AH that lives is stimulated by one universal passion-the desire to experience, to multiply, and to prolong, agreeable sensa tions. Man in particular, constantly seeks to improve his condition. This passion accounts for the existence of commerce, as for the existence of every other social phenomenon, whether beneficial, or destructive.

The commercial value of a commodity may be considered as fixed, at every given place, and period. Every article, if it sell at all, has its price. But the differences of relative value are endless.

If the price of a good watch, for instance, be a hundred dollars, and I purchase one for that price, it is obvious that I attach my self a greater importance to the possession of the watch, and the seller to that of the money; otherwise the transaction would not take place. On the other hand, it must take place, as soon as we meet, and come to a mutual explanation, since he feels less anxi ous to retain the watch, which I covet, than to become the owner of my hundred dollars, which I am willing to part with.

A man, returning from a long journey, and wishing to enjoy repose at home, may no longer have occasion for his horse. His neighbour, perhaps, is just preparing for a journey, and tries to find a horse, on which he can depend. If both happen to sec each other, and discover how they stand mutually affected, the one will necessarily part with his horse, the other with his money, without either being impelled by any peculiar trading instinct; and both will be the better for having done so.

The difference of the relative value of commodities, therefore, or, in other words, the different degrees of consequence, attached by various individuals to their possession, is the prompter to all commercial intercourse. The thing acquired, is always preferred by the receiver, to the thing parted with in exchange; and both parties to the transaction generally are gainers.

It is further obvious, that the amount of their respective gains, is in exact proportion to the degree of difference in the relative value of the things exchanged.

To a manufacturer, the relative value of the commodities he brings to market, is simply equal to the expence incurred for procuring the raw material, the quantum of labour bestowed on it, and the interest of the capital employed. These items make up what the articles cost him; and as he made them for sale, no particular importance can be attached, by him, to their possession. If their relative value with the consumers is very great, he will, of

course, be able to obtain for them an excellent price. The better the price, which he is able to obtain, the greater will be his advantage. For either, less labour will be sufficient to provide for his wants, if these be circumscribed; or, the unabated, usual exertions, will the more surely, and rapidly, procure him wealth,

Thus we see, that the profits of mercantile transactions arise from the difference of the relative value of the commodities exchanged; among which we must not forget to include the circulating medium itself.

Whoever, therefore, produces any commodity, or causes it to be produced by the labour of others, or acquires the products of labour for money, with a view to dispose of them again, must be anxious to exchange them with those, with whom their relative value is the highest. The better he succeeds in this, the more will his exertions, generally speaking, be beneficial to himself, and to the state.

We have now to ask, in what situation the differences of relative value are likely to be greatest,-Whether when the members of a community trade only among themselves, or, when they exchange their productions with foreign nations?

But, diversity of relative value, arises from diversity of taste, habits, talents, skill; from peculiarities of the soil occupied; from conveniences of locality; from the nature, and quantity, of spontaneous productions at hand; from the difference of climate, of government, of the state of civilization, &c. &c.-These must exhibit stronger contrasts between distant nations, than between individuals of the same political family. Therefore foreign commerce, considered abstractly, that is, barely in reference to gain, must, unquestionably, be more beneficial than domestic commerce.

I shall shew more fully in what the advantages of foreign commerce chiefly consist; and what a country sacrifices by relinquishing, or neglecting, the intercourse with distant nations.†

* Patterns and commodities, are more frequently new, abroad, than at home, and novelty always induces an increased relative value; but novelty in commerce is momentary only; and accidental: for so soon as a new article is found to fetch an extraordinary price, the market becomes always stocked, generally glutted with it. Foreign commerce therefore, reasoning in the abstract, has no permanent beneficial qualification over home trade. When we recur to matter of fact, the argument falls at once to the ground: for wheneyer foreign becomes sensibly more beneficial than home trade, it draws to itself capital, that brings on the usual level. T. C.

†The question is not, whether foreign commerce ought to be relinquished or neglected, but whether the citizens who pursue it, have a right to protec~

Foreign commerce is beneficial

1. Because it brings into operation the advantages which may be derived from the different value of the precious metals, in different countries.

The precious metals, now the general medium of circulation in the civilized world, may be considered, as possessing a fixed value, in the same country, at the same period, which is solely regulated by the proportion of their supply, to the exigencies of the public. But their value is by no means the same in all countries. In one, money may be scarce, while it abounds in another. The home-value of money, at each time, is settled; its relative national value, at the same time, is various. This is one cause of the difference of prices of commodities in different countries; a difference giving birth to favourable exchanges, renouncing the benefits of which will be lost to a nation renouncing foreign trade

The precious metals abound in Mexico, whilst our manufacturers, and mechanics, excell in skill and knowledge, those of that country. Even our flour, so readily transported, is more within reach of the people at Vera Cruz, than their own, which descends to them, on the back of mules, from the plains producing it, six thousand feet above their level. † Our cabinet ware, our saddlery, our flour, and many other commodities, might, of course be favourably exchanged for silver at that place. With this silver we might procure East India muslins, teas, nankeens, and china-very detion at great distances from the national territory at an expence which no reasonable calculation of commercial gain can ever repay-and at the perpetual hazard of war, induced by commercial monopoly, commercial jealousy, and commercial fraud. Especially, as these have notoriously proved during a century and a half, the most sure and productive causes of modern warfare. It is not pretended by any person whatever, so far as I know, that foreign commerce should be either abandoned or neglected, while it can be safely, and productively pursued-without involving the consumers at home, in the expence and deprivation attendant upon commercial hostilities, to protect the speculation, and ensure the profits of the merchants abroad. T. C.

