Notwithstanding the readiness with which the pro­jects for making wine and silk have been received by the numerous class of wine drinkers, and fond ones for no­velty, I, though a wine drinker, have not yet been able to reconcile them to my poor judgment; however fashionable it may have been to embrace and promote them. On the contrary, some reflections in consequence of the hints in the foregoing extract, have determined me, with a view to the public permanent happiness, to declare my disapprobation of them.

It is a principle of sound prudence, whenever in mat­ters of government, law and commerce, any material alteration is proposed, that you beware of latent conse­quencies—be jealous of new establishments—look forward, and consider how flattering soever appearances are, what probably may be the mischievous tendency [Page 5]of such new ^† projects when adopted. It is often better to drudge on in a temperate and middle state, than to aim at too much.

The proposed cultivations are intended to introduce wine and silk as an American staple; and should the at­tempt be crowned with success, their produce may, for a while, yield considerable profit to individuals; provi­ded the hand of power should not by imposts, or some other way, clogg and burden it. That there is at least one other way, my friend has shewn by the intimation, that our English brethren would tie us up from selling to any but themselves, as is actually the case of tobac­co, and many other articles of American land produce, which are already heavily burthened with duties in En­gland. We have no assurance it would not be clogged; and if we had, it might become a question how far those who have recently committed repeated breaches of pub­lic faith, are entitled to our confidence, in a matter of so great importance as the parting with what is essential to our being.

The first and great essential in life is bread. When­ever we shall surrender that—throw away the sickle for the pruning knife and silk reel; for the making fine wines and fine silk materials for our task-masters, that they may more readily besot and bedeck themselves; and in the end, through our pinching necessities, which must follow, govern us with a bit of bread, then may they tax at pleasure and command like true musselmen. We should have but little spirits to claim, much less support constitutional rights, and it would be as ridiculous to talk of them, as it would be for the meagre Spaniard or Ita­lian, who, with their bunnel and husks of grapes, are just enabled to drudge through a dark, dull, slavish life. [Page 6]Unfortunate brethren! to be thus deluded and debased by the arts of tyranny.

Being, from such a surrender, reduced to want bread, how could our dejected minds contradict or disobey the most oppressive mandates of a Grand Vizier? I would suppose that with our silk and wine we have, like the poor peasants of South Europe, made some bread: but our labour and attention being, by the artifices of those called politicians (too often enemies to plain honesty and liberal sentiment) diverted, more especially to the purpose of raising luxuries, which will neither sufficient­ly feed or cloath us, we have, alas! only aimed at a scanty stock of grain, barely for our respective country family's consumption, and falling a little short in that, become miserably dependent on strangers ^*, for the sur­plusage of their necessaries of life: these we are to pur­chase with our wine and silk, which they are under no ne­cessity of buying—or may chuse to get of others, when so disposed by starts of ill humour towards us; whilst, from our starving condition, we are necessitated, not only to buy their bread—to give their price, but to sell our ar­ticles of luxury, the product of our novel employment, to them, and to them only, at their poor offer, when they may be pleased to call for them. Our people who [Page 7]shall then live in the poor remains of once flourishing towns, at all times, and those in the country, as often as accidents shall happen to their scanty pitched crops, must gape for the arrival of ships with corn from a­broad ^*.

View the state of the southern countries of Europe:—all Italy, Spain, Portugal, great part of France, and till lately that the cultivation of corn became the first ob­ject of the attention of its government, the whole of France, employing their chief attention and labour in making silk and wine: and though they are fine coun­tries for producing wheat, and some is made in them, yet, not aiming at that article as a staple of commerce, how constantly are they in want of, and how dear do, they pay for bread^‡.

In the war immediately preceeding the last. France, in the midst of almost uninterrupted victories and con­quests, whilst her labor and attention were much en­gaged by wine and silk, was compelled to make peace, [Page 8]and relinquish all her fine prospects, merely from a great scarcity of corn in that kingdom: when her enemies had only the barren island of Cape Briton to deliver up in exchange; whereas it might well be thought that Ma­drass alone, then in her hands, was an equivalent. Ever since that sore-felt scarcity, it has been her policy to encourage the making of corn, preferable to all other produce; seeing and feeling, as we may suppose, that however great or flourishing they may be in other re­spects, bread being wanting submission must follow. This is an axiom applicable to individuals as well as to pro­vinces and kingdoms^†.

A celebrated author reckons it bad policy in the Eng­lish to obstruct the use of French wines: and would en­courage the French to turn their labor to the making more wines, by the free use of them in England; because each new acre of vineyard planted in France, in order to supply England with wine, would make it requisite for the French to take the produce of an English acre sown in wheat, in order to subsist themselves: "and it is evident, that we have thereby got the command of the better commodity." Apply this to the lure now hung out to America^‡. Why would our countrymen on the [Page 9]other side the water, coax us to drudge in articles on which we may starve? Have we any reason to conclude, especially from the present Asiatic temper of their ru­lers that there is in the project the least regard for our welfare? Rather may we not suppose that the benevolent motive is pointed out above, by Mr. Hume; when, what he would that England should do by her implaca­ble enemy France, that she would now do by us;—ca­jole us out of the command of the better commodity, neces­sary to our existence, and make it requisite for us to take [Page 10]the product of her acres of WHEAT, in order to subsist ourselves^*. He further says, there ‘are many edicts of the French King, prohibiting the planting new vineyards, and ordering those lately planted to be grubbed up; so sensible are they of the superior value of corn above every other product.’

