Moreover, there is happily extant a relic of the correspondence which Smith carried on as financial adviser to ministers. In the year 1778 Ireland was in a terrible plight. In addition to all the evils of a minority rule, she suffered as a whole from a commercial persecution by the predominant partner. Her trade had been deliberately and malevolently throttled by the superior legislature of Great Britain. At that time Irish wool could be exported to no country save Great Britain. Irish woollens could only be exported from specified ports in Ireland to specified ports in Great Britain. All export of Irish glass was absolutely prohibited. Worst of all, she was not allowed to send her staple article—cattle—or even salt provisions to the English market. And she was excluded from the colonial trade. Even so cool a political hand as Henry Dundas (then Lord Advocate), writing to Smith at the end of October 1779, confessed that he has been shocked at the tone and temper of the House of Commons in its dealings with Ireland’s prayers for elementary justice. But the Irish Parliament was now demanding free trade in tones too peremptory to be ignored, for they were backed by a threatening display of armed force. Dundas saw little objection to acceding to some of the requisitions; but he had no very clear grasp of the economics of the situation, and being in correspondence with Eden, the Secretary of the Board of Trade, he wanted an expert opinion from the Seer of Edinburgh. Smith replies that the Irish demand should be satisfied, first, because it is just; second, because it will be for the benefit of English consumers; and lastly, because English manufacturers will suffer so much less than the nation, and the national revenue, will gain. Dundas had seemed to be rather afraid that with cheaper labour and lower taxes the Irish manufacturers might be able to undersell their British competitors. Smith pointed out that they had neither the skill nor the stock [capital] to enable them to do so; “and though both may be acquired in time, to acquire them completely will require more than a century.” Besides, Ireland had neither coal nor wood; “and though her soil and climate are perfectly suited for raising the latter, yet to raise it to the same degree as in England will require more than a century.”