Letters to Malthus on Political Economy and Stagnation of Commerce
Jean Baptiste Say (1821)
SIR,
We have been arguing upon the hypothesis of an indefinite liberty given to a nation, to carry to as great an extent as possible every kind of production, and I think I have proved that if this hypothesis were to be realised, that nation would be able to purchase whatever it chose. From this power, and man's natural desire, continually to better his condition, would infallibly proceed an infinite multiplication of individuals and enjoyments.
This is not however the ease. Nature on the one hand, and the vices of social community on the other, have set bounds to this indefinite power of production, and the enquiry into these obstacles, by bringing us into the real world will serve to prove, in addition to the doctrine established in my treatise on Political Economy, that it is these obstacles to production which alone prevent the circulation and the vent of productions.
I do not pretend to be able to point out all the obstacles which counteract production. Many of them will no doubt be discovered as Political Economy improves, others will perhaps never be discovered, but very powerful ones may be already descried both in natural and political order.
In natural order, the production of alimentary provisions has closer bounds prescribed to it than the production of provisions of furniture and clothes. At the same time, that mankind has need either in weight or value, of a greater quantity of alimentary produce, than of all the rest put together, these productions cannot be brought from a great distance, for their transmittal is difficult, and keeping them is expensive. As to those which can be grown within the territory of a nation, they have their limits, which a more perfect system of agriculture, and larger capitals engaged in agricultural operations, can no doubt remove,(21) but which must exist somewhere. Arthur Young thinks France scarcely produces half the alimentary provisions, she is capable of producing.(22) Suppose Arthur Young says true. Suppose even that with a better system of agriculture, France should grow twice the quantity of rural produce, without having more agriculturists,(23) she would then have 45 million inhabitants who could employ themselves in any other occupation than agriculture. Her manufactural productions would find greater vent in the country than they do at present, and the surplus would find a vent among the manufacturing population itself. We should not be worse fed than we are now, but in general we should be better provided with manufactured articles; we should have better habitations, better furniture, finer clothes, and articles of use, instruction, and amusement, which are now attainable by a. very small number of persons. All the rest of the population is still rude and uncultivated.
Still, in proportion as the manufacturing class increased, alimentary provisions would become more in demand, and dearer, in comparison with manufactured articles. The latter would procure more restricted profits and salaries, which would discourage their production; and thus it may be conceived, how those bounds which Nature sets to agricultural productions, would also set them to manufactural productions. But this effect, like every thing which happens naturally and arises out of the nature of things, is a long way in the perspective, and would be accompanied with less inconvenience than any other possible event.
In admitting these bounds — set by Nature herself, to the production of food, and indirectly to that of all other articles — it may be asked, how very industrious countries, such as England, in which capitals abound, and communication is easy, are obstructed in the circulation of their commodities, long before their agricultural productions are arrived at a height beyond which they cannot go. There is then a vice, a hidden evil which torments them. There are probably more, and these will discover themselves successively; but already I perceive one, immense and disastrous, worthy of the most serious attention.
If it should happen that, after every commercial, manufactural, or agricultural enterprise, a man, a collector of duties, should come and establish himself; and that this man, without adding any thing to the merit of the production, to its usefulness, or to that quality which makes it sought. after and sells it, should nevertheless add to the cost of its production; what would be the result of this, I ask you? The price that is set upon an article, even when one has the means of attaining it,(24) depends on the enjoyment we expect from it, or the use it may be of. In proportion as the price gets up, it ceases, with respect to many persons, to be worth what it costs, and the number of its buyers decreases.
Besides, the tax not increasing the profit of any producer, but still enhancing the price of every article, the producer's income is no longer adequate to the purchase of the productions, from the moment that an accident such as I have just mentioned augments their price.
Let us explain to ourselves this effect by number, in order to trace it to its ultimate consequences. It is worth the pains bestowed upon it, if it points out to us the principal cause of an evil that threatens every industrious nation on the face of the earth. England already by her sufferings, warns other nations of the calamities in reserve for them; which will be the more disastrous, in proportion as a robust constitution induces them, more or jess, to very great exertions, from which very beneficial effects will result if not circumscribed, and frightful convulsions if they are.
