While a statesman is thus defending the foreign trade of his country, by an extraordinary operation performed upon the circulation of its wealth, he must at the same time employ the second expedient with equal address. He must be attentive to support sobriety at home, and wait patiently until abuses among his neighbours shall produce some of the inconveniencies we have already mentioned. So soon as this comes to be the case, he has gained his point; the premiums then may cease; the public money may be turned into another channel; or the tax may be suppressed altogether, according as circumstances may require. I need not add, that the more management and discretion is used in such operations, the less jealousy will be conceived by other rival nations. And as we are proposing this plan for a state already in possession of a branch of foreign trade, ready to be disputed by others, having superior natural advantages, it is to be supposed that the weight of money, at least, is on her side. This, if rightly employed, will prove an advantage, more than equal to any thing which can be brought against it; and if such an operation comes to raise the indignation of her rival, it will, on the other hand, reconcile the favour of every neutral state, who will find a palpable benefit from the competition, and will never fail giving their money to those who sell the cheapest. In a word, no private trader can stand in competition with a nation’s wealth. Premiums are an engine in commerce, which nothing can resist but a similar operation. Hitherto we have been proposing methods for removing the inconveniencies which accompany wealth and superiority, and for preserving the advantages which result from foreign trade already established: we must now change sides, and adopt the interest of those nations who labour under the weight of a heavy competition with their rich neighbours, versed in commerce, dextrous in every art and manufacture, and conducted by a statesman of superior abilities, who sets all engines to work, in order to make the most of every favourable circumstance. It is no easy matter for a state unacquainted with trade and industry, even to form a distant prospect of rivalship with such a nation, while the abuses attending upon their wealth are not supposed to have crept in among them. Consequently, it would be the highest imprudence to attempt (at first setting out) any thing that could excite their jealousy.