Notes

1. My brother, Louis Say of Nantes, has attacked this position in a short tract “Principales Causes de la Richesse et de la Misère des Peuples et des Particuliers”, 8vo. Paris. Deiterville.

He lays down the maxim, that objects are items of wealth,, solely in respect of their actual utility, and not of their admitted or recognised utility.

In the eye of reason, his position is certainly correct; but in this science relative value is the only guide.

Unless the degree of utility be measured by the scale of comparison, it is left quite indefinite and vague, and, even at the same time and, place, at the mercy of individual caprice.

The positive nature of value was to be established, before political economy could pretend to the character of a science, whose province it is to investigate its origin, and the consequences of its existence.

2. In the earlier editions of this work, I had described the measure of value to be the value of the other product, that was the point of comparison, which was incorrect.

The Nor will capital alone suffice to set in motion the mass of industry and the productive energy necessary to the formation and aggrandizement of a city, unless it present also the advantages of locality and of beneficent public institutions.

quantity and not the value of that other product, is the measure of value in the object of valuation. This mistake gave rise to much ambiguity of demonstration, which the severity of criticism, both fair and unfair, has taught me to correct.

3. When commodities are exchanged for money, the case is nowise varied. No seller ever lakes money for his own consumption, or for any other purpose, than as an object of a second exchange; so that, in reality, the prod- uct sold is exchanged for the product bought with the price.

When a bushel of wheat has been sold for dollar, and 7 lbs. of coffee bought with that dollar, the wheat has actu- ally been bartered for the coffee, and the money that has intervened has withdrawn itself as completely, as if it had never appeared at all in the transaction.

Wherefore it is quite correct to say, that relative value is determined by the relation of commodities one to another, and not solely by that of each commodity to money.

4. It must not be inferred from this passage, that I mean to say, that the productive agency exerted in raising a prod- uct, whose charges of production have amounted to a dollar, although it is saleable for 75 cents only, is therefore worth but 75 cents. My position merely implies, that this amount of productive service has, in such case, raised a value of 75 cents only, though it might have raised a value of a dollar.

5. Ricardo, Prin. Pol. Econ. and Taxation.

6. A pickle made of the roe of sturgeons, a favourite condi- ment of Russian diet.

7. Hence the futility of any attempt to compare the wealth of different nations, of France and England for instance, by comparison of the value of their respective national products.

2 values are not capable of comparison, when placed at a distance from each other. The only fair way of comparing the wealth of one nation with that of another, is, by a moral estimate of the individual welfare in each respectively.

8. Wherever the members of the community have no other hope of subsistence, than from the product of their own productive means; for the whole surplus of revenue thus created, is sure to go, in the end, to the appropriators of the natural sources of production; leaving those, whose productive means are merely personal, to employ them upon some other object, or upon an enlarged production of the same object.

This is a complete answer to the position of Sismondi and Malthus, that economy of human productive exertion makes the multiplication of unproductive consumers, not only probable, but necessary.

But where a poor-law or monastic establishment provides for the subsistence of the human agency thus rendered superfluous, there will probably be no increase of national revenue consequent upon a saving of productive agency; for the sur- plus labour is thereby released from the necessity of exertion in some other channel. With such institutions, the en- largement of productive power by machinery or otherwise may be very great, without any enlargement of national production, revenue, or wealth. Tr.

9. Vide Wealth of Nations, book i. c. 5.

10. The cost of production is what Smith calls the natural price of products, as contrasted with their current or mar- ket price, as he terms it. But it results from what has been said above, that every act of barter or exchange, among the rest even that implied in the act of production, is conducted with reference to current price.

11. Within the last hundred years, the improvements of industry, effected by the advance of human knowledge, more especially in the department of natural science, have vastly abridged the business of production, but the slow progress in moral and political science, and particularly in the branch of social organisation, has hitherto prevented mankind from reaping the full benefit of those improvements.

Yet it would be wrong to suppose they have reaped none at all. The pressure of taxation has indeed been doubled, tripled, or even quadrupled; yet population has increased in most countries of Europe; which is a sign, that a portion at least of the increase of products has fallen to the lot of the sub- ject; and the population, besides being augmented, is like- wise better lodged, clothed and conditioned and I believe better fed too, than it was a century ago.

12. I find in the Recherches of Dupre de Saint Maur, that in 1342, an ox was sold from 10 to 11 livres tournois. This sum then contained 7 oz. of fine silver, which was worth about 28 oz. of the present day; and 28 oz. of our present money are coined into 171 fr. 30 c., (32 dollars,) which is lower than the price of an ordinary ox. A lean ox bought in Poitou for 300 fr., and afterwards fatted in Lower Normandy, will sell at Paris for from 450 to 500 fr. (84 to 93 dollars.) Butcher’s meat has, therefore, more than doubled in price since the 14th century; and probably most other articles of food likewise; and, if the labouring classes had not at the same time been greatly benefited by the progress of industry, and put in possession of additional sources of revenue, they would be worse fed than in the time of Philip of Valois.

This may be easily explained. The growing revenues of the industrious classes have enabled them to multiply, and consequently to swell the demand for all objects of food.

But their supply can not keep pace with the increasing demand, because, although the same surface of soil may be rendered more productive, it can not be so to an indefinite degree; and the supply of food by the channel of external commerce, is more expensive than by that of internal agriculture on account of the bulky nature of most of the articles of aliment.

13. Our data in relation to the products of former times are too few to enable us to deduce from them any precise result; but those at all acquainted with the subject will see, that, whether over or under-stated, will make no differ- ence in the reasoning.

The statistic researches of the present generation will provide future ages with more accurate means of calculation, but will add nothing to the solidity of the principles upon which it must be made.

14. Of this nature are the evil effects of taxation, (especially if it be exorbitant) upon the general wealth of the commu- nity, independently of its effects upon the individual assessed.

The cost of production, and consequently the real price of commodities, are aggravated thereby, and their aggregate value diminished.

15. I have met with persons, who imagined themselves add- ing to national wealth, by favouring the production of ex- pensive, in preference to that of cheaper articles. In their opinion, it is better to make a yard of rich brocade than one of common sarsenet. They do not consider, that, if the former costs four times as much as the latter, it is because it requires the exertion of four times as much productive agency, which could be made to produce four yards of the latter, as easily as one of the former. The total value is the same; but society derives less benefit; for a yard of bro- cade makes fewer dresses than four yards of sarsenet. It is the grand curse of luxury, that it ever presents meanness in company with magnificence.

16. Dupont de Nemours (Physiocratie. p. 117.) says, that “it must not be supposed, that the cheapness of commodities is advantageous to the lower classes; for the reduction of prices lessens the wages of the labourer, curtails his com- forts, and affords him less work and lucrative occupation.” But theory and practice both controvert this position. A fall of wages, occasioned solely by a fall in the price of commodities, does not diminish the comforts of the labourer, and, inasmuch as the low price of wages enables the adventurer to produce at a less expense, it tends pow- erfully to promote the vent and demand for the produce of labour. Melon, Forbonnais, and all the partisans of the ex- clusive system, or balance of trade, concur with the econo- mists in this erroneous opinion; and it has been re-affirmed by Sismondi, in his Nouveaux Prin. d’Econ. Pol. liv. iv. c. 6., where the lower price of products is treated as an ad- vantage gained by the consumer upon the producer, in despite of the obvious impossibility of any loss to the labouring or other productive classes, by a reduction tan- tamount only to the saving in the cost of production.