If the enterpriser, the producer of a piece of cloth, at the same time that he divides between himself and his brother producers a sum of 30 francs, for the productive services which have been employed in the manufacture of the cloth, is obliged to pay besides 6 francs to the tax-gatherer, either he must cease to manufacture cloth, or must sell his piece for 36 francs.(25) But the piece being at 36 francs, the producers, who altogether have only received 30 for it, can only purchase five-sixths of that same piece which previously they could purchase entirely, he who bought an ell of it could now only buy five-sixths of an ell, and so of the rest.
The producer of wheat, who on his part pays to another tax-gatherer a contribution of 6 francs for a sack which cost 30 francs in productive services, is obliged to sell his sack for 36 francs instead of thirty. The consequence of which is, that the producers of wheat and the producers of cloth, whether they want wheat or cloth, can only, with the profit they have made, purchase five-sixths of their productions.
This effect taking place in two reciprocal productions, may take place generally in all productions. — Without changing the position of the question, we may suppose that the producers, to whatever production they have devoted themselves, have occasion successively for drink, autumnal provisions, lodging, amusements, and articles of luxury or necessity. And still they will find these productions dearer than they can afford, whatever their income may be, according to the rank they hold among producers. There will always be, in the hypothesis which serves as our example, a sixth of the productions remaining unsold.
It is true, that the 6 francs levied by the collector go to somebody, and that those whom the collector represents, (public functionaries, military men, or state pensioners,) may employ this money in the purchase of the remaining sixth, either of the wheat or cloth or of any other production. — This is indeed the fact; but observe that consumption takes place at the expense of the producers, and that the collector, or his constituents, if they consume a sixth of the productions, thereby compel the producers to feed and clothe themselves — in fact to live upon five-sixths of what they produce.
This will be admitted; but at the same time it will be said, that it is possible for every one to live upon five-sixths of what he produces. — I will admit it myself if it is wished; but I shall ask in my turn, if you think the producer would live as well if two-sixths or a third, instead of one-sixth, were taken from him. No — but he would still live. Ah! you think he would live! In this case, I ask if he would still live if two-thirds — three-quarters — were taken from him; but I perceive that no answer is given.
Now, Sir, I flatter myself that my answer to your most forcible objections will be easily understood, as well as my answer to those of M. Sismondi. If, you say, it is sufficient to create fresh productions, in order to be enabled to consume or exchange them for those which superabound, and thereby procure a vent for both the one and the other, why are they not created? Are the capitals wanting? They abound; enterprises are sought for, in which to employ them to advantage: it is evident they are not to be found you say (page 499); that every kind of commerce is so overloaded with capitals and laborers, both of which offer their productions at a reduced price says M. Sismondi.(26)
I do not mean to say, that it is the act of a dupe, to devote oneself to the useful arts; but you must admit, gentlemen, that if it should ever become so, the effect would be no other than that of which you complain. In order to buy those productions which superabound, it would be necessary to create other productions; but if the situation of producers was too disadvantageous; if after having used means of production sufficient to produce a bullock, a sheep only was the result; if only the same portion of utility as is found in a sheep could be obtained in exchange against any other produce, who would produce at such a disadvantage? Those who had devoted themselves to production, would have made a bad bargain; they would have made an advance which the utility of their production is not sufficient to repay. Whoever should be so unwise as to create a production capable of purchasing the former, would have to struggle against the same disadvantages, and would get into the same embarrassment. The profit he would obtain from his production would not indemnify him for his expences; and what he could purchase with this production would be worth no more. Then the workman could no longer live by his labor, and would become a burthen to his parish.(27) Then the enterpriser, no longer enabled to live upon his profits, would renounce his industry. He would purchase stock, or rather go abroad to seek better fortune, a more lucrative occupation, or what comes exactly to the same thing, a production which should be accompanied with less expences.(28) If he should there meet with other inconveniences, he would still seek another scene for his talents, and different countries would be seen driving away, seizing by the head, both their capitals and laborers; that is to say, what is sufficient to carry the prosperity of human societies to the highest pitch, when they know their real interest and the means of benefiting by it.
I shall not take upon myself to say which of the features of this picture are suitable to your country, or to any other, but I leave them to your examination, and to that of all honest men, of good intentions, and who desire to found their happiness on the interesting, laborious, and useful part of mankind.
