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customer, who would otherwise have got it at that shop, must now directly or indirectly get of you?
I will tell you a great and important, though too much neglected truth. Trade is the child of capital: In proportion to the quantity of capital a country has at its disposal, will, in every country, be the quantity of its trade. While you have no more capital employed in trade than you have, all the power on earth cannot give you more trade: while you have the capital you have, all the power upon earth cannot prevent your having the trade you have. It may take one shape or another shape; it may give you more foreign goods to consume, or more home goods; it may give you more of one sort of goods; or more of another; but the quantity and value of the goods of all sorts it gives you, will always be the same, without any difference which it is possible to ascertain or worth while to think about.—I am a merchant, I have a capital of 10,000l. in trade: Suppose the whole Spanish West Indies laid open to me, could I carry on more trade with my 10,000l. than I do now? Suppose the French West Indies shut against me; would my 10,000l. be worth nothing? If
