at too great a distance to be supplied with manufactures from some other part,) is therefore to be deemed useless to the whole; I shall endeavour to show, that these imaginary limits of utility, even in point of commerce, are much too narrow. The inland parts of the continent of Europe are farther from the sea, than the limits of settlement proposed for America. Germany is full of tradesmen and artificers of all kinds, and the governments there are not all of them always favorable to the commerce of Britain; yet it is a well-known fact, that our manufactures find their way even into the heart of Germany. Ask the great manufacturers and merchants of the Leeds, Sheffield, Birmingham, Manchester, and Norwich goods; and they will tell you, that some of them send their riders frequently through France or Spain, and Italy, up to Vienna, and back through the middle and northern parts of Germany, to show samples of their wares, and collect orders, which they receive by almost every mail to a vast amount. Whatever charges arise on the carriage of goods are added to the value, and all paid by the

consumer.

If these nations, over whom we can have no government, over whose consumption we can have no influence, but what arises from the cheapness and goodness of our wares, whose trade, manufactures, or commercial connexions are not subject to the control of our laws, as those of our colonies certainly are in some degree; I say, if these nations purchase and consume such quantities of our goods, notwithstanding the remoteness of their situation from the sea; how much less likely is it, that the settlers in America, who must for ages be employed in agriculture chiefly, should make cheaper for themselves the goods our manufacturers at present supply them with; even if we suppose the

carriage five, six, or seven hundred miles from the sea as difficult and expensive, as the like distance into Germany; whereas in the latter, the natural distances are frequently doubled by political obstructions; I mean the intermixed territories and clashing interests of princes.*

But when we consider, that the inland parts of America are penetrated by great navigable rivers; and there are a number of great lakes, communicating with each other, with those rivers, and with the sea, very small portages here and there excepted; † that the sea-coasts (if one may be allowed the expression) of those lakes only amount at least to two thousand seven hundred miles, exclusive of the rivers running into them, many of which are navigable to a great extent for boats and canoes, through vast tracts of country; how little likely is it, that the expense on the carriage of our goods into those countries should prevent the use of them. If the poor Indians in those remote parts are now able to pay for the linen, woollen, and iron wares they are at present furnished with by the French and English traders, though Indians have nothing but what they get by hunting, and the goods are loaded with all

Sir C. Whitworth has the following assertion; "Each state in Germany is jealous of its neighbours; and hence, rather than facilitate the export or transmit of its neighbour's products or manufactures, they have all recourse to strangers."-State of Trade, p. xxiv. — B. V.

From

From New York into Lake Ontario, the land-carriage of the several portages altogether amounts to but about twenty-seven miles. Lake Ontario into Lake Erie, the land-carriage at Niagara is but about twelve miles. All the lakes above Niagara communicate by navigable straits, so that no land-carriage is necessary, to go out of one into another. From Presqu' Isle on Lake Erie, there are but fifteen miles land-carriage, and that a good wagon-road, to Beef River, a branch of the Ohio; which brings you into a navigation of many thousand miles inland, if you take together the Ohio, the Mississippi, and all the great rivers and branches that run into them.

C*

the impositions fraud and knavery can contrive to enhance their value, will not industrious English farmers, hereafter settled in those countries, be much better able to pay for what shall be brought them in the way of fair commerce?

If it is asked, What can such farmers raise, wherewith to pay for the manufactures they may want from us? I answer, that the inland parts of America in question are well known to be fitted for the production of hemp, flax, potash, and, above all, silk; the southern parts may produce olive-oil, raisins, currants, indigo, and cochineal; not to mention horses and black cattle, which may easily be driven to the maritime markets, and at the same time assist in conveying other commodities. That the commodities first mentioned may easily, by water and land carriage, be brought to the sea-ports from interior America, will not seem incredible, when we reflect, that hemp formerly came from the Ukraine, the most southern parts of Russia, to Wologda, and down the Dwina to Archangel; and thence, by a perilous navigation, round the North Cape to England and other parts of Europe. It now comes from the same country up the Dnieper, and down the Duna, with much land-carriage. Great part of the Russia iron, no high-priced commodity, is brought three hundred miles by land and water from the heart of Siberia. Furs (the produce too of America) are brought to Amsterdam from all parts of Siberia, even the most remote, Kamtschatka. The same country furnishes me with another instance of extended inland commerce.

It is found worth while to keep up a mercantile communication between Pekin in China, and Petersburg. And none of these instances of inland commerce exceed those of the courses by which, at several periods, the whole of the trade of the East was carried on. Before

the prosperity of the Mameluke dominion in Egypt fixed the staple for the riches of the East at Cairo and Alexandria, (whither they were brought from the Red Sea,) great part of those commodities were carried to the cities of Cashgar and Balk. This gave birth to those towns, that still subsist upon the remains of their ancient opulence, amidst a people and country equally wild. From thence those goods were carried down the Amû (the ancient Oxus) to the Caspian Sea, and up the Wolga to Astrachan; from whence they were carried over to and down the Don, to the mouth of that river; and thence again the Venetians directly, and the Genoese and Venetians indirectly, by way of Kaffa and Trebisond, dispersed them through the Mediterranean and some other parts of Europe.

Another part of those goods was carried over land from the Wolga to the rivers Duna and Neva; from both they were carried to the city of Wisbuy in the Baltic (so eminent for its sea-laws); and from the city of Ladoga on the Neva, we are told, they were even carried by the Dwina to Archangel; and from thence round the North Cape. If iron and hemp will bear the charge of carriage from this inland country, other metals will, as well as iron; and certainly silk, since three pence per pound is not above one per cent on the value, and amounts to twenty-eight pounds per ton. If the growths of a country find their way out of it, the manufactures of the country where they go will infallibly find their way into it.

They who understand the economy and principles of manufactures know, that it is impossible to establish them in places not populous; and, even in those that are populous, hardly possible to establish them to the prejudice of the places already in possession of them. Several attempts have been made in France and Spain,

countenanced by government, to draw from us, and establish in those countries, our hardware and woollen manufactures; but without success.

The reasons are various. A manufacture is part of a great system of commerce, which takes in conveniences of various kinds; methods of providing materials of all sorts, machines for expediting and facilitating labor, all the channels of correspondence for vending the wares, the credit and confidence necessary to found and support this correspondence, the mutual aid of different artisans, and a thousand other particulars, which time and long experience have gradually established. A part of such a system cannot support itself without the whole; and before the whole can be obtained the part perishes. Manufactures, where they are in perfection, are carried on by a multiplicity of hands, each of which is expert only in his own part; no one of them a master of the whole; and, if by any means spirited away to a foreign country, he is lost without his fellows. Then it is a matter of the extremest difficulty to persuade a complete set of workmen, skilled in all parts of a manufactory, to leave their country together, and settle in a foreign land. Some of the idle and drunken may be enticed away; but these only disappoint their employers, and serve to discourage the undertaking. If by royal munificence, and an expense that the profits of the trade alone would not bear, a complete set of good and skilful hands are collected and carried over, they find so much of the system imperfect, so many things wanting to carry on the trade to advantage, so many difficulties to overcome, and the knot of hands so easily broken by death, dissatisfaction, and desertion, that they and their employers are discouraged together, and the project vanishes into smoke.

Hence it happens, that established manufactures are