Page:The Effects of Civilisation on the People in European States.djvu/88

66 use do they put it? It would, therefore, have been precisely the same thing if they had received a greater number of articles, provided they had suited their purpose, so as to have made the accounts even in the first instance. But this is a matter not much connected with my subject.

All articles that are exported may be looked upon as of prime use; for, whatever these articles might be, however refined and unnecessary, yet the labour that produced them, if otherwise directed, would produce those articles that are of prime use and necessity. Hence, whatever manufactures any states export, however superfluous to them, they are to be considered in an opposite light. We have, therefore, no occasion to examine the nature of the things which are exported.

But, with respect to the articles imported, the case is otherwise: they must be all examined by the rule laid down, though it is, in this place, only possible to examine a very small number of them.

The chief parts of the world, from whence are procured the great importations to Europe, are the East and West Indies, Spanish America, Turkey, &c. &c. From these places are drawn tea, silks, muslins, china, gold, rum, sugar, &c. &c. The other articles imported from all these and other places are, in general, like those specified, such as administer to refinement in dress, equipage,