MRS. B

WE mentioned commerce as one of the modes of employing capital to produce a revenue; but deferred investigating its effects until you had acquired some knowledge of the nature and use of money. We may now, therefore, proceed to examine in what manner commerce enriches individuals, and augments the wealth of a country.

Those who engage their capitals in commerce or trade act as agents or middle-men between the producers and the consumers of the fruits of the earth; they purchase them of the former, and sell them to the latter; and it is by the profits on the sale that capital so employed yields a revenue.

There are two distinct sets of men engaged in trade: merchants, who purchase commodities (either in a rude or a manufactured state) of those who produce them: this is called wholesale trade; and shopkeepers, who purchase goods in smaller quantities of the merchants, and distribute them to the public according to the demand: this constitutes the retail trade.

CAROLINE

Trade will no doubt bring a revenue to those who employ their capital in it; but I do not conceive how it contributes to the wealth of the country: for neither merchants nor shopkeepers produce any thing new; they add nothing to the general stock of wealth, but merely distribute that which is produced by others. It is true that mercantile men form a considerable part of the community; but if their profits are taken out of the pockets of their countrymen, they may make fortunes without enriching their country.