nt ways. First, by
affording a great and ready market for the rude produce of the country.
Secondly, the wealth acquired by the inhabitants of cities was employed
in purchasing uncultivated lands and in bringing them under cultivation;
for merchants are ambitious of becoming country gentlemen, and when they
do so, are generally the best of all improvers. And lastly, commerce and
manufactures gradually introduced order and good government, and with
them the liberty and security of individuals, among the inhabitants of
the country.

_IV.--The Mercantile System_

From the mistaken theory that wealth consists in money, or in gold and
silver, there has arisen an erroneous and harmful system of political
economy and of legislation in the supposed interests of manufacture, of
commerce, and of the wealth of nations. A rich country is supposed to be
a country abounding in money; and all the nations of Europe have
consequently studied, though to little purpose, every possible means of
accumulating gold and silver in their respective countries. For example,
they have at times forbidden, or hindered by heavy duties, the export of
these metals. But all these attempts are vain; for on the one hand, when
the quantity of gold and silver imported into any country exceeds the
effectual demand, no vigilance can prevent their exportation; and on the
other hand, if gold and silver should fall short in a country, there are
more expedients for supplying their place than that of any other
commodity. The real inconvenience which is commonly called "scarcity of
money" is not a shortness in the medium of exchange, but is a weakening
and diminution of credit, due to over-trading. Money is part of the
national capital, but only a small part and always the most unprofitable
part of it.

The principle of the "commercial system" or "mercantile system" is, that
wealth consists in money, or in gold and silver. It is an utterly untrue
principle. But once it had been established in general belief that
wealth consists in gold and silver, and that these metals can be brought
into a country which has no mines only by the "balance of trade," that
is to say, by exporting to a greater value than it imports, 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 increase as much as possible the exportation of the produce of
domestic industry. Its two great eng