第49章

If the muid of wine sells at Brussels for 60 ounces of silver and if we suppose one arpent of vine land produces 4 muids there must be sent to Brussels the produce of 4166?arpents of land to correspond to 100,000 ounces of silver, and about 2000 arpents of pasture and arable for the hay and oats consumed by the cart horses if they are solely employed on this work all the year round. And so there will be about 6000 arpents of land abstracted from the maintenance of Frenchmen, and that of the people of Brabant increased by over 4000 arpents of produce, since the Champagne wine which they drink saves more than 4000 arpents which they would probably use to produce beer for their drink if they did not drink wine. However the lace with which all that is paid for costs the people of Brabant only one quarter of an arpent of flax. Thus with one arpent of produce allied to their labour, the people of Brabant pay for more than 16,000 arpents to the French, their conjoined labour being less. They obtain an increase of subsistence and give only an article of luxury which brings no real advantage to France, since the lace is worn and consumed there and cannot then be exchanged for anything useful. Following the rule of intrinsic values, the land used in Champagne for the production of the wine, the maintenance of the vineyard keepers, the coopers, the cartwrights, farriers, carters, carthorses, etc., ought to be equal to the land used in Brabant for the production of the flax, the support of the spinners and lace makers, and all those who have taken part in the manufacture of this lace.

But if money is more abundant in circulation in Brabant than in Champagne land and labour will be dearer there and consequently, valuing in silver both sides, the French will lose still more considerably.

This is an example of a branch of trade which strengthens the foreigner, lessen the number of inhabitants of the state, and without causing any circulating money to leave it weakens the same state. I have chosen it to show more strikingly how one state may be the dupe of another in trade, and the method of judging the advantages and disadvantages of foreign trade.

It is by examining the results of each branch of commerce singly that foreign trade can be usefully regulated. It cannot be distinctly apprehended by abstract reasons. It will always be found by examining particular cases that the exportation of all manufactured articles is advantageous to the state, because in this case the foreigner always pays and supports workmen useful to the state: that the best returns or payments imported are specie, and in default of specie the produce of foreign land into which there enters the least labour. By these methods of trading states which have very little raw produce are often seen to support inhabitants in great numbers at the expense of foreigners, and large states maintain their inhabitants in greater ease and abundance.

But as great states have no need to increase the number of their inhabitants it is enough to make those who are in it live there on the raw produce of the state with more comfort and ease and to increase the strength of the state for its defence and security. To do so by foreign trade it is needful to encourage as much as possible the export of goods and manufactures of the state in exchange so far as may be for gold and silver in kind.

If by abundant harvest it happened that there was in the state much produce over and above the ordinary annual consumption it would be profitable to encourage the exportation of it in return for its value in gold and silver. These metals do not corrupt and disappear like the produce of the land, and with gold and silver one can always import into the state what is lacking there.

It would not however be profitable to put the state into the annual custom of sending abroad large quantities of its raw produce in return for foreign manufactures. It would be to weaken and diminish the inhabitants and the strength of the state at both ends.

But I have no intention of entering into detail as to the branches of trade which should be encouraged for the good of the state. Enough to say that it should always be endeavoured to import as much silver as possible.

The increase in the quantity of silver circulating in a state gives it great advantages in foreign trade so long as this abundance of money lasts. The state then exchanges a small quantity of produce and labour for greater. It raises its taxes more easily and finds no difficulty in obtaining money in case of public need.

It is true that the continued increase of money will at length by it abundance cause a dearness of land and labour in the state. The goods and manufactures will in the long run cost so much that the foreigner will gradually cease to buy them, and will accustom himself to get them cheaper elsewhere, and this will by imperceptible degrees ruin the work and manufactures of the state. The same cause which will raise the rents of landlords (which is the abundance of money) will draw them into the habit of importing many articles from foreign countries where they can be had cheap. Such are the natural consequences. The wealth acquired by a state through trade, labour and economy will plunge it gradually into luxury. States who rise by trade do not fail to sink afterwards. There are steps which might be, but are not, taken to arrest this decline. But it is always true that when the state is in actual possession of a balance of trade and abundant money it seems powerful, and it is so in reality so long as this abundance continues.