, ' -' ' ;: ''.'C~;:.:; ' : .-. . - - : . . ' . ''V
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 RIVERSIDE 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 Dr. Gordon Watkins
 
 THE COLLECTED WORKS 
 
 VOL. VIII.
 
 LECTURES 
 
 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 NOW FIRST PUBLISHED. 
 
 VOL, I. 
 
 TO WHICH IS PREFIXED, 
 
 PART THIRD 
 
 OF THE 
 
 OUTLINES OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 BY 
 
 DUGALD STEWART, ESQ. 
 
 > > i 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON, BART. 
 
 EDINBURGH: 
 T. & T. CLAEK, 38 GEORGE STREET. 
 
 1877.
 
 73
 
 ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. 
 
 THIS, and the ensuing Volume of Mr. Stewart's Collected 
 Works, come before the public under very different circum- 
 stances from his other writings. The other writings were once 
 and again elaborated by the Author, and by himself carefully 
 conducted through the press ; whereas the following Lectures 
 were not destined for publication, at least, in the state in 
 which they now appear. That Mr. Stewart, however, intended 
 ultimately to publish his Course of Political Economy, seems 
 certain ; and, with this view, during the latter years of his life, 
 he had revised, corrected, amplified, and re-arranged its con- 
 stituent parts. But whether he had finally completed this 
 preparation is doubtful ; for the Lectures thus remodelled by 
 him in his retirement, have, for the most part, unhappily 
 perished. As now printed from those Original Manuscripts 
 which have escaped the fate of the others revised for publica- 
 tion, the course consists principally of what was written so far 
 back as the beginning of the century, with such additions and 
 corrections as were occasionally interpolated up to the Session 
 of 1809-10, the last year of Mr. Stewart's academical labours. 
 Fortunately, he did not in his course of Political Economy, as
 
 viii ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. 
 
 in that of Moral Philosophy, either trust to the extemporaneous 
 resources of his memory and eloquence for the exposition of his 
 own opinions, or read from their original context the passages 
 which he had occasion to quote from other authors ; but that, 
 in both respects, all, or nearly all, was fully written out. I say 
 fortunately for while the Lectures on Psychology and Morals 
 have been not inadequately supplied by his correlative publi- 
 cations, those on Political Economy are replaced by no printed 
 substitute. Still, under the circumstances, it became a question 
 with Mr. Stewart's Trustees, whether, in the discharge of the 
 duty which they owed to the reputation of the deceased, they 
 should, or should not, publish what* remained of the Course of 
 Political Economy. In this difficulty, they, with great propriety, 
 sought advice from the most competent of Mr. Stewart's older 
 friends and pupils; and in particular, from the Marquis of 
 Lansdowne and Viscount Palmerston. But, as perhaps was to 
 be expected, these noblemen, however favourable to the alterna- 
 tive of publication, found themselves unable, without an exami- 
 nation of the Manuscripts, to express a definite opinion ; and 
 the result was, that the decision devolved exclusively upon the 
 Editor. An examination convinced me of the importance of the 
 documents which still remain ; in reference to which, it may be 
 observed, that while Mr, Stewart was habitually accurate in all 
 his statements, whatever he committed to writing was more 
 especially sure of being thoroughly meditated and carefully 
 expressed. " Ignorabat inepta." Although, therefore, we must 
 always regret the loss of many important writings, old and new, 
 still I feel confident, that the manuscripts remaining, however 
 their value might be enhanced did they exhibit the Course in 
 its original integrity, with the addition of subsequent im- 
 provements, will, even in their present state, be found emi- 
 nently worthy of publication. For although they may not
 
 ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. IX 
 
 fulfil all the intentions of the Author, still, even without his last 
 emendments, they afford a systematic view of Political Science 
 in its most important doctrines, written too with the eloquence, 
 wisdom, and enlightened liberality which distinguish all the 
 works of Mr. Stewart. Many changes and considerable pro- 
 gress in the doctrines of Political Economy, have, undoubtedly, 
 been made since these Lectures were delivered ; but these 
 Lectures themselves have exerted a powerful influence in 
 determining this advancement For while Mr. Stewart's in- 
 struction inculcated, more or less articulately, these improved 
 opinions, no master, perhaps, ever exerted a stronger and more 
 beneficial influence on his disciples. " flis disciples," to quote 
 the words of Sir James Mackintosh, " he lived to see among 
 the lights and ornaments of the Council and the Senate ; and 
 without derogation from his writings it may be said, that his 
 disciples were among his best works." As an introduction to 
 Political Economy and Politics, these Lectures, as they stand, 
 will be found, I am persuaded, among the best extant ; and 
 though they may not exhaust all the problems of the science; 
 they omit none of primary importance. In particular, they 
 will prove a valuable preparative and accompaniment to a 
 study of the Wealth of Nations; affording, as they do, a 
 criticism and supplement to the immortal work of Smith. 
 The doctrines of Smith are not, however, considered to the 
 exclusion of those of minor authors ; and we have here com- 
 memorated and canvassed, with an enlightened impartiality, 
 the speculations of many able but now forgotten thinkers. 
 
 Jn regard to the unfortunate loss of the manuscripts, the 
 most articulate information which I am able to afford is that 
 supplied by Mr. Stewart's son, Colonel Stewart, in the following 
 letter addressed to Mr. Henry Foss, (of the well-known publishing 
 house of Payne & Foss,) and by that gentleman subsequently
 
 I ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. 
 
 communicated to the public in Notes and Queries, Vol. XI., 
 No. 284, April 7, 1855. 
 
 " CATBISE, March 30, 1837. 
 
 giRj You were so obliging, some time since, as to say that 
 you would mention the literary property that I wished to 
 publish in your intercourse with the other members of your 
 profession, in whose line such business lay. You need not, 
 however, farther trouble yourself on this head ; because, finding 
 myself getting on in life, and despairing of finding a sale for it 
 at its real value, I have destroyed the whole of it. To this 
 step I was much induced by finding my locks repeatedly picked 
 during my absence from home, some of my papers carried off, 
 and some of the others evidently read, if not copied from, by 
 persons of whom I could procure no trace, and in the pursuit 
 or conviction of whom, I never could obtain any efficient assist- 
 ance from the judicial functionaries. 
 
 " As this may form, at some future period, a curious item 
 in the history of literature in the present century, (as a proof 
 of the encouragement and protection afforded to literary labour 
 during the present reign, by a people reckoning themselves 
 amongst the most enlightened and civilized communities of the 
 earth,) I subjoin a list of the works destroyed as unsaleable, 
 written by my father, Dugald Stewart, author of the Philosophy 
 of the Human Mind, &c. : 
 
 " 1st, The Philosophy of Man as a Member of a Political 
 Association. (Incomplete.) 
 
 " 2d, His Lectures on Political Economy, delivered in the 
 University of Edinburgh ; reduced by him into books and 
 chapters, containing a very complete body of that science, with 
 many important rectifications of Adam Smith's speculations. 
 
 " 3d, One hundred and seventy pages of the continuation of 
 the Dissertation prefixed to the Encyclopaedia, Britannica,
 
 ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. xi 
 
 " Written by me : 
 
 " 2ef, An Account of the Life and Writings of Dugald 
 Stewart, together with all his Correspondence. Among others, 
 with Madame de Stael, La Fayette, Jefferson, and many 
 other literary and well-known characters, French and English ; 
 with Anecdotes from his Journals kept during his residence 
 in Paris, before and at the commencement of the Kevolution, 
 and during his visits to that city with Lord Lauderdale, during 
 the Fox Administration. All of which I burnt." 
 
 The other nine works (some of them very voluminous) 
 written by Colonel Stewart, and by him destroyed, it is unne- 
 cessary articulately to specify. Mr. Foss, in a note, observes, 
 " I believe there was no foundation for Colonel Stewart's suspi- 
 cions respecting his locks having been picked." This conjecture, 
 I have no doubt, is correct ; and should it seem strange that a 
 man of Colonel Stewart's ability and filial veneration should, on 
 so groundless a suspicion, have been actuated to so rash a pro- 
 ceeding ; we may perhaps find an explanation in the circum- 
 stance, that when on professional service in India, he had suffered 
 from an attack of coup-de-soleil ; a malady which, I believe, 
 often manifests its influence in the most capricious manner, and 
 long after an apparent disappearance of the affection. 
 
 It is therefore to be understood, that the Lectures on 
 Political Economy do not appear as the Course was, by the 
 Author, prepared for publication. Parts, indeed, as finally 
 completed, seem by accident to have escaped the fate of the 
 other emended Lectures and revised additions, such as the 
 Introduction to the Course, and the Notes upon the Bullion 
 Report, (Vol. I.) But these shew only as exceptions, although 
 it is not improbable that other portions, as the Lectures upon the 
 Theory and Forms of Government (Vol. II.) are now nearly in
 
 Xli ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. 
 
 the state in which they were left for publication by the Author. 
 On this, however, not being able to speak with certainty, I prefer 
 silence to conjecture, and leave the reader to his own surmises 
 in regard to the extent and importance of the loss. 
 
 And here, the subjoined abstract by Miss Stewart, of the Con- 
 tents of seven volumes, in quarto, of her father's manuscripts, 
 volumes in which the corrected and amplified Lectures were 
 fairly transcribed, may enable the reader to form an opinion 
 f how much has perished, compared with what has been pre- 
 served and printed from the older copies. It is, perhaps, 
 hardly necessary to warn him, that in this Table the distinction 
 of volume is altogether an arbitrary division, being determined 
 by the extent of room which the paper of each happened to 
 supply. In general, also, the list is printed as it was found 
 written, though some changes might seem occasionally to be 
 obvious. (In reference to the prefixes within square brackets, 
 see p. xvi) 
 
 (VOL. I.) 
 
 PAOI 
 
 [* ?] Allegiance to Government,! Part I., .... 5 
 
 Part II., .... 33 
 (Intended for Part III. of Dissertation.) 
 
 Theory of Government^ Introduction, 47 
 
 Simple Forms of Government, 48 
 
 Of Democracy and Democratic States, . . . . 51 
 
 Of Aristocracy, 76 
 
 Of Monarchy, 88 
 
 Of Mixed Governments, . .106 
 
 Of the English Constitution, 132 
 
 [*?] Introduction to a Course of Elementary Lectures on 
 
 Political Economy, Part I., 165 
 
 Part II., . . . ... 185 
 
 (In continuation,) Part III., .... 206 
 
 t [See Note f, infra, VoL I. p. 9.] J [Sec Note *, infra, Vol. I. pp. 21, 29.J 
 g [See Note *, infra, Vol. I. p. 9.]
 
 ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. Xlll 
 
 PAOB 
 
 Of Population, .... .224 
 Of Population as it is affected by the State of Manners, &c., 233 
 Of Population as it is affected by Plenty or Scarcity, &c., . 238 
 Of Agriculture, Manufactures, and Population, considered in 
 Eelation to each other, 
 
 I. State of the Actual Cultivators of the Soil, . . .258 
 
 (VOL. II.) 
 
 (Continuation of the Lectures on Population.} 
 Comparative Advantages of Small and of Great Farms, . 1 
 
 Policy of Enclosures, 8 
 
 II. Of Agriculture and Population, as they are affected by 
 
 the Distribution of Landed Property, ... 22 
 
 III. Of Agriculture and Population, in Connexion with the 
 
 influence of Manufactures, 42 
 
 Appendix to Article III., 79 
 
 What are the Effects with respect to Population of the Sub- 
 stitution in Manufactures of Machinery in place of 
 Human Labour ? (For continuation of this Lecture, 
 seep. 172,) .... ' , . . .105 
 (Former part of this Lecture, see p. 104.) 
 
 National Wealth, j ' 220 
 
 (VoL. III.) 
 
 I 1 
 
 II. Division of Labour, 36 
 
 III. Of Money, . . 67 
 
 IV. Of the relative Value of Money and of Commodities, . 103 
 
 Continuation, .116 
 
 V. Of the Eeal and Nominal Prices of Commodities, . . 149 
 
 VI. Of Interest, 185 
 
 (New Chapter, see p. ), 213 
 
 Appendix Containing an Abridgment of some Chapters of 
 fundamental importance in The Wealth of Nations, 
 
 with a few occasional Eemarks. (A Fragment?) . 228 
 
 Of the Component Parts of the Price of Commodities, . . 245 
 
 Of the Natural and Market Price of Commodities, . . 248 
 
 Of the Eent of Land, 258
 
 xiv ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Part ii. Of the Produce of Land, which sometimes does, and 
 
 sometimes does not, affect Rent, .... 267 
 
 (Heads of an additional Lecture to be inserted after those on 
 
 the Economical System,) . . . .275 
 
 (VOL. IV.) 
 
 (The First Lecture has no title ; but it seems to be on the 
 Practical Doctrines of the Mercantile or Commercial 
 
 System of Political Economy,) . . 1 
 
 Of Drawbacks, 50 
 
 Of Bounties, 52 
 
 Of Treaties of Commerce, 53 
 
 Colonies, .56 
 
 Miscellaneous Observations on the Freedom of Trade, . 58 
 
 Of the Expediency of Anti-usurious Laws, . . . . 81 
 
 Appendix, 151 
 
 Of the Corn Trade, 155 
 
 i. Of the Inland Corn Trade, 166 
 
 Appendix, 266 
 
 Extract of a Letter to Mr. Stewart from Francis Homer, Esq., 
 
 dated 6th April 1805, . . . . . .270 
 
 ii. Of the Trade carried on by the Merchant Importer of 
 
 Grain for Home Consumption, . . . .273 
 
 (VOL. V.) 
 
 iii. Of the Trade carried on by the Merchant Exporter of 
 
 Grain for Foreign Consumption, .... 1 
 
 iv. 28 
 
 Miscellaneous Observations on the Corn Trade, ... 29 
 Appendix to the Lectures on the Corn Trade ; quotation from 
 
 the Edinburgh Review, July 1807, .... 64 
 
 Quotation from the Monthly Review, 1822, . . . . 67 
 
 Of the Commerce of Land, (Primogeniture,) ... 70 
 
 Appendix, Ill 
 
 Note from M. Garnier's Translation of the Wealth of Nations, 115 
 
 Laws relating to the Poor, ... . . 125 
 
 History of the Poor-Laws in England, .... 128
 
 ADVEBTJSEMENT BY THE EDITOR. XV 
 
 PAOB 
 
 Of the Poor-Laws in Scotland, ...... 205 
 
 Of Poor and Charity Workhouses, . . . . . 237 
 
 Of Benefit Clubs and Friendly Societies, .... 255 
 
 Conclusion of Lectures on the Laws relating to the Poor, . 279 
 
 (VOL. VI.) 
 
 Of the Education of the People, 1 
 
 Appendix, ... * 46 
 
 [*] Essay on the Probable Effects of the Progress of Science, 
 and of the Diffusion of Knowledge on the future 
 Fortunes of the Human Eace, (intended to form the 
 concluding Chapter of my Dissertation prefixed to the 
 Encyclopedia ; [and accordingly in this edition so 
 arranged.]) 
 
 Section i., ........ 56 
 
 ii., 87 
 
 iiL, .114 
 
 [*]Note, 130 
 
 [*] Appendix, 134 
 
 Notes on the Bullion Report^ (sent by Mr. Stewart to Lord 
 Lauderdale, in February, March, and April 1811.) 
 Note I., . . . . . . . .138 
 
 II., . 164 
 
 III., 182 
 
 IV., 190 
 
 V., 222 
 
 VI., 225 
 
 Of the Present Depreciation of the Paper Currency, I., . 257 
 
 II., . 265 
 
 ([VOL. VII.] FOLIO MS., MARKED M.) 
 
 [*] LECTURES ON THE VARIETIES OF THE RACE. 
 
 [*] Introduction, 1 
 
 [*] Comparative influence of Physical and Moral Causes on 
 
 National Character, 59 
 
 [*] Notes, 86 
 
 t [Extant, see infra, Vol. I., p. 431, seq.]
 
 xvi ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. 
 
 PAU 
 
 President de Goguet, . 96 
 
 Origin and History of Property, . 99 
 
 Of the Institution of Marriage, . .154 
 
 Origin of Banks, . .180 
 
 The ensuing sentences, in Miss Stewart's handwriting, but 
 apparently of a later date, immediately follow the preceding 
 list of the seven manuscript volumes : 
 
 " The above is the Index [or rather the Table of Contents] of Seven 
 Volumes of MSS. transcribed, under my father's own inspection, from 
 his older MSS., with considerable alterations and additions, during 
 the last four years of his life. These MSS. were delivered to my 
 brother, after my father's death, according to his will. . . . 
 
 " I took a copy of the Index before delivering the MSS. to my 
 brother." 
 
 Though principally occupied with topics of Political Economy, 
 it will farther be observed, that the destroyed manuscripts 
 comprised also copies of Lectures, of Essays, and of fragments 
 on other matters of Philosophy, as is seen from the contents of 
 the Volumes labelled VI. and VII., in the articles there dis- 
 tinguished by an asterisk, [*]. In Volume I., the articles 
 marked by an asterisk and interrogative, [* ?], appear to have 
 been intended, as equally adapted, to stand either among the 
 Lectures on Political Economy, or among the chapters of the 
 Preliminary Dissertation, Part III. Accordingly, in the only 
 case where an option was possible, the former alternative 
 has been preferred in the present edition of the Collected 
 Works. 
 
 I here also subjoin a summary of the separate Course of 
 Political Economy in its earlier form, as I find it in Mr. 
 Stewart's handwriting. This, as observed in the footnote at 
 p. 21, Vol. I., excludes the Lectures on Politics proper, a subject 
 comprised in the general Course of Moral Philosophy. These
 
 ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOB. 
 
 Lectures are now incorporated with those on Political Eco- 
 nomy ; and, as printed, appear in Vol. II. 
 
 PLAN OF LECTURES ON POLITICAL ECONOMY, 
 For Winter 1800-1801. 
 
 i. Introductory Lecture on the Object and Utility of Political 
 
 Economy, 
 ii. Lectures on the Eise and Progress of this Branch of Science. 
 
 Its connexion with Natural Jurisprudence. View of the 
 
 systems of Grotius and his Successors; and of the train of 
 
 thought by which these seem to have led to the modern 
 
 study of Political Economy, 
 iii. Preliminary Eeview of some fundamental Laws which seem 
 
 to be essential to all the various forms of Civilized Society ; 
 
 particularly of the Institution of Marriage, and of the Laws 
 
 which protect the Eight of Property. 
 
