238 DIVISION OF LABOUR. merce and navigation in particular, how many ship-build sailors, sail-makers, rope-makers, must have been employ in order to bring together the different drugs made use by the dyer, which often come from the remotest corners the world! What a variety of labour too is necessary order to produce the tools of those workmen! To say thing of such complicated machines as the ship of the sail the mill of the fuller, or even the loom of the weaver, let consider only what a variety of labour is requisite to form th very simple machine, the shears with which the shepher clips the wool. The miner, the builder of the furnace f heating the ore, the burner of the charcoal to be made us of in the smelting house, the brick-maker, the brick-layer the workmen who attend the furnace, the mill-wright, th forger, the smith, must all of them join their different art in order to produce them. Were we to examine, in the sam manner, all the different parts of his dress and househol furniture, the different hands employed in preparing his food the glass window which lets in the heat and the light, and keeps out the wind and the rain, with all the knowledge and art requisite for preparing that beautiful and happy inven tion, together with the tools of all the different workmen employed in producing those different conveniences; if we examine all these things, and consider what a variety of labour is employed about each of them, we shall be sensible, that without the assistance and co-operation of many thousands, the very humblest person in a civilized country could not be provided for, even according to what we falsely imagine the easy and simple manner in which he is commonly accommodated. Compared, indeed, with the more extravagant luxury of the great, his accommodation must no doubt appear extremely simple and easy; and yet it may be true, perhaps, that the accommodation of an European prince does not always so much exceed that of an industrious and frugal peasant, as the accommodation of the latter exceeds that of many an African king, the absolute master of the lives and liberties of ten thousand naked savages. AGRICULTURE is the science which explains the means of making the earth produce, in plenty and perfection, those vegetables which are necessary to the convenience or subsistence of man. Its practice demands a considerable knowledge of the relations subsisting between the most important objects of nature. It is eminently conducive to the advantage of those engaged in it, by its tendency to promote their health, and to cherish in them a manly and ingenuous character. Every improvement made in the art must be considered as of high utility, as it facilitates the subsistence of a greater proportion of rational and moral agents; or if we suppose the number to be unincreased, furnishes them with greater opportunities than could be possessed before, of obtaining that intellectual and moral enjoyment, which is the most honourable characteristic of their nature. The strength of nations is in proportion to their skilful cultivation of the soil; and their independence is secured, and their patriotism animated, by obtaining from their native spot all the requisites for easy and vigorous subsistence. Not only to raise vegetables for the use of man, but for those animals also which are used as food, is obviously, therefore, part of the occupation of the husbandman; and to assist him in his operations, other animals are to be reared and fed by him, to relieve his labours by their strength and endurance of exertion. In cold, and comparatively infertile climates, the services of these creatures are particularly important, if not absolutely indispensable, and their health and multiplication become, therefore, objects of great and unremitted attention. Since the errors of ancient husbandry have been corrected, and vulgar superstitious traditions exploded, agriculture has been gradually improving. A solid and rational system of the art has been founded upon clear and intelligible principles. The application of natural history and chemistry to it has greatly accelerated its improvements. Inquiries have been made into the causes of the fertility and barrenness of land, the food and nutriment of vegetables, the nature of soils, and the best modes of meliorating them with various manures. Foreign seeds have been introduced, and the methods of cultivation adopted from the nations whence they were borrowed. The intelligent farmer, profiting by the wider diffusion of knowledge, derives assistance from the philosopher, and is furnished with the useful principles of every art in the least degree conducive to the improvement and success of his occupations. QUESTIONS.-1. What is agriculture? 2. What does the practice demand? 3. Why is it advantageous to those who engage in it? 4. Why must every improvement in the art be considered of high utility? 5. What is said of agriculture with regard to nations? 6. What belongs to the business of the husbandman besides the raising of vegetables? 