be more convenient for such a person
  than to be able to purchase his subsistence from day to day, or even from
  hour to hour, as he wants it. He is thereby enabled to employ almost his
  whole stock as a capital. He is thus enabled to furnish work to a greater
  value; and the profit which he makes by it in this way much more than
  compensates the additional price which the profit of the retailer imposes
  upon the goods. The prejudices of some political writers against
  shopkeepers and tradesmen are altogether without foundation. So far is it
  from being necessary either to tax them, or to restrict their numbers,
  that they can never be multiplied so as to hurt the public, though they
  may so as to hurt one another. The quantity of grocery goods, for example,
  which can be sold in a particular town, is limited by the demand of that
  town and its neighbourhood. The capital, therefore, which can be employed
  in the grocery trade, cannot exceed what is sufficient to purchase that
  quantity. If this capital is divided between two different grocers, their
  competition will tend to make both of them sell cheaper than if it were in
  the hands of one only; and if it were divided among twenty, their
  competition would be just so much the greater, and the chance of their
  combining together, in order to raise the price, just so much the less.
  Their competition might, perhaps, ruin some of themselves; but to take
  care of this, is the business of the parties concerned, and it may safely
  be trusted to their discretion. It can never hurt either the consumer or
  the producer; on the contrary, it must tend to make the retailers both
  sell cheaper and buy dearer, than if the whole trade was monopolised by
  one or two persons. Some of them, perhaps, may sometimes decoy a weak
  customer to buy what he has no occasion for. This evil, however, is of too
  little importance to deserve the public attention, nor would it
  necessarily be prevented by restricting their numbers. It is not the
  multitude of alehouses, to give the must suspicious example, that
  occasions a general disposition to drunkenness among the common people;
  but that disposition, arising from other causes, necessarily gives
  employment to a multitude of alehouses.

  The persons whose capitals are employed in any of those four ways, are
  themselves productive labourers. Their labour, when properly directed,
  fixes and realizes itself in the subject or vendible commodity upon which
  it is bestowed, and generally adds to its price the value at least of
  their own maintenance and consumption. The profits of the farmer, of the
  manufacturer, of the merchant, and retailer, are all drawn from the price
  of the goods which the two first produce, and the two last buy and sell.
  Equal capitals, however, employed in each of those four different ways,
  will immediately put into motion very different quantities of productive
  labour; and augment, too, in very different proportions, the value of the
  annual produce of the land and labour of the society to which they belong.

  The capital of the retailer replaces, together with its profits, that of
  the merchant of whom he purchases goods, and thereby enables him to
  continue his business. The retailer himself is the only productive
  labourer whom it immediately employs. In his profit consists the whole
  value which its employment adds to the annual produce of the land and
  labour of the society.

  The capital of the wholesale merchant replaces, together with their
  profits, the capitals of the farmers and manufacturers of whom he
  purchases the rude and manufactured produce which he deals in, and thereby
  enables them to continue their respective trades. It is by this service
  chiefly that he contributes indirectly to support the productive labour of
  the society, and to increase the value of its annual produce. His capital
  employs, too, the sailors and carriers who transport his goods from one
  place to another; and it augments the price of those goods by the value,
  not only of his profits, but of their wages. This is all the productive
  labour which it immediately puts into motion, and all the value which it
  immediately adds to the annual produce. Its operation in both these
  respects is a good deal superior to that of the capital of the retailer.

  Part of the capital of the master manufacturer is employed as a fixed
  capital in the instruments of his trade, and replaces, together with its
  profits, that of some other artificer of whom he purchases them. Part of
  his circulating capital is employed in purchasing materials, and replaces,
  with their profits, the capitals of the farmers and miners of whom he
  purchases them. But a great part of it is always, either annually, or in a
  much shorter period, distributed among the different workmen whom he
  employs. It augments the value of those materials by their wages, and by
  their masters’ profits upon the whole stock of wages, materials, and
  instruments of trade employed in the business. It puts immediately into
  motion, therefore, a much greater quantity of productive labour, and adds
  a much greater value to the annual produce of the land and labour of the
  society, than an equal capital in the hands of any wholesale merchant.