 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 I. 
 
 OP POPULATION. 
 
 i. Of Population, as it is affected by the State of Manners relative 
 
 to the connexion of the Sexes. 
 
 ii. Of Population, as it is aflected by the means of Subsistence 
 enjoyed by the People. 
 
 1. Of National Habits with respect to Food. 
 
 2. Of Agriculture, Manufactures, and Population, considered in 
 relation to each other. State of the Actual Cultivators of the Soil ; 
 Great and Small Farms ; Enclosures ; Distribution of Landed 
 Property; Agrarian policy of the Eomans and of other ancient 
 Nations ; Effects with respect to Population ; Essential Distinction 
 between their Condition and ours, in consequence of the Abolition of 
 Domestic Slavery, and other causes ; and absurdity of reasoning from 
 their institutions, as applicable to the present State of Society. Law 
 of Entails. 
 
 VOL. VIII. b
 
 Xviii ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. 
 
 Influence of Manufactures in encouraging Agriculture among 
 Nations which exclude the institution of Domestic Slavery. Subor- 
 dination of Manufactures to Agriculture. Errors of some modern 
 Statesmen on this subject. Discouragements which still exist to the 
 Progress of Agriculture. 
 
 Digression concerning the effects of some particular forms of Ma- 
 nufacturing Industry, lately introduced into this Country. Cotton 
 Mills, &c. General question concerning the tendency of Mechanical 
 contrivances for abridging labour, to increase or to diminish the 
 Population of a Country. 
 
 How far the Number of a people, compared with the extent of their 
 Territory, may be regarded as a test of National Prosperity. Mis- 
 chievous consequences of encouraging Population without a corre- 
 sponding increase in the /unds necessary to support it. Question 
 resumed concerning the Subordination of Manufactures to Agri- 
 culture. Application of these reasonings to the present state of 
 Great Britain. Objection, which has been stated to these liberal 
 views of Political Economy, from their supposed tendency to produce 
 or to accelerate the mischiefs of an Excessive Population. Critical 
 Examination of a late Essay on the Principle of Population, as it 
 affects the Future Improvement of Society. [London, 1798, by 
 Mai thus.] 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Of the Means which have been employed to ascertain the State of 
 Population in particular instances. Number of Houses ; Quantity 
 of Consumption in the article of Food ; Register of Births, Deaths, 
 and Marriages. 
 
 Miscellaneous observations and inquiries, chiefly relating to the 
 question concerning the progressive or declining Population of Great 
 Britain ; Population of France. 
 
 Population of China. Application of this extreme case, to illustrate 
 the principles formerly stated concerning the evils of an excessive 
 Population, and the danger of proposing Population as an ultimate 
 object of policy, instead of advancing it through the medium of 
 National Wealth.
 
 ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. XIX 
 
 II. 
 
 OF NATIONAL WEALTH. 
 
 i. Of Productive and Unproductive Labour, 
 ii. Of the Principles on which the Effective Powers of Labour 
 
 depend, 
 iii. Of Money. Examination of the opinions of Locke, Law, 
 
 and Berkeley. 
 
 iv. Of the Real and Nominal Price of Commodities. Exami- 
 nation of Mr. Smith's reasonings on this subject. 
 v. Of the Principles by which the relative Values of Money and 
 of Commodities are adjusted in Commercial transactions. 
 vi. Of the Accumulation of Stock ; of Money lent upon In- 
 terest, 
 vii. Of the Freedom of Trade. 
 
 1. Of Restraints on Domestic Commerce and Industry. 
 2. Of Restraints on the Commercial intercourse of Differ- 
 ent Nations. 
 
 viii. Of the Corn Trade. 
 ix. Of the Commerce of Money, 
 x. Of the Commerce of Land, 
 xi. Of Taxes. 
 
 III. 
 
 OF THE POOR. 
 
 i. History of the Poor-Laws in England, 
 ii. State of the Poor in Scotland, 
 iii. Of Charity Workhouses, 
 iv. Of Friendly Societies. 
 
 v. General Principles, and Miscellaneous Observations on the 
 Subject. Rumford. 
 
 IV. 
 OF CORRECTIVE POLICE. 
 
 i. Of Penitentiary Houses and Solitary Confinement ; Panop- 
 ticon of Mr. Bentham, &c. &c. 
 
 ii. Of the General Principles which ought to regulate the 
 Punishment of Crimes.
 
 XX ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. 
 
 V. 
 
 OF PREVENTIVE POLICE. 
 
 i. Of the Effects which might be expected from a well organized 
 and vigilant Police, in restraining the Commission of 
 Crimes. 
 
 ii. Of the Effects which might be expected on the Morals of the 
 Lower Orders from a Systematical Attention to their In- 
 struction, and to their early Habits. 
 
 VI. 
 
 OF EDUCATION.* 
 
 i. Of Education, considered in its relation to the objects of 
 Political Economy. Attention due to it by the Legislator. 
 Change produced in the circumstances of Mankind by 
 the invention of Printing. National Education. 
 
 ii. Importance of the Education of the Female Sex. Pernicious 
 tendency of some late systems to obliterate the character- 
 istical qualities bestowed on them by Nature, and to coun- 
 teract her obvious intentions with respect to their peculiar 
 sphere in Civilized Society. 
 
 iii. Of Education, considered in its relation to Intellectual 
 Improvement, and to the advancement of Human Know- 
 ledge. State of Academical Education in Modern Europe. 
 
 The present publication, then, of the Lectures on Political 
 Economy, as has been stated above, is taken from Mr. Stewart's 
 older manuscripts, most of which are still extant. As the 
 work, however, passed through the press, various deficiencies 
 were discovered, which had not been detected on a cursory per- 
 usal of the documents, deficiencies which, indeed, only became 
 apparent by a careful comparison of the different Plans or 
 Tables of Contents of the Lectures, with two sets of Notes taken 
 in 1809, the last year in which the Course was delivered, and 
 
 * [Much in relation to this subject III., probably transferred from these 
 will be found in the Dissertation, Part Lectures.)
 
 ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. Xxi 
 
 which had been kindly sent to me, in the hope of their 
 proving useful in the arrangement of the Lectures. Of these 
 copies of Notes, the one was the joint work of Mr. James 
 Bridges, W.S., and of the late Mr. John Dow, W.S. ; the other 
 was by the late Mr. James Bonar, Solicitor of Excise, Edin- 
 burgh, and obligingly communicated to me by his son, through 
 Mr. Constable. The former Notes, as Mr. Bridges informs me, 
 were taken in short-hand, and afterwards written out; and, 
 from a comparison of them with Mr. Stewart's manuscripts, 
 they have been found remarkably copious and accurate, fre- 
 quently corresponding word for word with the original. The 
 latter appear to have been written without the aid of short- 
 hand, as they are not so comprehensive and articulate as the 
 former ; while sundry quotations, particularly in the earlier 
 portions of the Course, have been copied verbatim from the 
 works of their respective authors. 
 
 As the deficiencies, in consequence of the destruction of the 
 original manuscripts, became fully manifest, it was necessary to 
 choose between the alternatives; either to print only what 
 remained of Mr. Stewart's autograph, or to supply the blanks 
 from this or that copy of the Notes. The latter alternative was 
 deemed preferable ; inasmuch as thus is fulfilled the Author's 
 plan as followed in his final Course, while there is every rea- 
 son to believe, that where the Lectures are deficient, the Notes, 
 especially those of Mr. Bridges, may be safely relied on, as 
 fully and faithfully recording the Author's opinions in the 
 language of his prelections.* Of these Notes, therefore, I have 
 
 * Mr. Bridges, in the letter to me you have the sanction of his family for 
 
 which accompanied the five volumes of your work, I not only do not feel my- 
 
 his Notes, says: "Mr. Stewart was self to be acting contrary to this pledge, 
 
 jealous at the time of our labours, and but rather deem myself to he discharg- 
 
 stated to Mr. Dow and myself, that he ing a duty to his memory and to the 
 
 would take it for granted we would not public, in thus communicating these 
 
 publish our notes. But presuming that volumes to you."
 
 ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. 
 
 availed myself largely, particularly in the Chapters on Labour, 
 on Money, and on Trade; while the whole of what is ad- 
 vanced on the Maintenance of the Poor, and on Education, is 
 supplied from the same source. Although, however, the Notes 
 of Mr. Bridges are very complete, in so far as Mr. Stewart's 
 own remarks and speculations are concerned, the numerous 
 citations adduced by him are, for the most part, left to be in- 
 serted. In this respect, I have found the Notes of Mr. Bonar 
 of great utility, in pointing out a quotation, and in marking 
 its length, so that they have materially assisted in supplying 
 the chief deficiency in those of Mr. Bridges. And here it is to 
 be observed, that the commencement and termination of the 
 passages supplied from the Note-books of Mr. Stewart's pupils, 
 are articulately marked as interpolations ; and, when not other- 
 wise stated, they are from the transcript of Mr. Bridges. The 
 quotations have, however, in general, been filled up from the 
 original works. 
 
 To Mr. Bridges and to Mr. Bonar, I have, therefore, to offer 
 my best thanks for the use of these valuable Note-books. 
 But I have, likewise, to express my acknowledgments to 
 Mr. James Gibson Craig, for his kindness in communicating 
 to me a copy of Notes in his possession, taken of Mr. Stewart's 
 Course of Political Economy, by the late Lord Jeffrey in 1802. 
 I should have gladly availed myself of these, had not the 
 writing been found so extremely difficult to decipher, and the 
 Notes themselves been of so early a date. 
 
 Nor can I conclude this Advertisement without gratefully 
 thanking my friend and colleague, Professor More, for the 
 valuable, and often laborious, assistance he has been always 
 kindly ready to afford me, from the treasures of his library ; 
 while his extensive acquaintance with books and the literature 
 of Political Economy, has enabled him to discover for me many
 
 ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. XXH1 
 
 of the scarce pamphlets adduced, lying perdue in the public 
 collections. 
 
 It should finally be observed, that, here as elsewhere, the 
 footnotes of the Author are referred to by numerals, those of 
 the Editor, by asterisk, obelus, &c. To the latter, likewise, in 
 this work, belongs all that is inclosed within square brackets, 
 whether in text or annotation ; and, in general, the distribu- 
 tion of the Lectures into Book, Chapter, Section, &c., to say 
 nothing of the Running Titles. In the Table of Contents, 
 however, the distinction of square brackets has been omitted, as 
 in the present volumes the Editor is for that Table exclusively 
 responsible. 
 
 W. H. 
 
 EBIHBCRGH, December 1855.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 I.-OUTLINES OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 PART THIRD (APPENDIX.) 
 OF MAN CONSIDERED AS THE MEMBER OF A POLITICAL BODY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAOB 
 OF THE HISTORY OP POLITICAL SOCIETY, . ... 3 
 
 CHAFfER II. 
 OF THE GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF LEGISLATION AND GOVERNMENT. 
 
 SECT. 1. Of Political Economy, . ..... 4 
 
 SECT. 2. Of the Different Functions of Government, and of the various 
 Forms in which they are Combined in the Constitutions of 
 Different States, ..... 5 
 
 II.-LECTURES ON POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 OF THE OBJECTS AND PROVINCE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 OF THE TITLE AND COMPREHENSION OF THE SCIENCE, ... 9 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 OF THE CONTENTS AND DISTRIBUTION OF POLITICAL ECONOMY PROPER, OB 
 
 OF PART FIRST, . . . . . . 30 
 
 i. Population, ........ 31 
 
 ii. National Wealth, ....... 33 
 
 in. The Poor, their Maintenance, .... 47 
 
 iv. Education; Prevention, Reformation, Correction of Crime, . 49
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PRELIMINARY DISTINCTION OP POSITIVE LAWS INTO Two CLASSES, AND THE 
 RELATION OP THESE TO POLITICAL ECONOMY PROPER, OR TO PART 
 FIRST, ...... . . 57 
 
 PART FIRST. OF POLITICAL ECONOMY PROPER. 
 
 BOOK FIRST. 
 OF POPULATION. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 OP POPULATION CONSIDERED AS AN ARTICLE OP THE NATURAL HISTORY OF 
 
 MAN 60 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 OF POPULATION CONSIDERED AS AN ARTICLE OP POLITICAL ECONOMY, . 67 
 
 SECT, i Of Population as affected by the Political Institutions which 
 
 regulate the Connexion between the Sexes, . . 67 
 
 SUBSECT. 1. Marriage compared with Concubinage, . . 67 
 
 SUBSECT. 2. Monogamy compared with Polygamy, . . 82 
 
 SECT. ii. Of Population as affected by the State of Manners relative to 
 
 the Connexion between the Sexes, . . . .92 
 
 SECT. iii. Dependence of Population on the Means of Subsistence en- 
 joyed by the People, ..... 98 
 SUBSECT. 1. Dependence of Marriage and Population on the 
 notion held in regard to the competent support 
 of a Family, . . , . 98 
 SUBSECT. 2 Of Agriculture and Manufactures considered in 
 
 relation to Population, . . . 113 
 
 First. Of Population in connexion with Agriculture, . 113 
 1.) Kinds of Farm Tenure, . . .113 
 
 2.) Farm Burdens, . . . .118 
 
 3.) Size of Farms, . . . .124 
 
 4.) Enclosures, . . . . .132 
 
 5.) Size of Properties, . . . .138
 
 CONTENTS. XXVll 
 
 PiOB 
 
 Second. Of Population (and Agriculture) as affected by 
 
 Manufactures, . . . . .152 
 
 1.) On the Employment of Children in Factory 
 
 Work: its Advantages and Disadvantages, . 183 
 2.) Of Machinery as a Substitute for Labour: its 
 
 Advantages and Disadvantages, . . 188 
 
 SUBSECT. 3. Is the Density of Population in Proportion to the 
 Extent of Country, a certain Index of National 
 Prosperity, . . . . .198 
 
 APPENDIX. Of the Means which "have teen employed to ascer- 
 tain the Population in particular instances, 211 
 
 BOOK SECOND. 
 OF NATIONAL WEALTH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 OP PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE LABOUR, .... 253 
 
 SECT. i. Specially, on the System of the Economists, . .269 
 
 SECT. ii. On the Circumstances which, render Labour more Effective, . 309 
 
 SUBSECT. 1. On the Division of Labour, . . . 310 
 
 SUBBECT. 2. On the use of Machinery as a Substitute for 
 
 Labour, ..... 316 
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 
 OP MONET, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM, ..... 333 
 
 SECT. i. Of the Origin and Use of Money, .... 333 
 
 SECT. ii. Of Seal and Nominal Prices, .... 349 
 
 SECT. iii. Effects of Plenty or Scarcity of the Precious Metals on Price, 371 
 
 SECT. iv. Of Money as the Standard of Value, . . . 390 
 
 SECT, v Of Interest, . ..... 396 
 
 APPENDICES TO BOOKS I. AND II. 
 
 APP. I., Extract from Pinto, on Population, . . . 429 
 
 APP. II., Notes on the Parliamentary Bullion Eeport, . . 431
 
 OUTLINES OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY, 
 
 PART THIRD. 
 [POLITICAL SCIENCE.! 
 
 VOL. VIII.
 
 OUTLINES OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 PAKT III* 
 
 OF MAN CONSIDERED AS THE MEMBER OF A POLITICAL BODY.t 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 OF THE HISTORY OF POLITICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 ARTICLE 1. Of the Principles in Human Nature, and of the 
 Circumstances in the Condition of Mankind, which lay the 
 foundation of the Political Union. 
 
 ART. 2. Of the Principles in Human Nature, and of the 
 
 * [Continued from Works, Vol. VI. 
 p. 108. This " Part III." is expressly 
 considered only as an " Appendix" to 
 the " Outlines of Moral Philosophy ;" 
 and, in fact, it is merely a Table of Con- 
 tents, and that too not indicating the 
 order of the Lectures.] 
 
 f [" Having, of late, carried into exe- 
 cution (at least in part) the design an- 
 nounced in the foregoing Preface, by a 
 separate Course of Lectures on Political 
 Economy, I have omitted in this edition 
 of my Outlines, the articles which I 
 formerly enumerated under that general 
 title ; substituting in their stead a few 
 others, calculated to illustrate the pe- 
 culiar and intimate connexion between 
 
 this department of Politics and the more 
 appropriate objects of Ethics. The 
 observations which these articles are 
 meant to introduce, may be useful, at 
 the same time, in preparing the minds 
 of students for disquisitions, the details 
 of which can scarcely fail to appear 
 uninviting to those who are not aware 
 of the important conclusions to which 
 they are subservient. College of Edin- 
 burgh, Nov. 2, 1801." Postscript of 
 Preface to Outlines of Moral Philosophy, 
 second and subsequent editions, Works, 
 Vol. II. p. 4. 
 
 Part III. of the Outlines is here 
 reprinted from the second edition, that 
 of 1801, which is identical with those
 
 4 OUTLINES OF MOKAL PHILOSOPHY. PART III. 
 
 Circumstances in the Condition of Mankind which lay the 
 Foundation of the Progress of Society. 
 
 ART. 3. Of the Institution of Marriage; and its conse- 
 quences, Political and Moral. 
 
 ART. 4. Of the Condition and the Character of the Sexes, 
 as they are modified by different States of Society. 
 
 ART. 5. Of the History of Property, considered in relation 
 to Human Improvement and Happiness. 
 
 ART. 6. Of the Origin and Progress of the Arts and of the 
 Sciences. 
 
 ART. 7. Of the Origin and Progress of Commerce. 
 
 ART. 8. Of the Origin and Progress of Government, and of 
 the History of Rank and Subordination. 
 
 ART. 9. Of the Origin and Progress of Municipal Systems 
 of Jurisprudence. 
 
 ART. 10. Of Diversities in the History of the Species, arising 
 from the influence of Climate and Situation. 
 
 subsequent. A few unimportant verbal crimination ; but wherever the change 
 additions have, however, been interpo- is of any moment, it has been explicitly 
 lated from the first edition, without dis- noticed.]
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 OF THE GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF LEGISLATION AND 
 GOVERNMENT. 
 
