In my letters to Mr.Charles J.Ingersoll, President of theSociety for Promoting Arts and Industries in Philadelphia, of theyear 1828 (entitled, 'Outlines of a New System of PoliticalEconomy'), I tried to explain the advantages of a union of themanufacturing power with agriculture in one and the same country,and under one and the same political power, in the followingmanner.Supposing you did not understand the art of grinding corn,which has certainly been a great art in its time; supposing furtherthat the art of baking bread had remained unknown to you, as(according to Anderson) the real art of salting herrings was stillunknown to the English in the seventeenth century; supposing,therefore, that you had to send your corn to England to be groundinto flour and baked into bread, how large a quantity of your cornwould not the English retain as pay for the grinding and baking;how much of it would the carters, seamen, and merchants consume,who would have to be employed in exporting the corn and importingthe bread; and how much would come back into the hands of those whocultivated the corn? There is no doubt that by such a process theforeign trade would receive a considerable impetus, but it is verydoubtful whether this intercourse would be specially advantageousto the welfare and independence of the nation.Consider only incase of a war breaking out between your country (the United States)and Great Britain, what would be the situation of those whoproduced corn for the English mills and bakehouses, and on theother hand the situation of those who had become accustomed to thetaste of the English bread.Just as, however, the economicalprosperity of the corn-cultivating interest requires that the cornmillers should live in its vicinity, so also does the prosperity ofthe farmer especially require that the manufacturer should liveclose to him, so also does the prosperity of a flat and opencountry require that a prosperous and industrial town should existin its centre, and so does the prosperity of the whole agricultureof a country require that its own manufacturing power should bedeveloped in the highest possible degree.
Let us compare the condition of agriculture in the vicinity ofa populous town with its condition when carried on in distantprovinces.In the latter case the farmer can only cultivate forsale those products which can bear a long transport, and whichcannot be supplied at cheaper prices and in better quality fromdistricts lying nearer to those who purchase them.A larger portionof his profits will be absorbed by the costs of transport.He willfind it difficult to procure capital which he may employ usefullyon his farm.From want of better examples and means of education hewill not readily be led to avail himself of new processes, ofbetter implements, and of new methods of cultivation.The labourerhimself, from want of good example, of stimulus to exertion, and toemulation in the exercise of his productive powers, will onlydevelop those powers inefficiently, and will indulge himself inloitering about and in idleness.
On the other hand, in the proximity of the town, the farmer isin a position to use every patch of land for those crops which bestsuit the character of the soil.He will produce the greatestvariety of things to the best advantage.Garden produce, poultry,eggs, milk, butter, fruit, and especially articles which the farmerresiding at a distance considers insignificant and secondarythings, will bring to the farmer near the town considerable profit.
While the distant farmer has to depend mainly on the mere breedingof cattle, the other will make much better profits from fatteningthem, and will thereby be led to perfect his cultivation of rootcrops and fodder.He can utilise with much profit a number ofthings which are of little or no use to the distant farmer; e.g.
stone, sand, water power, &c.The most numerous and best machinesand implements as well as all means for his instruction, are closeat hand.It will be easy for him to accumulate the capitalnecessary for the improvement of his farm.Landed proprietors andworkmen, by the means of recreation which the town affords, theemulation which it excites among them, and the facility of ******profits, will be incited to exert all their mental and bodilypowers for the improvement of their condition.And precisely thesame difference exists between a nation which unites agricultureand manufactures on its own territory, and a nation which can onlyexchange its own agricultural products for foreign manufacturedgoods.
