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something else; which may satisfy a part of their wants; and

increase their enjoyments。 By means of it the narrowness of the

home market does not hinder the division of labour in any

particular branch of art or manufacture from being carried to the

highest perfection。 By opening a more extensive market for

whatever part of the produce of their labour may exceed the home

consumption; it encourages them to improve its productive powers;

and to augment its annual produce to the utmost; and thereby to

increase the real revenue and wealth of the society。 These great

and important services foreign trade is continually occupied in

performing to all the different countries between which it is

carried on。 They all derive great benefit from it; though that in

which the merchant resides generally derives the greatest; as he

is generally more employed in supplying the wants; and carrying

out the superfluities of his own; than of any other particular

country。 To import the gold and silver which may be wanted into

the countries which have no mines is; no doubt; a part of the

business of foreign commerce。 It is; however; a most

insignificant part of it。 A country which carried on foreign

trade merely upon this account could scarce have occasion to

freight a ship in a century。

     It is not by the importation of gold and silver that the

discovery of America has enriched Europe。 By the abundance of the

American mines; those metals have become cheaper。 A service of

plate can now be purchased for about a third part of the corn; or

a third part of the labour; which it would have cost in the

fifteenth century。 With the same annual expense of labour and

commodities; Europe can annually purchase about three times the

quantity of plate which it could have purchased at that time。 But

when a commodity comes to be sold for a third part of what had

been its usual price; not only those who purchased it before can

purchase three times their former quantity; but it is brought

down to the level of a much greater number of purchasers; perhaps

to more than ten; perhaps to more than twenty times the former

number。 So that there may be in Europe at present not only more

than three times; but more than twenty or thirty times the

quantity of plate which would have been in it; even in its

present state of improvement; had the discovery of the American

mines never been made。 So far Europe has; no doubt; gained a real

conveniency; though surely a very trifling one。 The cheapness of

gold and silver renders those metals rather less fit for the

purposes of money than they were before。 In order to make the

same purchases; we must load ourselves with a greater quantity of

them; and carry about a shilling in our pocket where a groat

would have done before。 It is difficult to say which is most

trifling; this inconveniency or the opposite conveniency。 Neither

the one nor the other could have made any very essential change

in the state of Europe。 The discovery of America; however;

certainly made a most essential one。 By opening a new and

inexhaustible market to all the commodities of Europe; it gave

occasion to new divisions of labour and improvements of art;

which in the narrow circle of the ancient commerce; could never

have taken place for want of a market to take off the greater

part of their produce。 The productive powers of labour were

improved; and its produce increased in all the different

countries of Europe; and together with it the real revenue and

wealth of the inhabitants。 The commodities of Europe were almost

all new to America; and many of those of America were new to

Europe。 A new set of exchanges; therefore; began to take place

which had never been thought of before; and which should

naturally have proved as advantageous to the new; as it certainly

did to the old continent。 The savage injustice of the Europeans

rendered an event; which ought to have been beneficial to all;

ruinous and destructive to several of those unfortunate

countries。

     The discovery of a passage to the East Indies by the Cape of

Good Hope; which happened much about the same time; opened

perhaps a still more extensive range to foreign commerce than

even that of America; notwithstanding the greater distance。 There

were but two nations in America in any respect superior to

savages; and these were destroyed almost as soon as discovered。

The rest were mere savages。 But the empires of China; Indostan;

Japan; as well as several others in the East Indies; without

having richer mines of gold or silver; were in every other

respect much richer; better cultivated; and more advanced in all

arts and manufactures than either Mexico or Peru; even though we

should credit; what plainly deserves no credit; the exaggerated

accounts of the Spanish writers concerning the ancient state of

those empires。 But rich and civilised nations can always exchange

to a much greater value with one another than with savages and

barbarians。 Europe; however; has hitherto derived much less

advantage from its commerce with the East Indies than from that

with America。 The Portuguese monopolized the East India trade to

themselves for about a century; and it was only indirectly and

through them that the other nations of Europe could either send

out or receive any goods from that country。 When the Dutch; in

the beginning of the last century; began to encroach upon them;

they vested their whole East India commerce in an exclusive

company。 The English; French; Swedes; and Danes have all followed

their example; so that no great nation in Europe has ever yet had

the benefit of a free commerce to the East Indies。 No other

reason need be assigned why it has never been so advantageous as

the trade to America; which; between almost every nation of

Europe and its own colonies; is free to all its subjects。 The

exclusive privileges of those East India companies; their great

riches; the great favour and protection which these have procured

them from their respective governments; have excited much envy

against them。 This envy has frequently represented their trade as

altogether pernicious; on account of the great quantities of

silver which it every year exports from the countries from which

it is carried on。 The parties concerned have replied that their

trade; by this continual exportation of silver; might indeed tend

to impoverish Europe in general; but not the particular country

from which it was carried on; because; by the exportation of a

part of the returns to other European countries; it annually

brought home a much greater quantity of that metal than it

carried out。 Both the objection and the reply are founded in the

popular notion which I have been just now examining。 It is

therefore unnecessary to say anything further about either。 By

the annual exportation of silver to the East Indies; plate is

probably somewhat dearer in Europe than it otherwise might have

been; and coined silver probably purchases a larger quantity both

of labour and commodities。 The former of these two effects is a

very small loss; the latter a very small advantage; both too

insignificant to deserve any part of the public attention。 The

trade to the East Indies; by opening a market to the commodities

of Europe; or; what comes nearly to the same thing; to the gold

and silver which is purchased with those commodities; must

necessarily tend to increase the annual production of European

commodities; and consequently the real wealth and revenue of

Europe。 That it has hitherto increased them so little is probably

owing to the restraints which it everywhere labours under。

     I thought it necessary; though at the hazard of being

tedious; to examine at full length this popular notion that

wealth consists in money; or in gold and silver。 Money in common

language; as I have already observed; frequently signifies

wealth; and this ambiguity of expression has rendered this

popular notion so familiar to us that even they who are convinced

of its absurdity are very apt to forget their own principles; and

in the course of their reasonings to take it for granted as a

certain and undeniable truth。 Some of the best English writers

upon commerce set out with observing that the wealth of a country

consists; not in its gold and silver only; but in its lands;

houses; and consumable goods of all different kinds。 In the

course of their reasonings; however; the lands; houses; and

consumable goods seem to slip out of their memory; and the strain

of their argument frequently supposes that all wealth consists in

gold and silver; and that to multiply those metals is the great

object of national industry and commerce。

     The two principles being established; however; that wealth

consisted in gold and silver; and that those metals could be

brought into a country which had no mines only by the balance of

trade; or by exporting to a greater value than it imported; it

necessarily became the great object of political economy to

diminish as much as possible the importation of foreign goods for

home consumption; and to in

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