 SECT. I. OF POLITICAL ECONOMY.* 
 
 ART. 1. Of the Writings of Grotius and his Successors on 
 Natural Jurisprudence, and their influence in suggesting the 
 Modern Speculations concerning Political Economy. 
 
 ART. 2. Of the Objects of Political Economy, and the more 
 important general Conclusions to which the study of it has 
 led. 
 
 ART. 3. Of the Coincidence of the Principles of Justice and 
 of Expediency, in the Political Conclusions to which they lead. 
 [Slavery.] 1st Edit. 
 
 ART. 4. Of the Connexion between just Views of Political 
 Economy, and the Intellectual and Moral Improvement of 
 Mankind. 
 
 SECT. II. OF THE DIFFERENT FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT ; AND 
 OF THE VARIOUS FORMS IN WHICH THEY ARE COMBINED IN 
 THE CONSTITUTIONS OF DIFFERENT STATES. 
 
 ART. 1. Of the Legislative, Judicial, and Executive Powers. 
 ART. 2. Of the Simple Forms of Government, according to 
 
 * [The three following articles appear 2.) Of the Revenue of the Sove- 
 
 in \\\e first edition only, 1793:] reign. 
 
 ART. 1. Of Population. [After an ART. 3, the same as in the 
 
 ART. 2. Of National Wealth. text, there follows :] 
 
 1.) Of the Distribution of "Wealth ART. 4. Of the instruction of the 
 
 among the body of the People, Lower Orders ; and of the Prevention 
 
 and of the Regulations respect- and Punishment of Crimes, 
 ing the Poor.
 
 6 OUTLINES OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY. PART III. 
 
 the definitions of Speculative Politicians ; and of the Uses to 
 which this theoretical view of the subject is subservient, in the 
 examination of actual Constitutions. 
 
 ART. 3. Of Mixed Governments. 
 
 ART. 4 Of the English Constitution. 
 
 ART. 5. Of the Influence of Forms of Government on Na- 
 tional Character and Manners. 
 
 ART. 6. Of the Duties arising from the Political Union. 
 
 ART. 7. Of the Political Relations of different States to each 
 other ; and of the Laws of Morality as applicable to Nations.
 
 LECTURES ON POLITICAL ECONOMY.
 
 LECTURES ON POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 INTKODUCTION. 
 
 OF THE OBJECTS AND PROVINCE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY .* 
 
 [CHAPTEK I.] 
 
 [OF THE TITLE AND COMPREHENSION OF THE SCIENCE, 
 IN ITS MOST EXTENSIVE MEANING.] 
 
 IT was before intimated,f that when the phrase Political 
 Economy occurs in the course of this Dissertation, it is to be 
 understood in the most extensive sense of these words. By 
 most of our English writers, as well as by those in the other 
 countries of Europe, this phrase has been hitherto restricted to 
 inquiries concerning Wealth and Population; or to what 
 have sometimes been called the resources of a State. It is in 
 this limited sense it is used by the disciples of Quesnai in 
 France, and also by Sir James Steuart, Mr. Smith, and a long 
 
 * [This seems to correspond with the 1823) made to fit them for this trans- 
 " Introduction to a Course of Elemen- ference ; which, however, was never 
 tary Lectures on Political Economy," completed. It is perhaps needless to 
 as enumerated in the table of contents observe, that these alterations are mere- 
 given by Miss Stewart ; (see Editor's ly superficial, and that the chapters, in 
 Advertisement.) It escaped the fate all essential respects, correspond with 
 of the other writings in that list, in con- their original accommodation.] 
 sequence of an extra copy having been 
 
 taken. For, its first certainly, and ap- f {/See above, Vol. I., (Dissertation,} 
 
 parently also its second chapter, were p. 22 ; though probably reference is 
 
 latterly intended by Mr. Stewart to be made to a more proximate passage in 
 
 incorporated in the Third Part of his the intended previous Lecture or Chap- 
 
 Dissertation ; and various changes were ter, entitled, Allegiance to Government, 
 
 accordingly (about 1819 and down to now lost.]
 
 10 POLITICAL ECONOMY. INTRODUCTION TO PARTS I. AND II. 
 
 list of respectable authors in this Island, both before and after 
 the publication of Quesnai's works. Without, however, pre- 
 suming to censure in the slightest degree the propriety of their 
 language, I think that the same title may be extended with 
 much advantage to all those speculations which have for their 
 object the happiness and improvement of Political Society, or, 
 in other words, which have for their object the great and ulti- 
 mate ends from which Political regulations derive all their 
 value; and to which Wealth and Population themselves are 
 to be regarded as only subordinate and instrumental Such 
 are the speculations which aim at ascertaining those funda- 
 mental Principles of Policy, which Lord Bacon has so signifi- 
 cantly and so happily described, as " Leges Legum, ex quibus 
 informatio peti possit, quid in singulis Legibus bene aut per- 
 peram positum aut constitutum sit."* In this employment of 
 the phrase Political Economy, I may perhaps be accused of a 
 deviation from established practice ; but the language does not 
 afford me another expression less exceptionable, for denoting 
 this particular department of Political Science ; and the use 
 which Dr. Johnson and other classical authorities have made of 
 the word Economy ,to denote "disposition and regulation in gene- 
 ral," justifies me at least in some measure, for extending its ordi- 
 nary acceptation when applied to the internal policy of nations. 
 
 If we could suppose that this departure from the common 
 language of Political writers were to be sanctioned by general 
 use, its advantages, if I do not deceive myself, would be found 
 of material importance. I shall only mention at present the 
 effect it would necessarily have in keeping constantly before 
 the mind of the speculative Politician, the Standard by which 
 the wisdom and expediency of every institution is to be esti- 
 mated ; and in checking those partial views of human affairs 
 which have led so many eminent writers in their zeal for the 
 advancement of National Riches, to overlook the more essential 
 objects of the Political Union. 
 
 That the idea which I thus propose to annex to this study 
 
 * [De Aug. Scient. Lib. VIII. cap. iii. Exemphim Tractatvt de Justitia Uni- 
 vertali, Aph. 6.J
 
 CHAP. I. TITLE AND COMPREHENSION OF THE SCIENCE. 11 
 
 is sufficiently precise, must appear evident to all who are con- 
 versant with Political inquiries. In the meantime, (as I find 
 it impossible to convey this idea to others by any general defi- 
 nition or description,) a few examples may serve to illustrate 
 the questions which I propose to comprehend under the title of 
 Political Economy, and those subordinate discussions, which, 
 although essentially different in their nature and aim, are apt, 
 from their apparent relation to the same objects, to be con- 
 founded together under the same title. 
 
 To begin, then, with that science, which, in the judgment of 
 the most enlightened politicians, is the most essential of all to 
 human happiness, I mean the Science of Agriculture ; how 
 various and important are the subjects which belong exclusively 
 to its province ! The general principles of vegetation ; the 
 chemical analysis of soils ; the theory of manures ; the princi- 
 ples which regulate the rotation of crops, and which modify 
 the rotation, according to the diversities of soil and climate ; 
 the implements of agriculture, both mechanical and animal ; 
 and a thousand other topics of a similar description. To none 
 of these articles does the Political Economist profess to direct 
 his attention ; but he speculates on a subject, without a know- 
 ledge of which, on the "part of the Legislator, that of the other, 
 how generally soever it may be diffused, is of no value. He 
 speculates on the motives which, stimulate human industry ; 
 and according as he finds these favoured or not in the classes 
 of the people on whose exertions agriculture depends, he pre- 
 dicts the agricultural progress or decline of a nation. He con- 
 siders with this view the state of landed property, and the laws 
 which regulate its alienation or transmission ; the state of the 
 actual occupiers of the ground ; the security they possess for 
 reaping, unmolested, the reward of their labours ; and the en- 
 couragement they enjoy in comparison of that held out in the 
 other walks of lucrative enterprise. Nor does he confine his 
 views to the plenty or scarcity of the immediately succeeding 
 seasons, but endeavours to investigate the means of securing 
 permanent abundance and prosperity to his fellow-citizens. In 
 this respect, too, the principles on which he proceeds differ
 
 12 POLITICAL ECONOMY. INTRODUCTION TO PARTS I. AND II. 
 
 essentially not only from those of the practical agriculturist, 
 but from those which regulate the views of all the other orders 
 of men who think merely of their individual interests. The 
 exertions of the farmer, it may be reasonably presumed, will be 
 proportioned to the recompense he expects ; spirited and vigor- 
 ous after a few years of high prices, and languid when over- 
 stocked markets have for a length of time disappointed his just 
 expectations. The manufacturer, on the other hand, and the 
 various orders of annuitants and stipendiary labourers, exult 
 when the farmer repines, and repine when the farmer exults. 
 In the midst of this conflict of contending interests and preju- 
 dices, it is the business of the Political Economist to watch 
 over the concents of all, and to point out to the Legislator the 
 danger of listening exclusively to claims founded in local or in 
 partial advantages, to remind him that the pressure of a tem- 
 porary scarcity brings along with it in time its own remedy, 
 while an undue depression of prices may sacrifice to a passing 
 abundance years of future prosperity ; above all, to recom- 
 mend to him such a policy, as by securing in ordinary years a 
 regular surplus, may restrain the fluctuation of prices within 
 as narrow limits as possible ; the only effectual method of con- 
 sulting at once the real and permanent injterests of proprietors, 
 cultivators, and consumers. 
 
 What has now been said with respect to agriculture, may be 
 extended to the various other employments of human industry, 
 all of which furnish, in a greater or less degree, interesting 
 subjects of scientific examination. This is exemplified very 
 remarkably in Manufactures, in which the chemists and me- 
 chanists of the present age have found so ample a field of 
 observation and of study ; and to the improvement of which 
 they have so largely contributed by their discoveries and in- 
 ventions. To the Philosopher also, manufactures present a 
 most interesting spectacle, and that whether he takes the 
 trouble or not to enter into the detail of their various pro- 
 cesses. What are the circumstances which attract manufac- 
 turers to one part of a country in preference to another ? in 
 what respects is it in the Dower of the Legislator to encourage
 
 CHAP. 1. TITLE AND COMPREHENSION OF THE SCIENCE. 13 
 
 them by roads, canals, harbours, and other public works ? what 
 are the effects of that division of labour, which takes place in a 
 manufacturing country, on the intellectual and moral powers of 
 the lower orders ? what are the political effects of those mecha- 
 nical contrivances by which labour is abridged ? these, and many 
 other questions of a similar nature, depend for their solution, 
 not on that knowledge which is to be acquired in workshops, 
 but on an acquaintance with the nature and condition of man. 
 Such questions, I conceive, belong properly to that science, of 
 which I am now endeavouring to describe the objects. 
 
 While the Political Economist thus investigates the sources 
 of Agricultural and Manufacturing wealth, he is naturally led 
 to consider these two great divisions of manual industry in 
 their mutual relations ; to inquire in what manner they act 
 and re-act on each other ; and how far it is in the power of 
 the statesman to combine their joint influence for increasing 
 the happiness and improvement of the community. Where the 
 freedom of industry is unjustly restrained by laws borrowed 
 from less enlightened ages, and more especially where that 
 species of industry on which man depends for his subsistence is 
 depressed below its proper level, it is his duty to remonstrate 
 against so fatal a perversion of Political Institutions. In doing 
 so, he does not arrogate to himself any superiority of practical 
 knowledge over those whose professional labours are the sub- 
 ject of his discussions ; but he thinks himself entitled to be 
 heard, while his conclusions rest, not on the details of any par- 
 ticular art, but on the principles of human nature, and on the 
 physical condition of the human race. 
 
 The diversity of pursuits to which individuals betake them- 
 selves in the progress of civilized society, in consequence of the 
 various modifications of agricultural and of manufacturing 
 labour, give rise necessarily to a new order of men, whose pro- 
 vince it is to facilitate those exchanges which the separation of 
 professions renders indispensable ; and who, in thus contribut- 
 ing to the perfection of the social system, open an ample source 
 of emolument to themselves. I allude at present to the order 
 of Merchants, a class of citizens entirely dependent on the
 
 14 POLITICAL ECONOMY. INTRODUCTION TO PARTS I. AND II. 
 
 labours of the farmer and tradesman ; but who, in such a com- 
 plex state of society as that with which we are connected, exert 
 a very powerful influence over both the others. A practical 
 acquaintance with this department of business, more especially 
 when it embraces the great objects of national concern, re- 
 quires a longer and more systematical education than what is 
 commonly understood to be necessary to qualify the farmer and 
 the tradesman for their respective occupations ; and it is, in 
 truth, only to be acquired completely, by that experience which 
 commercial habits communicate. Among the various callings, 
 accordingly, to which the circumstances of modern Europe 
 have given rise, there is none which has discovered a greater 
 jealousy of uninitiated theorists, or a more arrogant contempt 
 for the speculative conclusions of the closet, than the whole 
 tribe of what are commonly called the monied interest ; that is, 
 capitalists, great merchants, and financiers of every descrip- 
 tion. And, unquestionably, in whatever relates to practical 
 details, or to a quickness of mercantile combination in estimat- 
 ing the probable profits or losses of a particular adventure, 
 their claims to a superior degree of illumination cannot rea- 
 sonably be disputed. Still, however, there are many questions 
 relating to trade, to the consideration of which the philosopher, 
 and the philosopher alone, is competent. The theory of money 
 (including under this word, paper credit) is of itself a suffi- 
 cient example; a theory which, after all that has been yet 
 written on the subject, and all the prodigies which the thing 
 itself daily accomplishes before our eyes, remains to this hour 
 in much obscurity. It is not, however, to such a subject as 
 that of money (which Leibnitz has somewhere justly called a 
 semi-mathematical speculation) that I allude chiefly in the 
 foregoing remark. I have an eye more particularly to Trade 
 considered in its relation to other objects of Political Science, 
 animating and combining into one system the labours of the 
 farmer and the artificer, in the most remote corners of an ex- 
 tensive territory, encouraging and calling forth the industry of 
 other nations, and of other quarters of the globe ; exhibiting, 
 in a word, those stupendous effects, both political and moral,
 
 CHAP. I. TITLE AND COMPREHENSION OF THE SCIENCE. 15 
 
 which distinguish the condition of mankind in Modern Europe, 
 from everything else that is known in the history of the species. 
 It is unnecessary for me to say, how important that class of 
 laws must be, which affects peculiarly the interests of those* 
 whose operations lead to such momentous consequences ; how 
 extensive their utility, where they second the salutary ten- 
 dencies of commerce ; and how dangerous the mistakes of the 
 Legislator may prove, when they thwart, in concerns of so vast 
 a magnitude, the beneficial arrangements of nature. 
 
 For speculations which embrace so complicated a variety of 
 objects, the details of a particular branch of trade are surely 
 not the best preparation ; nor is that quick-sighted regard to 
 personal interest which commercial pursuits communicate, 
 necessarily accompanied with views equally just, concerning 
 questions of public utility. The truth is, that no wise states- 
 man will reckon much on the disinterested benevolence of any 
 one order of individuals; and the only occasions on which 
 their professional knowledge is likely to be turned to national 
 advantage, is when the interest of their order, and the interest 
 of the community, are one and the same. That this is less the 
 case with manufacturers and merchants than with farmers and 
 country gentlemen, is frequently remarked by Mr. Smith in 
 the course of his Inquiry ;* and the same observation has been 
 sanctioned by a still more unexceptionable authority, that of 
 Sir Josiah Child."f " Merchants," says this very intelligent 
 and liberal writer, who was himself in an eminent degree con- 
 versant with the practical details of trade, " Merchants, while 
 they are in the busy and eager prosecution of their particular 
 objects, although they be very wise and good men, are not always 
 the best judges of commerce, as it relates to the power and profit 
 of a kingdom. The reason may be, because their eyes are so con- 
 tinually fixed on what makes for their peculiar gain or loss, that 
 they have no leisure to expatiate, or to turn their thoughts to 
 what is most advantageous for the kingdom in general." 
 
 * [" Manufactures," says Smith, serve as a specimen. Inquiry into the 
 
 " may flourish amidst the ruin of their Nature and Causes of the Wealth of 
 
 country, and begin to decay upon the Nations, Book IV. chap, i.] 
 
 return of its prosperity." This may f [Diicmtr?e on Trade.}
 
 16 POLITICAL ECONOMY. INTRODUCTION TO PARTS I. AND II. 
 
 " The like," he adds, " may be said of all shopkeepers, arti- 
 ficers, and manufacturers, until they have left off their trades, 
 and being rich, become, by the purchase of lands, of the same 
 common interest with most of their countrymen." 1 
 
 The same train of thought might be easily extended to the 
 other subjects which I comprehend under the title of Politi- 
 cal Economy. But what I have already stated is fully suffi- 
 cient to illustrate the nature of those general and fundamental 
 principles which I propose to investigate, and to justify the 
 concise and expressive description of them formerly quoted 
 from Lord Bacon, [p. 10,] where he calls them, " Leges Legum, 
 ex quibus informatio peti possit, quid in singulis Legibus bene 
 aut perperam positum aut constitutum sit." 
 
 According to the idea of Political Economy which I have 
 adopted, this science is not confined to any particular descrip- 
 tion of Laws, or to any particular department of the general 
 science of Legislation. Among the means, for example, of 
 advancing national wealth, what so efficacious as the laws 
 which give security to the right of property, and check an in- 
 ordinate inequality in its distribution ? To secure these ends, 
 is one great aim both of civil and criminal jurisprudence ; and 
 therefore, even those regulations which appear, on a superficial 
 view, to be altogether foreign to the subject of national re- 
 sources, may yet involve in the consequences, the most effec- 
 tual provisions by which national resources are to be secured 
 and augmented. 
 
