and derive
from trade, so it is true, and, indeed, it cannot well be otherwise,
that many of the younger branches of our gentry, and even of the
nobility itself, have descended again into the spring from whence they
flowed, and have become tradesmen; and thence it is, that, as I said
above, our tradesmen in England are not, as it generally is in other
countries, always of the meanest of our people.

Indeed, I might have added here, that trade itself in England is not, as
it generally is in other countries, the meanest thing the men can turn
their hand to; but, on the contrary, trade is the readiest way for men
to raise their fortunes and families; and, therefore, it is a field for
men of figure and of good families to enter upon.

N.B. By trade we must be understood to include navigation, and foreign
discoveries, because they are, generally speaking, all promoted and
carried on by trade, and even by tradesmen, as well as merchants; and
the tradesmen are at this time as much concerned in shipping (as owners)
as the merchants; only the latter may be said to be the chief employers
of the shipping.

Having thus done a particular piece of justice to ourselves, in the
value we put upon trade and tradesmen in England, it reflects very much
upon the understanding of those refined heads, who pretend to depreciate
that part of the nation, which is so infinitely superior in number and
in wealth to the families who call themselves gentry, or quality, and so
infinitely more numerous.

As to the wealth of the nation, that undoubtedly lies chiefly among the
trading part of the people; and though there are a great many families
raised within few years, in the late war, by great employments, and by
great actions abroad, to the honour of the English gentry; yet how many
more families among the tradesmen have been raised to immense estates,
even during the same time, by the attending circumstances of the war,
such as the clothing, the paying, the victualling and furnishing, &c,
both army and navy! And by whom have the prodigious taxes been paid, the
loans supplied, and money advanced upon all occasions? By whom are the
banks and companies carried on?--and on whom are the customs and excises
levied? Have not the trade and tradesmen born the burden of the
war?--and do they not still pay four millions a-year interest for the
public debts? On whom are the funds levied, and by whom the public
credit supported? Is not trade the inexhausted