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To ascertain what is the average profit of all the different

trades carried on in a great kingdom, must be much more

difficult; and to judge of what it may have been formerly, or in

remote periods of time, with any degree of precision, must be

altogether impossible.

But though it may be impossible to determine, with any degree of

precision, what are or were the average profits of stock, either

in the present or in ancient times, some notion may be formed of

them from the interest of money. It may be laid down as a maxim,

that wherever a great deal can be made by the use of money, a

great deal will commonly be given for the use of it; and that,

wherever little can be made by it, less will commonly he given

for it. Accordingly, therefore, as the usual market rate of

interest varies in any country, we may be assured that the

ordinary profits of stock must vary with it, must sink as it

sinks, and rise as it rises. The progress of interest, therefore,

may lead us to form some notion of the progress of profit.