Page:The wealth of nations, volume 2.djvu/214

 thousand pounds of English gold, in the same manner, purchase French wine which in England is worth a hundred and ten thousand, this exchange will equally augment the capital of England by ten thousand pounds. As a merchant who has a hundred and ten thousand pounds' worth of wine in his cellar is a richer man than he who has only a hundred thousand pounds' worth of tobacco in his warehouse, so is he likewise a richer man than he who has only a hundred thousand pounds' worth of gold in his coffers. He can put into motion a greater quantity of industry, and give revenue, maintenance and employment to a greater number of people than either of the other two. But the capital of the country is equal to the capitals of all its different inhabitants, and the quantity of industry which can be annually maintained in it is equal to what all those different capitals can maintain. Both the capital of the country, therefore, and the quantity of industry which can be annually maintained in it, must generally be augmented by this exchange. It would, indeed, be more advantageous for England that it could purchase the wines of France with its own hardware and broadcloth, than with either the tobacco of Virginia, or the gold and silver of Brazil and Peru. A direct foreign trade of consumption is always more advantageous than a roundabout one. But a roundabout foreign trade of consumption, which is carried on with gold and silver, does not seem to be less advantageous than any other equally roundabout one. Neither is a country which has no mines, more likely to be exhausted of gold and silver by this annual exportation of those metals than one which does not grow tobacco by the like annual exportation of that plant. As a country which has wherewithal to buy tobacco will never be long in want of