Let it not be said, I am so extravagant as to contend we should be wholly employed in making corn, and no­thing else: it would be a design too unnatural for any le­gislative authority to enforce. My meaning is, that we drop not, nor even relax from, the staff of life:—that we so far attend to raising, within ourselves, a plenty of heart-cheering subsistence, as to make luxuries and deli­cacies subservient to it; and not that any of the necessa­ries, our first care, should depend on them. I am, too, for preserving the connection with Great-Britain. But it may be expected she will allow us to be men who have rights; and having feelings, such as she once had, that she will forbear to play the tyrant over us Let Ame­rica, when her constitutional freedom shall be secured, support the true interests of her parent: She is old, drinks hard, and her constitution is much impaired; and having litigious neighbours, let us exert ourselves in her defence, not barely in proportion to her sickly state, but to her justice and public virtue; and let affection accom­pany it—when possible! Let the commerce between us be so regulated, that whilst we render her raw materials [Page 11]for her manufactories, she grudge us not an independent security of our property, and such a share of foreign commerce as will enable us to pay for those materials returned to us manufactured for use, burthened, as they would be, with the internal taxes of England, and with the high profits necessary to support the luxurious living of Messieurs the merchants, the mariners, gentlemen—tradesmen, gentlemen scavengers, and other gentle­men, down to the shoe black—If this be denied to us, then it becomes not our choice but necessity, to disuse her wrought-goods, and to manufacture the raw mate­rials for our necessary occasions; further I hope we shall not attempt. It is not the proper business of an infant country to engage in the manufacturing materials for ar­ticles of commerce. We want lands cleared and improved. The most natural, most advantageous article of trade, to us, is the produce of our farms; which ought of choice to consist in necessaries; corn, cattle, wool, hemp, flax, saltpetre, &c.—Let these, and such like, be our staple of commerce; and let even the wool, hemp, and flax go in gross to England, so long as she will leave to us a trade elsewhere open to enable us to buy her wrought wares. When this regulation, so be­neficial to the Mother Country, is refused, if we have been so provident as to have made necessaries our staple, we shall have the comfort to find our hands full of ma­terials for our own necessary consumption — I should say salvation! with these we may be warm and robust, which with wine and silk alone we cannot. Here then is an advantage in choosing the "better commodities" for staples of trade, in attempting to raise all we can, a safe game is played: we have a moral certainty of our real wants being ever supplied; and, generally, if not at all times, there will be a surplusage of those necessaries to exchange with others for their delicacies and luxuries, whereby our imaginary or artificial wants would also be gratified.—Nor am I indifferent to a glass of good wine: [Page 12]I admire, and am seldom without it; but it is obtained in a way that America ought only to get it; by a com­merce and exchange of a surplusage of necessaries for that delicious juice.

Should I ever be without such surplusage, which has not yet been the case (for my ground yields abundant corn!) then I shall only miss of, for a time, what I can always do without. Nor yet do I carry my objections so far, but that those gentlemen who have the opportunity, may proceed in wine-making, for amusement or for fa­mily use: and even, should the humour so run, for ge­neral internal consumption: though, perhaps, it were better not carried so far as this, for fear we should reach to exportation.

The question has been repeatedly asked: "would you have every body make grain?" I have declared it cannot be; a law to that purpose would be as ridicu­lous as inconsistent with the various dispositions and hu­mours of men. And yet too much cannot be made. Mountains of grain would invite a market. But husbandmen will in these cases ever choose for them­selves; all that I say is, let not our provincial legislators, or men of influence, mislead the people, by encourage­ments of any sort, to labour in making for the principle commodities, articles of luxury; but rather dissuade them from it: and let the fat farmer be on his guard, nor part with his staff, "the better commodity" for vines and worms^§.

[Page 13] It is said that silk would be mostly womens work. 'Tis true; but, if our wives and daughters were to raise as [Page 14]much silk as would, from its high price, purchase a plenty of cloathing and food, the men, after a while, would un­doubtedly become idle and indifferent to any other pro­duce; our lands would be but little, if at all, cultivated and improved and the women performing, within a few weeks, the business of raising worms, would become equaly lazy and worthless for the rest of the year;—and, by degrees, both men and women would be ignorant of husbandry and housewifery. Nor could their silk more readily purchase necessaries and all we should want, than money would. Suppose then mountains of guineas open to all the people of this country with which they should purchase what at present they labour in the fields to make: Can any be at a loss to conceive the wretched­ness and dependency in which a country of people, so circumstanced, would presently be plunged! how to­tally ignorant the next generation, of agriculture, com­merce, and the arts. "The riches and safety of a country consist not alone in the number of its inhabitants, but of those well employed." Look to Spain — to New Spain and its rich mines;—see the crawling ignorant Spaniard!—our oppressed, necessitous, and unhappy neighbours!

