who are directly engaged in foreign trade, will feel the benefit of
the importing system. It is of course to be expected, that the
foreign trade of the nation will increase considerably. If it do
not, indeed, we shall have experienced a very severe loss, without
anything like a compensation for it. And if this increase merely
equals the loss of produce sustained by agriculture, the quantity of
other produce remaining the same, it is quite clear that the country
cannot possibly gain by the exchange, at whatever price it may buy
or sell. Wealth does not consist in the dearness or cheapness of the
usual measure of value, but in the quantity of produce; and to
increase effectively this quantity of produce, after the severe
check sustained by agriculture, it is necessary that commerce should
make a very powerful start.

In the actual state of Europe and the prevailing jealousy of our
manufactures, such a start seems quite doubtful; and it is by no
means impossible that we shall be obliged to pay for our foreign
corn, by importing less of other commodities, as well as by
exporting more of our manufactures.

It may be said, perhaps, that a fall in the price of our corn and
labour, affords the only chance to our manufacturers of retaining
possession of the foreign markets; and that though the produce of
the country may not be increased by the fall in the price of corn,
such a fall is necessary to prevent a positive diminution of it.
There is some weight undoubtedly in this argument. But if we look at
the probable effects of returning peace to Europe, it is impossible
to suppose that, even with a considerable diminution in the price of
labour, we should not lose some markets on the continent, for those
manufactures in which we have no peculiar advantage; while we have