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greater than it would have been in any old one, and not otherwise. But the existence of this extra profit is always taken for granted, never proved. It may indeed be true by accident: but another thing is taken for granted which is never true: it is, that the whole of the profit made upon the capital, which, instead of being employed in some old trade is employed in this new one, is so much addition to the sum of national profit that would otherwise have been made: What is only transferred is considered as created. If after making 12 per cent, upon a capital of 10,000l. in an old trade, a man made but 10 per cent, upon the same capital in a new trade, who does not see, that instead of gaining 1200l. a year, he, and through him the nation he belongs to, loses 200l. by the change: and so it is, if instead of one such merchant there were a hundred. Instead of this 200l. a year loss, your comités de commerce and boards of trade set down to the national account 1,000l. a year gain: especially if it be to a very distant and little known part of the world, such as a southern whale-fishery, a revolted Spanish colony, or a Nootka Sound: and it is well if they do not set down the whole capital of 10,000l. as gain into the bargain.
