The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
By Subject
WEALTH / PRODUCTION OF / MANUFACTURERS
You tell me I am quoted by those who wish to continue our dependence
on England for manufactures. There was a time when I might have been
so quoted with more candor, but within the thirty years which have
since elapsed, how are circumstances changed!
Experience has
taught me that manufactures are now as necessary to our independence
as to our comfort. If it shall be proposed to go beyond our own
supply, the question of '85 will then recur, will our
surplus labor be then most beneficially employed in the
culture of the earth, or in the fabrications of art? We have time yet
for consideration, before that question will press upon us; and the
maxim to be applied will depend on the circumstances which shall then
exist; for in so complicated a science as political economy, no one
axiom can be laid down as wise and expedient for all times and
circumstances, and for their contraries. Inattention to this is what
has called for this explanation, which reflection would have rendered
unnecessary with the candid.
to Benjamin Austin, Esq., 9 January 1816
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