317 Recognized very early by _Ad. Contzen_, Politicorum, Lib. VIII, C. 10 (1629). 318 This did not escape the notice of Frederick II. _Von Raumer_, Hohenstaufen, III, 535. _ 319 Condillac_ acknowledges the productive power both of industry and of commerce; and that the service rendered by the state is at least economically indispensable. (Le Commerce et le Gouvernment, 1776, I, 6, 7, 10.) _Beccaria_, Economia pubblica (1769 ff.), IV, 4, 24. _Boisguillebert_ (ob. 1714), Sur la Nature des Richesses, illustrated the utility of commerce by the picture of a number of men bound to pillars, one hundred steps apart, one with a superabundance of food but naked, a second with a superabundance of fuel, a third with a superabundance of clothing etc.; all of whom perish, because unable to exchange their respective surpluses with one another. According to _Lotz_, Revision, I, 217, “buying dear,” apart from real fraud, means only a decrease of possible gain. _ 320 Verri_, Meditazioni, XXIV, instead of calling the merchant productive, calls him a mediator between producers and consumers. It would be just as reasonable to call the shoemaker a mediator between the production and consumption of leather; or the cloth merchant, who cuts the material from the piece, an assistant preparatory to the tailor. The labor of commerce is especially like that of the fisherman or the turf digger, because they produce only in so far as they transfer goods from inaccessible to accessible places. See, however, _Rau_, Lehrbuch, I, § 103. See the demonstration of the productive power of commerce in general, as well as of what is, by way of preference, called industry, in _Ad. Smith_, W. of N., IV, ch. 9. A much more fundamental refutation of the Physiocratic Principle is to be found in _Jacob_, N. Œk., 204 ff. 321 In 1843, about 55,000 tons of ice were shipped from Boston. Less than 25 cents per ton was paid for the ice in the first instance. When packed on board ship, it was worth $2.55 per ton. The ultimate sale brought $3,575,000. Ausland, 1844, No. 278. The ancients were acquainted with a similar production of ice, the value in exchange of which might be almost entirely reduced to the labor of commerce. See _Xenoph._, Memor., II, I, 30; Athen. III 97: Proverbs of Solomon, 25, 13. 322 W. of N., ch. 3. See, however, _Garnier’s_ French translation of Ad. Smith, Préf. p. IX and V, note 20. Similarly, _Malthus_, Principles, ch. 1, Lect. 21. Definitions, ch. 7, 10.