 The science of Political Economy, considered in its more 
 extensive signification, as comprehending every regulation 
 which affects the sum of national improvement and enjoyment, 
 must necessarily embrace discussions of a still more miscel- 
 laneous nature. Among its various objects, however, one of 
 
 1 Even after the trader has become a with all his liberality, sometimes betrays 
 
 landed proprietor, he will naturally feel in his parliamentary opinions, a stronger 
 
 the influence of his former habits of fellow-feeling with Fund-holders, than 
 
 thinking and judging, and will regard the country gentlemen of England are 
 
 with undue partiality the associates of disposed to sympathize with. (See 
 
 those pursuits to which he is indebted Debate, Feb. 11, 1822.) 
 for his fortune. Mr. llicardo himself,
 
 CHAP. I. TITLE AND COMPREHENSION OF THE SCIENCE. 17 
 
 the most important is the solution of that problem which Mr. 
 Burke has pronounced to be one of the finest in legislation : 
 " to ascertain what the State ought to take upon itself to direct 
 by the public wisdom, and what it ought to leave, ivith as little 
 interference as possible, to individual discretion." The mis- 
 chievous consequences that may result from the tendency of 
 mistaken notions on this point, to produce an undue multipli- 
 cation of the objects of law, must be evident to every person 
 who has the slightest acquaintance with Mr. Smith's political 
 disquisitions. In point of fact, it is the very problem stated by 
 Mr. Burke, which renders it so difficult to define with precision 
 the object of Political Economy. Its general aim is to en- 
 lighten those who are destined for the functions of government, 
 and to enlighten public opinion with respect to their conduct ; 
 but unless it be previously ascertained how far the legitimate 
 province of the Statesman extends, it is impossible to draw the 
 line distinctly between those subjects which belong properly to 
 the science of Legislation, and those of which the regulation 
 ought to be entrusted to the selfish passions and motives inse- 
 parable from human nature. 
 
 I have dwelt the longer on this subject, as I was anxious to 
 point out its intimate connexion with the Philosophy of the 
 Human Mind. The only infallible rules of political wisdom are 
 founded ultimately on a knowledge of the prevailing springs of 
 human action, and he who loses himself in the details of the 
 social mechanism, while he overlooks those moral powers which 
 give motion to the whole, though he may accumulate a mass of 
 information highly useful in the pursuits of private life, must 
 remain in total ignorance of those primary causes on which 
 depend the prosperity and the safety of nations. 
 
 Nor is it in this respect alone that the sciences of Morals and 
 of Politics are related to each other; it is justly and profoundly 
 remarked in one of the oldest fragments now extant of Grecian 
 Philosophy, that " among the external circumstances necessary 
 to the happiness of the individual, the first place is due to a 
 well constituted State, without which the rational and social 
 animal is imperfect, and unable to fulfil the purpose of its 
 
 VOL. VIII. B
 
 18 POLITICAL ECONOMY. INTRODUCTION TO FARTS I. AND II. 
 
 being."* I shall endeavour afterwards to shew, that this ob- 
 servation applies with far less force to that part of the political 
 order which depends immediately on the form of government, 
 than to the system of Political Economy which that govern- 
 ment encourages. At present I shall content myself with sug- 
 gesting in general, in confirmation of the Pythagorean maxim 
 just now quoted, that it is in the political union, and in the 
 gradual improvement of which it is susceptible, that the chief 
 provision has been made for a gradual development of our 
 faculties, and for a proportionate enlargement in our capacities 
 of enjoyment, insomuch that it may be confidently affirmed, 
 that by the particular modification of the political order exist- 
 ing in any country, both the intellectual and moral condition of 
 the great body of the people is infallibly determined. 
 
 I am perfectly aware of the objections to this doctrine, which 
 will immediately occur to such as have adopted the prejudices 
 which have been so industriously fostered for the last twenty 
 yearsf by the advocates of civil and religious tyranny, (and 
 by none more zealously than by the existing Government of 
 France,J) against all those branches of Philosophy which have 
 human affairs for their object. But to these I think it quite 
 superfluous to offer a formal reply; not only because their 
 injustice and absurdity are completely felt and understood by 
 their authors ; but because all I could allege on the other side 
 of the question would amount to nothing more than to an apology 
 for the actual state of society in this part of the world, when 
 contrasted with that which existed during the dark ages. 
 
 * [Mr. Stewart probably refers to says, " is either a god or a beast;" "Man 
 
 the Pseudo-Pythagorean Fragment On is by nature political, in a sense higher 
 
 Happiness, under the name of Thurius ; than the bee or the ant, or any gregarious 
 
 (Gale's Opuscula, edition of Amsterdam, animal." As he elsewhere expresses 
 
 p. 663.) But a weightier and surer it : " Man is to Man the condition of his 
 
 authority for the same doctrine is that highest happiness and improvement," 
 
 of Aristotle, in his Politics ; who there 'Aifyvru r^itrn &rt(*rti, . r. X.] 
 shews, that Man, only in Society at- f [In her transcript, Miss Stewart 
 
 tains to the perfection of which he is notes " What date ? I think about 
 
 capable, and therefore, that a State is 1819, but am doubtful."] 
 prior in the order of nature, to an Indi- $ [Relative to acts, in and after 1820. 
 
 vidnal or a Family. " The solitary," he See " Notice tur M. Cousin," 1835.]
 
 CHAP. I. TITLE AND COMPREHENSION OF THE SCIENCE. 19 
 
 It was indeed against the authors of the most important 
 blessings transmitted to us by our forefathers, that the outcry 
 was the loudest and most general, not many years ago, in all 
 the absolute monarchies on the Continent ; in some of those 
 most remarkably which have since fallen victims to their own 
 blindness and imbecility ; and where the people were prepared 
 by unqualified panegyrics on the excellence and tranquillity of 
 despotical Governments, to consider a change of masters as 
 a circumstance of too little importance to their political condi- 
 tion to animate them in struggling against the arms of their in- 
 vaders. The acknowledged mischiefs and horrors which were 
 produced in France in the earlier stages of her revolution, by 
 what the popular leaders dignified with the title of Philosophy, 
 while everything which really merited the name was silenced and 
 proscribed, has furnished to the enemies of human reason too 
 specious a pretence for confounding, under one common appel- 
 lation, the doctrines of sophistry and the salutary lessons of 
 wisdom. The consequences have been everywhere such as were 
 to be expected. The false theories which were once so generally 
 propagated have been suppressed solely by the terrors of the 
 sword ; and that mild Philosophy, which addresses herself to 
 minds unwarped by passion and by the spirit of faction, has 
 been forced to reserve her admonitions for other times. In no 
 country of Europe has this observation been verified in so 
 remarkable a degree as in that where the evil originated ; and 
 if it applied to that country exclusively, it would afford much 
 ground of consolation and hope to the human race. 
 
 " Di meliora piis, errorenique hostibus ilium !" 
 
 I blush, however, to confess, that even among ourselves it is 
 only now that the more candid and intelligent are beginning to 
 acknowledge, that the radical source of the calamities of our 
 age has been the ignorance and prejudices of the people ; and 
 that it is only by diffusing the light of knowledge and of 
 liberality in those countries which have survived the general 
 storm, that a provision can be made against those political 
 convulsions which, in our own times, have derived their origin
 
 20 POLITICAL ECONOMY. INTRODUCTION TO PARTS I. AND II. 
 
 from the artifices of ambitious demagogues, operating on the 
 credulity and profligacy of an uneducated multitude. 
 
 This growing change in public opinion, has given rise, of 
 late years, to a much more general attention to speculative 
 politics, than existed at any former period ; and from this new 
 direction of the public curiosity the happiest consequences may 
 be anticipated. " Nothing," says Mr. Smith, " tends so much 
 to promote public spirit as the study of politics ; of the several 
 systems of Civil Government; their advantages and disad- 
 vantages ; of the condition of our own country ; its situation 
 and interest with regard to foreign nations ; its commerce ; 
 its defence ; the disadvantages it labours under ; the dangers 
 to which it may be exposed ; how to remove the one, and how 
 to guard against the other. Upon this account, Political Dis- 
 quisitions, if just and reasonable and practicable, are, of all the 
 works of speculation, the most useful. Even the weakest and the 
 worst of them are not altogether without their utility. They serve 
 at least to animate the public passions of men, and rouse them 
 to seek out the means of promoting the happiness of society." 1 
 
 A very able and candid critic, in some strictures which he 
 did me the honour to make on the First Part of this Disserta- 
 tion* was pleased to express his regret that I should have 
 announced my intention, in the farther prosecution of my 
 subject, to abstain from all speculations concerning the Theory 
 of Government, and to confine myself exclusively to the modern 
 science of Political Economy. For this omission I might 
 
 1 Theory of Moral Sentiments, Vol. have more safely trusted himself in that 
 
 I. pp. 471, 472, [sixth edition.] stormy region. He was much less 
 
 * [Sir James Mackintosh ; (see Edin- likely to have been tainted by its tur- 
 
 lurr/h JKeview, Sept. 181 6, Vol. XXVII. bulence, than to have composed it by 
 
 p. 220.) His words are : " The men- the serenity of his philosophical char- 
 
 tion of Buchanan excites our regret acter. Every history of the other parts 
 
 that Mr. Stewart should have excluded of moral and political science is incom- 
 
 from his plan the history of those ques- plete, unless it be combined with that 
 
 tions respecting the principles and forms of political opinion ; the link which, 
 
 of government, which form one of the however unobserved, always unites the 
 
 principal subjects of political philosophy, most abstruse of ethical discussions with 
 
 properly BO called. No writer could the feelings and affairs of men."]
 
 CHAP. I. TITLE AND COMPREHENSION OF THE SCIENCE. 21 
 
 perhaps find a sufficient apology, in the novelty of Political 
 Economy considered in the light of a science ; (no attempt hav- 
 ing been made to reduce its principles into a systematical form 
 till the middle of the last century ;) but as the reasons which 
 chiefly weighed with me were really of a different nature, and 
 as they are in my own opinion of considerable importance, I 
 shall take this opportunity of submitting them, at some length, 
 to the consideration of my readers. 
 
 In most of the Systematical Treatises published by political 
 writers, the attention of the student is directed, in the^rs^ 
 instance, to an examination and comparison of the different 
 Forms of Government, and is afterwards led to some of those 
 subjects which I have comprehended under the title of Political 
 Economy. On a superficial view, this arrangement is apt to 
 appear the most natural ; for it is to the establishment of 
 Government we are indebted for the existence of the Social 
 Order ; and without the executive power of Government, Law 
 would be merely a dead letter. In this instance, however, I 
 am inclined to think, as in many others, the most obvious 
 arrangement is not the most natural; and that it would be 
 better to invert the arrangement commonly followed, by 
 beginning, first with the Principles of Political Economy, and 
 afterwards proceeding to the Theory of Government.* My 
 reasons for thinking so are various; but the following are 
 some of the most important. 
 
 It is on the particular system of Political Economy which 
 is established in any country, that the happiness of the people 
 immediately depends ; and it is from the remote tendency that 
 
 * [The order here indicated has been Economy proper, considered in the first 
 
 followed in the present publication : but, instance It should be mentioned, that 
 
 it will be observed, that this distribu- Mr. Stewart usually delivered a series 
 
 tion is different from what may possibly of lectures on the Theory and Forms of 
 
 be viewed as Mr. Stewart's ultimate Government, in addition to, but as a 
 
 arrangement ; (see the preliminary Ad- part of his ordinary course of Moral 
 
 vertisement.) By that arrangement, Philosophy. These Political lectures 
 
 the Theory of Government and its were thus altogether distinct from his 
 
 several Forms are, relatively to Political separate course of Political Economy.]
 
 22 POLITICAL ECONOMY. INTRODUCTION TO PARTS I. AND II. 
 
 wise forms of Government have to produce wise systems of 
 Political Economy, that the utility of the former in a great 
 measure arises. The one, indeed, leads naturally to the other; 
 but it does not lead to it necessarily ; for it is extremely 
 possible that inexpedient laws may, in consequence of ignorance 
 and prejudice, be sanctioned for ages by a Government excel- 
 lent in its constitution, and just in its administration ; while 
 the evils threatened by a Government fundamentally bad, may, 
 to a great degree, be corrected by an enlightened system of 
 internal policy. 
 
 An idea very similar to this is stated by Mr. Hume, (though 
 in a manner somewhat too paradoxical,) in one of his Essays. 
 " We are, therefore, to look upon all the vast apparatus of our 
 Government as having ultimately no other object or purpose 
 but the distribution of justice, or the support of the twelve 
 Judges. Kings and parliaments, fleets and armies, officers 
 of the court and revenue, ambassadors, ministers and privy 
 councillors, are all subordinate in their end, to this part of 
 administration. Even the clergy, as their duty leads them to 
 inculcate morality, may justly be thought, so far as regards 
 this world, to have no other useful object of their institution."* 
 
 In farther illustration of this fundamental principle, it may 
 be remarked, that there are two very different points of view in 
 which Laws may be considered ; first, with respect to their 
 origin ; and, secondly, with respect to their tendency. If they 
 are equitable in both respects, that is, if they arise from a just con- 
 stitution of Government, and if they are favourable to general 
 happiness, they possess every possible recommendation ; but if 
 they are to want the one recommendation or the other, the 
 former (it ought always to be recollected) is of trifling moment 
 in comparison of the latter. Unfortunately, however, for the 
 world, the contrary idea has very generally prevailed ; and has 
 led men to direct their efforts much more to improve the Theory 
 of Government, than to ascertain the just principles of Political 
 Economy. What has contributed much to produce this effect 
 is, that every change in an established form of administration, 
 
 [Enays, Vol. I., Essay Of the Origin of Government]
 
 CHAP. I. TITLE AND COMPREHENSION OF THE SCIENCE. 23 
 
 presents an immediate field of action to the ambitions and the 
 turbulent; whereas improvements in Political Economy open 
 only those distant prospects of general utility, which, however 
 they may interest the calm benevolence of speculative men, are 
 not likely to engage the passions of the multitude, or to attract 
 the attention of those who aspire to be their leaders. 
 
 I before observed, that the mistaken notions concerning 
 Political Liberty which have been so widely disseminated in 
 Europe by the writings of Mr. Locke, have contributed greatly 
 to divert the studies of speculative politicians from the proper 
 objects of their attention. On this subject I beg leave to refer 
 to the remarks I offered on Locke and his followers, when 
 treating on the foundation of the duty of Allegiance ;* and I 
 have only to add at present, that the conclusion to which these 
 and other observations of the same kind lead, is, not that the 
 share of political power vested in the people is of trifling 
 moment, but that its importance to their happiness depends 
 on the protection and support it provides for their civil rights. 
 Happiness is, in truth, the only object of legislation which is 
 of intrinsic value ; and what is called Political Liberty, is only 
 one of the means of obtaining this end. With the advantage of 
 good laws, a people, although not possessed of political power, 
 may yet enjoy a great degree of happiness ; and, on the contrary, 
 where laws are unjust and inexpedient, the political power of 
 the people, so far from furnishing any compensation for their 
 misery, is likely to oppose an insurmountable obstacle to im- 
 provement, by employing the despotism of numbers in support of 
 principles of which the multitude are incompetent to judge. 
 
 On the other hand, it is no less evident, that the only effec- 
 tual and permanent bulwark against the encroachments of 
 tyranny, is to be found in the political privileges which the 
 Constitution secures to the governed. This, indeed, is demon- 
 strated by the history of all those arbitrary establishments in 
 which the condition of the subjects is decided by the personal 
 character of the Sovereign ; and hence the jealousy with which, 
 
 * [Miss Stewart, in her transcript says : " I fear this chapter on Allegiance 
 is lost."]
 
 24 POLITICAL ECONOMY. INTRODUCTION TO PARTS I. AND II. 
 
 under better constitutions, every encroachment on these privi- 
 leges has been watched by the enlightened friends of freedom. 
 The want of them, however, does not, like that of civil liberty, 
 necessarily affect the happiness, nor impair the natural rights 
 of individuals ; for their value is founded entirely on considera- 
 tions of political expediency ; and, therefore, the measure of 
 them, which a wise man would desire for himself and his 
 fellow-citizens, is determined, not by the degree in which 
 every individual consents, directly or indirectly, to the laws by 
 which he is governed ; but by the share of power which it is 
 necessary for the people to possess, in order to place their civil 
 rights beyond the danger of violation. In so far as this object 
 is attained under any establishment, the civil liberty of the 
 people rests on a solid foundation ; and their political power 
 accomplishes completely the only purpose from which its value 
 is derived. Nor must it be forgotten, how often it has hap- 
 pened in the history of mankind, that a people, by losing sight 
 of the end, in the blind pursuit of the means, have forfeited 
 both the one and the other. 
 
 These considerations, added to what was formerly stated, 
 appear fully sufficient to justify my general position, that of 
 the two branches of Political Science, (the Theory of Govern- 
 ment and Political Economy,) the latter is that which is most 
 immediately connected with human happiness and improve- 
 ment ; and which is therefore entitled, in the first instance* to 
 the attention of the student. But this is not all. Some know- 
 ledge of Political Economy is indispensably necessary to enable 
 us to appreciate the different Forms of Government, and to 
 compare them together, in respect of their fitness to accomplish 
 the great ends to which they ought to be subservient : whereas 
 Political Economy may be studied without any reference to 
 constitutional forms ; not only because the tendency of laws 
 may be investigated abstractedly from all consideration of their 
 origin, but because there are many principles of Political 
 Economy which may be sanctioned by governments very 
 different in their constitutions; and some so essentially con- 
 [See note, p. 21.]
 
 CHAP. I. TITLE AND COMPREHENSION OP THE SCIENCE. 25 
 
 nected with the happiness of society that no Government can 
 violate them, without counteracting the very purposes for which 
 Government is established. 
 
 In contrasting, as I have now done, the study of Political 
 Economy with that of the Theory of Government, I think it 
 necessary for me once more to repeat, (before concluding this 
 Lecture,*) that I do not mean to deny their very intimate con- 
 nexion with each other. I have already said that it is only 
 under equitable constitutions that we can have any reasonable 
 prospect of seeing wise systems of policy steadily pursued ; and 
 it is no less true, on the other hand, that every improvement 
 which takes place in the internal policy of a State, by melio- 
 rating the condition and the morals of the great mass of the 
 people, has a tendency to prepare society for undergoing, with- 
 out any shock or convulsion, those gradual alterations which 
 time produces on all human institutions. 
 
 These observations may appear at first view to be contra- 
 dicted by a passage in the Historical Fragment of Mr. Fox, of 
 which, in consideration of the high authority of that eminent 
 person, I think it necessary for me to take some notice. 
 Speaking of the reign of Charles II., and particularly of the 
 spirit of Government in the year 1675, he observes : " It is to 
 be remarked, that to these times of heat and passion, and to 
 one of those Parliaments which so disgraced themselves and 
 the nation, by the countenance given to Oates and Eedloe, and 
 by the persecution of so many innocent victims, we are indebted 
 for the Habeas Corpus Act, the most important barrier against 
 tyranny, and best framed protection for the liberty of indi- 
 viduals, that has ever existed in any ancient or modern Com- 
 monwealth." 
 