  No equal capital puts into motion a greater quantity of productive labour
  than that of the farmer. Not only his labouring servants, but his
  labouring cattle, are productive labourers. In agriculture, too, Nature
  labours along with man; and though her labour costs no expense, its
  produce has its value, as well as that of the most expensive workmen. The
  most important operations of agriculture seem intended, not so much to
  increase, though they do that too, as to direct the fertility of Nature
  towards the production of the plants most profitable to man. A field
  overgrown with briars and brambles, may frequently produce as great a
  quantity of vegetables as the best cultivated vineyard or corn field.
  Planting and tillage frequently regulate more than they animate the active
  fertility of Nature; and after all their labour, a great part of the work
  always remains to be done by her. The labourers and labouring cattle,
  therefore, employed in agriculture, not only occasion, like the workmen in
  manufactures, the reproduction of a value equal to their own consumption,
  or to the capital which employs them, together with its owner’s profits,
  but of a much greater value. Over and above the capital of the farmer, and
  all its profits, they regularly occasion the reproduction of the rent of
  the landlord. This rent may be considered as the produce of those powers
  of Nature, the use of which the landlord lends to the farmer. It is
  greater or smaller, according to the supposed extent of those powers, or,
  in other words, according to the supposed natural or improved fertility of
  the land. It is the work of Nature which remains, after deducting or
  compensating every thing which can be regarded as the work of man. It is
  seldom less than a fourth, and frequently more than a third, of the whole
  produce. No equal quantity of productive labour employed in manufactures,
  can ever occasion so great reproduction. In them Nature does nothing; man
  does all; and the reproduction must always be in proportion to the
  strength of the agents that occasion it. The capital employed in
  agriculture, therefore, not only puts into motion a greater quantity of
  productive labour than any equal capital employed in manufactures; but in
  proportion, too, to the quantity of productive labour which it employs, it
  adds a much greater value to the annual produce of the land and labour of
  the country, to the real wealth and revenue of its inhabitants. Of all the
  ways in which a capital can be employed, it is by far the most
  advantageous to society.

  The capitals employed in the agriculture and in the retail trade of any
  society, must always reside within that society. Their employment is
  confined almost to a precise spot, to the farm, and to the shop of the
  retailer. They must generally, too, though there are some exceptions to
  this, belong to resident members of the society.

  The capital of a wholesale merchant, on the contrary, seems to have no
  fixed or necessary residence anywhere, but may wander about from place to
  place, according as it can either buy cheap or sell dear.

  The capital of the manufacturer must, no doubt, reside where the
  manufacture is carried on; but where this shall be, is not always
  necessarily determined. It may frequently be at a great distance, both
  from the place where the materials grow, and from that where the complete
  manufacture is consumed. Lyons is very distant, both from the places which
  afford the materials of its manufactures, and from those which consume
  them. The people of fashion in Sicily are clothed in silks made in other
  countries, from the materials which their own produces. Part of the wool
  of Spain is manufactured in Great Britain, and some part of that cloth is
  afterwards sent back to Spain.

  Whether the merchant whose capital exports the surplus produce of any
  society, be a native or a foreigner, is of very little importance. If he
  is a foreigner, the number of their productive labourers is necessarily
  less than if he had been a native, by one man only; and the value of their
  annual produce, by the profits of that one man. The sailors or carriers
  whom he employs, may still belong indifferently either to his country, or
  to their country, or to some third country, in the same manner as if he
  had been a native. The capital of a foreigner gives a value to their
  surplus produce equally with that of a native, by exchanging it for
  something for which there is a demand at home. It as effectually replaces
  the capital of the person who produces that surplus, and as effectually
  enables him to continue his business, the service by which the capital of
  a wholesale merchant chiefly contributes to support the productive labour,
  and to augment the value of the annual produce of the society to which he
  belongs.