17. The Earl of Lauderdale published in 1807, a work, en- titled, Researches on the Nature and Origin of Public Wealth, and on the Causes which concur in its Increase; the whole reasoning of which is built on this erroneous proposition, that the scarcity of a commodity, though it diminish the wealth of society in the aggregate, augments that of individuals, by increasing the value of that com- modity in the hands of its possessors. Whence the author deduces the unsound conclusion. that national, differs in principle from individual wealth. He has not perceived, that, whenever a purchaser is obliged to make the acquisi- tion by the sacrifice of a greater value, he loses just as much as the seller gains; and that every operation, designed to procure this kind of benefit, must occasion to one party a loss, equivalent to the gain of another.

He likewise refers this imaginary difference between the principle of public and of private wealth to this cir- cumstance; that the accumulation of capital, which is an advantage to individual, is detrimental to national wealth, by obstructing the consumption, which is the stimulus of industry.

He has fallen into the very common error of supposing, that capital is, by accumulation, withdrawn from consumption; whereas, on the contrary, it is consumed, but in a re-productive way, and so as to afford the means of a perpetual recurrence of purchase, which can occur but once in the case of unproductive consumption.

Vide Book III infra.

Thus it is, that a single error in principle, vitiates a whole work. The one in question is built upon this unsound foundation; and, therefore, serves only to multiply, instead of reducing the intricacies of the subject. [The error of Lauderdale is analogous to that of Sismondi and of Malthus, and arises from the notion, that an exten- sion of productive power makes all extension of unpro- ductive consumption necessary; whereas, it is thereby ren- dered possible, or at the utmost probable only. The state, as well as its subjects, may consume in a way conducive to the further extension of productive power, and the state, like an individual, is powerful and wealthy in proportion to the extent of the productive sources in its possession, and to the fertility of those sources. Tr.]

18. The vast means at the disposal of Napoleon might have been successfully directed to this grand object, and then he would have left the reputation of having contributed to civilize, enrich, and people the world; and not of having been its scourge and devastator. When the Barbary shore shall be lined with peaceful, industrious, and polished in- habitants, the Mediterranean will be an immense lake, furrowed by the commerce of the wealthy nations, peopling its shores on every side.

19. Traité Historique, Leblanc= and, Essai sur les Monnaies, by Dupre de Saint Maur.

20. Supra, book i. chap. 21. sect. 7.

21. The increased intensity of the demand for silver compared with its supply, consequent upon the discovery of America, is stated at 2, to 1, because, but for this increase of demand, the tenfold supply would have reduced its value to one-tenth of what it had been previously to that event, and given to 100 oz. the value of 10 oz. only. But 100 oz. were only reduced to one-fourth of their former value, i.e., to the value of 25 oz.; which bears to 10 oz. the ratio of 22 to 1.

This could not have been the case, unless the demand for silver, compared with the supply, had advanced in that proportion. But the supply having increased tenfold in the same interval, if we would find the ratio of the actual in- crease of the demand for silver, whether for the purposes of circulation, of luxury, or of manufacture, since the first discovery of the American mines, we must multiply 2½ by 10, which will give 25. And probably this estimate will not exceed the truth, although 25 times may seem a prodi- gious advance. However, it would doubtless have been infinitely less considerable, but for the influx of supply from America; for the excessive dearness of silver would have greatly curtailed the use of it. Silver plate would prob- ably be as rare as gold plate is now; and silver coin would be less abundant, because it would go further, and be of higher value. 22. Art. Monnaies. 23. If we are to believe Ricardo, the increase of demand has no effect upon value, which is determined solely by the cost of production. He seems not to have perceived, that it is demand that makes productive agency an object of ap- preciation. A diminution of the demand for silver bullion would throw all those mines out of work, of which the lower scale of price was not adequate to tile charges of bringing the product to market. 24. In a poor country, after a dealer has disposed of his wares, he is sometimes a long while before he can provide him- self with the returns he has in view; and, during the inter- val, the money proceeds remain idle in his hands. More- over, in a poor country, the investment of money is always difficult. Savings are slow and gradual, and are seldom turned to profitable account, until after a lapse of many years; so that a great deal of money is always lying by in a state of inaction.

25. I think Ricardo is the European best acquainted with the subject of money, both in theory and in practice. He has shown, in his Proposal for an economical and secure Currency, that, when the good government of the state may be safely reckoned upon, paper may be substituted for the whole of a metallic money; and a material possessed of no intrinsic value by skilful man- agement, be made to supplant a dear and cumbrous one, whose metallic properties are never called into play by the functions of money.

26. Humboldt. Essai Pol. sur la Nouvelle Espagne, 8vo. tom. iv. p. 222.

27. Wealth of Nations, book i. c. 11. The manufacturing consumption of Birmingham and other towns has greatly in- creased since the date of that work. [Mr. Jacobs, in his work on the precious metals, to which we have already had occasion to refer, has shed much light on the consumption, as well as on the production, of gold and silver, both before and since the discovery of the American continent.

His twenty-sixth chapter is devoted to an inquiry into the consumption of the precious metals from 1810 to 1830. This chapter abounds with highly instructive and curious details, which it would be here impossible to present, but which furnish the grounds of the following statements, also taken from the same chapter, and which fully demonstrate the great increase in the consumption of gold and silver, in what our author, in this note, calls “the manufacturing consumption,” since the date of Dr. Adam Smith’s work on the Wealth of Nations, to which he refers.

According, then, to Mr. Jacobs, the annual consumption of the precious metals, from 1810 to 1830, in their application to ornamental and luxurious purposes, he estimates as follows:

In Great Britain, France Switzerland, The rest of Europe, America Making the whole amount, equal to £2,457,221 1,200,000 350,000 1,605,490 280,630 £5,893,341 28,288,036 dollars. American Editor.]

28. We are assured by Humboldt, that the produce of the mines of Mexico has, in the last 100 years, been increased in the ratio of 110 to 25; also, that such is the abundance of silver ore, in the chain of the Andes, that, reckoning the num- ber of veins either worked superficially, or not worked at all, one would be led to imagine, that Europe has hitherto had a mere sample of their incalculable stores. Essai Pol. sur la N. Espagne, 8vo. tom. iv. p. 149. The very slight and gradual depreciation of gold and silver, effected by their immense and increasing annual supply, is one amongst many proofs of the rapid and general advance of human wealth, whereby the demand is made to keep pace with the supply. Yet I am inclined to think, that their value, after remaining nearly stationary for a cen- tury, has within the last thirty years begun again to decline. The setier of wheat, Paris measure, which was for a long time, on an average, sold for 4 oz. of silver, has now risen to 4½ oz., and rents are raised upon every renewal of lease. All other things seem to be rising in the like proportion= which indicates, that silver is undergoing a deprecia- tion of relative value.

