A Discourse on Trade, and Other Matters Relative to itCary, John
History
A Discourse on Trade, and Other Matters Relative to it
Cary, John
Great Britain -- Commerce -- Early works to 1800; Great Britain -- Commercial policy -- Early works to 1800
To understand this rightly, let us begin with the Shop-keeper, or Buyer
and Seller, who is the Wheel whereon the inland Trade turns, as he buys
of the Importer and Manufacturer, and sells again to the Country; suppose
this Man spends two hundred Pounds _per Annum_, in all Things necessary
for himself and Family, as Provisions, Cloaths, House-Rent, and other
Expences, the Question will be, what Part of this is laid out in Flesh,
Corn, Butter, Cheese, &c. barely considered according to their first cost
in the Market? I presume fifty or sixty Pounds _per Annum_ to be the
most, whereon the Advance to him will not be so much, by keeping up our
Product to a good Rate, as the Profits which will consequently arise in
his Trade will amount unto: For by this Means the Farmer will be enabled
to give a better Rent to his Landlord, who may then keep a more plentiful
Table, spend more Wine, Fruit, Sugar, Spices, and other Things wherewith
he is furnished from the City, suit himself and his Family oftner, and
carry on a great Splendor in every Thing; the Farmer according to his
Condition may do the same, and give higher Wages to the Labourers
imployed in Husbandry, who may then live better, and buy new Cloathes
oftner, instead of patching up old ones; by this means the Manufacturers
will be encouraged to give a better Price for Wool and Labour, when they
shall find a Vent as fast as they can make; and a Flux of Wealth causing
a Variety of Fashions, will add Wings to their Inventions, when they
shall see their Manufactures advanced in their Values by the Buyer’s
Fancy; this likewise will encourage the Merchants to encrease their
Exports, when they shall find a quick Vent for their Imports; by which
regular Circulation, Payments will be short, and all will grow rich; but
when Trade deadens in the Fountain, when the Gentlemen and the Farmers
are kept low, every one in his Order feels it: It being most certain, and
grounded on the Observation of all Men who have lookt into it, that in
those Countries where Provisions are Cheap, the People are generally
Poor, both proceeding from the want of Trade; so that he who will give a
right Judgment in this Matter, must not consider Things only as they
offer themselves at the first Sight, but as they will be in their
Consequences.
As to the other Part of _Great Britain_, called _Scotland_, I can say
little with Relation to this Matter, my Knowledge of that part of the
Kingdom being not sufficient to enable me to do it: But I am apt to
believe, that the same general Maxim must hold good there also, _viz._
That the Rates of Labour must be according to the Prices of Provisions,
and those according to the Rents of the Lands.
[Sidenote: The Poor.]
Having thus gone through the State of the Nation with respect to its
Trade, I will next consider it with respect to the Poor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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