which from the same sources have been inflicted on the meritorious men by whom they have been discovered or invented! Of these, history affords too numerous and too sad recitals. The interests of industry call as much for security and exemption from violence and restraint acting in defiance of law as when acting in accordance with it.

In conclusion, it may be asked, What then should be the object of government as regards industry? To this the answer is plain. To let it alone; and rather to free it from the shackles with which an ignorant policy has trammelled its exertions, than to hamper it still further, or attempt to regulate its action. Is it to remove every obstruction, and open the widest and most uninterrupted field of exertion, consistent with the security and good of the community; allowing equal freedom to all; by repressing fraud and violence, and securing to every one the possession and full enjoyment of liberty and property. Such are the great and happy features of modern national economy, as distinguishing it from that of earlier times.

CHAPTER X.

ON THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF INDUSTRY, AND THE MODE OF THEIR OPERATION.

THE endless variety of human wants and wishes requires an almost equally endless number of different kinds of labour for their supply and gratification. In an advanced state of society these different kinds of labour become established into distinct and separate employments. Each contributes its part to our supply, and is essential to the completeness and perfection of the whole. Whether or not every one of them conduces to public wealth, or to what extent it so conduces, is not now the question. Its being essential to the complete satisfaction of our wants, or its affording objects of desire, not prejudicial to health or morals, for the attainment of which men are ready to make

equal or greater sacrifices than for other objects, is sufficient to include it, either immediately or collaterally, within our subject, and to warrant the inquiry, how such objects may be procured by the community in the most ample measure, and with the least sacrifice; in order to promote the general happiness,the only rational object.

Though, however, the different kinds of industry devoted to the acquisition of the necessaries and conveniences of life, and which the division of labour establishes into separate employments, are exceedingly numerous and varied, they may all, for the purposes of our inquiries, be conveniently classed under four general heads.

1. Appropriative industry; or that which is applied to the mere collecting or appropriating those original and mostly rude productions which nature spontaneously furnishes, without any human intervention. 2. Agricultural industry; or that which is applied to direct the productive operations of the soil, so as to increase the quantity and improve the quality of the useful vegetable and animal productions, which nature only yields in abundance and excellence of quality, when its creative agency is managed by man. 3. Manufacturing industry; or that which is applied to the working up the original, and more or less rude, productions, acquired through the two former kinds of industry, into forms suited for use; to manipulate them, through all their stages of progress, from the earliest and rudest to the last and most highly finished state, for the formation of objects adapted to our wants and wishes. 4. and last. Distributive or commercial industry; or that which is applied to the collection, interchange, and conveyance of commodities, in all their separate stages, amongst the producers and manufacturers, in their progress towards completion, and eventually in the supply in their finished state to the consumers. Under these four general heads, will be noticed all that it seems proper further to observe on the peculiar manner in which the different kinds of industry respectively contribute to the supply and gratification of human wants and wishes.

If the inquiry be made, which of the different employments is the most advantageous to society, we answer, that this cannot

be always the same, but must be different at different times, according to the difference of existing circumstances, and subject to constant fluctuation with every change in those circumstances. At one time, one branch of industry may be most advantageous, and at another time, another branch. An individual may at one time be more in want of food than of clothing, or any other article of necessity or convenience, and, in such case, the industry which supplies him with food must be the most advantageous to him: at another time, amply supplied with food, he may require clothing more than anything else; and, in this case, the industry by which clothing is acquired must be the most beneficial to him. So it is with a nation. And the kind of industry which offers the greatest national advantage, is usually indicated by its procuring to the individuals engaged in it the highest reward. If industry be free, such highest paid kind must at all times, and under every circumstance, be the best for the society. By this highest reward to the individual, however, must be understood, not the highest wages or profits that can be acquired for short intervals of employment with long intervals passed without employment, or on sales of but small quantities of goods when large quantities cannot be sold at the same rate of profit; but it is that which yields high wages and profits with full employment and a brisk trade. This highest rewarded branch of industry is the most advantageous to the society in two ways. The welfare of the society being made up of the welfare of its separate members, this branch, as most beneficial to the particular individuals engaged in it, must be most beneficial to the society to which they belong. The interest of the society consists, not only in continuing to employ these individuals in this branch of industry, but most probably in its employing a much larger number. The effect of employing a greater number of persons in this branch will be, first of all, to multiply the products of their industry, which in fact exist in too great scarcity to be consistent with the interest of the consumers; and, secondly, to make them cheaper, and bring their price down to the common level of other things. When high wages and profits in particular trades are acquired, they are acquired somewhat to the injury of the rest

of the community; for it is the public interest that no class should be paid higher than another; that no workman should be obliged to pay for the labour of others a higher reward than he gains for his own. But the only means of reducing to the common level the rate of reward in the over-remunerated classes, is by increasing the competition, through inducing more workmen to engage in them, until the scanty supply of their products may be made equally abundant and cheap with the products of other kinds of labour. On the other hand, that occupation must always be the least advantageous to society, which affords the lowest remuneration to the persons engaged in it. It is the least advantageous for the two opposite reasons: first, the weakness, poverty, and misery of the workmen engaged in it, contribute to the weakness of the state; through their inability to contribute to the public expenses, and through their being frequently a burthen on the other members. Secondly, these workmen are generally without full employment, through the overburthened state of the market for their produce; and their remaining without employment, diminishes the whole produce of the national industry below what it would be, if better directed, and, consequently, more fully employed.

CHAPTER XI.

APPROPRIATIVE INDUSTRY.

THE appropriation of the spontaneous productions of nature must have been the first species of industry exercised by man; and is still, though not the greatest in magnitude, yet the first in the order for the supply of our wants; as well as the foundation of all the others. Nothing can be prepared for consumption, or applied in any way to minister to our wants, until it is drawn from the original storehouse of nature. Manufactures, agriculture, and commerce, never could have existed, if we had

not previously appropriated the materials and implements by which they are respectively carried on.

The appropriation of the spontaneous gifts of nature, constitutes the principal species of industry exercised in the rude and early period of society which is denominated the hunting or savage state. This kind of industry, however, continues to be carried on through all the subsequent stages of improvement; though in advanced periods it furnishes a comparatively trifling proportion of our supply. In these periods, the chase, instead of being, as in the savage state, a principal source of subsistence, is almost entirely followed for amusement; and the application of labour and capital to the appropriation of nature's spontaneous gifts principally consists in fishing and mining. These are, no doubt, of considerable importance. The former enlarges the means of subsistence; and the latter, in supplying us, amongst other things, with the metals, and particularly with iron, furnishes the most powerful instruments for future production.

Appropriative industry, as it is that species which is the principal occupation in the early and rude periods of society, is also the natural employment of poor nations. Requiring a smaller quantity of capital than any other to furnish its workmen with the means of following their occupation, it is that kind of industry which is most of all advantageous for those nations which have little capital; while it is least so for rich nations that over-abound in wealth, and for whose capital there can scarcely

be found sufficient profitable employment. Yet we find,

amongst the richest nations, that fishing has been one of those occupations which a mistaken policy has regarded as most important, and which accordingly has been most cherished by every species of encouragement that could be devised; such as privileges, protections, and bounties; and about which the most bitter rivalry and animosities amongst maritime nations have arisen.

The quantity of the spontaneous gifts of nature which in any community can be rendered serviceable to man, will be determined by the same circumstances as affect the productiveness of every other kind of industry; namely, the fertility of the land, mines, and fisheries, the quantity of labour employed, the de