He observed that South America had far richer resources than North America: fabulous gold. silver. and lead. In comparison to the humble crops of corn and tobacco. the mainstays of a good but hard living being eked out by the people strung out along the Atlantic Coast. The rank and quality of people. too. favored South America: aristocrats. generals. colonels. brave soldiers rewarded for their services. while in North America there were many more commoners. dissidents. the poor. criminals. refugees. But Smith predicted. in spite of all this. that South America would end in poverty and oppression because it was reproducing a bankrupt ideathe idea of the Holy Roman Empire. dominated by great landed estates with nobility and peasants. a close union of church and state. a political economy run essentially by large landholders and the military. That system. he argued. could not thrive economically. it had never thrived in 1.000 years of European history prior to 1776.
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refugees