the surest means of increasing national prosperity are peace, security, and justice; that jealousy between nations is as prejudicial as between individuals; that each finds its advantage in reciprocal benefits; and that far from growing rich at each other's expense, they mutually assist each other by a liberal system of Political economy is particularly inimical to the envious, jealous, and malignant passions; and if ever peace and moderation should flourish in the world, it is to enlightened views of this science that we should be indebted for the miracle.

commerce.

But, my dear Caroline, I suspect that there is some error in your idea of riches. What do you call

riches?

CAROLINE.

To be rich is to have a great income; to be able to spend a great deal more than other people.

MRS. B.

You speak of the riches of individuals; of comparative wealth. A rich man in one class of society might be poor in another. But this is not the definition that I asked for. What do you understand by riches in general-in what does wealth consist?

CAROLINE.

Oh, I suppose, you mean money?—I should say that wealth consists in gold and silver.

MRS. B.

Consider what would be the situation of a country which possessed no other wealth than money. Do you recollect in what estimation Robinson Crusoe held his

bag of gold, when he was wrecked upon a desert island?

CAROLINE.

True: but in an island which is not desert, money will purchase whatever you want.

MRS. B.

Then I should say that the things which we are desirous to procure with money, such as land, houses, furniture, clothes, food, &c., constitute riches, as well as the money by which they are obtained.

CAROLINE.

Certainly these are clearly the things which constitute real wealth; for unless we could procure the necessaries of life with gold and silver, they would be of no more use to us than lead or iron.

MRS. B.

We may therefore say that wealth comprehends every article of utility, convenience, or luxury. This includes every object of our wishes which can become an article of commerce; such as landed estates, houses, the products of agriculture, those of manufactures, provisions, domestic animals, in a word, whatever has value, and can contribute to the welfare and enjoyment of man.

CAROLINE.

Why should you confine your definition of wealth to things that can become articles of commerce?

MRS. B.

Because there are many countries where the earth

spontaneously produces things which can neither be consumed nor sold; and however valuable such things would be to us, could we obtain them, they cannot, under those circumstances, be considered as wealth. The herds of wild cattle, for instance, which feed on the rich pastures called the Pampas, in South America, are of this description. Many of those extensive tracts of land are uninhabited, and the cattle that range at large over them are of no value there. Parties of hunters occasionally make incursions, and destroy some of them for their hides and fat, whilst the flesh is either left to putrefy on the ground, or is used as fuel to melt the fat for the purposes of tallow, which being transported to places where it can be sold and consumed, it acquires value, and becomes wealth.

CAROLINE.

This can be the case only in wild and uncultivated countries; in those which are civilised, any land yielding unsaleable produce would be converted by the proprietor to some other use.

MRS. B.

I have heard that the fruit of many of the vineyards in France was not gathered some years ago, the grapes being at that time so much reduced in value in consequence of a decree prohibiting the exportation of French wines, that the price at which they could be sold would not pay the expense of gathering them. In England, also, when all kinds of colonial produce were excluded from the continent of Europe, coffee is Isaid to have been thrown into the sea, because it would not pay the charges on being landed. You see, therefore, that the effects of war, or other circum

stances, may for a time, in any country, destroy the value of commodities.

CAROLINE.

How very much you have already extended my conception of the meaning of wealth! And yet I can perceive that all these ideas were floating confusedly in my mind before. In speaking of wealth, we ought not to confine ourselves to the consideration of the relative wealth of individuals, but extend our views to whatever constitutes riches in general, without any reference to the inequality of the division.

MRS. B.

The confusion has arisen from the common practice of estimating riches by money, instead of observing that wealth consists in such commodities as are useful or agreeable to mankind, of which gold and silver constitute but a very small portion.

25

CONVERSATION III.

ON PROPERTY.

LABOUR THE ORIGIN OF WEALTH.-LEGAL INSTITUTION OF PROPERTY.-OF LANDED PROPERTY.-SECURITY THE RESULT OF PROPERTY.-OBJECTIONS TO LANDED PROPERTY ANSWERED.ORIGIN OF NATIONS IN A SAVAGE OR PASTORAL LIFE. THEIR PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURE.-CULTIVATION OF CORN.-RECAPITULATION.

CAROLINE.

WELL, my dear Mrs. B., since you have reconciled me to wealth, and convinced me that the poor can obtain a competence only when the nation is wealthy, I begin to grow impatient to learn what are the best means of obtaining this desirable object.

MRS. B.

Do not leave every thing to me, Caroline; I have told you that you were not without some general notions of political economy, though they are but ill arranged in your mind. Endeavour, therefore, to unravel the entangled thread, and discover yourself what are the principal causes of the production of wealth in a nation.