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Show 410 ON 'tHE I)I~IEDIATE CAUSES [cH. VII. If the mines of America could be successfully worked by n1achinery, and the l(ing of Spain's tax could be increased at will, so as to make the 1nost of this advantage, what a vast tevenue might they not be tnade to afford him ! But it is obvious that the effects of such machinery 'vould sink into insignificance, if the market for the preci"ous metals were confined to the adjacent countries, and the principal effect of it was to throw capital and labour out of employment. In the actual state of things in this country, the population and wealth of Manchester, Glasgow, Leeds, &c. have been greatly incr~asing; because, on account of the extending de1nand for their goods, n1ore people have been continually required to work them up ; but if a much smaller number of people had been required; on account of a saving of labour from machinery, '\vithout an adequate extension of the n1arket, it is obvious that these towns would have been comparatively poor, and thinly peopled. To \Vhat extent the spare capital and labour thrown out of el'nployment in one district \Vould have enriched others, it is impossible to say; and on this subject any assertion n1ay be 1nade, as we cannot be set 1 ight by an appeal to facts. But I \Vould ask, whether . there are any grounds in the slightest degree plausible for saying, that not only the capital spared at any time from these manufactures would be preserved and elnployed elsewhere; but that it would be employed as profitably, and create as much · exchangeable value in other places as it would have done in sEC. V.] OF THE PltOGRESS OF WEALTH. 411 Manchester and Glasgow, "\!Vith an extending market? In short, are there any plausible grounds whatever for stating that, if the twenty rnillions worth of cottons which "\!Ve now export, were entirely stopped, either by successful foreign competition or positive prohibitions, we should have no difficulty in finding employment for our capital and labour equally advantageous to individuals in point of profit, and equally enriching to the country with respect to the. exchangeable value of its revenue? Unquestionably any country has the power of consuming all that it produces, however great in quantity; and every 1nan in health has the power of applying his mind and body to productive labour for ten or twelve hours of the day. But these are dry assertions respecting the powers of a country, \Vhich do not necessarily involve any practical consequences relating to the increase 9f wealth. If we could not export our cottons, it is quite certain that, though we n1ight have the power, we should not have the will, to consume them all in kind at ho1ne; and the maintenance of our national wealth andrevenue,vould depend entirely upon the circumstance whether the capital thrown out of the cotton trade could be so applied as to produce con1modities which would be estimated as highly and consun1ed as eagerly as the foreign goods before imported. There is no magic in foreign 1narkets. The final demand and consutnption tnust always be at home; and if goods could be produced at home, which would excite people to work as many |
