 for encouraging Manufacturers to persevere in their Industry, and improve in their Arts, by a ready Conveyance and Sale of all their Redundancies, neither Want nor Superfluity could find Place upon Earth.
All this is quite clear and self-evident, Mr.
Meekly,
but how to procure this ready Sale is the Question.
Your Lordship must allow that the Way to procure it would be to bring Barterers and Commuters, Buyers and Sellers! All who mutually want and mutually abound, together. For this is the End and Purpose of every Market upon Earth.
Now, in
Great Britain
and
Ireland,
and in all Continents or inland Countries, the several Deserts, Mountains, Marshes, and other Obstacles, with the Difficulty, Danger, and Toil of Travel, and the great Expense of Land Carriage, have utterly precluded all Commerce and Communication to any considerable Extent. Insomuch that it would be easier and cheaper to convey a Commodity, of any Burden, to either of the
Indies,
than from many Parts of
Great Britain
or
Ireland
to Others, by Land.
While God appears to separate the several Nations of the Earth from Each other, by the Intervention of Seas, Lakes, and Rivers, he hath actually and intimately united them thereby.
WATER serves to the Art and Navigation of Man, as Air serves to the Wings of the feathered Species. It is the easy and speedy Medium, the ready Conduit and Conveyance, whereby all Redundancies are carried, and all Wants supplied. It makes Man, as it were, a Denizen of every Country on the Globe. It shortens every Distance, and ties the remotest Regions together. It carries and communicates the Knowledge, the Virtues, Manufactures, and Arts of each Climate to All. It gives new Springs and Motives to Industry, Action, and Invention. It gives a general Importance to the meanest Manufacturer. It gives to each Man an Interest in whatever is done upon Earth, the Productions of every Region, and the Tribute of every Nation.
Now,
China
and
Holland
are the only Countries upon Earth, who have considerably availed themselves of this capital Benefit of Water-Carriage, or Water-Commerce; and therefore they are, incomparably, the most populous and most prosperous of all Countries in the World.
China,
as your Lordship knows, extends from under the Tropic of
Cancer
to about thirteen hundred Miles
North,
and thereby contains within itself all the Variety of Climate, and Degrees of Heat and Cold, that are requisite for the sundry Productions upon Earth. Inspired by some Forecast, or Sagacity, not imparted to the rest of Mankind,
