now it is quite different. They purchase on credit,
and draw bills on those to whom they sell, and are continually obliged
to obtain discounts; or, in other words, to borrow money, till the
regular time of payment comes round; they may, therefore, be said to
be trading with the capital of money-lenders, who afford them
discount.
-=-

[end of page #134]

of such, but those persons would not have ventured a single shilling in
a new enterprise. The connection between industry and revenue was
lost in their ideas. They knew nothing of it, and the remnants of the
industrious, who still cultivated the ancient modes of procuring
wealth, were considered as an inferior class of persons, depending
upon less certain means of existence, and generally greatly straitened
for capital, which, as soon as they possessed in sufficient quantity,
enabled them to follow the same example, and to retire to the less
affluent, but more esteemed and idle practice of living upon interest.

In countries where there are nobility, the capital of the commercial
world is constantly going to them, either by marriage of daughters, or
by the other means, which rich people take to become noble. Even
where there are no nobility, the class of citizens living without any
immediate connection with trade consider themselves as forming the
highest order of society, and they become the envy of the others.
There appears to be no means of preventing capital, when unequally
divided, from being invested in the least profitable way that produces
revenue. When more equally divided, it is employed in the way that
produces the greatest possible income, by setting to work and
maintaining the greatest possible quantity of labour.

If there is not sufficient means of employing capital within a nation or
country that has a very unequal division of wealth, there are plenty of
opportunities furnished by poorer nations. Accordingly, every one of
the nations, states, or towns, that has ever been wealthy, has furnished
those who wanted it with capital, at a low interest. Amsterdam has lent
great sums to England, to Russia, and France. The French owed a very
large sum to Genoa at the beginning of the revolution. Antwerp,
Cologne, and every one of the ancient, rich, and decayed towns had
vested money in the hands of foreign nations, or lent to German
princes, or to the great proprietors of land, on the security of their
estates. The American funds found purchasers amongst the