[In a former note we referred to the great decline, since the year 1809, in the productiveness of the whole mines, both in this and in the eastern continent, on the authorities which Mr. Jacobs has given, in his learned work on the precious metals. From the same work, we here extract his concluding observations of the twenty-sixth chap- ter, in relation to the stock of coin now in existence, by which it will appear, that during the twenty years from 1810 to 1830, the diminution of gold and silver coin amounted to nearly one-sixth part of the whole stock. “We have estimated,” says Mr. Jacobs, “the stock of coin in existence at the end of the year 1809 to have been 203Jean-Baptise Say, A Treatise on Political Economy consists; and for that purpose to have a just and enlarged conception of the agents of production, and of the service they are capable of yielding. 31. In the above instance of the watch, many of the artisans are themselves the adventurers in respect to their own in- dustry; in which case their receipts are profits, not wages. If the maker exclusively of the chain himself, buys the steel in its rude state, works it up, and sells the chain on his own account, he is the adventurer in respect to this particular part of the manufacture. A flaxspinner buys a few penny-worth of flax, spins it, and converts her thread into money. Part of this money goes to the purchase of more flax; this is her capital; another portion is spent in satisfying her wants; this is the joint profit of her industry and her little capital, and forms her revenue. 32. Even that portion of the gross value, which is absorbed in the maintenance or restoration of the vested capital or machinery. If his works need repairs, which are executed by the proper mechanic, the sum expended in them forms the revenue of that mechanic, and is to the clothier a simple advance, which is refunded, like any other, by the value of the product when completed. 33. Part of the value created is due to natural agency, amongst which that of land is comprised. But, as stated above in Book I, land is treated as a machine or instrument, and its appropriator as the producer that sets it in motion; in like manner as the productive quality of capital is said to be the productive quality of the capitalist to whom it belongs. Mere verbal criticism is of little moment, when once the meaning is explained; it is the correctness of the idea, and not of the expression, that is material.

34. The term national revenue, has been sometimes incorrectly applied to the financial receipts of the state. Indi- viduals, indeed, pay their taxes out of their respective revenues; but the sum levied by taxation is not revenue, but rather a tax upon revenue, and sometimes unhappily upon capital too.

35. Their profit arises from increase of value effected by the transport upon both the export and the import, by the time they have reached their destination respectively.

36. I speak here of the adventurers, masters, or tradesmen; the mere labourer or journeyman benefits only, as it were, by re-action. The farmer, who is an adventurer in agriculture, employed in raising products for human sustenance, lies under disadvantages, that very much curtail his profits. His concerns are too much at the mercy of his land- lord, and of the financial exactions of public authority, to say nothing of the vicissitudes of seasons, to be very gainful on the average.

37. The reasoning of this whole chapter is superfluous and inconclusive. Where value is left to find its natural level, one class of productive agency will, in the long run, be equally recompensed with another, presenting an equipoise of facility or difficulty, of repute or disrepute, of enjoy- 380 million pounds; and the additions made to it between that period and the year 1829, at the rate of 5,186,800 pounds annually, would make it 103,736,000 pounds. From the 380,000,000 of coin left in 1809, we deduct for loss by abrasion, at the rate of 1 part in 400 in each year, which in the 20 years would amount to £18,095,220, thus leaving in 1829, £361,904,780 To which may be added the supply from the mines, 103,736,000 Thus showing £465,640,780. From which must be deducted that converted into utensils and ornaments 5,612,611 And that transferred into Asia, 2,000,000 7,612,611 annually. Or in twenty years, 152,252,220 This would show the estimated amount at the end of 1829 to be, £313,388,560. Or less than at the end of 1809, £66.611,440. Or a diminution of nearly one-sixth part in the twenty years.” “During the period we have been considering, and indeed for many years before, the comparative value of gold to silver had scarcely experienced any alteration. According to the view here taken, the amount of gold ap- plied to purposes of luxury had far exceeded that of silver, perhaps in the proportion of four to one; but, on the other hand, the treasure transferred to India and China has con- sisted chiefly of silver, and much more gold had been brought to Europe from those countries than had been con- veyed to them. It has before (twenty-fifth chapter of this inquiry) been attempted to be shown that the durability of gold in coin is in the proportion of four to one greater than that of silver. It has, too, been shown that the recently in- creased produce of the mines of Russia has consisted chiefly of gold. These circumstances, on which our limits do not admit of enlargement, might be shown to be suffi- cient to account for the equable rate of value which has been preserved between the two metals during a long American Editor.

38. It has been already seen, that the demand for every prod- uct is great, in proportion to the degree of its utility, and to the quantity of other products possessed by others, and capable of being given in exchange. In other words, the utility of an object, and the wealth of the purchasers, jointly determine the extent of the demand.

39. In digesting the plan of this work, I hesitated for a long time, whether or no to place the analysis of value before that of production; to explain the nature of the quality pro- duced, before entering upon the investigation of the mode of its production. But it appeared to me, that to make the foundation of value intelligible, it was necessary to have a previous knowledge of wherein the cost of production 204Book II= On Distribution ment or suffering, in the general estimation of mankind; this he states fully in the next chapter. If our author means here to say merely, that a large class of productive agency will receive a larger portion of the general product as its recompense or revenue, or that agency in permanent em- ploy will obtain a regular and permanent recompense, he has taken a very circuitous mode of expressing a position, which is, indeed, almost self-evident. The grand division of productive agency is into corporeal and intellectual; whereof the former is, on the average, the more amply rewarded by the rest of mankind, because the latter, in some measure, rewards itself. Thus, the profits of printing and bookselling are, on the whole, more liberal than those of authorship; because the latter is partly paid in self gratifi- cation, in vanity or conscious merit. Tr.

40. Book I. c. 15.

41. Wealth of Nations, book i. c. 10.

42. Ibid.

43. Nay, even more than annuity interest on the sums spent in the education of the person who receives the salary; strictly speaking, it should be annuity interest upon the total sum devoted to the same class of study, whether it have or have not been made productive in its kind. Thus the aggregate of the fees of a physician ought to replace not only what has been spent in their studies, but, in addition, all the sums expended in the instruction of the students, who may have died during their education, or whose success may not have repaid the care bestowed upon them; for the stock of medical industry in actual existence could never have been reared, without the loss of some part of the outlay devoted to medical instruction. However, there is little use in too minute attention to accuracy in the estimates of po- litical economy, which are frequently found at variance with fact, on account of the influence of moral consider- ations in the matter of national wealth, an influence that does not admit of mathematical estimation. The forms of algebra are therefore inapplicable to this science, and serve only to introduce unnecessary perplexity. Smith has not once had recourse to them.

44. I do not mean to include the superior orders of the clergy, whose benefices the extremely rich and well paid, though upon principles of state policy.

45. From which, however, is to be deducted the average loss on the general balance of less successful competitors in the same line. It does not appear, that, in England at least, any allowance is to be made for personal consideration, which is seldom attached in a high ratio even to the great- est excellence in the department of pure art. There is no instance of a sculptor or a painter arriving at the honours of the peerage, which have been placed within the reach of suceessful commercial enterprise. Tr.

