But an investigation of all these particulars would extend far beyond the bounds which I have prescribed myself.I purpose, therefore, to confine myself to two of them, and to limit the subject of this book to show that the legislator may operate with advantage to the community, 1st.in the transfer of foreign arts to his own country; 2d, in applying to useful purposes funds which would otherwise be dissipated in luxury.
CHAPTER I.OF THE OPERATIONS OF THE LEGISLATOR IN BRINGING THE ARTS OFFOREIGN COUNTRIES TO HIS OWN.
When we examine the arts practised by the members of any of the numerous societies, among whom the surface of the earth is divided, we find that there are very few which have arisen among themselves.Unless in some rare instances, they have been all brought from abroad.Inventions appearing at various points in their rude elementary state, have gradually spread themselves far and wide, and, as they have spread, have improved.These passages from place to place, seem to have been generally brought about by violent causes -- by wars, internal disturbances, and revolutions.(156) But, as society assumes a more settled form, it is to be hoped that reason will rise superior to force, and that changes produced by violence will diminish; that wars and tumults will become less frequent, or will altogether cease, and that thus a great portion of the evils which have afflicted humanity will be removed.But if the direct evils brought about by the reign of violence, be removed by the ascendency of reason over passion, must the indirect good also produced by it be abandoned? or, is it not the place of the intellectual part of our nature, watching in this, as in other instances, the progress of events, so to influence that progress, as that the good may be brought to pass, the evil prevented?
The answer to these questions is, I conceive, too obvious to require a formal enunciation.If this be the case, it would not seem necessary to recommence a discussion concerning the apparent propriety of assistance being in many instances given by the legislator to the passage of the useful arts from country to country.This, as a general practical conclusion, must be granted.The question again resolves itself into particulars, and the investigations of the political economist, would seem to be confined to the tracing out, from the principles of his science, rules determining when the passage of any art is practicable, and when the benefits derived from it will exceed, or fall short of the necessary expense of effecting the passage.It is not my intention to attempt a full discussion of these various particulars.It will be sufficient for the object in view, to enumerate the general advantages which such transfers produce, and to state some of the chief circumstances Favorable, and some of the others adverse to their success.
When these measures are completely successful, that is, when the commodity, the product of the art in question, comes to be made at the same cost in the country to which its manufacture is transferred, as in that from which it comes, or at less cost than there, the advantages which the community derives from them are various, but, as concerns commodities, not luxuries, may be reduced to three heads.
1.The saving of the expense of transport of the foreign commodity.
This, as has been already noticed, is often very great.(157) It may be remarked, too, that some articles are so perishable, or so difficult of transport, that they cannot enter into the system of exchange of two societies.They are produced, or may very easily be produced in the progress of the construction and exhaustion of other instruments, but from its being found very difficult or impracticable to transport them to places where they might be exchanged for valuable commodities, they want the whole, or a great part of the utility they would there possess.A farmer, for instance, in the interior of some great agricultural country, say North America, has almost always a large mass of commodities which are nearly, or altogether, valueless to him.Great part of the timber he cuts down he is obliged to burn up on the ground, and much of the produce of his orchard, of his dairy, and of his poultry yard and garden, is either entirely, or in a great measure, lost.No little part of the direct produce of the farm, is also lost.His working cattle are idle for weeks or months in the course of the year, and any superabundance of the more bulky articles, such as turnips, potatoes, oats, or hay, lies nearly useless on his hands.
When a manufacturing village is established in his neighborhood, all such productions become valuable, and are transferred to the artisan, and master manufacturer, as returns for the products of their art.The pine of the forest goes to build their houses, the maple, the hitch, and the walnut to make furniture for them, all potatoes and other vegetables of the sort, that can be spared, are consumed by them as articles of food, the working cattle get employed at all times, and there are none of the returns of the industry of the agriculturist, but find a ready market.The advantages hence resulting to the parts of the country where the new art fixes itself, may be estimated by observing the great rise in the value and rent of land which follows it.We have also a good measure of them, in the difference between these in the neighborhood of manufacturing towns and villages, and in places distant from them.
The direct effect, therefore, of these general and partial improvements, is to carry instruments, generally or partially throughout the community, to orders of quicker return, and so increase the absolute capital of the society.
