第21章

But if any please to strike any of these Things our of the Estimate, I would advise, that those Things should not be raised in the World at all, since 7/8 of Mankind can't be allowed to partake of them.

For high as this Estimate runs, it is not half so much as such a Family will cost in the very next Station of Life above the labouring Mechanick's Rank, whilst at the same time it's certain, as the Prices of Necessaries now are, the labouring Mechanick can hardly earn enough to purchase half these Things.

For whatever Wages a working Man may sometimes earn, 10 or 12Shillings per Week, when all Deductions are made of lost Time for want of Work and Illness, is the utmost one Man with another can get for himself and Family, which being but 26 or 30 l. per annum, is but about half what is necessary for the Support of such a Family, in the meanest Manner it can be decently done.

This therefore shews the Usefulness and Necessity of making the Plenty so much greater, that every thing may be thereby made much cheaper, and there may be more Work to employ the Poor, and their Wants may be better supplied, which will necessarily make so much more Trade and Business amongst others.

This Estimate also shews, that a Principle I have gone upon, and hitherto taken for granted, is true, in the Nature of the Thing itself, viz. that the Wants of Mankind, if fully supplied according to their several Ranks in Life only, are sufficient to give full Employment to all that must get their Living by their Diligence and Labour.

For if 7/8 of the People, were, as they might and ought to be, double the Consumers they are, which, I think, appears by this Estimate; it would rather be a Question, whether Mankind are able to supply all their Wants, than whether the Wants of Mankind are sufficient to give full employment to thost that want it.

And this is an invincible Argument for a free and unrestrained Trade, since if any Nation makes Goods for us, we must be making others for them or some other Nation, and so mutually for each other, provided our Goods are made cheap enough to maintain such Commerce.

And if so, what a Number of People will every Nation thus be able, by means of maritime commerce, with all its Appendages, to sustain, more than any such Nation could do, without this Way of employing and supporting them. For if the people had not this Way to employ them, they must fall into Agriculture for Employment;in which Case, the same Number of People would require a vastly greater Extent of Territory to support them than in the former Case and their Affluence(16*) would in general be vastly less likewise; besides, that such a Nation would not be near so formidable; the Reasons of which I shall endeavour to shew.

If any certain Quantity of Land well cultivated and improved will produce Corn and Cattle, and all other Necessaries for the Use of Man, when only 1/3 of the People, suppose, are immediately employ'd this Way, whilst the other 2/3 are employed in maritime Affairs, and Affairs thereunto relating, and other Vocations: if the People can be so subsisted, as they undoubtedly are, at the same Time that their maritime Commerce is not only so useful, to employ so very great a Part of them, as subsist in any Relation to it, but brings them Gold and Silver, who have no other Way to procure any amongst them, which Gold and Silver, by being made the Medium of all Transactions, circulates swiftly through every Hand, in suitable Proportion to the Business each Particular transacts, leaving also amongst many of them a Surplus, greater than what their particular Occasions require, which constitutes the Wealth of such particulars, and which, when many of the People are thus enriched, constitutes what is called national Affluence; I say, a Nation doth thus become properly affluent, and that includes Strength and Power.

All Interruptions therefore of this Commerce, whilst it continues gainful (i.e. increases the Nation's Cash) will no doubt be allowed to lessen this Affluence, Strength and Power.

Therefore when any Branch of Commerce lessens the Cash of a Nation, I expect it will be thought fit by high Duties or Prohibitions to restrain or suppress it; but this I shall take the Liberty to deny, because it will hence become fit for other Nations to lay such Restraints or Prohibitions, as never to let us have a gainful Trade, if they can help it, it being just so far a losing Trade to them as it's gainful to us; and as maritime Commerce must be, and certainly now is, very much lessened by these mutual Restraints, so many People must have lost their Employment in every such Nation, and where they will find Employment, but in Tillage and Cultivation of Land, I can't imagine; wherefore, if they must employ such, or an equal Number of others this Way, which indeed the rising Generation will best and most naturally supply for that Purpose, as they can't be employed on the Land before cultivated, so it's certain they must have so much larger Territory to support the same Number of People, whereby, as their domestick Trade will languish as their maritime Trade decreases, because domestick Trade doth very much depend on maritime Trade, so their maritime Force will decrease together with them; for the Truth of which, I appeal to Experience and Fact, whether every Nation be not more or less formidable, as their maritime Commerce is more extensive or less considerable; whence it's plain, Affluence and Strength are so connected with the maritime Trade of a Nation, that they must increase or diminish together.

But if every Nation, instead of such Restraints, would make their Produce, etc. cheap enough, which they can always do, and that to the real Advantage of every Part of the Community, their good and cheap Goods would force themselves by these Qualities (which are inseparably connected) on some other Nations at least, and, I think, on them too who endeavour to restrain them, and thus extend as well as preserve their maritime Commerce, and with it their Affluence and Prowess.