7
reconstitution was necessary, not to protect the privileges of the wealthy, but to assure
economic development.
15
An enduring commitment to America’s long-term comparative advantage in agriculture
allowed Madison to fuse these core values together into a coherent policy strategy.
16
America’s
abundant and fruitful lands gave the United States an economic advantage over every other
nation in the world. Adam Smith himself believed that agriculture was the most valuable form of
capital, and wrote that America could use its crops to leverage itself into a dominant position in
international political economy. In Smith’s view, Americans would retard their economic
development if they tried to restrict trade and develop their own manufactures.
17
Madison
similarly embraced America’s comparative advantage in agriculture as the foundation of his
policy strategy: “The general policy of America is at present pointed at the encouragement of
Agriculture, and the importation of the objects of consumption. The wid[er] therefore our ports
be opened and the more extensive the privileges of all competitors in our Commerce, the more
likely we shall be to buy at cheap & sell at profitable rat[es].
18
Madison could barely wait to
instruct his new House colleagues in 1789 that “In my opinion agriculture ought to be
considered a great staple of America. With respect to other objects other countries can rival us.
Agriculture has a monopoly. The soil is a monopoly as much as other articles in other parts of
the world. The possessors have certain advantages that cannot be shared.”
19
The following year
he wrote that the ongoing expansion of international free markets would “reduce all nations to
their natural advantages only.” This development would benefit the United States, and if the
nation developed its naval capacity, “No Nation can be so well off as U.S. because they
possess bulky produce capable of employing mo<re> tonnage and more sure of market, than
that of any other Nation whatever.”
20
Madison’s interest in agriculture flowed more from
nationalist economics than the romance of the soil that so attracted his friend Thomas Jefferson.
It followed that, if national policy advanced America’s comparative advantage in
agriculture, it would enhance the nation’s welfare, Virginia’s prosperity, and the cause of
Convention