ers became wearied or ashamed of the task,
their porter, a menial servant, would act the part of teller."[67]

Of the Political Economy Club, founded by this able man, we know
nothing except what Dr. Carlyle tells us, and the only other member of
it besides Smith and Cochrane whose name Carlyle mentions is Dr.
Wight, Professor of Ecclesiastical and Civil History. But it met once
a week all the thirteen years Smith resided in Glasgow, and must have
discussed many commercial problems during that time. We know, indeed,
some of the principal practical questions which were then agitating
the minds of Glasgow merchants, and may be sure those, at least, would
be among the questions discussed at the club. Some of them concerned
the removal of trade restrictions, but the restrictions which those
Glasgow merchants were anxious to remove were restrictions on the
import of raw materials for their manufactures, such as iron and linen
yarn, and manufacturers, of course, are not necessarily free-traders
because they want free import of raw materials. That was advocated as
strongly from the old mercantilist standpoint as it is now from the
free-trade one; it was merely sanctioning a little addition to our
imports in order to produce a much greater addition to our exports.

In 1750 we find Provost Cochrane in correspondence with Smith's
friend, James Oswald, M.P., concerting parliamentary action for the
entire removal of the import duty on American iron. The Glasgow
ironworks--the nailery, as it was called--with which Mr. Cochrane was
connected used at that time 400 tons of iron in the year, and the iron
had to be all imported at a high price from Russia and Sweden, because
the native ores of Scotland were not then discovered, and American
iron, by an iniquitous piece of preferential legislation in favour of
the English manufacturer, was allowed to come duty free into English
but not into Scotch seaports. Cochrane wants Oswald to get the law
amended so as to "allow bar iron from our colonies to be imported to
Scotland duty free." "It would," he says, "save our country very great
sums, and no way hurt the landed interest. It would lower the price of
iron, and consequently of all our manufactures, which would increase
the consumpt and sale; it would serve for ballast to our ships from
North America, and when tobacco is scarce, fill up part of the
tonnage; would increase our exports, and no way interfere with our
neighbours in the South."