 " But the inefficacy of mere laws in favour of the subjects, 
 in case of the administration of them falling into the hands of 
 persons hostile to the spirit in which they had been provided, 
 had been so fatally evinced by the general history of England 
 ever since the grant of the Great Charter, and more especially 
 
 * [This parenthesis is deleted in the transcript from which Miss Stewart copied, 
 and is omitted by her.]
 
 26 POLITICAL ECONOMY. INTRODUCTION TO PARTS I. AND II. 
 
 by the transactions of the preceding reign, that the Parliament 
 justly deemed their work incomplete, unless the Duke of York 
 were excluded from the succession to the Crown."* To the 
 same purpose he has elsewhere said, that " the reign of Charles 
 II. forms one of the most singular as well as one of the most 
 important periods of history. It is the sera of good laws and 
 of bad government. The abolition of the Court of Wards ; 
 the repeal of the Act De Heretico Comburendo ; the Triennial 
 Parliament Bill ; the establishment of the Rights of the House 
 of Commons in regard to Impeachment ; the expiration of the 
 License Act; and, above all, the glorious Statute of Habeas 
 Corpus, have therefore induced a modern writer of great emi- 
 nence [Hume,] to fix the year 1679 as the period at which our 
 constitution had arrived at its greatest theoretical perfection ; 
 but he owns, in a short note upon the passage alluded to, that 
 the times immediately following were times of great practical 
 oppression. What a field for meditation does this short 
 observation from such a man furnish ! What reflections does 
 it not suggest to a thinking mind, upon the ineflficacy of human 
 laws, and the imperfection of human constitutions ! We are 
 called from the contemplation of the progress of our constitu- 
 tion, and our attention fixed with the most minute accuracy to 
 a particular point, when it is said to have risen to its utmost 
 perfection. Here we are then, at the best moment of the best 
 constitution that ever human wisdom formed. What follows ? 
 A time of oppression and misery, not arising from external or 
 accidental causes, such as war, pestilence, or famine, nor even 
 from any such alteration of the laws as might be supposed to 
 impair this boasted perfection, but from a corrupt and wicked 
 administration, which all the so-much admired checks of the 
 constitution were not able to prevent. How vain, then, how 
 idle, how presumptuous is the opinion that laws can do every- 
 thing! And how weak and pernicious the maxim founded 
 upon it, that measures, not men, are to be attended to."f 
 The sentiments of an eminent Scotch Judge with respect to 
 
 * f A History of the Early Part of the Reign of James II., Chap. I. p. 38, orig. ed.l 
 t [Ibid. p. 22, 8 eq.}
 
 CHAP. I. TITLE AND COMPREHENSION OF THE SCIENCE. 27 
 
 the Act 1701, (which has been called the Habeas Corpus Act 
 of Scotland,) may be quoted as a supplement to this citation 
 from Mr. Fox. " The Habeas Corpus in England was passed 
 in the reign of Charles II., and you may remember what Mr. 
 Hume says, that that Act for securing the personal liberty of 
 the subject, rendered the constitution of England the best the 
 world had ever seen. The Habeas Corpus Act, however, was 
 rendered altogether nugatory and unavailing in the infamous 
 government which followed, and which produced the Revolu- 
 tion 1688. The Revolution also took place in this country ; 
 but there had been no Habeas Corpus Act here, and it was 
 found necessary to pass the Act 1701. In England personal 
 liberty was unavailing without political freedom ; and in Scot- 
 land, political freedom was discovered to be nugatory without 
 personal liberty. The Act 1701, was meant to consummate 
 the Revolution." 1 
 
 What is the moral to which these reflections lead ? Not, 
 certainly, that laws are of little moment to national felicity ; 
 or even that they are of less moment than the theoretical plan 
 of the government, but that without the vivifying spirit of an 
 enlightened people, jealous of their rights and determined to 
 preserve them, the wisest political institutions are little better 
 than a dead letter. 
 
 Delolme has made some judicious remarks on this subject, 
 when treating of the Censorial Power exercised by the people 
 of England over the conduct of government by means of the 
 press. " Whoever considers," he observes, " what it is that 
 constitutes the moving principles of what we call great affairs, 
 and the invincible sensibility of man to the opinion of his 
 fellow-creatures, will not hesitate to affirm, that, if it were pos- 
 sible for the Liberty of the Press to exist in a despotic govern- 
 ment, and (what is not less difficult) for it to exist without 
 changing the constitution, this liberty of the press would alone 
 form a counterpoise to the power of the Prince. If, for ex- 
 
 1 Speech of Lord Gillies in the case 1823. [This marks a date, after which 
 Duncan v. His Majesty's Advocate, as the context was written ] 
 reported in the Scotsman, February 8,
 
 28 POLITICAL ECONOMY. INTRODUCTION TO PARTS I. AND IL 
 
 ample, in an empire of the East, a sanctuary could be found 
 which, rendered respectable by the ancient religion of the people, 
 might ensure safety to those who should bring thither their 
 observations of any kind, and that from thence printed papers 
 should issue, which, under a certain seal, might be equally 
 respected, and which in their daily appearance, should examine 
 and freely discuss the conduct of the Cadis, the Bashaws, the 
 Vizier, the Divan, and the Sultan himself, that would intro- 
 duce immediately some degree of liberty."* 
 
 It is much to be regretted that Mr. Fox had not lent this 
 argument the support of his talents and eloquence, but at the 
 time he wrote, it was too little attended to by our best Whig 
 writers; and, indeed, since the period of his death, the in- 
 fluence of the Press, in consequence of the diffusion of know- 
 ledge among the lower orders in every part of the island, and 
 the astonishing multiplication of pamphlets and of periodical 
 prints, has increased to a degree of which, twenty years ago, the 
 most sanguine imagination could not have formed a conception. 
 While this organ of public opinion and of the public will, shall 
 remain unrestrained, the friends of liberty need entertain no 
 serious apprehensions about the fate of our happy constitution. 
 At least, any hazard to which it may be exposed can arise 
 only from some incorrigible defect in the morals and public 
 spirit of the people, which renders them no longer able or 
 worthy to enjoy its blessings. 
 
 The following remarks of a profound and eloquent philoso- 
 pherf will exhaust all that I wish farther to observe on this 
 head. The passage is long, but is so important and so appro- 
 priate to my present purpose, that I am unwilling to weaken 
 its effect by attempting to abridge it 
 
 " It is not in mere laws that we are to look for the securities 
 of justice, but in the powers by which these laws have been ob- 
 tained, and without whose constant support they must fall into 
 
 * [Constitution, &c., Book II. chap. predecessor in the chair of Moral Phi- 
 iii.] losophy, in whose Essay on the History 
 
 of Civil Society the passage is found ; 
 t [Dr. Adam Ferguson, Mr. Stewart's Part III., sect, vi.]
 
 CHAP. I. TITLE AND COMPREHENSION OF THE SCIEKCE. 29 
 
 disuse. Statutes serve to record the rights of a people, and 
 speak the intention of parties to defend what the letter of the 
 law has expressed ; but without the vigour to maintain what is 
 acknowledged as a right, the mere record, or the feeble intenv 
 tion, is of little avail. 
 
 " A populace roused by oppression, or an order of men pos- 
 sessed of a temporary advantage, have obtained many charters, 
 concessions, and stipulations in favour of their claims ; but 
 where no adequate preparation was made to preserve them, the 
 written articles were often forgotten, together with the occasion 
 on which they were framed. 
 
 " The history of England, and of every free country, abounds 
 with the example of statutes enacted when the people or their 
 representatives assembled, but never executed when the crown 
 or the executive was left to itself. The most equitable laws on 
 paper are consistent with the utmost despotism in administra- 
 tion. Even the form of trial by juries in England had its 
 authority in law, while the proceedings of the courts were 
 arbitrary and oppressive. 
 
 " We must admire as the key-stone of civil liberty, the 
 statute which forces the secrets of every prison to be revealed, 
 the cause of every commitment to be declared, and the person 
 of the accused to be produced, that he may claim his enlarge- 
 ment or his trial, within a limited time. No wiser form was 
 ever opposed to the abuses of power. But it requires a fabric 
 no less than the whole political constitution of Great Britain, a 
 spirit no less than the refractory and turbulent zeal of this 
 fortunate people, to secure its effects."* 
 
 * [From the previous Introduction Politics proper. In its sequel, the In- 
 it thus appears, that we are warranted troduction further enumerates the sub- 
 in dividing the following Lectures on ordinate constituents of the First Part; 
 Political Economy into two Parts : to to wit, 1, Population, 2, National 
 wit, 1, into a part comprising the Wealth, 3, The Poor, 4, Educa- 
 matters usually referred to Political tion : and these we may consider as so 
 Economy proper ; and 2, into a part many Books into which this Part is 
 comprising the Theory of Government distributed. Of the Second Part, this 
 and forms of Administration, that is, Introduction takes no account]
 
 CHAPTER II* 
 
 [OF THE CONTENTS AND DISTRIBUTION OF POLITICAL ECONOMY 
 PROPEBj OB OF PART FIRST.] 
 
 IN the last chapter I endeavoured to convey a general idea 
 of the nature of those disquisitions which I comprehend under 
 the title of Political Economy, and to which I have in this 
 Dissertation restricted the meaning of Political Philosophy. 
 In point of fact, the subjects of Population and of National 
 Wealth have of late appropriated the title of Political Economy 
 almost exclusively to themselves ; but I flatter myself that the 
 reasons I have assigned for enlarging the province of this 
 science will be found satisfactory. 
 
 That the science of Political Economy, in the common 
 acceptation of the phrase, is of modern origin, is universally 
 admitted ; and that the same observation is applicable to the 
 other subjects to which I propose to extend the same title, will 
 appear in the course of the following remarks. Indeed, upon 
 all of them many of the conclusions which now very generally 
 unite the suffrages of speculative men, stand in direct opposi- 
 tion to the maxims of ancient policy. It seems, therefore, 
 naturally to occur as an object of preliminary inquiry, what are 
 the peculiarities in the circumstances of Modern Europe which 
 have given birth to this new science, and which have imposed 
 on statesmen the necessity of searching for other lights than 
 what are to be collected from the institutions of Ancient Greece 
 
 * [Miss Stewart notes upon her tran- sertation ceases with the first Chapter, 
 
 BCr ipt, " All after this is oJd." If this is manifestly incorrect ; as is appa- 
 
 hereby she means, that the process of ac- rent from the earlier portion, at least, of 
 
 commodating the Lectures to the Die- the following chapter.]
 
 CHAP. II. CONTENTS AND DISTRIBUTION OF THIS PART. 31 
 
 and Rome ? In considering this question, I shall have occasion 
 to point out the natural connexion by which the different 
 branches of Political Economy are united into one department 
 of knowledge, and the easy transitions by which the considera- 
 tion of any one of them leads to that of all the others. The 
 remarks which I have to offer under this head will serve, at the 
 same time, to explain, why in this part of my Dissertation so 
 many of my observations are rather of a prospective, than of a 
 historical or retrospective nature. This view of the subject I 
 found to be unavoidable in treating of a science which, though 
 it has suddenly burst into preternatural maturity, is still in 
 point of years only in a state of infancy. 
 
 [POPULATION.] 
 
 I. Among the various objects of Political Economy, one of the 
 most important and interesting has been always understood to 
 be the augmentation of the numbers of the people; and accord- 
 ingly, I propose to begin the course with an examination of the 
 principal questions to which this subject has given rise.* It is 
 a subject on which much attention has been bestowed both by 
 ancient and by modern legislators, but the relative place which 
 it occupies in the ancient and modern systems of Political 
 Economy, will be found to be essentially different. 
 
 Of this difference the most powerful, though not the only 
 cause, is the civil and domestic liberty now enjoyed, in, this 
 part of Europe, by the industrious orders of the community, 
 contrasted with that slavery which entered into the constitu- 
 tions of those states which, in the ancient world, were under- 
 stood to have accomplished, in the most effectual manner, the 
 great ends of government. In consequence of this mighty 
 change produced by the dissolution of the Feudal system, the 
 care of the statesman (in as far as population is concerned) is 
 necessarily transferred from the higher classes of the people, to 
 a description of men whose numbers in the Free States (as 
 they were called) of Antiquity, were recruited, as they are now 
 
 * [This latter clause is deleted in the earlier copy, and omitted by Miss 
 Stewart.]
 
 32 POLITICAL ECONOMY. INTRODUCTION TO PART I. 
 
 in the West India Islands,* by importations from abroad. It 
 is this description of men which forms the basis of that politi- 
 cal fabric, which Sir William Temple has so finely compared 
 to a pyramid ; and it is on their numbers, combined with their 
 character and habits, that the stability of the superstructure 
 depends. Their numbers, however, it is evident, can in the 
 actual state of things be kept up only by such political arrange- 
 ments as furnish them with the means of rearing families ; and 
 it is into the question concerning the comparative expediency 
 of the various arrangements proposed for that purpose, that the 
 problem of population ultimately resolves. It is well known 
 the efforts of Augustus and of the other statesmen of Eome to 
 discourage celibacy, had little or no reference to this class of 
 the community, but were calculated exclusively to keep up 
 the race of citizens, and more especially of the order of 
 nobility. 
 
 In consequence of the place which the subject of population 
 necessarily occupies in the systems of modern statesmen, it will 
 be found to be more or less connected with every other article 
 of Political Economy ; and accordingly, the most enlightened 
 writers who have of late treated of population, have been led 
 under this general title to discuss a variety of questions, to 
 which it may appear, on a superficial view, to bear a very re- 
 mote relation ; such, for example, is the question with respect to 
 the relative claims of Agriculture and of Manufactures to the 
 attention of the statesman, with a number of other incidental 
 inquiries connected with these different modes of industry. 
 Nothing, however, under this head appears more deserving of 
 notice, than the striking contrast between ancient and modern 
 schemes of policy, considered in their effects on national man- 
 ners, and on the progressive improvement of mankind ; the 
 former checking or altering the natural course of things by 
 means of agrarian laws, and of other restrictive and violent 
 regulations, calculated chiefly to keep up and to multiply the 
 breed of soldiers ; the latter (in those countries, at least, where 
 
 * [Miss Stewart, in her transcript, 1823. My father has evidently over- 
 notes : " This must be altered to suit looked it."J
 
 CHAP. II. CONTENTS AND DISTRIBUTION OF THIS PART. 33 
 
 the true principles of Political Economy have made any pro- 
 gress) allowing Agriculture and Commerce to act and re-act on 
 each other, in multiplying the comforts of human life, in de- 
 veloping all the capacities that belong to our nature, and in 
 diffusing as widely as the imperfections of human institutions 
 will permit, the blessings of knowledge and of civilisation 
 among all classes of the community. " The advantages, in- 
 deed, which modern policy possesses over the ancient, arises 
 principally from its conformity, in some of the most important 
 articles of Political Economy, to an order of things recom- 
 mended by nature ;" and where it remains imperfect, its errors 
 may in general be traced to the obstacles which, in a few 
 instances, it still continues to oppose to those beneficent ar- 
 rangements which would gradually take place of their own 
 accord, if the legislator were only to confine his attention to 
 his proper province. 
 
 [NATIONAL WEALTH.] 
 
 [II.]* The various questions concerning Population, lead 
 by an easy transition to an examination of the nature and 
 causes of National Wealth ; a branch of Political Economy 
 which presents a contrast no less striking than that which the 
 former article exhibits, between the maxims of ancient and of 
 modern policy. 
 
 As the wealth possessed by some of the most celebrated 
 states of antiquity was acquired not by commerce but by the 
 sword, it had no tendency to encourage a commercial spirit, 
 excepting in so far as it ministered to luxury. Accordingly, 
 we find that commerce was dreaded by the Koman statesmen 
 on account of the luxury which they regarded as its necessary 
 consequence ; and it is a curious circumstance, that after their 
 foreign conquests had brought immense riches into the public 
 treasury, this very dread of the commercial spirit produced the 
 same jealousy about the exportation of the precious metals 
 with which the prejudices of the mercantile system of Political 
 Economy so long inspired the legislators of Modern Europe. 
 
 * [This numeral apparently omitted by inadvertence.] 
 VOL. VIII. C
 
 34 POLITICAL ECONOMY. INTRODUCTION TO PART I. 
 
 " Exportari aurum," says Cicero, " non oportere, cum saepe 
 antea sen atus, turn, me consule, gravissime judicavit."* The 
 same policy continued afterwards (partly indeed from other 
 motives) under the Emperors ; and it must be confessed, that in 
 so far as their aim was to keep possession of the riches they 
 had acquired, their views were somewhat more reasonable and 
 consistent than those of our ancestors, for as they had no com- 
 modities of their own to give in exchange for the luxuries they 
 imported, they must have paid for every thing in silver and 
 gold. In the degenerate state, however, into which the Roman 
 manners had then fallen, the progress of luxury was not to be 
 checked by legislative restrictions, and the discouragements to 
 commerce served only to prevent the operation of that antidote 
 which nature has so beautifully provided against its pernicious 
 effects, in the general diffusion of wealth among the body of a 
 people, accompanied with that spirit of industry and frugality 
 which commercial pursuits have a tendency to inspire. 
 
 The fatal effects which had been found, in the history of so 
 many states, to be produced by a sudden influx of riches from 
 abroad, combined with an ignorance of the salutary tendencies 
 of commerce, led the ancient lawgivers very generally to check, 
 as much as possible, the commercial spirit by the force of posi- 
 tive institutions. Plato prohibits the introduction into his 
 imaginary Commonwealth, of any arts but those which minister 
 to the necessities of human life, and refused to give laws to the 
 Arcadians, because they were rich and loved magnificence ; 
 while Phocion, who saw in the wealth of the Athenians the 
 seeds of their ruin, proposed that artisans should be considered 
 as slaves, and deprived of the rights of citizens. That these 
 ideas correspond perfectly with the prevailing, or rather the 
 unanimous opinion of antiquity, appears from numerous pas- 
 sages in the Greek and Roman authors. At present, I shall 
 only mention Plutarch's Life of Pericles, and the 8th, 17th, 
 20th, and 94th Epistles of Seneca. 
 
