195. A pack of wool weighing 240 pounds, employs 200 persons, before it is ready for sale, in the form of stuffs, cloths, &c.; to be made into stockings, it will occupy 184 persons for a week; as 10 combers, 100 spinners, winders, &c.; 60 weavers or stocking-makers, besides dyers, pressers, &c.

A sword made of steel, the original metal of which was not worth a shilling, is sometimes sold for 300 guineas; and a watch-chain has produced 50 guineas; the metal of which before it was wrought, was not worth three-pence.

In like manner, a yard of Mechlin-lace will fetch 20 guineas; the flax in which was originally not worth three-pence.

So likewise, a painting, not two yards square, has been valued at 25,000l.; and a shawl, which contains but a few ounces of wool, sells for 60 or 80 guineas.

196. As it is with individuals, so it is with distant nations: what one nation possesses in superfluity, it is desirous to exchange for some article it wants, with any other nation which possesses a superfluity of that article. Anciently, England had tin, wool, and coals, which it exchanged for wines and manufactures.

Obs.-A people, who have no superfluities desirable among other nations, can have no trade, nor can they enjoy any foreign commodities; but if they have such superfluities, they can exchange them, and trade. Gold or silver are superfluities which command trade, and pay the balance of trade, when the goods received exceed the goods delivered. Hence, arises the wealth in gold and silver, of all fruitful and industrious countries.

197. Such was the origin, and such is the principle of foreign commerce. At this day, England manufactures for a large portion of the world, and gives its manufactures in exchange for raw materials; and in some cases for manufactured produce, which is consumed at home, or re-exported.

198. The Phoenicians or Philistines were the first people on record who employed ships to carry the produce and manufactures of one nation to another.

They were followed by the Carthaginians; and these, by the Venetians, Genoese, and Hans Towns.

During the two last centuries, the Portuguese and Dutch divided the trade of the world with the English.

199. The English are not only the greatest manufacturers, but the greatest carriers of produce; and they have had as many merchant-vessels on the seas, as all other nations put together.

200. Besides trading with the remotest nations, the English have established considerable settlements or colonies in Asia, Africa, and America; by means of which, they enjoy the profits of cultivation, in addition to those of monopoly.

201. In Asia, the colonies of the English are Bengal, all the countries on the Ganges, the coasts of Coromandel and Malabar, and the large islands of Ceylon and Sumatra.

From these and neighbouring countries, they bring to Europe spices, silk, rice, tea, muslins, coffee, drugs, perfumes, and precious stones.

202. In Africa, the colonies of England are

the Cape of Good Hope, Goree, Sierra Leone, and forts on the coast of Guinea.

From these, they bring to Europe gold dust, ivory, gums, and drugs.

205. In America, the English provinces of Upper and Lower Canada and Nova Scotia, produce firs, corn, and fish. In the West Indies, England occupies Jamaica, Barbadoes, and many other islands. And in South America, Demarara, Berbice, Guiana, &c.; all which supply sugar, rum, cotton, coffee, spices, drugs, mahogany, sweet-meats, &c.

- 204. These luxuries serve at once to gratify ourselves; and as desirable mediums of exchange for the produce and manufactures of all other countries.

We give them to Russia, for hemp, tar, and tallow:

To Sweden, for copper:

To Norway, for timber:

To Germany, for linen rags and smalts for paper:

To France, for wine and brandy:

To Portugal, for wine:

To Spain, for gold and silver, and fruit:
To Italy, for silk, rags, oil, and fruit:

And to Turkey, for silk, drugs, oil, and coffee. 205. This amazing intercourse, in time of peace, was carried on in about 24,000 vessels of all sizes, carrying three millions of tons burthen, and employing 200,000 seamen.

The trade and manufactures employ, besides, from four to five millions of the inhabitants of

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Great Britain and Ireland; and serve also, to enrich all its inhabitants.

206. Several branches of the foreign trade of England is carried on by subscription-companies; who divide the profits in half-yearly or yearly dividends.

These are the East India Company; which enjoys a monopoly of the trade to Asia:

The Bank of England; for bullion and precious stones:

And the Hudson's Bay Company; which monopolizes the trade in furs from those countries. There are also the nearly extinct Turkey, Russia, African, and South Sea-Companies.

207. The inland or domestic trade of Great Britain and Ireland, is carried on by means of many thousand waggons and stage-coaches; by canals and rivers, which intersect every part of the two islands; and by many hundred coastingvessels, which carry the produce and manufactures of one place to another.

208. The chief ports are London (equal in. trade to all the others,) Liverpool, Bristol, Glasgow, Hull, Falmouth, Dartmouth, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Yarmouth, Lynn, Shields, Leith, Aberdeen, Whitehaven, Swansea, Dublin, Cork, and Waterford.

209. The chief manufacturing towns are Birmingham, Wolverhampton, and Sheffield, for cutlery, and metallic wares.

Manchester, Stockport, Bolton, and Paisley, for calicoes and muslins.

Leeds and Norwich, for woollen cloths.

Nottingham and Leicester, for hosiery. Belfast and Londonderry, for linens. Wilton and Kidderminster, for carpets. Newcastle and Worcester, for china, porcelain, and glass.

210. The United States of America, under the advantages of a long peace, the possession of raw materials of every kind, numerous fine ports, and a free government, are rapidly advancing in the manufacturing system; have numerous ships at sea, and are carrying on an extensive trade with all parts of the world.

211. The trade of most other nations has been ruined by unwise governments, or by political revolutions. That of China, by its immense canals, is the greatest and most advantageous that is carried on in any country in Asia; but, the Chinese have no general foreign trade, except with Japan.

212. The exports and imports of Great Britain have been nearly fifty millions each per annum. The worth of the various merchandize and manufactures in hand, is estimated at 60 millions; and the value of the shipping employed, at about 25 millions.

213. The employments to which so vast a trade gives rise, are, as far as regards the ship, those of the ship-owner, the ship-builder, the copper-smith, the rope-maker, the biscuit-baker, the provision-merchant, the ship-carpenter, the anchor-smith, the mathematical instrument-maker, and the slop-seller.

214. In regard to the cargo of ships, there are