  It is of more consequence that the capital of the manufacturer should
  reside within the country. It necessarily puts into motion a greater
  quantity of productive labour, and adds a greater value to the annual
  produce of the land and labour of the society. It may, however, be very
  useful to the country, though it should not reside within it. The capitals
  of the British manufacturers who work up the flax and hemp annually
  imported from the coasts of the Baltic, are surely very useful to the
  countries which produce them. Those materials are a part of the surplus
  produce of those countries, which, unless it was annually exchanged for
  something which is in demand there, would be of no value, and would soon
  cease to be produced. The merchants who export it, replace the capitals of
  the people who produce it, and thereby encourage them to continue the
  production; and the British manufacturers replace the capitals of those
  merchants.

  A particular country, in the same manner as a particular person, may
  frequently not have capital sufficient both to improve and cultivate all
  its lands, to manufacture and prepare their whole rude produce for
  immediate use and consumption, and to transport the surplus part either of
  the rude or manufactured produce to those distant markets, where it can be
  exchanged for something for which there is a demand at home. The
  inhabitants of many different parts of Great Britain have not capital
  sufficient to improve and cultivate all their lands. The wool of the
  southern counties of Scotland is, a great part of it, after a long land
  carriage through very bad roads, manufactured in Yorkshire, for want of a
  capital to manufacture it at home. There are many little manufacturing
  towns in Great Britain, of which the inhabitants have not capital
  sufficient to transport the produce of their own industry to those distant
  markets where there is demand and consumption for it. If there are any
  merchants among them, they are, properly, only the agents of wealthier
  merchants who reside in some of the great commercial cities.

  When the capital of any country is not sufficient for all those three
  purposes, in proportion as a greater share of it is employed in
  agriculture, the greater will be the quantity of productive labour which
  it puts into motion within the country; as will likewise be the value
  which its employment adds to the annual produce of the land and labour of
  the society. After agriculture, the capital employed in manufactures puts
  into motion the greatest quantity of productive labour, and adds the
  greatest value to the annual produce. That which is employed in the trade
  of exportation has the least effect of any of the three.

  The country, indeed, which has not capital sufficient for all those three
  purposes, has not arrived at that degree of opulence for which it seems
  naturally destined. To attempt, however, prematurely, and with an
  insufficient capital, to do all the three, is certainly not the shortest
  way for a society, no more than it would be for an individual, to acquire
  a sufficient one. The capital of all the individuals of a nation has its
  limits, in the same manner as that of a single individual, and is capable
  of executing only certain purposes. The capital of all the individuals of
  a nation is increased in the same manner as that of a single individual,
  by their continually accumulating and adding to it whatever they save out
  of their revenue. It is likely to increase the fastest, therefore, when it
  is employed in the way that affords the greatest revenue to all the
  inhabitants or the country, as they will thus be enabled to make the
  greatest savings. But the revenue of all the inhabitants of the country is
  necessarily in proportion to the value of the annual produce of their land
  and labour.

  It has been the principal cause of the rapid progress of our American
  colonies towards wealth and greatness, that almost their whole capitals
  have hitherto been employed in agriculture. They have no manufactures,
  those household and coarser manufactures excepted, which necessarily
  accompany the progress of agriculture, and which are the work of the women
  and children in every private family. The greater part, both of the
  exportation and coasting trade of America, is carried on by the capitals
  of merchants who reside in Great Britain. Even the stores and warehouses
  from which goods are retailed in some provinces, particularly in Virginia
  and Maryland, belong many of them to merchants who reside in the mother
  country, and afford one of the few instances of the retail trade of a
  society being carried on by the capitals of those who are not resident
  members of it. Were the Americans, either by combination, or by any other
  sort of violence, to stop the importation of European manufactures, and,
  by thus giving a monopoly to such of their own countrymen as could
  manufacture the like goods, divert any considerable part of their capital
  into this employment, they would retard, instead of accelerating, the
  further increase in the value of their annual produce, and would obstruct,
  instead of promoting, the progress of their country towards real wealth
  and greatness. This would be still more the case, were they to attempt, in
  the same manner, to monopolize to themselves their whole exportation
  trade.

