Benjamin Franklin 1760 
of England. In the next place, a man must know 
very little of the trade of the world, who does not 
know that the greater part of it is carried on between 
countries whose climates differ very little. Even 
the trade between the different parts of these British 
Islands is greatly superior to that between England 
and all the West India Islands put together. 
If I have been successful in proving that a consid- 
erable commerce may and will subsist between us 
and our future most inland settlements in North 
America, notwithstanding their distance, I have 
more than half proved that no other inconveniency 
will arise from their distance. Many men in such a 
couniry must know,” must “think,” and must 
“care’’ about the country they chiefly trad: with. 
The juridical and other connexions of government 
are yet a faster hold than even commercial ties, and 
spread, directly and indirectly, far and wide. Busi- 
ness to be solicited and causes depending create a 
great intercourse, even where private property is not 
divided in different countries; yet this division will 
always subsist where different countries are ruled by 
the same government. Where a man has landed 
property both in the mother country and the pro- 
vince, he will almost always live in the mother coun- 
try. This, though there were no trad., is singly a 
sufficient gain. It is said that Ireland pays near a 
million sterling annually to its absentees in England. 
The balance of trade from Spain, or even Portugal, 
is scarcely equal to this. 
Let it not be said we have no absentees from North 
America. There are many, to the writer's know- 
48