46. Such of my readers as may imagine, that the sum of the production of a country is greater, when the scale of price is unnaturally high, are requested to refer to what has been said on the subject, supra, Chap. 3, of this Book.

47. Smith is greatly embarrassed by his neglect of the dis- tinction between the profits of superintendency, and those of capital. He confounds them under the general head of profits of stock; and all his sagacity and acuteness have scarcely been sufficient to expound the causes, which in- fluence their fluctuations. Wealth of Nations, book i. c. 8. And no wonder he found himself thus perplexed; their value is regulated upon entirely different principles. The profits of labour depend upon the degree of skill, activity, judgment, &c. exerted; those of capital, on the abundance or scarcity of capital, the security of the investment, &c.

48. Vide supra Book I. chap. 6.

49. By the term labourer, I mean, the person who works on account of a master-agent, or adventurer, in industry; for such as are masters of their own labour, like the cobbler in his stall, or the itinerant knife-grinder, unite the two char- acters of adventurer and labourer; their profits being in part governed by the circumstances detailed in the pre- ceding section, and partly by those developed in this. It is necessary also to premise, that the labour spoken of in the present section is that, which requires little or no study or training; the acquisition of any talent or personal skill en- titles the possessor to a further profit, regulated upon the principles explained, supra, sect. 1. of this chapter.

50. A full-grown man is an accumulated capital; the sum spent in rearing him is indeed consumed, but consumed in a re- productive way, calculated to yield the product man.

51. The evidence examined before a committee of the House of Commons of England, in 1815, leads to the conclusion, that the high price of food, at that period, had the effect of depressing, rather than elevating the scale of wages. I have myself remarked the similar effect of the scarcities in France, of the years 1811 and 1817. The difficulty of pro- curing subsistence either forced more labourers into the market, or exacted more exertion from those already en- gaged; thus occasioning a temporary glut of labour. But the necessary sufferings of the labouring class at the tine must inevitably have thinned its ranks.

52. Malthus, Essay on Popul. ed. 5. b. iii. c. 13.

53. The second and last of these circumstances are neither of them necessarily, universally, or permanently, followed by the depression of the rate of wages. When a new object of import does not supersede one of either home or foreign production, it must tend to raise the rate of wages, as it can only be procured by enlarged home production. The emi- gration of consumers, continuing to draw subsistence from the country they desert, leaves in activity an equal mass of human labour, though possibly with some variation of employment. Besides it may be temporary only, as that of the English to the continent, and of the Irish both to En- gland and to the continent; who possibly might be brought back by an improvement of domestic finances or of do- mestic security and comfort. Tr. 205Jean-Baptise Say, A Treatise on Political Economy

54. Saving-banks have succeeded in several districts of En- gland, Holland, and Germany; particularly where the gov- ernment has been wise enough to withhold its interference. The Insurance Company of Paris has set one on foot, upon the most liberal principles and with the most substantial guarantee. It is to be hoped, that the labouring classes in general will see the wisdom of placing their little savings in such an establishment, in preference to the hazardous investments they have often been decoyed into. There is besides a further national advantage in such a practice, namely, that of augmenting the general mass of produc- tive capital, and consequently extending the demand for human agency. [In the principal cities of the United States, Saving-banks have also been established, and have been attended with so much benefit, that they are now spread- ing through every part of the Union. To the Friendly or Beneficial Societies there are strong objections, to which the Saving-banks are not liable. The Friendly Societies have, undoubtedly, done some good; but attended with a certain portion of evil. The following extract from a re- port of the Committee of the Highland Society, places these latter societies in a very proper light. “During the last cen- tury, a number of Friendly Societies have been established by the labourers in different parts of Great Britain, to en- able them to make provision against want. The principle of these societies usually is, that the members pay a cer- tain stated sum periodically, from which an allowance is made to them upon sickness or old age, and to their fami- lies upon their death. These societies have done much good; but they are attended with some disadvantages. In particu- lar, the frequent meetings of the members occasion the lose of much time, and frequently of a good deal of money spent in entertainments. The stated payments must be regu- larly made; otherwise, after a certain time, the member (necessarily from its being in fact an insurance) loses the benefit of all that he has formerly paid. Nothing more than the stated payments car be made, however easily the mem- ber might be able at the moment to add a little. to his store. Frequently the value of the chances on which the societies are formed, is ill calculated; in which case either the con- tributors do not receive an equivalent for their payments, or too large an allowance is given at first, which brings on the bankruptcy of the institution. Frequently the sums are embezzled by artful men, who, by imposing on the inex- perience of the members, get themselves elected into of- fices of trust. The benefit is distant and contingent; each member not having benefit from his contributions in ev- ery case, but only in the case of his falling into the situa- tions of distress provided for by the society, And the whole concern is so complicated, that many have hesitation in embarking in it their hard-earned savings.” American Editor.]

55. Nouveaux Prin. d’Econ. Pol. liv. vii. c. 9.

56. Wealth of Nations, book i. c. 8.

57. The “multiplication of mankind” is not, as is here asserted by our author, alone dependent upon “agricultural prod- ucts;” but, likewise, upon every other description of com- modities essential to human maintenance and support. Food, or subsistence, is unquestionably indispensable to the existence of man; but not more necessary to his pro- longed being and health, than raiment, shelter, and fire. The position of Mr. Malthus, which limits population to subsistence only, and which is here taken for granted and adopted by our author, is not accurate or just; and by the more recent political economical inquirers has, therefore, either been modified or abandoned. Professor Senior, in his “Two Lectures on Population, delivered before the University of Oxford in Easter Term, 1828,” in consider- ing the general principles, adopts the following proposi- tion, as what appears to him an outline of the laws of popu- lation= “That the population of= given district is limited. only by moral or physical evil, or by the apprehension of a deficiency in the means of obtaining those articles of wealth; or, in other words, those necessaries, decencies and luxuries, which the habits of the individuals of each class of the inhabitants of that district lead them to re- quire..” American Editor.

58. Vide infra, Book III. on the subject of re-productive con- sumption.

59. Esprit des Lois, liv. xxi. c. 20.

60. Voyage d’Anacharsis, tom. iv. p. 371.

61. This is strongly illustrated by the unfunded and the funded debt of Great Britain. The former, in the shape of exche- quer and treasury bills, bears a rate of interest consider- ably lower than the latter in the shape of stock; because the bills are convertible readily at par; whereas, the usual rise and fall of the capital stock is much greater, than the interest upon it for short periods. Tr.

62. The personal restraint of the debtor has nowhere been carried to such extreme length as in England. Not only was a debtor at one time liable to imprisonment pendent lite, and before the debt was legally established, and that for the smallest sum; but the term of his imprisonment in execution after judgment, was absolutely unlimited. The hardship, in both these particulars, was partially remedied before the erection of our insolvent code; and that code has still further alleviated the condition of the debtor. But the whole system is vitiated, and in a great measure, neutralised, by total neglect of all measures for the pre- vention of insolvency, in limine. The grand expedient is, publicity of property; which, in the first place, gives the creditor the means of estimating beforehand, and with more accuracy, the grounds and fair extent of his debtor’s credit; and in the next, enables him, in case of default, to resort to those means, instead of endeavouring to discover or ex- tort them by personal restraint. Thus it is, that one error of policy is sure to engender another. Tr

63. See the description of the Plague at Florence, as given 206Book II= On Distribution after Boccaccio by Sismondi, in his admirable Histoire des Républiques d’Italie. A similar effect was observed at several of the most dreadful epochs of the French revolu- tion.