  The course of human prosperity, indeed, seems scarce ever to have been of
  so long continuance as to enable any great country to acquire capital
  sufficient for all those three purposes; unless, perhaps, we give credit
  to the wonderful accounts of the wealth and cultivation of China, of those
  of ancient Egypt, and of the ancient state of Indostan. Even those three
  countries, the wealthiest, according to all accounts, that ever were in
  the world, are chiefly renowned for their superiority in agriculture and
  manufactures. They do not appear to have been eminent for foreign trade.
  The ancient Egyptians had a superstitious antipathy to the sea; a
  superstition nearly of the same kind prevails among the Indians; and the
  Chinese have never excelled in foreign commerce. The greater part of the
  surplus produce of all those three countries seems to have been always
  exported by foreigners, who gave in exchange for it something else, for
  which they found a demand there, frequently gold and silver.

  It is thus that the same capital will in any country put into motion a
  greater or smaller quantity of productive labour, and add a greater or
  smaller value to the annual produce of its land and labour, according to
  the different proportions in which it is employed in agriculture,
  manufactures, and wholesale trade. The difference, too, is very great,
  according to the different sorts of wholesale trade in which any part of
  it is employed.

  All wholesale trade, all buying in order to sell again by wholesale, maybe
  reduced to three different sorts: the home trade, the foreign trade of
  consumption, and the carrying trade. The home trade is employed in
  purchasing in one part of the same country, and selling in another, the
  produce of the industry of that country. It comprehends both the inland
  and the coasting trade. The foreign trade of consumption is employed in
  purchasing foreign goods for home consumption. The carrying trade is
  employed in transacting the commerce of foreign countries, or in carrying
  the surplus produce of one to another.

  The capital which is employed in purchasing in one part of the country, in
  order to sell in another, the produce of the industry of that country,
  generally replaces, by every such operation, two distinct capitals, that
  had both been employed in the agriculture or manufactures of that country,
  and thereby enables them to continue that employment. When it sends out
  from the residence of the merchant a certain value of commodities, it
  generally brings back in return at least an equal value of other
  commodities. When both are the produce of domestic industry, it
  necessarily replaces, by every such operation, two distinct capitals,
  which had both been employed in supporting productive labour, and thereby
  enables them to continue that support. The capital which sends Scotch
  manufactures to London, and brings back English corn and manufactures to
  Edinburgh, necessarily replaces, by every such operation, two British
  capitals, which had both been employed in the agriculture or manufactures
  of Great Britain.

  The capital employed in purchasing foreign goods for home consumption,
  when this purchase is made with the produce of domestic industry,
  replaces, too, by every such operation, two distinct capitals; but one of
  them only is employed in supporting domestic industry. The capital which
  sends British goods to Portugal, and brings back Portuguese goods to Great
  Britain, replaces, by every such operation, only one British capital. The
  other is a Portuguese one. Though the returns, therefore, of the foreign
  trade of consumption, should be as quick as those of the home trade, the
  capital employed in it will give but one half of the encouragement to the
  industry or productive labour of the country.

  But the returns of the foreign trade of consumption are very seldom so
  quick as those of the home trade. The returns of the home trade generally
  come in before the end of the year, and sometimes three or four times in
  the year. The returns of the foreign trade of consumption seldom come in
  before the end of the year, and sometimes not till after two or three
  years. A capital, therefore, employed in the home trade, will sometimes
  make twelve operations, or be sent out and returned twelve times, before a
  capital employed in the foreign trade of consumption has made one. If the
  capitals are equal, therefore, the one will give four-and-twenty times
  more encouragement and support to the industry of the country than the
  other.

