There is not any one thing in which a nation resembles an individual
so much, as in mercantile transactions; the rule of one is the rule of all,
and the rich individual acts like a rich nation, and the poor one like a
poor nation. The consequences are the same in both cases. The rich
carry on an extensive trade, by means of great capital; the poor, a
limited one, dependant =sic= chiefly on industry; but wherever the
poor persevere in good conduct, they finish by getting the command
of the capital of the rich, and then becoming their rivals.

There is one thing peculiar to the intercourse of rich and poor nations,
in which it differs from the intercourse between rich and poor
individuals in the same country. Money, which is the common
measure of value, has a different price in different countries, and,
indeed, in different parts of the same country. If a man, from a poor
country, carries a bushel of corn with him into a rich, he can live as
long upon it as if he had remained where he was; but if he carry the
money, that would have bought a bushel of corn at home, he perhaps
may not be able to live upon it half so long. {150}

The effect that this produces, in the intercourse between two countries,
is, that in proportion as the difference becomes greater, the rich
country feels it can command more of the industry of the poor, and the
poor feels it can command less of the industry of the rich; so that

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{150} In common life, this difference, between carrying money and
necessaries, is perfectly well understood, but it is experience that is
the teacher; and the rough countryman, or woman, when they have the
opportunity of judging from fact, understand the motives as well as