Hence it happens, that established manufactures are hardly ever lost, but by foreign conquest, or by some eminent interior fault in manners or government; a bad police oppressing and discouraging the workmen, or religious persecutions driving the sober and industrious out of the country.
Franklin notes that established manufacturing is rarely lost except through significant external or internal issues.
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More from Benjamin Franklin
It is comfortable to have a good opinion of one's self, and of every thing that belongs to us, to think one's own religion, king, and wife, the best of all possible wives, kings, and religions.
But if I were in his place, and not otherwise instructed, I should be apt to say, Take your own time, gentlemen.
Few of their Children in the Country learn English . . . The Signs in our Streets have Inscriptions in both Languages, and in some places only [their language] . . . In short, unless the Stream of their Importation could be turned…
If the treaty cannot be made as much to your advantage as to ours, don't make it.
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