wn pieces. If they are hungry, they want bread; if
naked, clothing; if they are ill, they must have remedies; if they are
cold, they want shelter and fuel; if they would learn, they must have
books; if they would travel, they must have conveyances--and so on. The
riches of a country consist in the abundance and proper distribution of
all these things. Hence you may perceive and rejoice at the falseness of
this gloomy maxim of Bacon's, "_What one people gains, another
necessarily loses_:" a maxim expressed in a still more discouraging
manner by Montaigne, in these words: "_The profit of one is the loss of
another._" When Shem, Ham, and Japhet divided amongst themselves the
vast solitudes of this earth, they surely might each of them build,
drain, sow, reap, and obtain improved lodging, food and clothing, and
better instruction, perfect and enrich themselves--in short, increase
their enjoyments, without causing a necessary diminution in the
corresponding enjoyments of their brothers. It is the same with two
nations.

B. There is no doubt that two nations, the same as two men,
unconnected with each other, may, by working more, and working better,
prosper at the same time, without injuring each other. It is not this
which is denied by the axioms of Montaigne and Bacon. They only mean to
say, that in the transactions which take place between two nations or
two men, if one gains, the other must lose. And this is self-evident, as
exchange adds nothing by itself to the mass of those useful things of
which you were speaking; for if, after the exchange, one of the parties
is found to have gained something, the other will, of course, be found
to have lost something.

F. You have formed a very incomplete, nay a false idea of exchange. If
Shem is located upon a plain which is fertile in corn, Japhet upon a
slope adapted for growing the vine, Ham upon a rich pasturage,--the
distinction of their occupations, far from hurting any of them, might
cause all three to prosper more. It must be so, in fact, for the
distribution of labour, introduced by exchange, will have the effect of
increasing the mass of corn, wine, and meat, which is produced, and
which is to be shared. How can it be otherwise, if you allow liberty in
these transactions? From the moment that any one of the brothers should
perceive that labour in company, as it were, was a permanent loss,
compared to solitary labour, he would cease to exchange. Exchange brings
with it i