  The foreign goods for home consumption may sometimes be purchased, not
  with the produce of domestic industry but with some other foreign goods.
  These last, however, must have been purchased, either immediately with the
  produce of domestic industry, or with something else that had been
  purchased with it; for, the case of war and conquest excepted, foreign
  goods can never be acquired, but in exchange for something that had been
  produced at home, either immediately, or after two or more different
  exchanges. The effects, therefore, of a capital employed in such a
  round-about foreign trade of consumption, are, in every respect, the same
  as those of one employed in the most direct trade of the same kind, except
  that the final returns are likely to be still more distant, as they must
  depend upon the returns of two or three distinct foreign trades. If the
  hemp and flax of Riga are purchased with the tobacco of Virginia, which
  had been purchased with British manufactures, the merchant must wait for
  the returns of two distinct foreign trades, before he can employ the same
  capital in repurchasing a like quantity of British manufactures. If the
  tobacco of Virginia had been purchased, not with British manufactures, but
  with the sugar and rum of Jamaica, which had been purchased with those
  manufactures, he must wait for the returns of three. If those two or three
  distinct foreign trades should happen to be carried on by two or three
  distinct merchants, of whom the second buys the goods imported by the
  first, and the third buys those imported by the second, in order to export
  them again, each merchant, indeed, will, in this case, receive the returns
  of his own capital more quickly; but the final returns of the whole
  capital employed in the trade will be just as slow as ever. Whether the
  whole capital employed in such a round about trade belong to one merchant
  or to three, can make no difference with regard to the country, though it
  may with regard to the particular merchants. Three times a greater capital
  must in both cases be employed, in order to exchange a certain value of
  British manufactures for a certain quantity of flax and hemp, than would
  have been necessary, had the manufactures and the flax and hemp been
  directly exchanged for one another. The whole capital employed, therefore,
  in such a round-about foreign trade of consumption, will generally give
  less encouragement and support to the productive labour of the country,
  than an equal capital employed in a more direct trade of the same kind.

  Whatever be the foreign commodity with which the foreign goods for home
  consumption are purchased, it can occasion no essential difference, either
  in the nature of the trade, or in the encouragement and support which it
  can give to the productive labour of the country from which it is carried
  on. If they are purchased with the gold of Brazil, for example, or with
  the silver of Peru, this gold and silver, like the tobacco of Virginia,
  must have been purchased with something that either was the produce of the
  industry of the country, or that had been purchased with something else
  that was so. So far, therefore, as the productive labour of the country is
  concerned, the foreign trade of consumption, which is carried on by means
  of gold and silver, has all the advantages and all the inconveniencies of
  any other equally round-about foreign trade of consumption; and will
  replace, just as fast, or just as slow, the capital which is immediately
  employed in supporting that productive labour. It seems even to have one
  advantage over any other equally round-about foreign trade. The
  transportation of those metals from one place to another, on account of
  their small bulk and great value, is less expensive than that of almost
  any other foreign goods of equal value. Their freight is much less, and
  their insurance not greater; and no goods, besides, are less liable to
  suffer by the carriage. An equal quantity of foreign goods, therefore, may
  frequently be purchased with a smaller quantity of the produce of domestic
  industry, by the intervention of gold and silver, than by that of any
  other foreign goods. The demand of the country may frequently, in this
  manner, be supplied more completely, and at a smaller expense, than in any
  other. Whether, by the continual exportation of those metals, a trade of
  this kind is likely to impoverish the country from which it is carried on
  in any other way, I shall have occasion to examine at great length
  hereafter.

