' Essays 43 
enhance their value, will not industrious English 
farmers, hereafter settled in those countries, be much 
better able to pay for what shall be brought them 
in the way of fair commerce? 
If it is asked, What can such farmers raise, where- 
with to pay for the manufactures they may want 
from us? I answer, that the inland parts of America 
in question are well known to be fitted for the pro- 
duction of hemp, flax, potash, and, above all, silk; 
the southern parts may produce olive oil, raisins, cur- 
rants, indigo, and cochineal; not to mention horses 
and black cattle, which may easily be driven to the 
maritime markets, and at the same time assist in 
conveying other commodities. That the commodi- 
ties first mentioned may easily, by water and land 
carriage, be brought to the sea-ports from interior 
America, will not seem incredible, when we reflect 
that hemp formerly came from the Ukraine, the 
most southern parts of Russia, to Wologda, and 
down the Dwina to Archangel; and hence, by a 
perilous navigation, round the North Cape to Eng- 
land and other parts of Europe. It now comes from 
the same country up the Dnieper, and down the 
Duna, with much land-carriage. Great part of the 
Russian ¢ron, no high-priced commodity, is brought 
three hundred miles by land and water from the 
heart of Siberia. Furs (the produce too of America) 
are brought to Amsterdam from all parts of Siberia, 
even the most remote—Kamtschatka. The same 
country furnishes me with another instance of ex- 
tended inland commerce. 
It is found worth while to keep up a mercantile 
~60!