64. Raynal, Histoire Philosophique, tom. i.

65. Wealth of Nations, book i. c. 9.

66. Supra, Book I. chap. 11. It has been remarked that the rate of interest is usually somewhat lower in towns, than in country places. Wealth of Nations, book i. c. 9. The reason is plain. Capital is for the most part in the hands of the wealthy residents of the towns, or at least of persons who resort to them for their business, and carry with them the commodity they deal in, i.e., capital, which they do not like to employ at much distance from their own in- spection. Towns, and particularly great cities, are the grand markets for capital, perhaps even more than for labour itself; accordingly, labour is there comparatively dearer than capital. In the country, where there is little unemployed capital, the contrary is observable. Thus, usury is more prevalent in country places; it would be less so, if the busi- ness of lending were more safe and in better repute. [These remarks are just in the main; but the advantage of town over country, in this particular, may be reduced to a very trifle, by the ease of internal communication. In England the difference is scarcely perceptible. Tr.]

67. Vide supra, Book I. chap. 10, 11, on the mode of employ- ing, and on the transformation and accumulation of capi- tal. What is here said does not militate against the posi- tions laid down in Book I, chap. 22. on the representatives of money. A bill of exchange, with good names upon it, is only an expedient for borrowing of a third person actual and positive value, in the interim between the negotiation and the maturity of the bill. Bills and notes, payable on demand, or at sight, whether issued by the government, or by private banking-establishments, are a mere substitu- tion of a cheap paper agent of circulation, in the place of a costly and metallic agent. The monetary functions of the metal being executed by the paper, the former is set free for other objects; and, inasmuch as it is exchangeable for other commodities or implements of industry, a positive accession is made by the substitution to the natural capi- tal; but no further. The degree of the accession is limited strictly to the amount of value required fox the business of circulation, and dispensed with by this expedient; which amount is a mere trifle, in comparison with the total value of the national capital.

68. Many loans on interest are made without bearing that name, and without implying a transfer of money. When a retail dealer supplies his shop by buying of the manufac- turer or wholesale dealer, he borrows at interest, and re- pays, either at a certain term, or before it, retaining the discount, which is but the return of the interest charged him in addition to the price of the goods. When a provin- cial dealer makes a remittance to a banker at Paris, and afterwards draws upon his banker, he lends to him, during the time that elapses between the arrival of the remittance and the payment of the draft. The interest of this advance is allowed in the interest account which the banker an- nexes to the merchant’s account current. In the Cours d’Economie Politique, compiled by Storch, for the instruc- tion of the young grand-dukes of Russia, and printed at Petersburgh, tom. vi. p. 103, we are informed, that the En- glish merchants, or factors, settled in Russia, sell to their customers at a credit of twelve months, which enables the Russian purchaser of current articles, to realize long be- fore the day of payment, and turn the proceeds to account in the interim; thereby operating with English capital, never intended to be so employed. It is to be presumed, that the English indemnify themselves for this loss of interest, by the additional price of their goods. But the average rate of profit upon capital in Russia is so high, that even this round- about way of borrowing is sufficiently profitable to the native dealers.

69. This is no contradiction to the former position, that the precious metals form part of the capital of society. They form an item of capital, but not of disposable, or lendable capital; for they are already employed, and not in search of employment; — employed in the business of circulat- ing value from one hand to another. If their supply exceed the demand for this object, they are sent to other parts, where their price continues higher; if their general abun- dance lower their price everywhere, the sum of their value is not increased, but a larger quantity of them is given in exchange for the same value in other commodities.

70. If interest were always low in proportion to the greater supply of money, it would be lower in Portugal, Brazil, and the West Indies, than in Germany, Switzerland, &c., which is by no means the case.

71. Essays of D. Hume, part ii. ess. 4. Wealth of Nations, book ii. c. 4. It is well for the student in political economy, that Locke and Montesquieu have not written more upon it; for the talent and ingenuity of a writer serve only to perplex a subject he is not thoroughly acquainted with. To say the truth, a man of lively wit can not satisfy his own mind without a degree of speciousness and plausibility, which is of all things the most dangerous to the generality of readers, who are not sufficiently grounded in principle to discover an error at first sight. In those sciences, which consist in mere compilation and classification, as in botany or natural history, one can scarcely read too much; but in those dependent upon the deduction of general laws from particular facts, the better course is to read little, and se- lect that little with judgment.

72. This omission is justified by Smith, on the following grounds. “Let us suppose,” says he, “that in some particu- lar place, where the common annual profits of a manufac- turing stock are 10 per cent, there are two different manu- factures, in one of which the coarse materials annually 207Jean-Baptise Say, A Treatise on Political Economy wrought up cost only £700, while the finer materials in the other cost £7000. If the labour in each cost £300 per an- num, the capital employed in the one will amount only to £1000; whereas that employed in the other will amount to £7300. At the rate of 10 per cent, therefore, the undertaker of the one will expect a yearly profit of £100 only, and that of the other £730;” and he goes on to infer, “that the profit is in proportion to the capital, and not to the labour and skill of inspection and direction.” But the instance put is altogether inconclusive; and it is equally easy te suppose the case of two manufactures, carried on in the same place, and in the same line, each with an equal capital of £1000 the one under the conduct of all active, frugal, and intelli- gent manager, the other under that of an idle, ignorant, and extravagant one; the former yielding a profit of £150 per annum, the latter one of £50 only. The difference in this case will arise, not from any difference in the respec- tive capitals employed, but from the difference in the skill and industry employing them; which latter qualities will be more productive in the one instance than in the other.

73. Book II. chap. 7. sect. 3.

74. To say nothing of the other motives, that attract industry towards any particular profession or repel it thence, which have been noticed in the preceding chapter. These mo- tives sometimes operate all in the same direction, and then the profits of both industry and capital rise or fall together; when they act in opposite directions, the difference on the profit of capital balances that on the profit of industry; or vice versa.