7. What is said of modern improvements in agriculture? LESSON 108. Commerce and Manufactures. Cap'ital, the fund or stock of a trading company, or corporation; the stock which a merchant or tradesman employs in business on his own account. COMMERCE is the interchange of commodities, or the disposal of produce of any kind for other articles, or for some representative of value for which other articles can be procured, with a view or making a profit by the transaction. The term is usually restricted to the mercantile intercourse between different countries. The internal dealings between individuals of the same country, either for the supply of immediate consumption, or for carrying on manufactures, is more commonly denominated trade. Those who engage their capitals in commerce or trade, act as agents between the producers and the consumers of the fruits of the earth; they purchase them of the former, and sell them to the latter, and it is by profits on the sale that capital so employed yields a revenue or income. Commerce or trade increases the wealth of a nation, not by rais ing produce, like agriculture, nor by working up raw mate rials like manufactures; but it gives an additional value to commodities by bringing them from places where they are plentiful to those where they are scarce; and by providing the means for their more extended distribution, both the agricultural and manufacturing classes are incited to greater industry. Agriculture never arrives at any considerable, much less at its highest, degree of perfection, where it is not connected with trade, that is, where the demand for the produce is not increased by the consumption of trading cities. But it should be remembered that agriculture is the immediate source of human provision; that trade conduces to the production of provision only as it promotes agriculture; and that the whole system of commerce, vast and various as it is, has no other public importance than its subserviency to this end. Manufactures are the arts by which natural productions are brought into the state or form in which they are consumed or used. They require in general great expenses for their first establishment, costly machines for shortening manual labour, and money and credit for purchasing materials from distant countries. There is not a single manufacture of Great Britain which does not require, in some part of its process, productions from the different parts of the globe; it requires, therefore, ships and a friendly intercourse with foreign nations, to transport commodities and exchange productions. They would not be a manufacturing unless they were a commercial nation. The two sciences which most assist the manufacturer, are mechanics and chemistry;-the one for building mills, working mines, and in general for constructing machines, either to shorten the labour of man by performing it in less time, or to perform what the strength of man alone could not accomplish; the other for fusing and working ores, for dyeing and bleaching, and extracting the virtues of various substances for particular occasions. It is more common to see merchants and manufacturers accumulate large and rapid fortunes than farmers. They are a class who generally employ capital upon a much larger scale, hence their riches make a greater show. Yet, upon the whole, trade and manufactures do not yield greater profits than agriculture. It must be observed that though a farmer does not so frequently and rapidly amass wealth as a merchant, yet neither is he so often ruined. The risks a man encounters in trade are much greater than in farming. The merchant is liable to severe losses arising from contingencies in trade; he must have therefore a chance of making proportionally greater profits. The chances of gain must balance the chances of loss. If he be so skilful or so fortunate as to make more than his average share of gains, he will accumulate wealth with greater rapidity than a farmer; but should either a deficiency of talents or of fortunate circumstances occasion an uncommon share of losses, he may become a bankrupt. The rate of profits, therefore, upon any employment of capital is proportioned to the risks with which it is attended; but if calculated during a sufficient period of time, and upon a sufficient number of instances to afford an average, these different modes of employing capital will be found to yield similar profits. It is thus that the distribution of capital to the several branches of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures, preserves a due equilibrium, which, though it may be accidentally disturbed, cannot, whilst allowed to pursue its natural course, be permanently deranged. A remarkably abundant harvest may occasionally raise the rate of agricultural profits. or a very bad season may reduce them below their level. The opening of a trade with a new country, or the breaking out of a war which impedes foreign commerce, will affect the profits of the merchant but these accidents disturb the equal rate of profits, as the winds disturb the sea; and when they cease, it returns to its natural level. QUESTIONS.-1. What is commerce? 2. Trade? 3. How does commerce or trade increase the wealth of a nation? 4. To what end is the whole system of commerce subservient? 5. What are manufactures? 6. What is said of the connexion of manufactures with trade? 7. How do the sciences of mechanics and chemistry assist the manufacturer? 8. What is said of the profits arising from agriculture, commerce, and manufactures? LESSON 109. Spe'cie, gold and silver coin, distinguished from paper money. GOLD and silver, when first introduced into commerce were probably bartered like other commodities, by bulk merely; but shortly, instead of being given loosely by bulk, every portion was weighed in scales, but weight was no se |