The manufactures of former times had been confined chiefly to
luxuries for the great, and simple necessaries for slaves; and
commerce, though productive of great wealth to a few, was in its
limits equally confined.

---
{66} For the dates see the chart, and for their effects, chap. i. book ii.
[Transcriber's note: See in the Chart "Mariners Compass
/Gunpowder/Printing Invented 1300-1400"].
-=-

[end of page #73]

It was natural that the two nations which had first discovered the
passage to the East, and the continent of the West, which abounded
with the precious metals, should become rich and powerful, as those
cities had formerly done that possessed exclusively the channels of
commerce. Those two countries were Spain and Portugal; but here
again we find the same fatality attend the acquisition of wealth that
had formerly been remarked. It was, indeed, not to be expected, that
the steadiness and virtue of the Spaniards and Portuguese could resist
the operation of a cause, that neither the wisdom of the Egyptians; the
arts and industry of Greece, nor the stubborn and martial patriotism of
the Romans could withstand.

Those two nations soon sunk, and the Dutch, the French, and the
English, became participators of the commerce.

Manufactures were a new source of wealth, almost unknown to the
ancient world. Those begun first to be set in activity in Flanders, then
in Holland and France, and, last of all, in England; but, like
commerce, and every other means by which wealth is acquired, they
have a tendency to leave a country. The cause and the effect are at
variance, after a certain time; and though we cannot illustrate this
from history, as we may the migrations of wealth arising from other
sources, the tendency appears of the same nature, though with this
difference; that men may always labour for themselves, and enjoy the
fruits of their labours, though they cannot always find the means of
being the carriers to other nations, or becoming merchants.

This alteration in the nature of wealth; the inventions of mankind; the
alterations brought on by the facility of communicating knowledge;
the systematical manner in which men pursue their interests, and other
changes: give reason to hope that, in the present situation of things,
those possessions may be rendered permanent, that have hitherto been
found to be so evanescent and fugitive.

Where wealth has not been wrested from a country by absolute force,
(in doing