Every man is a customer in proportion to his ability; and as all parts of a nation trade with each other, whatever affects any of the parts must necessarily communicate to the whole.
In "Rights of Man," Paine explains that every individual contributes to commerce according to their means, and problems in one part of a nation inevitably impact the entire system.
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More from Thomas Paine
Man cannot, properly speaking, make circumstances for his purpose, but he always has it in his power to improve them when they occur, and this was the case in France.
The meaning, then, good people, of all this, is: That government is governed by no principle whatever; that it can make evil good, or good evil, just as it pleases.
A knowledge of the practice was then joined to the theory; and all that was wanting to give it real existence was opportunity.