75. [The reasoning of this whole section appears to me to be unsound and inconclusive. There is no distinction in point of productiveness, between any of the various employ- ments of capital. There can, in short, be no line drawn between the different productive channels, into which capi- tal may be directed. Whatever occupations tend to supply the wants and increase the comforts and accommodations of life, are, in the strictest sense of the word, equally pro- ductive, and nearly in the same proportion augment the national wealth. The capital employed in the carrying-trade between one foreign country and another is as advanta- geous to the individual and nation to which it belongs, as the capital employed at home. For, as has been already remarked in relation to the profits of industry in the ab- sence of all restraints, the profits of all the different em- ployments of capital, will be on an equality or nearly ap- proaching it, inasmuch as any material difference will cause its diversion to a more productive channel, and thus re- store the equilibrium. In a word, capital flows into the car- rying-trade only because it yields a greater profit than it otherwise would do, did it not take that direction. Moreover, there is no exception to the general prin- ciple, that what is most productive to the individual is also so to the community at large. Notwithstanding the con- trary assertion of our author, in the foregoing section, a capital lent to, or employed in, a foreign country, if it yield to the proprietors and nation the highest rate of interest, must necessarily afford the national revenue as much, and extend the same assistance to the national industry, as if it were employed within the pale of the nation. If, for ex- ample, a capital lent abroad, give employment to foreign industry and natural agents, it is because its productive service, when things, I must again repeat, are left to take their natural course, will yield a larger revenue to its own- ers. Were not this the case, this capital would not seek employment abroad, but remain at home. The revenue pro- duced by capital employed abroad, if the proprietor does not himself at the same time emigrate there, must be the means of calling into activity, and giving a greater devel- opment to the productive faculties of the national industry and land, as this revenue must be consumed, either pro- ductively or unproductively at home.] American Editor.

76. In the preceding chapter, I have given the interest, prece- dence of the profit, of capital, because the former helps to render the latter more intelligible. I have here adopted a contrary arrangement, because the consideration of the profit of land elucidates the subject of rent.

77. Malthus, in his Essay on Population, book i. c. 405, has given a detail of Rome of the revolting extremes, to which savage tribes have been reduced by the want of a regular supply of food.

78. Destutt de Tracy. Commentaire sur l’Esprit de Lois, c.

79. Ricardo, Prin. of Pol. Econ. and Tax. c. 2. [This chap- ter of Ricardo is perhaps the least satisfactory and intelli- gible of his whole work. It goes upon the principle de- tailed by Malthus, in his Essay on Rent; viz., that the ratio of rent is determined by the difference in the product of land of different qualities, the worst land in cultivation yielding no rent at all. But there is a great deal of land yielding rent without any cultivation; and, in a country where the whole of the land is appropriated, none is ever cultivated without paying some rent or other. The downs of Wiltshire yield a rent, without any labour, or capital, being expended upon them; so likewise the forests of Nor- way; this rent is the natural product of the soil; it is paid for the perception of that natural product, between which, and the desire for it, an artificial difficulty is interposed by human appropriation. The whole rent is, therefore, refer- able, not to the quality of the land only, but to the quality jointly with the appropriation; and so it is in all cases. Wherever a difficulty is thus inter. posed, rent will be paid upon all land brought into cultivation; for why should the proprietor part with the temporary possession for nothing, any more than the capitalist with his capital? And the ratio of rent is determined, not altogether by the quality of the soil, but by the intensity — 1. Of the desire, or demand for its productive agency; 2. Of the artificial difficulty inter- posed by nature and human appropriation. The quality of the soil may vary the intensity of the demand for it beyond 208Book II= On Distribution all question; for the quality is the productive agency= but the supply of agricultural industry and capital in the mar- ket will also vary the proportion of its product, which in- dustry and capital will expect for themselves. Why is rent highest, when a population is condensed on a limited ter- ritorial surface? because then the utility of its productive qualities is more strongly felt and desired, in consequence of their intense difficulty and attainment. And why is rent still further raised by the prohibition of the import of prod- ucts of external agriculture? because the natural difficulty of obtaining the benefit of the productive agency of for- eign land is aggravated, by the artificial difficulty inter- posed by legislative enactments. The degree of produc- tive agency, of course, affects the amount of the product; but rent originates in the union of that agency, or utility, with difficulty of attainment, natural and artificial, and is regulated in its ratio by their combined intensity. Tr.]

80. According to these writers, even the interest of capital is not given as the recompense of its concurrence in the busi- ness of production. I have already exposed the fallacy of this opinion, supra, chap. 8. sect. 2.

81. As well as a demand for the capital and industry requisite for the cultivation.

82. This catalogue of adverse circumstances, all bearing more strongly upon the profit of land, than upon that of other sources of revenue, explains the frequent and unavoidable remission of rent to the farmer, and proves the accuracy of M. de Sevigne’s judgment, when she writes from the coun- try= — “I wish my son could come here and convince him- self of the fallacy of fancying oneself possessed of wealth, when one is only possessed of land.” Lettre 224.

83. This is not universally true. In England, where agricul- ture has attained a high degree of perfection, arable farms require much larger capitals than formerly; and a farmer is commonly a much richer man, than the majority of the tradesmen in his neighbourhood. Tr.

84. The capital, vested in improvements upon land, is some- times of greater malue than the land itself. This is the case with dwelling-houses.

85. If, however, this capital be the fruit of his personal frugal- ity, he robs France of no part of her wealth existing previ- ous to his arrival. Had he continued resident there, the aggregate of the capital of France would have been in- creased to the full extent of his accumulation; but, in tak- ing the whole away with him, he takes no more than his own earnings, and no value but what is of his own cre- ation, in so doing, he commits no individual, and, there- fore, no national wrong.

86. In the common course of things, such an addition is a national benefit, because it is an accession to the second- ary source of production, i.e., industry. But defective hu- man institutions may convert a benefit into a curse; as where a poor-law system gives gratuitous subsistence to a part of the population, capable of labour, but not incited by want. In such case, every additional human being may be a burthen instead of a prize; for he may be one more on the list of idle pensioners. Tr.

87. It will be shown in Book III that the interest is equally lost, whether spent internally or externally.

88. Raynal tells us, that, inasmuch as the East India Company derived a revenue from Bengal, to be consumed in Eu- rope, it must infallibly drain it of specie in the end, since the company is the only merchant, and imports no specie itself. But Raynal is mistaken in this. In the first place, private merchants do carry the precious metals to India, because they are of more value there than in Europe; and that very reason also deters the servants of the company, who may have made fortunes in Asia, from remitting them in specie. And if it were to be suggested, that a fortune, remitted to Europe, is less substantial and more speedily dissipated, when it arrives in the shape of goods, than when in that of specie, this again would be an error. The form, that property happens to assume, does not affect its sub- stantiality; when once transferred to Europe, it may be converted into specie, or land, or what not. It is the amount of values, and not the temporary form they appear under, which, in this colonial connexion, as in that of interna- tional trade, is the essential circumstance. [This is a harsh word, yet probably justified by the history of the original acquisition. But the scene has now changed; the servants of the sovereign company no longer look to spoliation as a public or private resource, but are content with the liberal remuneration of laborious duties, civil, military, and financial. A slight examination of the connexion between Britain and her Asiatic dependencies will show, how small a balance is remitted to the former in any shape; and it should be remembered that part, even of this, is but the interest of loans raised in England, for the purposes of Indian administration, though not always of a wise or paternal character. Tr.]

89. The complete interception of all export of objects of value would not help them towards the point of intent; because free communication occasions a much greater influx than efflux of wealth. Value, or wealth, is by nature fugitive and independent. Incapable of all restraint, it is sure to vanish from the fetters, that are contrived to confine it, and to expand and flourish under the influence of liberty.

