BOOK I.
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CHAP. I.

_Introduction and Plan of the Work.--Explanation of what the Author
understands by Wealthy and Powerful Nations, and of the General
Causes of Wealth and Power_.

One of the most solid foundations on which an enquirer can proceed
in matters of political economy, as connected with the fate of nations,
seems to be by an appeal to history, a view of the effects that have
been produced, and an investigation of the causes that have operated
in producing them.

Unfortunately, in this case, the materials are but very scanty, and
sometimes rather of doubtful authority; nevertheless, such as they are,
I do not think it well to reject the use of them, and have, therefore,
begun, by taking a view of the causes that have ruined nations that
have been great and wealthy, beginning with the earliest records and
coming down to the present time. {5}

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{5} Dr. Robertson very truly says, "It is a cruel mortification, in
searching for what is instructive in the history of past times, to find
that the exploits of conquerors who have desolated the earth, and the
freaks of tyrants who have rendered nations unhappy, are recorded
with minute, and often disgusting accuracy, while the discovery of
useful arts, and the progress of the most beneficial branches of
commerce are passed over in silence, and suffered to sink in oblivion."