As the doctor draws his profits from _disease_, so does the ship-owner
from the obstacle called _distance_; the agriculturist from that named
_hunger_; the cloth manufacturer from _cold_; the schoolmaster lives
upon _ignorance_, the jeweler upon _vanity_, the lawyer upon _cupidity
and breach of faith_. Each profession has then an immediate interest
in the continuation, even in the extension, of the particular obstacle
to which its attention has been directed.

Theorists hence go on to found a system upon these individual
interests, and say: Wants are riches: Labor is riches: The obstacle to
well-being is well-being: To multiply obstacles is to give food to
industry.

Then comes the statesman; and as the developing and propagating of
obstacles is the developing and propagating of riches, what more
natural than that he should bend his efforts to that point? He says,
for instance: If we prevent a large importation of iron, we create a
difficulty in procuring it. This obstacle severely felt, obliges
individuals to pay, in order to relieve themselves from it. A certain
number of our citizens, giving themselves up to the combating of this
obstacle, will thereby make their fortunes. In proportion, too, as the
obstacle is great, and the mineral scarce, inaccessible, and of
difficult and distant transportation, in the same proportion will be
the number of laborers maintained by the various branches of this
industry.

The same reasoning will lead to the proscription of machinery.

Here are men who are at a loss how to dispose of their petroleum. This
is an obstacle which other men set about removing for them by the