of the subject by considering the “natural wants of mankind which are to be supplied,” a subject which has since acquired the title of “consumption” in economic treatises. Then he showed that opulence arises from division of labour, and why this is so, or how the division of labour “occasions a multiplication of the product,” and why it must be proportioned to the extent of commerce. “Thus,” he said, “the division of labour is the great cause of the increase of public opulence, which is always proportioned to the industry of the people, and not to the quantity of gold and silver as is foolishly imagined.” “Having thus shown what gives occasion to public opulence,” he said he would go on to consider:—
“First, what circumstances regulate the price of commodities: “Secondly, money in two different views, first as the measure of value and then as the instrument of commerce: “Thirdly, the history of commerce, in which