 How different are the ideas which now prevail universally 
 on the same subject ! " It is no longer," says Raynal, u a 
 
 * [Pro Flacco, cap. xxviii.]
 
 CHAP. II. CONTENTS AND DISTRIBUTION OF THIS PART. 35 
 
 people immersed in poverty, that becomes formidable to a rich 
 nation. Power is at present an attendant on riches, because 
 they are no longer the fruit of conquest, but the produce of 
 lives spent in perpetual employment. Gold and silver corrupt 
 only those indolent minds which indulge in the delights of 
 luxury, upon that stage of low intrigue which is called great- 
 ness. The same metals put in motion the hands and arms of 
 the people, exciting a spirit of agriculture in the fields, of 
 navigation in the maritime cities, and multiplying over the 
 whole face of the country, the comforts, enjoyments, and orna- 
 ments of life."* Montesquieu himself does not seem to have 
 been sufficiently aware of this essential difference between the 
 wealth acquired by commerce and by rapine, in the parallel 
 which he draws between the Carthaginians and the Romans. 
 The former were indeed subdued by the latter, but they must 
 be allowed to have maintained a far more obstinate and glori- 
 ous struggle for their political existence, than was afterwards 
 exhibited by their conquerors when assailed by the arms of the 
 barbarians. 
 
 Agreeably to these remarks, and in direct contradiction to 
 the maxims of ancient policy, we find everywhere, when we 
 cast our eyes over the surface of the globe, that the most 
 wealthy states are those where the people are the most indus- 
 trious, humane, and enlightened, and where the liberty they 
 enjoy, by entering as an elementary principle into the very 
 existence of the political order, rests on the most solid and 
 durable basis. Indeed, it was the general diffusion of wealth 
 among the lower orders of men which first gave birth to the 
 spirit of independence in Modern Europe, and which has pro- 
 duced under some of its governments, and more especially under 
 our own, a more equal diffusion of freedom and of happiness than 
 took place under the most celebrated constitutions of antiquity. 
 
 The difference between the condition of ancient and of 
 modern nations, in consequence of the abolition of domestic 
 slavery, has been already remarked, and the effects which it 
 has produced have in no instance been more conspicuous than 
 
 * [ffistoire Philosophise des Etabl'wemens et du Commerce, &c.]
 
 36 POLITICAL ECONOMY. INTRODUCTION TO PART I. 
 
 upon the sources of national opulence. As the ground is now 
 universally cultivated (at least in this part of Europe) by men 
 whose subsistence depends on the fruits of their own industry, 
 the measure of their exertions can be increased only by the 
 multiplication of their wants and necessities ; or (as Sir James 
 Steuart expresses it) " by the operation of manufactures and com- 
 merce, in rendering men slaves to their own passions and desires." 
 Hence the important distinction upon which this ingenious 
 writer has laid so great stress between labour and industry. 
 " The former," he observes, " may always be procured, even 
 by force, at the expense of furnishing man with his daily sus- 
 tenance, whereas the latter cannot possibly be established, but 
 by means of an adequate equivalent, proportioned not to what 
 is absolutely necessary, but to what may satisfy the reasonable 
 desire of the industrious, which equivalent becomes, in its turn, 
 the means of diffusing a similar taste for superfluities among 
 all classes of people." 1 
 
 One of the best illustrations I know of this distinction be- 
 tween labour and industry, and of the consequent difference 
 between the ancient and modern system of Political Economy, 
 is to be found in the discourse (commonly, and I think justly, 
 attributed to Xenophon) " On the Improvement of the Revenue 
 of the State of Athens."* From this work of Xenophon we 
 learn the opinion of the author with regard to the three prin- 
 cipal classes of the Athenian people the Citizens, the Strangers, 
 and the Slaves ; and it is particularly remarkable, that even 
 among the lowest order of the citizens, he never once supposes 
 the expediency, or even the possibility, of exciting a spirit of 
 industry by any of the motives which operate so effectually on 
 the minds of the multitude in Modern Europe. On the con- 
 trary, his professed object is to secure the same advantages at 
 which Political Economy now aims, through the medium of 
 men's natural propensities, by regulations of police, altogether 
 
 1 Sir James Steuart 'a Works, Vol. II. 2 A translation of this Discourse is 
 
 p. 163, 8 vo edition, [An Inquiry into the introduced into the first volume of the 
 
 Principles of Political Economy, Book edition of D'Avenant's Political Works, 
 
 II. chap. xxx.J published by Sir Charles Whitworth.
 
 CHAP. II. CONTENTS AND DISTRIBUTION OF THIS PAUT. 37 
 
 unconnected with the habits of the people for whose welfare 
 they were destined. 
 
 With this view, he lays down a plan for improving the 
 revenue of the State, (by means of taxes to be imposed on its 
 confederate cities,) in such a manner, as out of it to give every 
 Athenian citizen a pension of three oboli a day, or threepence 
 three farthings of our money. 
 
 In case the resources he points out for obtaining this revenue 
 should prove deficient, people from all quarters, (he observes,) 
 princes and strangers of note in all countries, would be proud 
 of contributing towards it, to have their names transmitted to 
 posterity in the public monuments of Athens. 
 
 Besides providing this daily pension of threepence three 
 farthings for every citizen of Athens, rich and poor, Xenophon 
 proposed to build, at the public expense, a number of trading 
 vessels, a great many inns, and houses of entertainment for all 
 strangers in the sea-ports, to erect shops, warehouses, and 
 exchanges, the rents of which would not only increase the 
 revenue, but add to the beauty and magnificence of the city. 
 In a word, the great aim of this ancient system of Political 
 Economy, (as Sir James Steuart has well observed,) is to accom- 
 plish by the labour of slaves, and by the subsidies of strangers, 
 what a free people in our days are constantly performing by 
 their own industrious exertions. 1 
 
 In consequence of this independent industry of our lower 
 orders, and more especially of the action and re-action of 
 manufactures, commerce, and agriculture on each other, there 
 has gradually arisen in the mechanism of modern society, a 
 complexness of parts, and, at the same time, an apparent sim- 
 plicity of design, essentially different from what fell under the 
 review of ancient politicians. 
 
 Among other important consequences resulting from this 
 mechanism, there is one which it may not be improper to 
 mention at present, as it affords a peculiarly striking proof of 
 the essential difference between the state of mankind in ancient 
 and in modern times. The circumstance I allude to is, the 
 
 1 Vol. II. pp. 166-168. [Ibidem.]
 
 38 POLITICAL ECONOMY. INTRODUCTION TO PART I. 
 
 effect of internal commerce in circulating money through all 
 the different parts of the political body ; affording by this 
 very process a sensible illustration of the systematical relations 
 which now connect together all the different orders of men 
 in the same community, and which render every change in the 
 condition of any one order a source either of advantage or loss 
 to all the others. How different the case was in the old world, 
 we may infer from the low price which the necessaries of life 
 bore at a tune when the precious metals were in the greatest 
 abundance among the higher classes ; and when the pecuniary 
 expenses of some individuals, in articles of luxury and of orna- 
 ment, were on a scale far exceeding the most extravagant ideas 
 of modern ages. 
 
 These, and some other facts of the same kind, demonstrate 
 how much the relation between prices and the quantity of the 
 precious metals depends on that circulation of money which is 
 produced by an active internal commerce : But the only in- 
 ference I wish to draw from them at present is, the disjointed 
 organization of society in the ancient Commonwealths, when 
 compared with that comprehensive mechanism, which, in such 
 a country as ours, combines so beautifully into one system the 
 different classes and interests of individuals. 
 
 Another circumstance which has had a powerful influence 
 on the condition of civilized nations in modern times, is the 
 activity and extent of maritime trade, so wonderfully facilitated 
 by the improvements which have taken place in the art of navi- 
 gation, and so strongly encouraged by the intercourse which 
 these have opened with parts of the globe formerly unknown. 
 ' It is observed by Dr. Robertson,* that in the ancient world 
 land trade was the principal object, and maritime trade only a 
 secondary one. This was not entirely owing to the cause to 
 which he ascribes it, the imperfection of the art of navigation : 
 it was the natural effect of the geographical situation of the 
 three continents to which the operations of commerce were 
 confined. They all either touched, or nearly touched, each 
 
 * [Historical Disquisition concern- had of India, and tlie Progress of 
 mg the Knowledge which the Antients Trade, &c.j
 
 CHAP. II. CONTENTS AND DISTRIBUTION OF THIS PART. 39 
 
 other ; and the Mediterranean seas, which they included, served 
 only to facilitate the operations of a commerce, of which the 
 land was the principal element. 
 
 Of the extent to which human ingenuity and industry were 
 able, in ancient times, to carry on foreign trade, under the 
 great disadvantages of land-carriage, an idea may be formed 
 from the remains of this species of commerce, still existing in 
 the East; for although since the passage to India by the Cape of 
 Good Hope was opened, the trade from that country to Europe 
 has been carried on by sea, a considerable portion of its valuable 
 productions are, to this day, conveyed by land to other parts 
 of the earth. This mode of communication is, indeed, rendered 
 absolutely necessary, by the unbroken continuity of many of 
 the most extensive provinces of Asia ; and in a still greater 
 degree, by the effect of the same circumstances in the Continent 
 of Africa. The religious pilgrimages to Mecca, enjoined by 
 the founder of the Mahometan faith, have contributed to in- 
 crease, or, at least, to concentrate this commercial intercourse, 
 by drawing annually to the Holy City numerous caravans, 
 both of pilgrims and merchants, from all the countries where 
 the Mahometan worship is established, extending to the shores 
 of the Atlantic on the one hand, and to the remotest regions of 
 the East on the other. During the few days of its continuance, the 
 Fair of Mecca is said to be the greatest on the face of the earth ; 
 and of the immense value to which mercantile transactions are 
 there carried on, the most unequivocal proof (as Dr. Robertson 
 remarks) is afforded by the despatch, the silence, the mutual 
 confidence and good faith with which they are conducted. 
 
 I have mentioned these facts chiefly as proofs of the extent 
 to which the commercial transactions of ancient nations may 
 have been carried, notwithstanding their comparative ignorance 
 of the art of navigation. Accordingly, it has been argued by a 
 late writer, (Mr. Heeren of Gottingen,*) that although par- 
 ticular states, in modern times, may have carried their trade to 
 
 * [Mr. Stewart, though he did not on the Policy and Commerce of the 
 read German, possessed in manuscript Ancient Nations.] 
 an English translation of Heeren's work \
 
 40 POLITICAL ECONOMY. INTRODUCTION TO PART I. 
 
 a higher degree than single states of the ancient world ; yet, 
 on the other hand, commerce was, in the earlier ages, more 
 equally divided among nations than at present, when a few 
 countries in the western parts of Europe are become almost 
 the only seats of the commerce of the globe. It has been 
 observed by the same author, that while, in consequence of our 
 extended navigation and maritime trade, the nations which are 
 in possession of them have made the most important improve- 
 ments, a multitude of other nations, whose situations now lie 
 out of the road of commerce, have sunk into the lowest state of 
 barbarism. But although there may be some foundation for 
 these remarks, no comparison certainly can be made between 
 the land trade carried on of old, and the commerce which has 
 originated in modern Europe, when considered in connexion 
 with human improvement and happiness. Nothing, indeed, 
 can shew this more clearly than the stationary condition in 
 which the race still remains in those parts of the world, where 
 the former species of traffic is carried on upon the greatest scale. 
 The facts which have been collected to illustrate the extent of 
 their traffic serve only to place in the stronger light the peculiar 
 advantages of that maritime intercourse, which unites, by a 
 rapid intercourse, the most remote harbours of the globe; more 
 particularly when combined with that inland trade, which, by 
 means of water conveyance, penetrates in every direction the 
 interior of a continent. 
 
 The origin of that maritime commerce which so peculiarly 
 distinguishes modern times, is to be ascribed in a great measure 
 to the discovery of the New World, and of the passage to India 
 by the Cape of Good Hope. The former of these events, more 
 particularly, was necessarily accompanied with the most im- 
 portant consequences ; extending, in an incalculable degree, the 
 mutual connexion of nations ; and by encouraging the art of 
 man to contend with the dangers of the ocean, throwing a new 
 light on those beneficent arrangements which Providence has 
 made for the improvement of the human race. It is to this 
 event that the subsequent progress of navigation, and of that 
 commercial spirit which now exerts so powerful an influence
 
 CHAP. II. CONTENTS AND DISTRIBUTION OF THIS PART. 41 
 
 over the condition of mankind, may be ultimately traced ; and, 
 if it had not happened, it may be reasonably questioned whether 
 the circumnavigation of Africa would have produced any essen- 
 tial change in the course of trade, or in the relations which had 
 till then connected together the different parts of the globe. 
 
 The activity of trade thus excited and maintained by the 
 boldness and skill of modern navigators, has been farther aided, 
 in an immense degree, by the commerce of money, so expedi- 
 tiously and easily carried on in modern times by the simple and 
 beautiful expedient of bills of exchange. By means of these, 
 debts and credits may be shifted from one place to another, so 
 as to answer all the purposes of transportation of the precious 
 metals ; the same ends being accomplished by this happy in- 
 vention in foreign commerce, to which coins are subservient in 
 the details of ordinary business. 
 
 The invention of bills of exchange has been generally 
 ascribed, since the time of Montesquieu, to the Jews. " It is a 
 known fact," says this eminent writer, "that under Philip 
 Augustus and Philip the Long, the Jews who were chased from 
 France took refuge in Lombardy, and that there they gave to 
 foreign merchants and travellers secret letters drawn upon 
 those to whom they had entrusted their effects in France, 
 which bills were accordingly accepted by their correspondents." 
 " Commerce," he adds, " by this means, became capable of elud- 
 ing violence, and of maintaining everywhere its ground ; the 
 richest merchant having nothing but invisible effects, which he 
 could convey imperceptibly wherever he pleased."* 
 
 In these observations, Montesquieu has probably gone a little 
 too far ; for although the Jews may have invented the modern 
 forms of transactions of this nature, (a fact, however, which is 
 by no means indisputably ascertained,) there are very strong 
 reasons for believing that the practice in question was not alto- 
 gether unknown among the commercial states of antiquity. 
 The idea, indeed, of thus exchanging one debtor for another, or 
 of a reciprocal transfer of credits, is so extremely obvious, that 
 it could not possibly fail to occur wherever an extensive com- 
 
 * [Esprit dts Loix. Liv. XXI. cliap. xvi.]
 
 42 POLITICAL ECONOMY. INTRODUCTION TO PART I. 
 
 merce has subsisted between different nations ; and, in fact, 
 some traces of such transactions in ancient times, have been 
 discovered by the learned industry of modern writers. 
 
 Notwithstanding, however, these circumstances, I believe it 
 may be safely asserted, that it was in modern Europe that this 
 mode of settling accompts, and transacting payments between 
 foreign merchants, was first reduced to a system ; a chain of 
 correspondences being established all over the commercial 
 world, among a particular description of traders, whose business 
 it is to negotiate pecuniary transactions ; and who, by confining 
 their attention to this branch of commerce, have given a regu- 
 larity and correctness, formerly unknown, to all other mercan- 
 tile operations. The improvements which have taken place, 
 during the course of a few centuries, in the general state of 
 political society, all over this part of the world, by giving rise 
 to the establishment of regular posts, and promoting every- 
 where a disposition to good faith and mutual confidence, are, 
 in truth, (as I shall have occasion afterwards to show,) the 
 foundation of those multiplied mercantile relations, of which 
 the refinements now under our consideration may be regarded 
 as the necessary consequences, and without which they could 
 not possibly have existed. 
 
 In a passage already quoted from Montesquieu, [p. 41,] it is 
 observed, by the invention of bills of exchange, merchants 
 were enabled to elude the grasp of despotism. The observation 
 is just, and it touches on a circumstance equally important to 
 civil liberty, and to the prosperity of commerce. "Whether these 
 advantages are not in some degree compensated by the selfish 
 independence of capitalists, who by the same causes which in- 
 crease their influence on public affairs, are released from local 
 connexions, and rendered citizens of the world at large, is a 
 question of more difficult discussion. 
 
 Among the various circumstances, however, which distinguish 
 the modern systems of political economy, and add to the intri- 
 cacy of this branch of study, none is more conspicuous than the 
 fabric of public credit, particularly in the great commercial 
 states of Europe ; an innovation which not only affects essen-
 
 CHAP. II. CONTENTS AND DISTRIBUTION OF THIS PART. 43 
 
 tially all the branches of trade, in consequence of its intimate 
 connexion with the commerce of money, but in its more re- 
 mote tendency affects the condition of all the different classes 
 of the community. 
 
 One advantage, however, (among many inconveniences,) 
 which may be traced to this innovation, is the attention which 
 sovereigns have been forced to give, for their own sakes, to the 
 advancement of industry and wealth among their subjects ; and 
 although their efforts towards this end have not been always 
 enlightened, yet they have almost everywhere contributed 
 materially to ameliorate gradually the condition of the body of 
 the people. The strength of modern empires is now under- 
 stood to depend on internal cultivation ; presenting in this 
 respect a striking contrast to those in the Old World, which 
 rose by conquest, and were fed by precarious tribute. The 
 greater the number of such states, which thus found their im- 
 portance on their internal advantages and resources, and the 
 more liberal the policy by which they are connected, the greater 
 will be the prosperity of each individually ; and the more solid 
 will be the foundation which is laid for the future happiness of 
 the human race. 
 
