mstances that favour Great
Britain; and that under disadvantages that are also peculiarly great,
give hopes of prolonging the prosperity of the country.

There is still, however, something wanting to increase our advantage.
Any person acquainted with the manufactures of England will
naturally have observed, that they are all such as meet with a market
in this country. We have no mannfactories =sic= for goods, for the
sole [end of page #273] purpose of our foreign markets; so that,
though we consider ourselves as so much interested in foreign trade,
yet we have adapted all our manufacturies, expressly, as if it were to
supply the home market.

This observation will be found to apply very generally, though there
are a few exceptions, and though the quality of the goods
manufactured, and intended for exportation, is adapted to the market
for which they are destined. This last, indeed, is very natural, nor
could it well be otherwise, but that is not going half the length
necessary.

Instead of carrying our goods into a strange country, and trying
whether the inhabitants will purchase, we should bring home patterns
of such articles as they use themselves, and try if we can supply them
with advantage. Nations vary, exceedingly, in taste, and so they
always will. The colour of the stuffs, the figures on printed cottons,
and even the forms of cutlery, and articles of utility, are, in some sort,
matters of taste. If we are to manufacture for other nations, let us try to
suit their taste as we do to suit that of our own people at home. The
reasons why we do not do this are pretty evident. In the first place, it
would not answer the purpose of an individual to procure the
information necessary, and make a collection where the advantage, in
case of success, would be divided with all that chose to imitate them;
besides this, in many cases, the means are wanting to procure what is
necessary.

The study of botany has been greatly advanced, and kitchen gardens
greatly enriched, by the importation of exotic plants; and, probably,
our manufactures might be greatly extended, if the same care were
taken to collect foreign articles, the produce of industry. {210} We do
not find every foreign plant succeed in this country, but if it seems
pro-

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{210} A collection of all sorts of stuffs, with the prices in the country,
where worn, and the same of all sorts of hardware, toys, trinkets, &c.,
should be made, at the public expense, an