Governments, in the last place, to favour commerce, have granted it bounties and drawbacks. A bounty is a reward which the state decrees to the manufacturer, on account of his goods, which comes to him in the shape of profit. A drawback is a restitution of all the taxes, which a piece of goods had paid, granted to it at the moment of its expor tation. A drawback is perfectly just and reasonable. It leaves the national producer, in the foreign market, on a footing of equality with all his rivals, whilst, if beforehand he had paid a tax in his own country, he could not have sus tained the competition. Bounties are the strangest en couragements which a government can give. They may be justified when granted for the fabrication of an article, the production of which it is necessary to procure at any price : but when granted on exported goods, as often hap pens, government pays merchants, at the expense of its own subjects, that foreigners may buy cheaper than them.
Thus, nearly all the favours which governments confer on trade and manufactures, are contrary even to sound policy or justice; and, judging of them by the law of profit and loss, we should infer, that all this attention, bestowed by government on trade, had done more ill than good. But political economy is, in great part, a moral science. After having calculated the interests of men, it ought also to foresee what will act upon their passions. Ruled, as they are, by self-interest, pointing out their advantage will not he sufficient to determine their pursuit of it. Nations have sometimes need of being shaken, as it were, to be roused from their torpor. The small weight which would suffice to incline the balance, with a calculating people, is not sufficient when that balance is rusted by prejudice and long continued habits. In such a case, a skilful adminis tration must occasionally submit to allow a real and calcu lable loss, in order to destroy an old custom, or change a destructive prepossession. When rooted prejudices have abandoned to disrespect every useful and industrious pro fession, when a nation thinks there can be no dignity ex cept in noble indolence; when even men of science them selves, carried away by public opinion, blush at the useful applications made of their discoveries, and in such appli cations see nothing but what they call the cookery of their sciences; it perhaps becomes necessary to grant favours, altogether extraordinary, to the industry which it is neces sary to create, to fix incessantly the thoughts of a too lively people on the career of fortune which lies before them, intimately to connect the discoveries of science with those of art, and to excite the ambition of those who have al ways lived in idleness, by fortunes so brilliant as, at length, to make them think of what may be accomplished by their wealth and their activity.
It is true, the mercantile capital of a nation is limited in a giv'en time, and those who dispose of it, always desiring to put it out to the greatest advantage, have no need of any new stimulant to augment it, or turn it into the channels where it best produces profit. But all the capital of a na tion is not mercantile. Inclination to idleness, which pub lic institutions have fostered among certain nations, not only binds men, but also fetters fortunes. The same indo
lence, which makes those people lose their time, makes them also lose their money. The annual revenue of terri torial fortunes forms of itself an immense capital, which may be added to or deducted from the sum devoted to sup port industry. In southern countries, the whole revenue of the nobility was annually dissipated in useless pomp; but to Fecal the heads of noble families into activity has likewise been found sufficient to give them habits of economy. The great French or Italian proprietor, becoming manufactu rer, has, at once, given a useful direction to the revenue of his land, by adding his own activity to that of a nation be coming more industrious, and added likewise all the pow er of his wealth, which formerly lay unemployed.
The torpor of a nation may sometimes be so great, that the clearest demonstration of advantages, which it might derive from a new species of industry, shall never induce it to make the attempt. Example, alone, can then awake self-interest. French industry has found, in the single lit tle state of Lucca, more than ten new branches, to employ itself upon, with great advantage both for the country and those who engaged in them. The most absolute liberty was not sufficient to direct attention to these objects. The zeal and activity of the princess Eliza, who called into her little sovereignty several head-manufacturers, who fur nished them with money and houses, who brought the pro duce of their shops into fashion, has founded a more dur able prosperity in a decaying city, and restored to a bene ficent activity much capital and intellect, which, but for her, would forever have remained unemployed.
When government means to protect commerce, it often acts with precipitation, in complete ignorance of its true interests; almost always with despotic violence, which tramples under foot the greater part of private arrange ments; and almost always with an absolute forgetfulness of the advantage of consumers, who, as they form by far the most numerous class, have more right than any other to confound their well-being with that of the nation. Yet it must not be inferred, that government never does good to trade. It is government which can give habits of dissipa tion or economy; which can attach honour or discredit to industry and which can turn the attention of sci entific men to apply their discoveries to the arts : govern ment is the richest of all consumers ; it encourages manu factures by the mere circumstance of giving them its cus tom. If to this indirect influence it join the care of ren dering all communications easy ; of preparing roads, ca nals, bridges ; of protecting property, of securing a fair administration of justice ; if it do not overload its subjects with taxation ; if, in levying the taxes, it adopt no disas trous system,—it will effectually have served commerce, and its beneficial influence will counterbalance many false measures, many prohibitory laws, in spite of which, and not by reason of which, commerce will continue to increase under it.