It follows also, that luxury is no way detrimental to trade; for we
frequently observe ability and industry exerted to support it.

The practice of the Birmingham manufacturer, for, perhaps, a hundred
generations, was to keep within the warmth of his own forge.

The foreign customer, therefore, applied to him for the execution of
orders, and regularly made his appearance twice a year; and though this
mode of business is not totally extinguished, yet a very different one
is adopted.

The merchant stands at the head of the manufacturer, purchases his
produce, and travels the whole island to promote the sale: A practice
that would have astonished our fore fathers. The commercial spirit of
the age, hath also penetrated beyond the confines of Britain, and
explored the whole continent of Europe; nor does it stop there, for the
West-Indies, and the American world, are intimately acquainted with the
Birmingham merchant; and nothing but the exclusive command of the
East-India Company, over the Asiatic trade, prevents our riders from
treading upon the heels of each other, in the streets of Calcutta.

To this modern conduct of Birmingham, in sending her sons to the foreign
market, I ascribe the chief cause of her rapid increase.

By the poor's books it appears, there are not three thousand houses in
Birmingham, that pay the parochial rates; whilst there are more then
five thousand that do not, chiefly through inability. Hence we see what
an amazing number of the laborious class of mankind is among us. This
valuable part of the creation, is the prop of the remainder. They are