The Causes of Commercial Greatness [pp. 474-488]

476 THE CAUSES OF COMMERCIAL GREATNESS.
they might be buried out of sight, without affecting us materially;
for. as we go North, the power of production becomes feebler, and
the surplus over-production less, until, finally, both cease altogether
and man only produces enough for his own subsistence. As we go
South the case is exactly reversed. Less and less labor is required
to provide against climatic necessities, and hence the more is left for
productive employment, and a large surplus, of course, exists over
consumption. This surplus represents so much labor, and it is the
foundation of all the capital and wealth of the world. From the
earliest times the tropical regions of Asia were cultivated, and its
manufactures produced by vassals, serfs, or slaves. These persons
received but a small share of the products of their labor, and this
being monopolized by the ruling classes in India, laid the foundation
of that trade and commerce which has made that country famous as
the source of wealth. When we consider that for centuries, over
150,000,000 of this subject-population hav.e existed in India, under
the most favorable circumstances of climnate, and themselves enjoying
only a moiety of the results of their incessant labor, we can easily
understand that the apparently fabulous stories of" the wealth of
Ormus and of Ind" were not entirely the result of gross exaggera tions. We lay it down, therefore, as a proposition which is not susceptible of successful contradiction, that the exchange of these iEast
Indian or Asiatic productions has ever formed the basis of the lucrative commerce of Asia and Europe, and that no city in the Eastern
Hemisphere ever rose to the rank of a first class commercial emporium
without it.
India or Hindostan is about the size of the entire area of the
United States. From the earliest ages it has been densely populated, and is supposed now to contain 200,000,000 inhabitants.
When we contrast this vast population with our meagre 30,000,000,
and the great wealth we have accumulated, we can form some idea
of the riches which this people might produce, if they were at all
industrious. But when we consider that at least 150,000,000 of these
are compelled to labor, and that a form of involuntary service has
always existed in India, we can form some idea of the immense commercial results which that country has produced. Its surplus productions, both of raw and manufactured articles, have ever been
enormous. In no place in the world would gold buy so much as in
India. In other words, in no place was labor so cheap. Hence the
articles brought from India yielded an enormous profit to those
merchants or cities monopolizing them. We have no exact data
upon which to base statements as to the profits of the India trade in
ancient times. If we may believe the statements of Pliny, that India
silk, sent to Rome, brought its weight' in gold, we can form some
idea of the profits of the Alexandria merchants who imported it. We
have, however, very positive statistics of the first profits of the India
trade to England. Mr. Thomas Mun, one of the first Directors of
the first British East India Company, in a tract published in 1621,
says that the amount of produce brought from India up to that time