A
couple of centuries ago, a Turkey merchant was the great
creator of wealth; the West Indian Planter followed him. In
the middle of the last century appeared the Nabob. These
characters in their zenith in turn merged in the land, and
became English aristocrats; while the Levant decaying, the
West Indies exhausted, and Hindostan plundered, the breeds
died away, and now exist only in our English comedies from
Wycherly and Congreve to Cumberland and Morton. The
expenditure of the revolutionary war produced the Loanmonger,
who succeeded the Nabob; and the application of science to
industry developed the Manufacturer, who in turn aspires to be
"large-acred," and always will, as long as we have a
territorial constitution; a better security for the
preponderance of the landed interest than any corn law, fixed
or fluctuating.
Of all these characters, the one that on the whole made the
largest fortunes in the most rapid manner,--and we do not
forget the marvels of the Waterloo loan, or the miracles of
Manchester during the continental blockade--was the Anglo-East
Indian about the time that Hastings was first appointed to the
great viceroyalty. It was not unusual for men in positions so
obscure that their names had never reached the public in this
country, and who yet had not been absent from their native
land for a longer period than the siege of Troy, to return
with their million.
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