166 
POLITICAL ECONOMY 
own type is inferior. Finally, commerce first 
taught nations to see with good-will the 
wealth and prosperity of one another. Before, 
the patriot, unless sufficiently advanced in 
culture to feel the world his country, wished 
all countries weak, poor, and ill-governed, but 
his own ; he now sees in their wealth and 
progress a direct source of wealth and pro 
gress to his own country. It is commerce 
which is rapidly rendering war obsolete, by 
strengthening and multiplying interests which 
are in natural opposition to it. And it may 
be said without exaggeration, that the great 
extent and rapid increase of international 
trade, in being the principal guarantee of the 
peace of the world, is the great permanent 
security for the uninterrupted progress of the 
ideas, the institutions, and the character of 
the human race.” 
How far, if at all, in certain circumstances 
the regulation or restriction of foreign trade 
is to be recommended in the interest of 
national wealth or health, is a question which 
raises issues too vast for discussion in this 
book.