 It is remarked by Mr. Hume, in one of his political dis- 
 courses, that " though all kinds of government be improved in 
 modern times, yet monarchical governments seem to have made 
 the greatest advances towards perfection. It may now," he 
 says, " be affirmed of civilized monarchies, what was formerly 
 said in praise of republics alone, that they are a government of 
 laws, not of men. They are found susceptible of order, method, 
 and constancy, to a surprising degree. Property is there 
 secure ; industry encouraged ; the arts flourish ; and the prince 
 lives secure among his subjects like a father among his children. 
 There are, perhaps, and have been for two centuries, near two 
 hundred absolute princes, great and small, in Europe; and 
 allowing twenty years to each reign, we may suppose that there 
 have been in the whole two thousand monarchs, or tyrants, (as 
 the Greeks would have called them,) yet of these there has not 
 been one, not even Philip II. of Spain, so bad as Tiberius,
 
 44 POLITICAL ECONOMY. INTRODUCTION TO PABT I. 
 
 Caligula, Nero, or Domitian, who were four in twelve among 
 the Roman emperors."* 
 
 Of this very remarkable fact, an explanation may no doubt 
 be found, in part, in the diffusion of knowledge among all 
 orders of men by means of the press, which has everywhere 
 raised a bulwark against the oppression of rulers in the light 
 and spirit of the people ; but much must likewise be ascribed 
 to the influence which juster views of Political Economy have 
 had upon the counsels even of absolute princes, by convincing 
 them how inseparably the true interests of governors and the 
 governed are connected together ; a consideration which, 
 while it opens an encouraging prospect with respect to the 
 future history of the world, affords an additional proof of a 
 proposition which I shall afterwards endeavour to illustrate ; 
 that the science of Political Economy, much more than that 
 part of the theory of government which relates to forms of ad- 
 ministration, is entitled, in the present circumstances of man- 
 kind, to the attention of the speculative politician. 
 
 fin treating of the various questions connected with the 
 general title of National Wealth, I shall be obliged to confine 
 myself to very partial views on the subject. The field is of im- 
 mense extent ; and one of the most interesting portions of it 
 (that relating to the question about the freedom of trade) has 
 been surveyed already by Mr. Smith, with so great accuracy, 
 that little remains for me but to consider a few incidental ques- 
 tions which have not entered into his plan, and to examine 
 such of his fundamental principles as seem to myself to require 
 limitations or corrections, or which have been disputed on 
 solid grounds by political writers of a later date. An outline 
 of his reasonings on this important article will be necessary for 
 the sake of connexion ; but I shall direct my attention more 
 particularly to certain applications of the general doctrine, 
 about which doubts have been suggested either by Mr. Smith 
 
 * [Euayg, Vol. I., Essay Of Civil head of National Wealth, is deleted in 
 Liberty.] the older transcript.] 
 
 f [All that follows under II., or the
 
 CIIAl'. II. CONTENTS AND DISTRIBUTION OF THIS PART. 45 
 
 himself, or by later writers. Of this kind are the questions, 
 First, with respect to the expediency of restrictions on the 
 commerce of money, in the case of pecuniary loans. Second, 
 concerning the expediency of restrictions on that branch of 
 commerce which is employed about the necessaries of life ; 
 and Third, concerning the expediency of restrictions on the 
 commerce of land. 
 
 But although in my practical conclusions on the more im- 
 portant questions, I am disposed to agree with Mr. Smith, I 
 shall have frequent occasion to differ from him widely in stat- 
 ing the first principles of the science, as well as in my opinion 
 of the logical propriety of various technical phrases and tech- 
 nical distinctions which he has sanctioned with his authority. 
 I must take the liberty also to observe, that the plan of 
 arrangement of his invaluable work, is far from being unex- 
 ceptionable ; and I am not without hopes, that by the criti- 
 cisms which I have to offer on its imperfections in this respect, 
 I shall be able to simplify the study of its doctrines to those 
 who may adopt it, (which most persons in this country now do, 
 and, in my opinion, for the most solid reasons,) as the elemen- 
 tary groundwork for their future speculations on that branch of 
 Political Economy to which it relates. 
 
 The great variety of subjects which the plan of the course 
 embraces, will necessarily confine my attention, in general, to 
 those principles of Political Economy which are of a uni- 
 versal application. To examine the modifications which may 
 be requisite in particular instances, in consequence of the 
 peculiarities in the physical or moral circumstances of nations, 
 would lead me into details inconsistent with the nature of 
 academic lectures. In discussing, however, the two articles 
 already mentioned, (those of Population and of National 
 Wealth,} my reasonings will often have a reference to the in- 
 terests of our own country. And if I should be thus occasionally 
 led to deviate a little from systematical method, I flatter myself, 
 that the inconvenience will be more than compensated, not 
 only by the useful information to which I shall be able to lead 
 your attention, but by the light which such digressions cannot
 
 46 POLITICAL ECONOMY. INTRODUCTION TO PART I. 
 
 fail to throw on our general principles. It is, indeed, one of 
 the most fruitful sources of error and paradox in disquisitions 
 of this kind, to reason abstractedly concerning the resources of 
 states, without any regard either to existing forms of society, 
 or to varieties in the physical and geographical advantages of 
 different regions. It is a source of error, not only because the 
 soundest general rules ought to be applied with caution in par- 
 ticular cases, but because the greater part of political writers, 
 even when they express themselves in the most general and 
 abstract terms, have been insensibly warped, more or less, in 
 their speculations, by local habits, and local combinations 
 of circumstances to which they have been accustomed. To 
 this source may be distinctly traced many of the apparent 
 diversities in the theories of different politicians ; and among 
 others, some of the contradictions between the partisans and 
 the opponents of the agricultural system of Political Economy. 
 The very ingenious author himself, of the Essay on Circulation 
 and Credit* has not perhaps always recollected, that, while his 
 antagonists had a view, more especially to a territory like 
 France, his mind was occupied about Holland. An attentive 
 consideration of this circumstance will, if I do not deceive 
 myself, account, in many instances, for an apparent diversity of 
 opinion among speculative politicians, upon points concerning 
 which there could not possibly have been any disagreement, if 
 both parties had stated fully all the local particulars by which 
 their general principles were tacitly, perhaps unconsciously, 
 modified in their own habits of thinking. 
 
 In studying Political Economy, it is more particularly neces- 
 sary for an inhabitant of these kingdoms, to keep in remem- 
 brance the many peculiarities of our situation, combining an 
 immense fund of agricultural riches, with the advantages aris- 
 ing from an insular form, from the number and disposition of 
 our navigable rivers, and from an extent of coast amounting 
 (according to Sir William Petty's computation, a computation 
 which, I apprehend, falls short greatly of the truth) to three 
 
 * [Mr. Stewart probably refers to the Traite de la Circulation et da Credit, 
 Amst. 1771, by Isaac Pinto.]
 
 CHAP. 11. CONTENTS AND DISTRIBUTION OF THIS PAUT. 47 
 
 thousand eight hundred miles. Nor ought he to lose sight of 
 the prodigies which the industry and spirit of the people, im- 
 proving on their natural advantages, have already effected, 
 under the protecting influence of civil liberty ; connecting the 
 different parts of our islands by an extended system of inland 
 navigation, which (considering the mountainous surface of the 
 country) may be justly regarded as one of the proudest monu- 
 ments of human power. 
 
 [THE POOR : THEIR MAINTENANCE.] 
 
 III. The researches of modern politicians concerning the 
 sources of National Wealth, have naturally directed their atten- 
 tion to that unfortunate class of men, who, in consequence 
 either of the imperfections of our social institutions, or of the 
 evils necessarily connected with the present condition of 
 humanity, are left dependent on the bounty of their fellow- 
 citizens. The speculation is sufficiently interesting in itself, 
 considered merely in its relation to those orders of the commu- 
 nity who are its immediate objects ; but it has been found, on 
 examination, to be still more interesting, when considered in 
 its connexion with the general system of Political Economy. 
 .... [Sic.] To those who have any knowledge of the rise and 
 progress of that part of English policy which relates to this 
 subject, it is unnecessary for me to remark, with what extreme 
 difficulty the speculation is attended, and how frequently the 
 best intended, and apparently the most wisely considered 
 schemes have been found to aggravate the evils they were 
 meant to remedy. 
 
 Doubts have accordingly arisen in the minds of many saga- 
 cious inquirers, whether it would not have been better if the 
 cause of this class of men had been left entirely to the volun- 
 tary charity of their fellow-citizens ; and whether the existing 
 system of our poor laws may not be added to the many other 
 instances which human affairs afford, of an officious attempt 
 on the part of statesmen, to accomplish artificially, by the 
 wisdom of man, those beneficent ends, for securing which so 
 beautiful an arrangement has been made by the wisdom of
 
 48 POLITICAL ECONOMY. INTRODUCTION TO PART I. 
 
 Providence. That in many individual .instances the evils of 
 extreme indigence are thus greatly alleviated, is beyond a 
 doubt : but the question is, how does this interference of law 
 operate with respect to the general, and the most important 
 interests^ of the labouring orders ? Is it favourable to their 
 industry, to their economy, and to their domestic virtues ? Or 
 is there no reason to apprehend, that while it operates as a pal- 
 liative to local inconveniences, it aggravates and confirms the 
 radical malady in which they originated ? 
 
 It must, however, be owned to be a very different question, 
 whether, supposing no legal provision to have been made for 
 the poor, it would have been expedient to introduce the present 
 system of laws; and whether, circumstanced as we actually 
 are, it would be wise to abolish this part of our policy. Among 
 the various opinions concerning the mode of relieving the 
 wants of the lower classes, it seems to be very generally agreed, 
 that a modification only of our existing regulations, and not a 
 total repeal of them, can be safely attempted ; and that the 
 correction of the evils complained of is to be expected less from 
 the direct and immediate interposition of the Legislature, than 
 from the gradual operation of more remote and powerful causes 
 on the industry, morals, and resources of the people. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary for me to add, that these disquisitions 
 with respect to the poor, which have for many years past exer- 
 cised the ingenuity of speculative men all over Europe, furnish 
 another very remarkable illustration of that contrast which the 
 present state of society in this part of the world exhibits, to 
 the condition of mankind under the ancient governments. The 
 disorders which have been now under our consideration, ori- 
 ginated in the abolition of a much greater disorder, the insti- 
 tution of Slavery, and they have presented ever since to the 
 politician, one of the most interesting, and, at the same time, 
 one of the most difficult problems, which the science of legisla- 
 tion aiforda
 
 CHAP. II. CONTENTS AND DISTRIBUTION OF THIS PART. 49 
 
 [EDUCATION. PREVENTION, REFORMATION, CORRECTION 
 OF CRIME.] 
 
 IV. The maintenance of the poor is intimately connected 
 with another subject : The means of encouraging among the 
 body of the people habits of industry, and of a regularity of 
 morals ; and of effecting, where it is possible, a reformation in 
 the manners of those who have rendered themselves obnoxious 
 to the laws of their country. The attempts which have been 
 made with this last view by the projects of penitentiary houses 
 and of solitary confinement, do honour to the enlightened 
 benevolence of the present age, and may probably be found 
 susceptible of many improvements for accomplishing, still more 
 effectually, the laudable and important purposes for which they 
 are destined. 
 
 With a review of these establishments, the general principles 
 which ought to regulate the punishment of crimes have a very 
 close connexion, and accordingly, they have attracted, in the 
 course of the last century, the attention of some very distin- 
 guished writers, and more particularly of the Marquis Beccaria, 
 whose humane and eloquent Treatise on Crimes and Punish- 
 ments forms one of the most valuable illustrations that has yet 
 appeared, of the connexion between the principles of Ethical 
 Philosophy and the Science of Legislation. In order, however, 
 to apply a radical cure to these evils, it is necessary for govern- 
 ment to bestow such a systematical attention on the Education 
 of the people, as may afford the means of instruction even to 
 the lowest classes of the community. 
 
 It is justly and beautifully observed by Sir ' Henry Wotton, 
 that " albeit good laws have always been reputed the nerves 
 and ligaments of human society, yet they are no way compara- 
 ble in their effects to the rules of good nature. For it is in 
 civil as it is in natural plantations, where young tender trees 
 (though subject to the injuries of the air, and in danger even 
 of their own flexibility) would yet little want any under prop- 
 pings and shoarings, if at first they were well fastened in the 
 root." In the present state of society this may be regarded as 
 
 VOL. VIII. D
 
 50 POLITICAL ECONOMY. INTRODUCTION TO PART I. 
 
 one of the most effectual objects of legislation ; and the happy 
 effects resulting from the establishments (however imperfect) 
 for that purpose, in Scotland and America, give the strongest 
 encouragement to the farther prosecution of the same plan on 
 more liberal principles. 
 
 " In a civilized and commercial country, the education of 
 the common people," as Mr. Smith has well remarked, " re- 
 quires the attention of the public more than that of people of 
 some rank and fortune. The common people have little time 
 to spare for education. Their parents can scarce afford to 
 maintain them even in infancy. As soon as they are able to 
 work, they must apply to some trade, by which they can earn 
 their subsistence. That trade, too, is generally so simple and 
 uniform, as to give little exercise to the understanding, while, 
 at the same time, their labour is both so constant and so severe, 
 that it leaves them little leisure and less inclination to apply 
 to, or even to think of anything else."* 
 
 " An instructed and intelligent people, besides," as is farther 
 observed by the same writer, " are always more decent and 
 orderly than an ignorant and stupid one. They are more dis- 
 posed to examine, and more capable of seeing through the in- 
 terested complaints of faction and sedition ; and they are, upon 
 that account, less apt to be misled into any wanton or unne- 
 cessary opposition to the measures of government. In free 
 nations, where the safety of government depends very much 
 upon the favourable judgment which the people may form of 
 its conduct, it must surely be of the highest importance, that 
 they should not be disposed to judge rashly or capriciously 
 concerning it." f 
 
 To the same liberal doctrine a very forcible sanction has 
 been given by a late Bishop of London, (Dr. Porteous,) in the 
 following passage of one of his Charges to the clergy, a passage 
 which is well entitled to particular attention, inasmuch as it 
 states, on this very important and long contested question, the 
 opinion of a most intelligent and candid judge, founded on a 
 
 * [ Wealth of Nation, Book V. chap, i.] [f Ibid.]
 
 CHAP. II. CONTENTS AND DISTRIBUTION OF THIS PART. 51 
 
 calm review of the causes which have produced the revolutionary 
 evils of our own times. 
 
 " Ignorance is the mother of superstition, of bigotry, of fana- 
 ticism, of disaffection, of cruelty, and of rebellion. These are 
 its legitimate children. It never yet produced any other, and 
 never will, to the end of the world. And we may lay this down 
 as an incontestable truth, that a well-informed and intelligent 
 people, more particularly a people well acquainted with the 
 sacred writings, will always be more orderly, more decent, more 
 humane, more virtuous, more religious, more obedient to their 
 superiors, than a people totally devoid of all instruction and all 
 education." 
 
 I shall only add farther on this subject at present, (and it is 
 an observation which I shall state in the words of Bishop 
 Butler,) that the duty of extending the means of elementary 
 instruction to the lower orders, is now recommended to us by 
 many powerful arguments which did not apply to the state of 
 the world, prior to the invention of printing. 
 
 " Till within a century or two, all ranks were, in point of 
 learning, nearly on a level. The art of printing appears to 
 have been providentially reserved till these latter ages, and 
 then providentially brought into use, as what was to be instru- 
 mental, for the future, in carrying on the appointed course of 
 things." 
 
 " The alterations which this art has even already made in 
 the face of the world, are not inconsiderable. By means of it. 
 whether immediately or remotely, the methods of carrying on 
 business are, in several respects, improved ; "knowledge has been 
 increased" and some sort of literature is become general. And 
 if this be a blessing, we ought to let the poor in their degree 
 share it with us. If we do not, it is certain, how little soever 
 it may be attended to, that they will be upon a greater advan- 
 tage, on many accounts, especially in populous places, than 
 they were in the dark ages. And, therefore, to bring up the 
 poor in their former ignorance, now that knowledge is so much 
 more common and wanted, would be not to keep them in the 
 same, but to put them into a lower condition of life than what
 
 52 POLITICAL ECONOMY. INTRODUCTION TO PART I. 
 
 they were in formerly. Nor," concludes this excellent author, 
 in the same spirit which dictated the passage just quoted from 
 Mr. Smith, " nor, let people of rank flatter themselves that 
 ignorance will keep their inferiors more dutiful and in greater 
 subjection to them ; for surely there must be danger that it 
 will have a contrary effect, under a free government such as 
 ours, and in a dissolute age."* 
 
 To ascertain what are the branches of knowledge best fitted 
 for accomplishing the purposes here described, and to devise 
 the simplest means for their communication, is a more difficult 
 subject of speculation than may at first be imagined. Nor do 
 I apprehend that the field is yet exhausted, notwithstanding 
 the dogmatical assertion of Dr. Johnson, that " education is as 
 well known as it ever can be."f Admitting even his observa- 
 tion to be just when applied to the instruction of the higher 
 orders, it must be allowed to fail most remarkably in its appli- 
 cation to the instruction of the lower, a subject on which very 
 little attention has been hitherto bestowed in modern Europe ; 
 and which, in ancient times, was considered as unworthy the 
 notice of a philosopher. The plans of education recommended 
 by some of the most enlightened writers of Greece, had a re- 
 ference only to those who were called [eXeu^e/aot, ^aptevre<; (?)] ; 
 while the inferior classes were almost entirely overlooked as a part 
 of the social system. In proportion to the progress of society 
 during the last two or three centuries, this order of men have 
 been gradually rising in political importance ; but the authors 
 who have hitherto speculated concerning their intellectual im- 
 provement, have, hi general, (and more especially in our own 
 times,) gone into extremes ; some representing it as a duty in- 
 cumbent on governments to extend gratuitously the means of 
 instruction, (and that on the most liberal plan,) to all descrip- 
 tions of people; and others recommending to statesmen a policy 
 calculated to check completely, among the great mass of their 
 fellow-citizens, the progress of the human mind. 
 
 * [Sermon preached at Christchurch. somewhere in the Dissertation, by 
 London, 1745.] Johnson's own childish superstitions.] 
 
 t [The absurdity of this is shown
 
 CHAP. II. CONTENTS AND DISTRIBUTION OF THIS PART. 53 
 
 Besides a provision for the general elementary instruction of 
 the lower orders, some politicians have recommended to govern- 
 ment a still more watchful and minute interference in the care 
 of the rising generation, and that, not only in the case of the 
 labouring classes, but of all ranks and descriptions of men. 
 A celebrated English writer, (Dr. John Brown, author of the 
 Estimate,) whose publications at one time attracted a great 
 deal of attention, has laid much stress on this idea, in his 
 Thoughts on Civil Liberty, Licentiousness, and Faction. 
 " It is deeply to be regretted," he observes in one passage, 
 " that the British system of policy and religion is not upheld 
 in its native power, like that of Sparta, by correspondent and 
 effectual rules of education ; that it is in the power of every 
 private man to educate his child, not only without a reverence 
 for these, but in absolute contempt of them ; and that at the 
 Revolution in 1688, the education of youth was still left in an 
 imperfect state ; this great Revolution having confined itself to 
 the reform of public institutions, without ascending to the great 
 fountain of political security, the private and effectual formation 
 of the public mind." ..." The chief and essential remedy of 
 licentiousness and faction, the fundamental means of the last- 
 ing and secure establishment of civil liberty, can only be in a 
 general and prescribed improvement of the laws of education, 
 to which all the members of the community should legally sub- 
 mit ; and it is for want of a prescribed code of education that 
 the manners and principles, on which alone the State can rest, 
 are ineffectually instilled, are vague, fluctuating, and self-con- 
 tradictory." 
 
