Upon  mercantile  industry  devolves  the  office  of  purchasing
and  collecting  from  the  severcil  producers  and  manufacturers
scattered  all  over  the  globe,  all  the  materials,  and  all  the
finished  or  more  or  less  finished  productions,  the  peculiar  pro-
duce of  the  industry  of  each,  transporting  them  from  places  in
which  they  are  little  wanted,  and  distributing  them  wherever


ON    COMMERCIAL    INDUSTRY.  289

tliey  are  more  in  demand;  holding  them  in  store  till  required
for  use,  and  vending  them  in  proper  quantities^  and  at  season-
able times  ; — the  materials  and  unfinished  goods  to  the  manufac*
turers^  and  the  finished  goods  to  their  proper  consumers;
whether  for  use  or  consumption  as  capital,  or  as  revenue.
In  the  service  which  distributive  industry  performs,  the  quan-
tity of  labour  actually  performed  is  often  but  small,  consisting
in  buying  and  ascertaining  the  quantity  and  quality  of  the  goods
it  circulates,  transporting  them  firom  place  to  place,  keeping  them
in  store,  and  selling  and  conveying  them  to  the  consumers.
But  in  this  duty  which  it  undertakes  in  the  acquisition  of  the
objects  of  industry,  the  intervention  of  capital  is  indispensable,
and  the  sum  which  it  has  to  advance  in  the  performance  of  its
functions,  is  frequently  very  large.  It  is  in  the  use  of  this
capital,  more  than  in  the  actual  work  performed,  that  the
principal  part  of  the  service  rendered  by  this  kind  of  industry
commonly  consists.