90. Although all products are necessary to the social exist- ence of man, the necessity of food being of all others most urgent and unceasing, and of most frequent recurrence, objects of aliment are justly placed first in the catalogue of the means of human existence. They are not all, how- ever, the produce of the national territorial surface; but are procurable by commerce as well as by internal agri- culture; and many countries contain a greater number of inhabitants than could subsist upon the produce of their land. Nay, the importation of another commodity may be equivalent to an importation of an article of food. The 209Jean-Baptise Say, A Treatise on Political Economy doubtless subsist a smaller population, than a country of equal production, where wealth is more equally diffused. The very opulent are notoriously averse to the burthen of a family; and the very indigent are unable to rear one.

91. Vide Stewart, On Political Economy, book i. c. 4. Quesnay Encyclopédie. art. Grains. Montesquieu, Esprit des Lois, liv. 18. c. 10. and liv. 23. c. 10. Buffon, ed. de Bernard, tom. iv. p. 266. Forbonnais, Principes et Observations, p. 39, 45. Hume, Essays, part 2. Ess. 2. Œuvres de Poivre, p. 145, 146. Condillac, Le Commerce et le Gouvernement, part 1. chap. 24, 25. Verri, Reflexions sur l’.Economie Politique, c. 210. Mirabeau, Ami des Hommes, tom. i. p.

92. Raynal, Histoire de l’Etablissement, liv. 21. s. 23. Chastellux, de la Félicité Publique, tom. ii. p. 205. Necker, Administration des Finances de France, c. 9. and Notes sur l’Eloge de Colbert. Condorcet, Notes sur Voltaire, ed. de Kepl. tom. xlv. p. 60. Smith, Wealth of Nations, book i. c. 8, 11. Garnier, Abrégé Elementaire, part 1. c. 3. and Préface de sa Traduction de Smith. Canard, Principes d’Economie Politique, p. 133. Godwin, On Political Jus- tice, book viii. c. 3. Clavière, De la France et des Etats Unis, ed. 2. p. 60, 315. Brown-Duignan, Essay on the Prin- ciples of National Economy, p. 97. Lond. 1776. Beccaria, Elementi di Economia Publica, par. prim. c. 2, 3. Gorani, Recherches sur la Science du Gouvernement, tom. ii. c. 7. Sismondi, Nouv. Prin. d’Econ. Pol. liv. vii. c. 1. et seq. Vide also, more especially, Malthus, Essay on Popula- tion, a work of considerable research; the sound and pow- erful arguments of which would put this matter beyond dispute, if it indeed had been doubted. [The simple laws of population, or their general prin- ciples, which are few and plain, are examined, discussed, and established with great ability by Professor Senior, of Oxford, as well in the two lectures on Population we have already referred to, as in his subsequent correspondence with Mr. Malthus, to which these lectures gave rise, and which Mr. Senior has subjoined to them, in an appendix. Full justice is done, by Mr. Senior, to the originality and depth of Mr. Malthus’s views on Population, as well as to their great importance, at the time he first gave them to the public; the inaccuracy, nevertheless, in his statement of the general proposition, namely, the tendency of every people to increase in their numbers, more rapidly than in their wealth, is clearly pointed out, and the errors which flow from it satisfactorily exhibited. “If a single country,” says Mr. Senior, “can be found in which there is now less poverty than is universal in a savage state, it must be true, that under the circumstances in which that country has been placed, the means of subsistence have a greater tendency to increase than the population.” American Editor.]

93. Vide Livii Hist. lib. vi. Plutarchi Moralia, xxx. De defectu oraculorum Strabonis, lib. vii.

94. Ustariz has remarked, that the most populous provinces of Spain are thence, from which there has been the great- export of wines and brandies to the north of Europe is almost equivalent to an export of bread; for wine and brandy, in great measure, supply the place of beer and spir- its distilled from grain, and thus allow the grain, which would otherwise be employed in the preparation of beer or spirits, to be reserved for that of bread.

95. The practice of infanticide in China proves, that the local prejudices of custom and of religion there counteract the foresight which tends to check the increase of population; and one can not but deplore such prejudices; for the hu- man misery resulting from the destruction is great, in pro- portion as its object is more fully developed, and more capable of sensation. For this reason it would be still more barbarous and irrational policy to multiply wars, and other means of human destruction, in order to increase the en- joyments of the survivors; because the destructive scourge would affect human beings in a state more perfect, more susceptible of feeling and suffering, and arrived at a pe- riod of life when the mature display of his faculties ren- ders man more valuable to himself and to others.

96. The Hospice de Bicetre, near Paris, contains, on the aver- age, five or six thousand poor. In the scarcity of the year 1795, the governors could not afford them food, either so good or so abundant as usual; and I am assured by the house-steward of the establishment, that at that period al- most all the inmates died. It would appear from the re- turns given in a tract entitled Observations on the Condi- tion of the Labouring Classes, by J. Barton, that the aver- age of deaths, in seven distinct manufacturing districts of England, has been proportionate to the dearness, or, in other words, to the scarcity of subsistence. I subjoin an extract from his statements. Average price of Wheat Years 1801 1804 1807 1810 per qr. s. d. 118 3 60 1 73 3 106 2 Deaths. 55,965 44,794 48,108 54,864 From the same returns it appears, that the scarcity occasioned less mortality in the agricultural districts. The reason is manifest= the labourer is there more commonly paid in kind, and the high sale-price of the product en- abled the farmer to give a high purchase-price for labour. [The latter reason is not very satisfactory; for the total re- ceipts of the corn-growers are probably not larger in years of scarcity, than in those cf abundance Tr.]

97. Not but that accidental causes may sometimes qualify these general rules. A country, where property is very un- equally distributed, and where a few individuals consume produce enough for the maintenance of numbers, will 210Book II= On Distribution est emigration to America.

98. Quoted by Malthus, in his Essay on Popul. vol. ii.

99. “Une nuit de Paris reparera tout cela.” It requires the care and expenditure of twenty successive years to replace the full-grown man, that a cannonball has destroyed in a mo- ment. The destruction of the human race by war is far more extensive than is commonly imagined. The ravage of a cultivated district, the plunder of dwelling-houses, the demolition of establishments of industry, the consumption of capital, &c. &c., deprive numbers of the means of live- lihood, and cause many more to perish, than are left on the field of battle.

100. Upon this principle, no capital improvement of the me- dicinal or chirurgical art, like that of vaccination for in- stance, can permanently influence national population; yet its influence upon the lot of humanity may be very consid- erable; for it may operate powerfully to preserve beings already far advanced in age, in strength, and in knowl- edge= whom to replace, would cost fresh births and fresh advances; in other words, abundance of sacrifices, priva- tions, and sufferings both to the parents and the children. When population must be kept up by additional births, there is always more of the suffering incident to the en- trance and the exit of human existence; for they are both of more frequent occurrence. Population may be kept up with half the number of births and deaths, if the average term of life be advanced from forty to fifty years. There will, indeed, be a greater waste of the germs of existence; but the condition of mankind must be measured by the quantum of human suffering, whereof mere germs are not susceptible. The waste of them is so immense, in the ordi- nary course of nature, that the small addition can be of no consequence. Were the vegetable creation endowed with sensation, the best thing that could happen to it would be, that the seeds of all the vegetables, now rooted up and destroyed, should be decomposed before the vegetable fac- ulties were awakened.