It it probable, that in another century, silk, with other fine materials, and even manufactured goods, will be articles of commerce, from the mountaineers, back of Carolina, and other places, far from navigation, and not bulky, cheap and heavy articles, because of a long [Page 15]land carriage; whilst all heavy, gross, and cheap articles; will be from the countries most convenient to navigation: of which corn is one, as being too heavy for its price, to bear a very distant land carriage. Let us then, for as yet we have little else improved than the maritime coun­try, retain our bulky produce of necessaries, for the sta­ple of commerce. The more bulky, the better for the country exporting it; because it employs more labour and shipping; Wheat is therefore better than silk, as well as for the before mentioned reasons. Tobacco (although a luxury by the bye) is better than the luxury furr,—rice better than indigo.

Perhaps the chief export produce of the maritime country between Connecticut and James river, will be wheat and flour;—of the Carolinas, Georgia and the Floridas, rice;—Massachussetts, and other parts of New-England, fish, cattle, and horses;—the Missisippi, lum­ber, iron, and hemp—in ships built there.

As to the success of the present design of raising silk, I am not without hope, it will fail in Pennsylvania, as it has in Carolina and Georgia, notwithstanding the in­dustry used to induce the country people to bend their attention to it. The Carolinas went heartily to work to enrich themselves, in a hurry by making silk; but in fourteen years they exported only 251lb. of raw silk; and in the same time imported the extravagant quantity of 26781lb. wrought for apparel. This I take from a state of Carolina published in London, in 1761, which seems to be the production of a Governor of that colo­ny. I hope the following reflection of his will not be dis­agreeable, although somewhat foreign: ‘I cannot help expressing my surprize and concern, to find that there are annually imported into this province, considera­ble quantities of Flanders lace, the finest Dutch linens and French Cambricks, chintzes, hyson tea, and [Page 16]other goods, silk, gold and silver lace, &c. by which means we are kept in low circumstances, and though it may have the appearance of being for the present, beneficial to the British merchants, yet it retards our increase, both in people and wealth, and consequent­ly renders us less profitable to Great-Britain; for the riches of all colonies, must at length center in the mo­ther-country.’

It is said, in all countries there are spots of land too poor for any other cultivation than the vine:—and that it is the case in the colonies: I can only declare. I know of no such soil in our America I affirm, there is no soil suitable to the vine, that will not produce some other more necessary plant. You have heard of this and that island, or part of some country, poor and rocky, producing delicious wine:—they are wine coun­tries;—countries, where that culture has been in­troduced by despotic influence, and is rivited on the backs of the miserable inhabitants:—they want bread. There are other countries equally portion­ed with rocks and poverty of soil, in as good climates:—these produce no delicious wine—no wine at all, or none for exportation, but they yield the necessaries of life in greater abundance; they have bread! and enjoy some freedom—consolation at least The truth is, where, of lands very poor and rocky, you cannot cultivate a­bove one acre; of better, clear of rocks, you can cul­tivate an hundred acres, or more; in this you sow fields of grain; in the other you are confined from sowing grain, sufficient even for your little family's consump­tion. You then look for a plant that will yield much of something from little land:—this something in your country, has hitherto, usually been the grape. But the vine requires manure: it will not answer without it; and your acre of grapes requires as much labor and attention as the hundred acres of corn. If poor land is the best [Page 17]for the vine, it is so only with the addition of good ma­nure and the highest cultivation. Cultivate the poorest ground equally well, and look about for some plant of more necessary use:—suppose hemp, flax, grass, cot­ton, &c. But why hazard the happiness and independen­cy of the country, by introducing the vine culture, in order, niggardly, to disturb the repose of a few acres of the very poorest land, when a vast continent teems with better!—Thousands—millions of poor land lay waste and uncultivated in the best countries of Europe, and of all the world; and in the less happier countries, millions of acres, better and more improveable, are equally ne­glected.—If, still, you are determined to cultivate the grape, for making wine, you will choose the land best a­dapted for it:—if the poorest is the best then cultivate it. But why wine? You want to be employed:—go then, to better lands;—there seek the "better commodity"—in the better employment! and take example by the sufferings of a great nation!^* Your taste—teazes you to attempt the making wine:—indulge it!—But, as you will answer it to the necessitous husbandmen, hereafter, lead not one mortal to delve in such barren soil, in an employment only tending to bronze the voluptuous at their expence. Rather encourage them to avoid your taste and be happy at home, admist a "plenty of wholsome food and decent cloathing," with their placid wives and rosy children, manufactoring all necessaries, under a depressed trade, within themselves—sparing to foreign countries the sur­plusage of their GRAIN, their WOOL and HIMP;—BEST COMMODITIES!—ESSENTIALS OF DOMESTICK AND NATIONAL FELICITY!