… is from David Hume’s essay “Of Commerce” (here from page 263 of the 1985 Liberty Fund collection of some of Hume’s essays, edited by the late Eugene Miller, Essays: Moral, Political, and Literary):
If we consult history, we shall find, that, in most nations, foreign trade has preceded any refinement in home manufactures, and given birth to domestic luxury.
DBx: We are all enriched and made more peaceful and civilized when trade remains unimpeded by the superstition that commerce with foreigners differs in any essential ways from commerce with fellow citizens.