* The commerce depending upon fluctuations in the value of bullion in Europe (even since the depreciation of paper currency in England) is so trifling as to be perfectly insignificant in a national point of view. The course of exchange depends, not on the relative values of bullion; which influence it but in a slight degree; it depends on the right of one nation to draw on another for the balance of mercantile transactions. T. C.

† Alexander de Humbold, Political Essay, on the kingdom of New Spain.

sirable commodities, the enjoyment of which we must forego,* if we stay at home.

2. Because it brings into full, and extensive operation, productive of wealth-all the advantages peculiar to a country, physical, as well as intellectual and moral.

Without foreign trade, every natural, or attained advantage of a country, however great, or peculiar, is only improvable commensurately with the consuming capacity of its inhabitants.

If Pennsylvania, for instance, contained an abundance of clay, flint, and other materials for pottery, superior in quality to any other in the world, the Pennsylvania pottery would not, on that account, if never exported, command any extraordinary price at home. Nothing can procure an advantage in exchange that is common to all. From the supposed abundance of the good material, and the necessary effects of competition, the pottery would be brought to market at the lowest price, at which it could be afforded, so as to yield a living to those engaged in the business. But, if the sales of Pennsylvania pottery, from the preference given to the ware, extended to all the civilized portions of the earth, it might so happen that the supply could not keep pace, with a demand so vast, which would cause an increase of price, and a greater proportionate gain.† Or, if the supply kept pace with the demand, and the prices remained unaltered-still thousands of potters would owe a comfortable subsistence to the clay, instead of a few hundred only, whom the business at most could have supported without exportation.

Nor would other trades be deserted, on account of the great

Not at all: the nations who have them, will bring them to us, if we have wherewithal to pay for them. Are not we ourselves so anxious to export these articles, that our merchants complain incessantly of Great Britain who will not permit us to sell them in the West Indies for Rum and Sugar, in Holland for Gin, in Italy for Anchovies and Olives, and so on? T. C.

All these supposed advantages of foreign commerce, proceed upon the supposition, not of reasonable, but unreasonable gain: a circumstance that always and inevitably, works its own destruction. Or, of an over-populated country, that calls for every possible exertion and every source of employment to keep its inhabitants from starving. This may be the case in England, but cannot be so here for a long time to come. Nor is it true, that what is common to all, can procure no advantage in exchange. Labour judiciously and industriously bestowed, can give exchangeable value to any material however common, in the home as well as in the foreign trade. Connecticut can sell her tubs, her onions, her coffins, even in the United States: so can Rhode Island her straw bonnets, her cotton twist, her home made woollen, &c. T. C.

numbers required for the potteries. Men appear as they are wanied. And all the potter's needs must eat, and be lodged, and clothed.

Besides potters, what a large number of other people-carriers, packers, dray-men, brokers, merchants, underwriters, shipbuilders —what a host of artists, and tradesmen, concerned in furnishing the materials for ships, and in equipping them-all would more or less, derive support and affluence from the clay.* For, if our pottery, in the supposed case, were exported in our own vessels, the foreign consumer, besides the labour of the potters, and the value of the materials, would have to pay the merchant's commission, the merchant's profit, small charges, insurance, and freight—which items are included in the price the exported article must bring abroad. If it did not bring this price, the exportation would discontinue.

Further in consequence of all this industry which the clay puts in motion-what a mass of additional livers, to consume, and give value, to the produce of the farmer.

We have no such clay in Pennsylvania. But, does the same reasoning not apply to every article which we are in the habit of exporting; to our flour, to our pork, to our flax seed? Do they not all bring abroad their cost, and the enumerated charges! Does it not strictly apply to the cottons, the tobacco, the tar and turpentine of the south? to the fish, and the potash of the north t

All this is very true; but is there no method of employing the same number of people and the same quantity of capital in the home trade? The case put, of a Potter, is a very unfortunate one; for so far from wanting an export trade for our pottery, we do not supply the 1000th part of our own consumption in pottery, except of the very coarsest and least valuable kind. When the time shall arrive, if it ever do, that no employment for our people or our capital remains at home, then it may be worth discussion whether we may not as well encourage employment from abroad by direct means, and at any hazard. At that period of time, and not sooner, will the argument in favour of the direct encouragement of foreign commerce really become a subject of important discussion. T. C.

I see no difficulty in manufacturing a great part of our flax seed into linen-of our cotton into cloathing, and carpets, and sail cloth, and bagging— our potash into soap and glass, and employ it in bleaching and dying. If we did so, our flour and our pork would not spoil upon our hands. But in this, as in all other particulars, the question is, can you manufacture it, or export it, to the greatest advantage? If you can export it to more advantage, do so; but do not tax us, the consumers, with the expence and inconvenience of a war to defend your gains in the export trade, when no such expence or inconventis