interest of this third order, therefore, has not the same connexion with the
general interest of the society, as that of the other two. Merchants and
master manufacturers are, in this order, the two classes of people who
commonly employ the largest capitals, and who by their wealth draw to
themselves the greatest share of the public consideration. As during their
whole lives they are engaged in plans and projects, they have frequently
more acuteness of understanding than the greater part of country gentlemen.
As their thoughts, however, are commonly exercised rather about the interest
of their own particular branch of business. than about that of the society,
their judgment, even when given with the greatest candour (which it has not
been upon every occasion), is much more to be depended upon with regard to
the former of those two objects, than with regard to the latter. Their
superiority over the country gentleman is, not so much in their knowledge of
the public interest, as in their having a better knowledge of their own
interest than he has of his. It is by this superior knowledge of their own
interest that they have frequently imposed upon his generosity, and
persuaded him to give up both his own interest and that of the public, from
a very simple but honest conviction, that their interest, and not his, was
the interest of the public. The interest of the dealers, however, in any
particular branch of trade or manufactures, is always in some respects
different from, and even opposite to, that of the public. To widen the
market, and to narrow the competition, is always the interest of the
dealers. To widen the market may frequently be agreeable enough to the
interest of the public ; but to narrow the competition must always be
against it, and can only serve to enable the dealers, by raising their
profits above what they naturally would be, to levy, for their own benefit,
an absurd tax upon the rest of their fellow-citizens. The proposal of any
new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order, ought always
to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never to be adopted till
after having been long and carefully examined, not only with the most