It is, then, wealth arising from industry, that is the object to be aimed at, and that cannot be obtained by war or conquest. The purpose is not advanced, but retarded, by such contests; and if those, who rule nations, would condescend to enter into the merits of the case, they would find, not only that the happiness of the people, and every purpose at which they aim, would be better answered than by contesting about the means of wealth, which, consisting in internal industry, does not admit of a transfer. One nation may be ruined, and another may rise, (as, indeed, they are continually doing,) but one nation does not rise merely by ruining another; the wealth of a nation, like the happiness of an individual, draws the source from its own --- {221} From both the East and West Indies, England never has, till within these last ten years, drawn three millions a year, that could be termed profit or gain, and, even in the last and most prosperous times, not eight millions, which is not equal to more than one-twentieth part of the produce of national industry at home. Even the foreign commerce of England, except so far as it procures us things we want, in exchange for things we have to spare, is not productive of much wealth. Supposing the balance in our favour to be six millions a year, which it has never uniformly been, it would only amount to one- twenty-fourth of our internal productive industry. In short, we gain five times as much by a wise division of labour, the use of machinery, ready and expeditious methods of working, as by the possession of both the Indies!!! -=- [end of page #293] bosom. The possession of all the Indies would never make an indolent people rich; and while a people are industrious, and the industry is well directed, they never can be poor. It is to be hoped, that the time is fast approaching, when nations will cease to fight about an object that is not to be obtained by fighting, and that they will seek for what they want, by such means as are safe and practicable. [end of page #294] ====== INDEX. ====== ****************************************************************** [Transcriber's note: the original work itself omits the page references in the many instances where there is a trailing comma.] ****************************************************************** [=sic=--no section heading in original] ABSOLUTE monarchy, in some particular instances, has an advantage over limited monarchy; particularly in preventing the infringement made by corporate bodies or professions on the public, 117, 118, 119. AGES, middle, commerce made slow progress during them, 3.--What places flourished in them, 44 to 50. AGE, golden, the tradition, if that founded in any thing, must have been a very ignorant one, though very happy, 214.