Hume’s essay highlights the need for gradual change to an already established system opposed to a drastic change which can leave societies in chaos. He believes commerce is important to societies in order to improve wealth, and trade among different nations. Humes realizes in the use of commerce, labor is something that will cost money and is often a harmful method to the means of wealth. In today’s world reading this, I feel like much of the trade and industry we see is related to how happy one can be, which is also demonstrated in Hume’s philosophy.

One odd but huge takeaway for me with this essay was the more philosophical outlook on labor and how one is driven to do labor and its effects on the world. The quotes that stood out to me was “ Everything in the world is purchased by labor, and our passions are the only causes of labor. When a nation abounds in manufactures and mechanical arts, the proprietors of land, as well as the farmers, study agriculture as a science and redouble their industry and attention. The superfluity which arises from their labor is not lost, but is exchanged with manufactures for those commodities which men’s luxury now makes them covet. By this means, land furnishes a great deal more of the necessaries of life than what suffices for those who cultivate it. In times of peace and tranquillity, this superfluity goes to the maintenance of manufacturers and the improvers of liberal arts. But it is easy for the public to convert many of these manufacturers into soldiers and maintain them by that superfluity which arises from the labor of the farmers.” (135) I feel like this quote highlights one of the main meanings of Hume’s essays that commerce itself is one of the biggest things to impact the positive movement of society and its stability for its people.

One question I can pose about this from a philosophical point of view is is there any real happiness in the material cost/trade posed by commerce and the trade industry for it’s people, or is the happiness driven by their passion for the labor they do?