101. If population depends on the amount of product, the num- ber of births is a very imperfect criterion, by which to mea- sure it. When industry and produce are increasing, births are multiplied disproportionately to the existing population, so as to swell the estimate; on the contrary, in the declining state of national wealth, the actual population exceeds the average ratio to the births.

102. Wallace, Condorcet, Godwin.

103. Sir James, of Coltness, book i c. 17.

104. In a pamphlet entitled, Considerations on British Agricul- ture, published in 1814, by W. Jacob, a member of the Royal Society, and a well-informed writer upon agricultural top- ics, we are told, (p. 34) that England ceased to be an ex- porter, and became an importer, of wheat, about the year

106. The writer last cited enters into long details to show, that the soil of the British isles could be made to produce at least a third more than their present product, ibid. p. 115. et seq.

107. By judicious colonization, I mean colonization formed on the principles of complete expatriation, of self-government without control of the mother-country, and of freedom of external relations; but with the enjoyment of protection only by the mother-country, while it should continue necessary. Why should no. political bodies imitate in this particular the relation of parent and child. When arrived at the age of ma- turity, the personal independence of the child is both just and natural; the relation it engenders is, moreover, the most lasting and most beneficial to both parties. Great part of Af- rica might be peopled with European colonies formed on these principles. The world has yet room enough, and the cultivated land on the face of the globe is far inferior in ex- tent to the fertile land remaining untilled. The earl of Selkirk has thrown much light on this matter, in his tract on Emigra- tion and the State of the Highlands.

108. The want of capital prevents the employment of machin- ery for expediting the operations, like the thrashing machine in common use in England. This makes a larger supply of human agency requisite in agriculture; and the more mouths there are to be fed, the smaller will be the surplus produce, which alone is disposable.

109. There is good reason to believe, that the total population of England is more than the double of that employed in her internal agriculture. From the returns laid before parliament, 1811, it appears there were in Great Britain, inclusive of Wales and Scotland, 895,998 families employed in agricul- ture; and that the total number of families amounted to 2,544,215, which would give but a third of the population to the purposes of agriculture. According to Arthur Young, the country population of France, within her old limits, was 20,521,538 And that of the cities and towns 5,709,270 Making a total of 26,230,808 Supposing him to be correct, France, within her old bound- ary, could maintain, on this principle, a population of 41 millions, supposing her merely to double her agricultural population; and of 60 millions, supposing her industry were equally active with that of Great Britain. It is the general remark of travellers, that the traffic of the great roads of France is much less, than might be expected, in a country possessing so many natural advan- tages. This may be attributed chiefly to the small number and size of her towns; for it is the communication from town to town that peoples the great road; that of the rural population being principally from one part of the village or farm to another. [Our author has here fallen into a palpaple error. The ratio of the agricultural, to the total population of Great Britain, has not been varied as above stated, solely, or even 211Jean-Baptise Say, A Treatise on Political Economy chiefly by the multiplication of the commercial and manu- facturing classes; but by the transfer of the human labour spared in agriculture to the two other branches of indus- try. Agriculture might occupy one third only of the popu- lation of France, and yet the total population be decreased and not multiplied. Tr.]

110. This position is too general. A pastoral nation, devoting the whole of its territory to pasture, could spare a very small proportion of its population for commerce and manu- facture; witness Tartary and the Pampas of South America. Where a dense manufacturing and commercial population makes it advantageous to the land-holder to devote his land to pasture, and look to foreigners for the supply of corn, as in Holland, a small proportion of the population may, indeed be required for domestic, but a large propor- tion will be required for the anima rion of foreign agricul- ture. Tr.

111. [The slow progress of agriculture in these provinces of France is not attributable to the want of towns in the midst of them; towns and cities are a consequence, not the cause of the general prosperity of a country. Nor would the adop- tion of a different policy from that which recommends the purchase of manufactures from foreign countries with the raw produce of domestic agriculture, improve the situa- tion of these districts. A system of policy which should attempt by restraints or encouragements, to divert a por- tion of the capital and industry employed in agriculture or commerce from those channels towards the erection of a town, or the establishment of a manufactory, with a view to promote the better cultivation of the soil, would be sub- versive of this end. To what causes then must the misery, said by our author to prevail in those provinces, be ascribed, or what has retarded their agricultural improvement? The prosper- ity of agriculture, as well as that of every other branch of industry, depends upon the unrestrained operation of indi- vidual interest; not only furnishing motives to exertion, but knowledge to direct that exertion. All that is necessary to enable a state to reach the highest pitch of opulence, is not to disturb the action of this important principle. The obstacles, it will accordingly be found, which have op- posed the progress of improvement in the countries al- luded to, may be traced to the interference by the public authorities with the salutary operation of this powerful motive of action, or, in other words, to their bad laws and political institutions. Sometimes imposing restraints on the cultivator, and exposing him to numberless oppressions, either by prescribing the mode in which the soil shall be cultivated, or the products it shall yield. And, when not thus directly interfering with the business of production, prohibiting the exportation of the raw produce of the soil, and thereby depriving it of the best market. At other times harassing the husbandman with taxation, the shameful in- equalities of which, whilst they relieve the higher orders, permit the burden to fall, almost exclusively, on his shoul- ders, or depriving him of the freedom of trade from prov- ince to province within his own country; but, above all, by perpetuating the inheritance of landed property in particu- lar bodies or families. without the power of alienation. These are a few of the corrupt and barbarous laws which have retarded the agriculture, not of these particular Prov- inces of France only, but of many of the fairest portions of Europe.] American Editor.

112. [The local position of Washington, perhaps, is not as advantageous as that of some of the other cities of the Union; it certainly, however, has not been adverse to its progress in population and wealth. In the year 1800, when Washington became the seat of the general government, its whole population amounted to 3,210; according to the census, it contained in 1810, 8,208 inhabitants, in 1820, 13,247 inhabitants, and in 1830, 18,828 inhabitants. In the year 1820 the whole number of buildings was 2,208, of which 925 were of brick. By the assessment valuation of the year 1830, the whole number of buildings was 3,125. It cannot, therefore, be said to have been outstripped by most of the other cities in the progress of improvement.] American Editor.

113. There is some stretch of imagination in this. Probably the Egyptian Thebes was itself the centre of manufacture and commerce in its day, and not its entrepot; indeed, there is no reason to suppose a very active intercourse between India and Europe to have existed at so early a period; and, if it had, Thebes would hardly have been the entrepot. But central India furnishes itself instances of cities containing as large a population. Nineveh and Babylon seem to have been quite as populous; each was probably the central point of an enormous domestic industry. Tr.

Value may be consumed, either long after its production, or at the very moment, and in the very act of production, as in the case of the pleasure afforded by a concert, or theatrical exhibition. Time and labour may be consumed; for labour, applicable to an useful purpose, is an object of value, and when once consumed, can never be consumed again.