'"At least," said I, "give me leave to wish them such a degree of commerce as may enable them to follow their own inclinations."
"Heaven forbid!" cried the philosopher. "Woe be to that nation where the multitude is at liberty to follow their own inclinations! Commerce is undoubtedly a blessing, while restrained within its proper channels; but a glut of wealth brings along with it a glut of evils. It brings false taste, false appetite, false wants, profusion, venality, contempt of order, engendering a spirit of licentiousness, insolence, and faction, that keeps the community in continual ferment, and in time destroys all the distinctions of civil society; so that universal anarchy and uproar must ensue. Will any sensible man affirm, that the national advantages of opulence are to be sought on these terms?.."'
from Matt Bramble's letter to Dr Lewis, dated September 20, in The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by Tobias Smollett
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