produced and laid in store, but upon his success in finding purchasers
for that commodity.

It is true, therefore, of every particular producer or dealer, that
a great demand, a brisk circulation, a rapid consumption, of the
commodities which he sells at his shop or produces in his manufactory,
is important to him. The dealer whose shop is crowded with customers,
who can dispose of a product almost the very moment it is completed,
makes large profits, while his next neighbour, with an equal capital
but fewer customers, gains comparatively little.

It was natural that, in this case, as in a hundred others, the analogy
of an individual should be unduly applied to a nation: as it has been
concluded that a nation generally gains in wealth by the conquest of a
province, because an individual frequently does so by the acquisition of
an estate; and as, because an individual estimates his riches by the
quantity of money which he can command, it was long deemed an excellent
contrivance for enriching a country, to heap up artificially the
greatest possible quantity of the precious metals within it.

Let us examine, then, more closely than has usually been done, the case
from which the misleading analogy is drawn. Let us ascertain to what
extent the two cases actually resemble; what is the explanation of the
false appearance, and the real nature of the phenomenon which, being
seen indistinctly, has led to a false conclusion.

* * * * *

We shall propose for examination a very simple case, but the explanation
of which will suffice to clear up all other cases which fall within the