  That part of the capital of any country which is employed in the carrying
  trade, is altogether withdrawn from supporting the productive labour of
  that particular country, to support that of some foreign countries. Though
  it may replace, by every operation, two distinct capitals, yet neither of
  them belongs to that particular country. The capital of the Dutch
  merchant, which carries the corn of Poland to Portugal, and brings back
  the fruits and wines of Portugal to Poland, replaces by every such
  operation two capitals, neither of which had been employed in supporting
  the productive labour of Holland; but one of them in supporting that of
  Poland, and the other that of Portugal. The profits only return regularly
  to Holland, and constitute the whole addition which this trade necessarily
  makes to the annual produce of the land and labour of that country. When,
  indeed, the carrying trade of any particular country is carried on with
  the ships and sailors of that country, that part of the capital employed
  in it which pays the freight is distributed among, and puts into motion, a
  certain number of productive labourers of that country. Almost all nations
  that have had any considerable share of the carrying trade have, in fact,
  carried it on in this manner. The trade itself has probably derived its
  name from it, the people of such countries being the carriers to other
  countries. It does not, however, seem essential to the nature of the trade
  that it should be so. A Dutch merchant may, for example, employ his
  capital in transacting the commerce of Poland and Portugal, by carrying
  part of the surplus produce of the one to the other, not in Dutch, but in
  British bottoms. It maybe presumed, that he actually does so upon some
  particular occasions. It is upon this account, however, that the carrying
  trade has been supposed peculiarly advantageous to such a country as Great
  Britain, of which the defence and security depend upon the number of its
  sailors and shipping. But the same capital may employ as many sailors and
  shipping, either in the foreign trade of consumption, or even in the home
  trade, when carried on by coasting vessels, as it could in the carrying
  trade. The number of sailors and shipping which any particular capital can
  employ, does not depend upon the nature of the trade, but partly upon the
  bulk of the goods, in proportion to their value, and partly upon the
  distance of the ports between which they are to be carried; chiefly upon
  the former of those two circumstances. The coal trade from Newcastle to
  London, for example, employs more shipping than all the carrying trade of
  England, though the ports are at no great distance. To force, therefore,
  by extraordinary encouragements, a larger share of the capital of any
  country into the carrying trade, than what would naturally go to it, will
  not always necessarily increase the shipping of that country.

  The capital, therefore, employed in the home trade of any country, will
  generally give encouragement and support to a greater quantity of
  productive labour in that country, and increase the value of its annual
  produce, more than an equal capital employed in the foreign trade of
  consumption; and the capital employed in this latter trade has, in both
  these respects, a still greater advantage over an equal capital employed
  in the carrying trade. The riches, and so far as power depends upon
  riches, the power of every country must always be in proportion to the
  value of its annual produce, the fund from which all taxes must ultimately
  be paid. But the great object of the political economy of every country,
  is to increase the riches and power of that country. It ought, therefore,
  to give no preference nor superior encouragement to the foreign trade of
  consumption above the home trade, nor to the carrying trade above either
  of the other two. It ought neither to force nor to allure into either of
  those two channels a greater share of the capital of the country, than
  what would naturally flow into them of its own accord.

  Each of those different branches of trade, however, is not only
  advantageous, but necessary and unavoidable, when the course of things,
  without any constraint or violence, naturally introduces it.

  When the produce of any particular branch of industry exceeds what the
  demand of the country requires, the surplus must be sent abroad, and
  exchanged for something for which there is a demand at home. Without such
  exportation, a part of the productive labour of the country must cease,
  and the value of its annual produce diminish. The land and labour of Great
  Britain produce generally more corn, woollens, and hardware, than the
  demand of the home market requires. The surplus part of them, therefore,
  must be sent abroad, and exchanged for something for which there is a
  demand at home. It is only by means of such exportation, that this surplus
  can acquire a value sufficient to compensate the labour and expense of
  producing it. The neighbourhood of the sea-coast, and the banks of all
  navigable rivers, are advantageous situations for industry, only because
  they facilitate the exportation and exchange of such surplus produce for
  something else which is more in demand there.

  When the foreign goods which are thus purchased with the surplus produce
  of domestic industry exceed the demand of the home market, the surplus
  part of them must be sent abroad again, and exchanged for something more
  in demand at home. About 96,000 hogsheads of tobacco are annually
  purchased in Virginia and Maryland with a part of the surplus produce of
  British industry. But the demand of Great Britain does not require,
  perhaps, more than 14,000. If the remaining 82,000, therefore, could not
  be sent abroad, and exchanged for something more in demand at home, the
  importation of them must cease immediately, and with it the productive
  labour of all those inhabitants of Great Britain who are at present
  employed in preparing the goods with which these 82,000 hogsheads are
  annually purchased. Those goods, which are part of the produce of the land
  and labour of Great Britain, having no market at home, and being deprived
  of that which they had abroad, must cease to be produced. The most
  round-about foreign trade of consumption, therefore, may, upon some
  occasions, be as necessary for supporting the productive labour of the
  country, and the value of its annual produce, as the most direct.

