Thomas Jefferson, "Notes on the State of Virginia: The Present State of Manufactures, Commerce, Interior and Exterior Trade?" QUERY XIX The Present State of Manufactures, Commerce, Interior and Exterior Trade? We never had an interior trade of any importance. Our exterior commerce has suffered very much from the beginning of the present contest. During this time we manufactured within our families the most necessary articles of clothing. Those of colton will bear some comparison with the same kinds of manufacture in Europe; but those of wool, flax and hemp, are very coarse, unsightly and unpleasant; and such is our attachment to agriculture, and such our preference for foreign manufactures, that be it wise or unwise, our people will certainly return as soon as they can to the raising raw materials, and exchanging them for finer manufactures than they are to able to execute themselves. The political economists of Europe have established it as a principle that every State should endeavor to manufacture for itself; and this principle, like many others, we transfer to America, without calculating the difference of circumstance which should often produce a difference of result. In Europe the lands are either cultivated, or locked up against the cultivator. Manufacture must, therefore, be resorted to of necessity, not of choice, to support the surplus of their people. But we have an immensity of land courting the industry of the husbandman. Is it best then that all our citizens should be employed in its improvement, or that one-half should be called off from that to exercise manufactures and handicraft arts for the other? Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of god, if ever he had a chosen people, whose breasts he has made his peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue. It is the focus in which he keeps alive that sacred fire, which otherwise might escape from the face of the earth. Corruption of morals in the mass of cultivators is a phenomenon of which no age nor nation has furnished an example. It is the mark set on those, who not looking up to Heaven, to their own soil and industry, as does the husbandman, for their subsistence, depend for it on the casualties and caprice of customers. Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for designs of ambition. This, the natural progress and consequence of the arts, has sometimes perhaps been retarded by accidental circumstances; but, generally speaking, the proportion which the aggregate of the other classes of citizens bears in any State to that of its husbandmen, is the proportion of its unsound to its healthy parts, and is a good enough barometer whereby to measure its degree of corruption. While we have land to labor then, let us never wish to see our citizens occupied at a work bench, or twirling a distaff. Carpenters, masons, smiths, are wanting in husbandry; but, for the general operations of manufacture, let our work shops remain in Europe. It is better to carry provisions and materials to workmen there, than bring them to the provisions and materials, and with them their manners and principles. The loss by the transportation of commodities across the Atlantic will be made up in happiness and permanence of government. The mobs of great cities add just so much to the support of pure government as sores do to the strength of the human body. It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a Republic in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker, which soon cats to the heart of its laws and constitution. [Jefferson, Thomas. "Notes on the State of Virginia" (Richmond, VA: J. W. Randolph, 1853). Pgs. 175-77.]1. What type of document is this? (Ex. Newspaper, telegram, map, letter, memorandum, congressional record) This is a sort of letter to the higher authority recommending and reminding about the condition of Commerce and Trade in the State of Virginia. 2. For what audience was the document written? The document was written for the present state of Manufacturers , Commerce ,interior and exterior trade. The problem suffered by traders in every state of Europe highlighted in the notes. 3. What do you find interesting or important about this document? The important lesson which concludes in the given document is that all small workers like carpenters , masons, smiths, are working in any state that established the economy The manufacturer makes the product as in demand. Corruption of morale in the mass of cultivators is a phenomenon of which no age nor any nation furnished an example. 4. Is there a particular phrase or section that you find particularly meaningful or surprising? The most attractive part of the note is "Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God , if ever he had chosen people, whose breast he has made his peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue. 5. What does this document tell you about life in this culture at the time it was written