ture, buildings, the table, &c. Indeed, from those distant places, it would not answer the merchant's views to bring the gross and bulky articles, such as are those of prime necessity.[1] Of these imported goods, therefore, very few indeed come down to the use of the poor. Hence, therefore, it is evident, without any further enumeration, that the effect of trade and commerce, with respect to most civilised states, is to send out of their countries what the poor—that is, the great mass of mankind—have occasion for, and to bring back, in return, what is consumed almost wholly by a small part of those nations, viz., the rich. Hence, it appears that the greater part of manufactures, trade, and commerce, is highly injurious to the poor, as being the chief means of depriving them of the necessaries of life, and is the principal cause of all their calamities.
This is far different from the common notion of the effects of trade. People, somehow or other, imagine that trade has some unknown beneficial effects—that giving employment, and furnishing the necessaries of life, are the same thing; but
- ↑ The articles of commerce, being chiefly the refined manufactures, require much greater labour than is employed in producing the necessaries of life; hence, large quantities of the latter are sent away to procure a small quantity of the former.