  When the capital stock of any country is increased to such a degree that
  it cannot be all employed in supplying the consumption, and supporting the
  productive labour of that particular country, the surplus part of it
  naturally disgorges itself into the carrying trade, and is employed in
  performing the same offices to other countries. The carrying trade is the
  natural effect and symptom of great national wealth; but it does not seem
  to be the natural cause of it. Those statesmen who have been disposed to
  favour it with particular encouragement, seem to have mistaken the effect
  and symptom for the cause. Holland, in proportion to the extent of the
  land and the number of its inhabitants, by far the richest country in
  Europe, has accordingly the greatest share of the carrying trade of
  Europe. England, perhaps the second richest country of Europe, is likewise
  supposed to have a considerable share in it; though what commonly passes
  for the carrying trade of England will frequently, perhaps, be found to be
  no more than a round-about foreign trade of consumption. Such are, in a
  great measure, the trades which carry the goods of the East and West
  Indies and of America to the different European markets. Those goods are
  generally purchased, either immediately with the produce of British
  industry, or with something else which had been purchased with that
  produce, and the final returns of those trades are generally used or
  consumed in Great Britain. The trade which is carried on in British
  bottoms between the different ports of the Mediterranean, and some trade
  of the same kind carried on by British merchants between the different
  ports of India, make, perhaps, the principal branches of what is properly
  the carrying trade of Great Britain.

  The extent of the home trade, and of the capital which can be employed in
  it, is necessarily limited by the value of the surplus produce of all
  those distant places within the country which have occasion to exchange
  their respective productions with one another; that of the foreign trade
  of consumption, by the value of the surplus produce of the whole country,
  and of what can be purchased with it; that of the carrying trade, by the
  value of the surplus produce of all the different countries in the world.
  Its possible extent, therefore, is in a manner infinite in comparison of
  that of the other two, and is capable of absorbing the greatest capitals.

  The consideration of his own private profit is the sole motive which
  determines the owner of any capital to employ it either in agriculture, in
  manufactures, or in some particular branch of the wholesale or retail
  trade. The different quantities of productive labour which it may put into
  motion, and the different values which it may add to the annual produce of
  the land and labour of the society, according as it is employed in one or
  other of those different ways, never enter into his thoughts. In
  countries, therefore, where agriculture is the most profitable of all
  employments, and farming and improving the most direct roads to a splendid
  fortune, the capitals of individuals will naturally be employed in the
  manner most advantageous to the whole society. The profits of agriculture,
  however, seem to have no superiority over those of other employments in
  any part of Europe. Projectors, indeed, in every corner of it, have,
  within these few years, amused the public with most magnificent accounts
  of the profits to be made by the cultivation and improvement of land.
  Without entering into any particular discussion of their calculations, a
  very simple observation may satisfy us that the result of them must be
  false. We see, every day, the most splendid fortunes, that have been
  acquired in the course of a single life, by trade and manufactures,
  frequently from a very small capital, sometimes from no capital. A single
  instance of such a fortune, acquired by agriculture in the same time, and
  from such a capital, has not, perhaps, occurred in Europe, during the
  course of the present century. In all the great countries of Europe,
  however, much good land still remains uncultivated; and the greater part
  of what is cultivated, is far from being improved to the degree of which
  it is capable. Agriculture, therefore, is almost everywhere capable of
  absorbing a much greater capital than has ever yet been employed in it.
  What circumstances in the policy of Europe have given the trades which are
  carried on in towns so great an advantage over that which is carried on in
  the country, that private persons frequently find it more for their
  advantage to employ their capitals in the most distant carrying trades of
  Asia and America than in the improvement and cultivation of the most
  fertile fields in their own neighbourhood, I shall endeavour to explain at
  full length in the two following books.

BOOK III. OF THE DIFFERENT PROGRESS OF OPULENCE IN DIFFERENT NATIONS