Book III: Chapter 4

CHAPTER IV.

HOW THE COMMERCE OF TOWNS CONTRIBUTED TO THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE COUNTRY.

The increase and riches of commercial and manufacturing towns contributed to
the improvement and cultivation of the countries to which they belonged, in
three different ways :

First, by affording a great and ready market for the rude produce of the
country, they gave encouragement to its cultivation and further improvement.
This benefit was not even confined to the countries in which they were
situated, but extended more or less to all those with which they had any
dealings. To all of them they afforded a market for some part either of
their rude or manufactured produce, and, consequently, gave some
encouragement to the industry and improvement of all. Their own country,
however, on account of its neighbourhood, necessarily derived the greatest
benefit from this market. Its rude produce being charged with less carriage,
the traders could pay the growers a better price for it, and yet afford it
as cheap to the consumers as that of more distant countries.

Secondly, the wealth acquired by the inhabitants of cities was frequently
employed in purchasing such lands as were to be sold, of which a great part
would frequently be uncultivated. Merchants are commonly ambitious of
becoming country gentlemen, and, when they do, they are generally the best
of all improvers. A merchant is accustomed to employ his money chiefly in
profitable projects ; whereas a mere country gentleman is accustomed to
employ it chiefly in expense. The one often sees his money go from him, and
return to him again with a profit; the other, when once he parts with it,
very seldom expects to see any more of it. Those different habits naturally
affect their temper and disposition in every sort of business. The merchant
is commonly a bold, a country gentleman a timid undertaker. The one is not
afraid to lay out at once a large capital upon the improvement of his land,
when he has a probable prospect of raising the value of it in proportion to
the expense ; the other, if he has any capital, which is not always the
case, seldom ventures to employ it in this manner. If he improves at all, it
is commonly not with a capital, but with what he can save out or his annual
revenue. Whoever has had the fortune to live in a mercantile town, situated
in an unimproved country, must have frequently observed how much more
spirited the operations of merchants were in this way, than those of mere
country gentlemen. The habits, besides, of order, economy, and attention, to
which mercantile business naturally forms a merchant, render him much fitter
to execute, with profit and success, any project of improvement.

Thirdly, and lastly, commerce and manufactures gradually