[Sidenote: Whether Settling of Plantations hath been an Advantage.] But before I enter farther thereon, I will consider of one Objection, it having been a great Question among many thoughtful Men, whether the settling our Plantations Abroad has been an Advantage to the Nation; the Reasons they give against them are, That they have drained us of Multitudes of our People, who might have been serviceable at Home, and advanced Improvement in Husbandry and Manufactures; that this Kingdom is worse peopled, by so much as they are increased; and that Inhabitants being the Wealth of a Nation, by how much they are lessened, by so much we are poorer, than when we first began to settle those Colonies. To all which I answer; that though I allow the last Proposition to be true, that People are the Wealth of a Nation, yet it can only be so, where we find Imployment for them, otherwise they must be a Burthen to it: ’Tis my Opinion, that our Plantations are an Advantage to this Kingdom, though not all alike, but every one more or less, as they take off our Product and Manufactures, supply us with Commodities, which may be either wrought up here, or exported again, or prevent fetching things of the same Nature from other Places for our Home Consumption, employ our Poor, and encourage our Navigation; for I take this Kingdom, and all its Plantations, to be one great Body, those being as so many Limbs or Counties belonging to it; therefore when we consume their Growth, we do as it were spend the Fruits of our own Land; and what thereof we sell to our Neighbours, brings a second Profit to the Nation.