Why do the savages of the new world, whose precarious subsistence depends upon the chance of the chase, refuse to build villages, and enclose and cultivate land? It is because this sort of life requires too assiduous and too painful a labor. They are wrong; bad calculators, for the privations they endure are much worse than the shackles of a well understood social life would impose upon them. But if this social life were a galley, in which by rowing with all their might for sixteen hours out of the twenty-four, they only obtained a morsel of bread insufficient for their support; they would then indeed be excusable for not preferring a social life. Now everything which renders the situation of a producer — of a man essential to society — worse, tends to destroy the principle of existence of the social body, to approximate a civilised people to barbarians, to bring on an order of things in which less is produced and less consumed, to destroy civilisation, which is more florishing in proportion as more is produced and more consumed. You remark in many places, that man is naturally indolent; and it is to know him but little "to suppose that he would always consume all that he is capable of producing, (page 503)". Indeed you are right; nor do I hold a different opinion when I say that the utility of productions is no longer worth the productive services at the price one is obliged to pay for them.
You yourself seem to have admitted this truth, when you said in another place, (page 842,) "a tax may put an end to the production of a commodity, if no person can consent to put upon this commodity a price equivalent to the fresh difficulties of its production." And this internal vice, {to have cost more in producing than the. thing is worth), is transmitted with the commodity to the end of the world. — It is every where too dear to be wort, h what it cost, because every .where we are obliged to pay for it by productive services equal to those it has cost.
A consideration which is not to be despised either, is that the costs of production are not only increased by the multiplied taxes, and by the high price of every thins, but also by the customs which are the result of a vicious political system. If the progress of luxury and large emoluments; the facility of obtaining illegitimate profits, by favour in contracts or financial operations, compel the manufacturer, the merchant, or the real producer, in order to preserve his rank in society, to seek for profits disproportionate to the services he renders to the production, then these other abuses tend to increase by other causes, the charges of production, and consequently the price of productions beyond their real utility.. The consumption of them is the more circumscribed; in order to obtain them we are obliged to give more productive services towards the creation of another production, and to go into larger expences of production. Judge, Sir, by this, of the evil that is done by encouraging useless expences, and multiplying unproductive consumers.
What proves to how great an extent the costs of production are a real obstacle to the sale of productions, is the rapid sale of an article which an expeditious means of production puts at a low price. It is then obtained by every one with less labor and less charges of production of any sort. When in consequence of the continental system we were obliged to pay five francs for a pound of sugar, applied either to the production of the sugar itself or to any other commodity which was exchanged for the sugar. France could only purchase fourteen millions of pounds.(29) Now sugar is cheap we consume eighty millions of pounds yearly, which is nearly three pounds each person. At Cuba, where sugar is still cheaper, upwards of thirty pounds are consumed by each free person.(30)
Let is then admit a truth which stares us full in the face; that to levy excessive taxes, with or without the participation of a national representation, or with a derisive representation, it matters little, is increasing the charges of production, without increasing the utility of the production, and without adding any thing to be satisfaction of a consumer in the use of them; is putting a fine upon production, upon the existence of Society. And as amongst producers some are better enabled than others, to throw upon their co-producers the burthen of circumstances, they affect some classes more than others. A capitalist oftentimes can withdraw his capital from one branch to employ it in another; or he may send it abroad. The enterpriser in a branch of industry has often fortune sufficient to suspend and the enterpriser are masters of their situations, the laborer is continually obliged to work at any price, even when the production no longer affords him wherewith to live. It is thus, Sir, that the excessive expences of production reduce many classes of certain nations, to consume no more than what is indispensably necessary to their existence, and the lower orders to perish for want. Now is not this, according to your own idea,(31) of all others the most desperate and barbarous means of reducing the number of mankind?(32)
Here, perhaps, the strongest objection presents itself, because it is supported by a striking example. In the United States hindrances to production are less numerous and the taxes light, and there, as elsewhere, commodities abound but commerce wants vent. - "The difficulties," you say(33) "cannot be attributed to the culture of bad land, nor to the hindrance so industry, nor the enormity of the taxes, wherefore, for the increase of wealth something more is necessary than the power of production." Alas! Would you believe it, Sir? In my opinion it is that very power of production, at least at the present, which is wanting to the United States, to enable the Americans advantageously to dispose of the superabundant productions of their commerce.
