Corners of the Earth: We repair our Bodies by
the Drugs of America, and repose ourselves
under Indian Canopies. My Friend Sir ANDREW
calls the Vineyards of France our Gardens; the
Spice-Islands our Hot-beds; the Persians our
Silk-Weavers, and the Chinese our Potters.
Nature indeed furnishes us with the bare Necessaries
of Life, but Traffick gives us greater Variety of what
is Useful, and at the same time supplies us with every
thing that is Convenient and Ornamental. Nor
is it the least Part of this our Happiness, that whilst
we enjoy the remotest Products of the North and South,
we are free from those Extremities of Weather [which
[3]] give them Birth; That our Eyes are refreshed
with the green Fields of Britain, at the same
time that our Palates are feasted with Fruits that
rise between the Tropicks.
For these Reasons there are no more useful Members
in a Commonwealth than Merchants. They knit Mankind
together in a mutual Intercourse of good Offices,
distribute the Gifts of Nature, find Work for the Poor,
add Wealth to the Rich, and Magnificence to the Great.
Our English Merchant converts the Tin of his
own Country into Gold, and exchanges his Wool for
Rubies. The Mahometans are clothed in our
British Manufacture, and the Inhabitants of
the frozen Zone warmed with the Fleeces of our Sheep.
When I have been upon the ’Change, I
have often fancied one of our old Kings standing in
Person, where he is represented in Effigy, and looking
down upon the wealthy Concourse of People with which
that Place is every Day filled. In this Case,
how would he be surprized to hear all the Languages
of Europe spoken in this little Spot of his
former Dominions, and to see so many private Men,
who in his Time would have been the Vassals of some
powerful Baron, negotiating like Princes for greater
Sums of Mony than were formerly to be met with in the
Royal Treasury! Trade, without enlarging the
British Territories, has given us a kind of
additional Empire: It has multiplied the Number
of the Rich, made our Landed Estates infinitely more
Valuable than they were formerly, and added to them
an Accession of other Estates as Valuable as the Lands
themselves.
C.
[Footnote 1: A reference to the Spectator’s
voyage to Grand Cairo mentioned in No. 1.]
[Footnote 2: “these Fruits, in their present
State, as well as our”]
