really beneficial to the country; and it will, I think, be allowed, that the wealth which supported the two hundred thousand men, while they were producing silks and laces, would have been more usefully employed in supporting them, while they were producing the additional quantity of food.
A capital employed upon land, may be unproductive to the individual that employs it, and yet be highly productive to the society. A capital employed in trade on the contrary, may be highly productive to the individual, and yet be almost totally unproductive to the society: and this is the reason why I should call manufacturing labour unproductive, in comparison of that which is employed in agriculture, and not for the reason given by the French Œconomists. It is, indeed, almost impossible to see