The happy situation of this people during a long war, in which they almost always enjoyed the advantages of neutrality, has given too forcible a direction of their activity and capitals towards maritime and foreign commerce. The Americans are enterprising, they carry cheap. They have introduced expenditous modes of navigation into their long voyages, which shortens them, renders them less expensive, and corresponds with those improvements which in the arts diminish the costs of production. In fact the Americans have drawn to their country all the maritime trade which the English could not do. They have for many years served as intermediate persons between all the continental powers of Europe and the rest of the world. They have even obtained greater success than the English, wherever they have been put in competition with them; for instance at China.
What is the consequence? An excessive abundance of those productions, which maritime and commercial industry procure; and when the general peace came, and restored the freedom of the seas, French and Dutch vessels precipitated themselves with a sort of delirium, into the midst of a route which had just been opened, and in their ignorance of the situation of foreign nations, of their agriculture, arts, population, and means of purchase and consumption, these vessels, escaped from a long detention, carried to all parts, in great abundance, the productions of the continent of Europe, presuming that the other countries of the world, which had been so long separated from it, would be most eager for them.
But in order to purchase this extraordinary supply, it would at the stone time have been necessary, that these countries on their part should have been able to have instantly created extraordinary productions: for again, the difficulty is not how to consume European commodities at New York, Baltimore, the Havannah, Rio Janeiro, or Buenos Ayres. They would very willingly consume them there, if they had' therewith to pay for them. Europeans require cotton, tobacco, sugar, and rice, in payment; and this demand enhances the price of them; and dear as these commodities and silver, which is also a commodity, were, you must either take them, or come away without payment; these same commodities become scarcer at the place of their origin, became more abundant in Europe, and finished by being too much so to sell well there; although the consumption in Europe is so much increased since the peace: hence the disadvantageous returns we have been witness to. But suppose for a moment that the agricultural and manufactured productions of North and South America were all at once become very considerable, when the peace took place; then their populations being more numerous and more productive, would easily have bought all that the Europeans carried there, and have given them sundry articles in return at a reasonable rate.
As to the United States, this will I have no doubt take place when they can add to the articles of Exchange with which their maritime commerce furnishes us(34) a greater quantity of agricultural produce, and perhaps also some manufactured articles. Their culture-is extending their manufactures, multiplying, and by a natural consequence their population increases with an astonishing rapidity. A few years more and their industry altogether will form a mass of productions, amongst which will be found articles fit to make profitable returns or at least profits, which the Americans will employ in the purchase of European commodities.
Those commodities which the Europeans succeed in making at least expence will be carried to America, and those which the American soil and industry succeed in creating at a lower rate than others, will be brought back. The nature of the demand will determine the nature of the productions; each nation will employ itself in preference about those productions in which they have the greatest success; that is, which they produce at least expence, and exchanges mutually and permanently advantageous will be the result. But these commercial improvements can only take place in the course of time. The talents and experience which the arts require are not acquired in a few months, years must be devoted to them. It will not be until after many experiments that the Americans will know what commodities they tan produce with success. Then those productions will no longer be tarried to their country; but the profit they will obtain from them will procure them the means of buying other European productions.
On the other hand, their agricultural enterprises, however rapid their extension may be, tan only by very slow degrees offer, by their productions, an opening to European productions. As cultivation and civilisation extend themselves beyond the Allegany mountains in Kentucky, and into the Indiana and Illinois territories, the first gains are employed in feeding the colonies as they arrive from the states first peopled, and in building their habitations. The profits beyond these wants, serve to extend the clearing the woods, the next in manufacturing articles for local consumption; and it is only the savings of the fourth class which are applied in manufacturing the productions of the earth, and in transforming them for distant consumption. It is then only that new States present an opening to us Europeans; but it is evident this cannot be in their infancy: for that purpose it is necessary that their population should have had time to increase, and that their agricultural productions should have become so abundant, that they are under the necessity of seeking to exchange their value at a distance. Then, and by the natural progress of things, instead of transporting rough articles, they will transport articles which will have already received some shape, and which consequently containing a greater value in less compass, can bear the expences of a long voyage. Such productions will find their way to Europe through New Orleans, a city destined to be one of the greatest depots in the whole world.
We have not yet reached this point; is it then wonderful that the productions of the United States have not vet offered facilities analogous to the commercial ardor which followed the Peace? Is it even wonderful that commercial productions, brought by the Americans themselves into their ports, at the end of an exaggerated development of their nautical industry, should be found there in superabundance?
You see, Sir, that this fact has nothing in it that is not very conformable to the doctrine professed by your antagonists.
