The people, by this means, are not imposed on either by the merchant or mechanic: if the merchant demands too much profit on imported shoes, they buy of the shoe-maker; and if he asks too high a price, they take them of the merchant: thus the two professions are checks on each other.
Franklin describes a market dynamic where merchants and shoemakers regulate each other's prices, benefiting consumers.
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Our legal method of compulsion is by imprisonment: the Indians cannot and will not imprison one another; and if we attempt to imprison them, I apprehend it would be generally disliked by the nations, and occasion breaches.
I have seen generations born, flourish, and expire.
By our greatly encreasing the demand and consumption of British manufactures, their price is considerably raised of late years; the advantage is clear profit to Britain, and enables its people better to pay great taxes; and much of it…
II. p. 118.--The truth is, that the Indians considered their lands as mere hunting-manors, and not as farms.
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