Reverting to the painful situation in which every kind of industry in Europe is at present, I might add to the discouragement which results from the costs of production multiplied to excess, the disorders which these costs occasion in the production, distribution, and consumption of value produced; disorders which frequently bring into the market quantities greater than the want, keeping back those that would sell, and whose owners would employ their price in the purchase of the former.
Certain producers seek to indemnify themselves by the quantity they produce, for a part of the value eat up by the taxes. Certain productive services find means to evade the avidity of the tax-gatherers, as often happens, for the service of capitals which in many instances continue to receive the same interest, whilst lands, houses, and industry, are surcharged. A workman who can with difficulty support his family, repurchases sometimes by excessive labor the low price of work. Are not these the causes which derange the natural course of production, and which occasion a production in some articles, beyond what would have been produced, had the wants of the consumers only been consulted? The articles of consumption are not necessary to us in equal degree. Previously to reducing our consumption of wheat to one half, we reduce that of meat to one quarter, and that of sugar to nothing. There are capitals so employed in certain enterprises, particularly in manufactures, that the enterprisers are frequently content to lose their interest and sacrifice the profits of their own industry, and continue to work solely for the purpose of keeping the enterprise going until more favorable times, and to preserve their funds; or they are afraid of losing good workmen, which the suspension of work would disperse: and humanity alone is sufficient to induce enterprisers to continue a manufactory for whose productions there is no longer any demand. From whence proceed disorders in the progress of production and consumption, still greater than those which proceed from the obstruction of the customs and the vicissitudes of the Seasons. Hence proceed unadvised productions, recourse to ruinous means, and a ruined commerce.
I shall remark at the same time, that although the evil is great it may still seem greater than it is. The commodities which superabound in the markets of the universe, may strike the eye by their mass, and alarm commerce by the depredation of their price, and still be only a very small part of the commodities made and consumed of each kind. There is no warehouse that would not be very soon emptied, if every kind of production of the commodity contained in it was simultaneously to cease in all parts of the world.
It has been further remarked, that if the quantity sent in the slightest degree exceeds the want, it is sufficient to alter the price considerably. It was a remark of Addison, in his Spectator, (No. 200,) that when the wheat harvest exceeds by one-tenth the ordinary consumption, wheat falls one half in price. Dalrymple(35) makes an analogous observation. We must therefore not be astonished, that a slight excess is often taken for an excessive abundance.
This superabundance, as I have already remarked, depends also upon the ignorance of producers or merchants, of the nature and extent of the want in the places to which they sent their commodities. In later years there have been a number of hazardous speculations, on account of the many fresh connexions with different nations. There was every where a general failure of that calculation which was requisite to a good result; but because many things have been ill done does it follow that it is impossible, with better instruction, to do better? I dare predict, that as the new connexions grow old, and as reciprocal wants are better appreciated, the excess of commodities will every where cease; and that a mutual and profitable intercourse will be established. But in the mean time it will. be proper gradually, and as much as the circumstances of each State will permit, to diminish the general and permanent inconveniences which arise from too expensive a production. We must fully convince ourselves that every one will sell his productions more easily, in proportion as others gain; that there is only one way of getting, which is either by our labor or by the labor of the capital and land we possess; that unproductive consumers are only substitutes for productive consumers; that 'the more producers there are the more consumers there are; that for the same reason, each nation is interested in the prosperity of the rest, and that they are altogether interested in having easy communications; for every difficulty is equivalent to an increase of expence.
Such is the doctrine established in my works, and which I confess to you, Sir, does not hitherto appear to me to have been shaken. I have taken up the pen in defence of it, not because it is mine, (What is the sorry self-love of an author in comparison with things of so great importance?) but because it is to a high degree social, that it shows to mankind the source of real wealth, and warns them of the danger of corrupting that source.
The rest of this doctrine is not less useful, in as much as it shows us that capital and land are not productive, unless they become property sacred to the proprietors. That even the poor themselves are interested in defending the property of the rich, and consequently in the maintenance of good order; because a subversion, which never could do more than give them a fleeting prey, would take away from him a constant income. When Political Economy is studied as it ought to be; when we once begin to perceive in the course of this study, that the most wholesome truths rest upon the most certain principles, we have nothing so much at heart as to place these principles within the reach of every comprehension. Do not let us increase their natural difficulties by useless abstractions; do not let us repeat the ridiculous performances of the economists of the 18th century, by endless discussions on the net produce of the earth. Let us describe the mode in which things take place, and explain the chain which connects them. Then our writings will acquire a great practical utility, and the public will be really indebted to those writers who, like yourself, Sir, have so great means of giving them information.
21. The principal obstacles to agricultural improvements in France, are in the first place the residence of rich proprietors and large capitalists in the towns and particularly in an immense capital: they cannot take account of amendments in which they might employ their lands: and they cannot inspect the employment of them so that it may be followed with a corresponding increase of income. In the second place, it would be in vain that any canton in the heart of the country should double its productions, for it ear scarcely get rid of what it already produces, for want of good roads in the neighbourhood and for want of industrious towns within reach. Industrious towns consume rural productions, and manufacture in exchange manufactural productions, which containing greater value in less compass, can be transmitted to a greater distance. This is the chief obstacle to the increase of French agriculture. Small and numerous navigation canals, roads in good condition, would increase the value of rural productions. But to accomplish this. local administration chosen by the inhabitants, whose only care should be the good of the neighbourhood, would be necessary. The possibility of vent exists, but all that may be done to benefit by it is not done. Managers in the interest of the central authority almost all become political or financial' agents, or what is still worse police-agents.
22. Travels in France, vol. 2, page 98, Engl. Edition.
23. This supposition is very admissible, for in England three parts of the population live in towns. and consequently are not employed in country labors. A country therefore which feeds 60 million inhabitants. may be very well cultivate by 15 million cultivators. the number which is computed in France at the present day.
24. The means we have of attaining, are the profits which every one obtains from his industry, his capital. and land. Consumers, who have neither industry, nor capital, nor land, spend what they take away from the profit of the former. In every ease each person has an income which has a limit. and although those persons who have a very large income can sacrifice large sums of money for very trifling pleasures, still it may be conceived the dearer the pleasure the less it is sought after.
25. If he diminishes the quality, it is the same as if he raised the price.
26. New Principles, book iv. chap. 4.
27. The workman can only continue to work so long as he can subsist by his labor; and when his subsistence is too dear, it is not convenient to any enterpriser to employ him. Then it may be said, in Political Economy. that the workman no longer .supplies his productive labor, although he offers it with great earnestness; but this offer is not acceptable on the only durable conditions on which it can be performed.
28. Mr. Ricardo pretends that in spite of taxes and other obstructions, there is always as much industry as capital employed and that all capitals saved are still employed because capitalists will not lose the interest. There are, on the contrary, many savings unemployed on account of the difficulty in employing them, or being employed are lost in consequence of bad management. Besides, Mr. Ricardo is contradicted by what happened to us in 1813, when the faults of the government ruined all commerce, and when interest of money fell so low, for want of good opportunities of employing it — and by what is happening to us at this moment in which the capitals sleep at the bottom of the coffers of capitalists. — The Bank of France alone has 223 millions in specie in its coffers; a sum. more than double the amount of the notes in circulation, and six times greater than prudence warrants to be kept for casual payments.
29. See the report upon the situation of France, made in 1813, by the then Minister of the Interior. He was interested in disguising this decline of commerce
30. Humbolt's Essay on New Spain, vol. iii, page 183.
31. See Malthus's Essay on Population, book ii, chap. 11, of the French translation, and chap. 13 of the 5th English edition.
32. Mr Malthus, still convinced that there are classes who render service to society simply by consuming without producing, would consider it a misfortune if the whole or a great part of the English national debt were paid off. This circumstance would, on the contrary, in my opinion be very favorable for England, because the result would be that the stock-holder, being paid off, would obtain some income from their capitals. That those who pay taxes would themselves spend the 40 millions sterling which they now pay to the creditors of the State. That the 40 million of taxes being taken off, all productions would be cheaper, and the consumption would considerably increase; that it would give work to the laborer, in place of sabre cuts, which are now dealt out to them; and I confess that these consequences do not appear to me of a nature to terrify the friends of public welfare.
33. Page 498.
34. The manufactured labors which a new state can perform to the greatest .advantage, are in general those of preparing matter from its rough state, or inexpensive commerce. It is not probable that the United States will ever furnish Europe with cloth, but they will perhaps furnish it with manufactured tobacco, and refined sugar: and who knows that they will not succeed in establishing cotton manufactories at a cheaper rate than England?
35. Considerations on the Policy of Entails, page 14.