 " Nothing," he adds, " is more evident, than that some 
 reform on this great point is necessary for the security of 
 public freedom, and that, though it is an incurable defect 
 of our political state, that it has not a correspondent and 
 adequate code of education, inwrought into its first essence : 
 we may yet hope, that in a secondary and inferior degree, 
 something of this kind may yet be inlaid ; that though it 
 cannot have that perfect efficacy, as if it had originally been 
 of the piece, yet, if well conducted, it may strengthen the
 
 54 POLITICAL ECONOMY. INTRODUCTION TO PART I. 
 
 weaker parts / and alleviate defects, if not completely remove 
 them." 
 
 Some remarks to the same purpose occur in the Essays on 
 the Spirit of Legislation, published by the Society of Berne, in 
 Switzerland. " A legislator," it is justly observed, " occupied 
 like the father of his country, with the happiness of his people, 
 will watch national education, to the end that children may 
 suck in with the milk, the principles and maxims which may 
 contribute to the public good, and the prosperity of individuals." 
 " Upon this principle," the author adds, " I do not compre- 
 hend how we can abandon the public education to masters that 
 depend not on government, or are little concerned with the 
 State." 
 
 To this plan, however, of Dr. Brown, (at least in its applica- 
 tion to the circumstances of our own country,) many strong 
 and insuperable objections might be stated, and accordingly, 
 several very eminent writers have expressed their doubts, 
 whether some of the important ends which he was so anxious 
 to accomplish, would not be secured more effectually, if govern- 
 ments were to interfere still less in regulating the system of 
 education, than they have been commonly disposed to do. 
 Without giving any opinion on this point, I shall content my- 
 self with remarking, that these considerations which, in such a 
 country as this, impose on the public as a duty, the task of 
 providing proper instruction for the poor and for the labouring 
 classes, do not apply, with the same force, to the higher orders. 
 It is on the character and habits of these inferior classes, that 
 the stability of every government essentially depends ; and it is 
 on their account chiefly that regulations of police are necessary, 
 as their condition exposes them peculiarly to the contagious 
 influence of those vices which disturb the general tranquillity. 
 
 The education of the higher orders is, at the same time, in 
 such a state of society as that in which we live, an object of 
 the last consequence ; and if it is one of those to which the 
 superintending care of government cannot be extended with 
 advantage in any considerable degree, it becomes doubly in- 
 cumbent on those who direct their speculations to subjects of
 
 CHAP. II. CONTENTS AND DISTRIBUTION OF THIS PART. 55 
 
 public utility, to contribute their efforts towards an improve- 
 ment of the principles on which it is conducted. The revolu- 
 tion which has taken place in science and philosophy since the 
 time of Lord Bacon, seems obviously to recommend (in a 
 greater degree than has hitherto been effected in most uni- 
 versities) a correspondent change in the plan of academical 
 instruction. This view of education, indeed, (considered in its 
 connexion with intellectual improvement and the advancement 
 of human knowledge,) properly belongs to the Philosophy of 
 the Human Mind ; but there are also many views of the same 
 subject, which will be found to be very intimately connected 
 with the most important objects of Political Economy. 
 
 In this respect, as well as in many others, the education of 
 females (to whose care the task of early instruction must be, in 
 a great measure, intrusted) will be found not undeserving of 
 attention. 
 
 Among the various circumstances, indeed, which discrimi- 
 nate the condition of mankind in modern times, from what 
 it was among ancient nations, nothing is more striking than 
 the rank and consequence of the other sex. I shall not at pre- 
 sent inquire into the various causes which have conspired to 
 produce this change. It is of more importance to remark its 
 extensive influence on human character, and on the whole sys- 
 tem of European manners. The ancients appear to have at- 
 tached but little importance to the domestic virtues. They 
 considered man almost always in relation to his fellow-citizens ; 
 and as their free States were in general composed of a scanty 
 population, and women altogether overlooked, as parts of the 
 social system, the public duties of the individual were under- 
 stood to be the only ends of his existence ; and to enforce the 
 zealous discharge of these duties, was the sole object of those 
 philosophers who devoted themselves to the study of morals. 
 Plato, in his Bepublic, proposes as a plan for increasing the 
 happiness of the human race, to destroy conjagal love, and 
 paternal affection, by a community of women and of children ; 
 and even those writers who, uninfected by the spirit of paradox 
 or of theory, confined themselves to a faithful delineation of the
 
 56 POLITICAL ECONOMY. INTRODUCTION TO PART I. 
 
 manners around them, plainly shew, by their silence concerning 
 the other sex, how insignificant the share was which they were 
 then understood to possess in carrying on the business of 
 human life. It is remarked by an ingenious French writer, 
 that the word woman does not occur once in the characters of 
 TheophrastuLS ; and that it may be questioned whether the word 
 happiness is, in any passage of the Greek writers, employed in 
 the modern acceptation. As the extent of modern States and 
 the structure of their governments have now detached the 
 greater number of individuals from political concerns, men 
 have been led to concentrate their pursuits within the circle of 
 their domestic relations, and by doing so, have unquestionably 
 opened to the species sources of enjoyment and improvement 
 of which the philosophers of antiquity were unable to form a 
 conception. 
 
 Notwithstanding, however, these circumstances, the educa- 
 tion of women has, till very lately, been almost entirely over- 
 looked by systematical writers ; and among the few who have 
 treated of it, there has been, in general, a strange disposition to 
 run into extremes. One set of theorists, undervaluing the 
 natural endowments of the other sex, and inattentive to their 
 immense importance in the social system, have adhered even in 
 these times to the confined notions of our forefathers ; while 
 others, overlooking the obvious and beautiful destinations of 
 nature, have confounded the provinces and the duties of both 
 sexes together, indulging themselves in visionary and licentious 
 projects, equally subversive of the order of political society, and 
 of the purity and refinement of domestic manners.* 
 
 * [With this Chapter terminates Mr. hereafter is from the olden Manuscripts, 
 
 Stewart's last review and occasional chiefly in 1800; and even what is placed 
 
 alterations of the context, which were as Cliapter Third of this Introduction, 
 
 continued so recently as 1823. All stands there only by conjecture.]
 
 [CHAPTER III] 
 
 [PRELIMINARY DISTINCTION OF POSITIVE LAWS INTO TWO CLASSES; 
 AND THE RELATION OF THESE TO POLITICAL ECONOMY PROPER, 
 OR TO PART FIRST.] 
 
 THE President De Goguet, in his very learned and valuable 
 work On the Origin of Laws, Arts, and Sciences, [1758,] lays 
 much stress, among other fundamental principles, upon a dis- 
 tinction between two different classes or orders of positive laws. 
 The jrs comprehends those which are, or at least which ought 
 to be, common to all the different kinds of political society. 
 The second, those which are peculiar to a society which has 
 made some progress in Agriculture, in Commerce, and in the 
 more refined arts of life. 
 
 To the former of these classes he refers " the laws which 
 sanction the right of property;" "the laws which settle the 
 formalities of marriage ;" and " the laws which regulate the 
 punishment of crimes ;" to which he adds, " the laws estab- 
 lishing public worship," an institution which, in one shape or 
 other, has had a place in all civilized nations. This class of laws 
 (he observes) may be regarded as essential to the very existence 
 of political society, however various may be the forms which 
 the laws may assume in different instances. 
 
 Under the second class of positive laws, Goguet arranges 
 " the laws which regulate the common transactions of civil life, 
 and the particular interests of the different members of the 
 community." Such are the laws concerning inheritances, suc- 
 cessions, sales, and contracts ; " Laws," says Goguet, " which 
 must necessarily vary according to the climate, genius, and 
 particular circumstances of different nations."
 
 58 POLITICAL ECONOMY. INTRODUCTION TO PART I. 
 
 In the course of the following disquisitions, I shall have 
 occasion to illustrate some of the causes which produce a 
 diversity in the municipal institutions of different countries; 
 and at the same time to investigate those general principles 
 which ought to be common to them all. It will afterwards 
 appear, that even in the second class of positive laws, there are 
 certain principles which are never departed from, without 
 injustice and inexpediency : And, indeed, one great object 
 which I have in view in this course, is to ascertain what these 
 principles are. This, I conceive, to be the proper aim of 
 Political Economy, in the extensive sense in which I employ 
 that expression. 
 
 With respect to the first class of positive laws, their nature 
 has been so long understood, and their authority so long recog- 
 nised among all civilized nations, that they do not appear to 
 form a proper object of philosophical discussion : and a very 
 few years ago I should certainly not have thought of referring 
 to them in this place. In the late rage, however, of political 
 innovation, those fundamental principles which it has been the 
 aim of all wise legislators, both ancient and modern, to conse- 
 crate in the opinions of their fellow-citizens, have not escaped 
 the indiscriminate fury of some reformers ; and, in various phi- 
 losophical theories an attempt has been made to expose them to 
 general reprobation and ridicule. I hope, therefore, it will not 
 be considered as altogether superfluous, if I employ one or two 
 lectures (before engaging in any particular discussion) in 
 reviewing some subjects of a more general description. I pro- 
 pose at present to confine myself to two of these, the laws 
 relating to the contract of marriage, and the laws sanctioning 
 and regulating the right of property ; institutions, which 
 (together with the established solemnities of public ivorship) 
 are justly considered by Goguet as the great pillars of the 
 social system. The last of these articles I shall pass over in 
 this course, as being more immediately connected with some of 
 the doctrines of Ethics* 
 
 * [See Philosophy of the Active and Moral Powers, Vol. II. pp. 260-273. 
 Works, Vol. VII.]
 
 [PART FIRST.-BOOK FIRST.] 
 
 [OF POPULATION.] 
 
 IN reflecting on the various objects of legislation, our thoughts 
 are naturally attracted, at the commencement of our inquiries, 
 by two speculations, which have already employed the ingenuity 
 of many writers of the first eminence ; and to which the title 
 of Political Economy has been hitherto, in a great measure, 
 restricted. The aim of the one is to add to the Population of 
 a country; that of the other, to increase its Wealth. The 
 common aim of both is to augment what have been sometimes 
 called the National Resources. 
 
 Between these two subjects, there is a very intimate connexion, 
 insomuch, that hardly any writer has treated professedly of the 
 one, without introducing many incidental observations on the 
 other. They are both, however, of so very great extent, that 
 it is impossible to do them complete justice, without bestowing 
 on each a separate consideration ; and I accordingly intend to 
 examine at some length the principles on which Population 
 depends, and various other questions connected with that dis- 
 quisition, before engaging in any inquiries concerning the nature 
 and causes of the Wealth of Nations. On the latter article, 
 indeed, which has been so very fully and ably discussed by Mr. 
 Smith, I shall confine myself within much narrower limits 
 than on some other branches of Political Economy, which are 
 not comprehended in his plan. 
 
 The subject of Population may be considered in two points 
 of view, as an article of Natural History, and as an article of 
 Political Economy. In the first light, it does not properly fall 
 under our examination here. A few particulars, however, with 
 respect to it deserve our attention, on account of their connexion 
 with some reasonings which will be stated afterwards.
 
 [CHAPTER L] 
 
 OF POPULATION CONSIDERED AS AN ARTICLE OF THE 
 NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN. 
 
 THE propagation of animals, and the circumstances on which 
 it depends, are among the most interesting subjects of inquiry 
 in the whole economy of Nature ; and when considered in their 
 relation to the physical necessities and the moral habits of 
 different tribes, exhibit the most striking evidences of wise and 
 benevolent design. On this subject, however, 1 do not mean to 
 enlarge, but shall content myself with referring to Buffon and 
 the other writers on Natural History, for an illustration of the 
 beautiful arrangements which are conspicuous in the general 
 laws here presented to our observation. 
 
 The propagation of all animals supposes a competency of 
 that kind of food on which the particular tribe is destined to 
 subsist. This provision being equal, the rate at which the 
 multiplication of different races would go, seems to depend on 
 the following particulars: 1 (1.) The age at which the parent 
 becomes prolific ; (2.) The time that elapses in pregnancy ; (3.) 
 The frequency of breeding ; (4.) The numbers of each brood ; 
 and (5.) The period during which the parent continues prolific. 
 
 The laws of propagation in our own species appear to vary 
 to a certain extent in different climates ; and the general 
 opinion is, that they are most favourable to population in the 
 warmer regions, a difference, however, which must be partly 
 ascribed to the greater abundance of the means of subsistence. 
 The fact unquestionably is, that nations in those climates 
 are populous, even under great defects of government 
 
 M. Mohean, a French author of extensive and accurate infor- 
 mation, assures us that the truth of this general observation 
 
 1 Ferguson's InttitutM [of Moral Philosophy.}
 
 CHAP. I. POPULATION PHYSICALLY CONSIDERED. 61 
 
 with respect to the effects of climate is confirmed by facts, 
 which may be collected within the comparatively narrow limits 
 of France. Other circumstances being the same, the women 
 in the north of France are (according to him) less fruitful 
 than in the south. The same author adds, (upon documents 
 wlu'ch he thinks entitled to credit,) that whilst in France 
 forty -eight marriages produce at an average two hundred and 
 thirty-two births, the same number of marriages, towards the 
 fifty-second or fifty-third degree of latitude, produce only one 
 hundred and ninety-five births ; and beyond the fifty-sixth 
 degree, not more than one hundred and sixty. 1 On so very 
 nice a question, however, the results still require to be verified 
 by farther observations. 
 
 Without entering more particularly into this speculation, it 
 is sufficient for our purpose to remark, that in all the habitable 
 parts of the globe, the laws of propagation are sufficient for 
 preserving the race and adding to its numbers, provided other 
 circumstances be not unfavourable. In some situations in 
 which the prolific powers of the two sexes have been less 
 restrained than they generally are by the difficulty of rearing a 
 family, the multiplication of the species has been found to be as- 
 tonishingly rapid. In some parts of America, before the Revo- 
 lution, the number of inhabitants (according to Franklin) was 
 doubled every fifteen years ; in others, every twenty-five years. 
 Nor was this owing to the influx of new inhabitants, but to the 
 actual increase of the people. Those who lived to old age fre- 
 quently saw from fifty-six to one hundred, and sometimes many 
 more, descendants from their own body. The truth is, that mar- 
 riage, which in this part of the world is a source of so much ex- 
 pense and anxiety to men of middling fortunes, as to deter many 
 from thinking of that connexion, was in America one of the 
 most" effectual steps towards prosperity and affluence. The 
 labour of each child before it could leave its father's house, 
 
 1 Becherchfs sur la Population de la more prolific in the northern regions. 
 France, [1778,] p. 139. It is curious that [See his Essay on the Populousness of 
 Mr. Hume seems to lean to the contrary Anlient Nations, and the adverse quo- 
 idea, and to suppose that women are tation from Columella.]
 
 62 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 was (according to Mr. Smith) computed in some parts of the 
 Continent to be 100 clear gain to him ; so that a young widow 
 with four or five children was commonly courted as a sort of 
 fortune. 
 
 As the rapid progress of population in the English North 
 American Colonies, is probably without parallel in history, it 
 may be proper to state the fact a little more particularly. 
 
 The original number of persons who had settled in the four 
 provinces of New England in 1643, was 21,200. Afterwards, 
 it is supposed, that more left them than went to them. In the 
 year 1760, they were increased to half a million. They had, 
 therefore, all along doubled their own number in twenty-five 
 years. In New Jersey, the period of doubling appears to be 
 twenty-two years ; and in Khode Island still less. In the Back 
 Settlements, where the inhabitants applied themselves solely to 
 agriculture, and luxury was not known, they were found to 
 double their number in fifteen years. 1 
 
 The operation of similar causes has produced similar effects, 
 although in a very inferior degree, in all the other European 
 settlements in the New World. The truth is, that an abundance 
 of rich land, to be had for little or nothing, is so powerful an 
 encouragement to population as to overcome all obstacles. No 
 settlements could well have been worse managed than those of 
 Spain in Mexico, Peru, and Quito ; yet under all their disad- 
 vantages these colonies multiplied very rapidly. The city of 
 Lima, founded since the Conquest, is represented by Ulloa as 
 containing fifty thousand inhabitants near fifty years ago. 
 Quito, which had been but a hamlet of Indians, is represented 
 by the same author as in his time equally populous. Mexico 
 is said to contain a hundred thousand inhabitants, which is a 
 number probably five times greater than what it contained in 
 the time of Montezuma. Nor is this rapid multiplication of 
 the species peculiar to new colonies. It is experienced in every 
 instance in which the numbers of the people fall greatly short 
 of what their means of subsistence might support. It has been 
 
 1 Essay on the Principle of Population [Malthus, first edition of bis Essay 
 in 1798,] p. 105.
 
 CHAP. I. POPULATION PHYSICALLY CONSIDERED. 63 
 
 often exemplified in Flanders, where the effects of those wars, 
 of which that fertile and beautiful province has so long been 
 the occasional seat, have always been obliterated by a few years 
 of peace. It was exemplified in London, after the fatal plague 
 of 1666, the traces of which, in the short period of twenty years, 
 were scarcely perceptible. The same observation has been 
 made with respect to the effects of the famines in China and 
 Hindostan, and of the plagues which so frequently sweep 
 men by thousands from the face of the earth in Egypt and 
 Turkey. 
 
 If this rapid increase was to go on unchecked, it is easy to 
 perceive, that the world would, at no very distant period, be 
 overstocked with inhabitants. Dr. Wallace, in his Disserta- 
 tion on the Numbers of Mankind, has shewn that this must 
 have been the case long before the Deluge, even on the very 
 moderate supposition, that the numbers of mankind had 
 doubled every thirty-three and one-third years. His computa- 
 tions on this subject deserve attention, as they lead to important 
 consequences. 
 
 Suppose, then, the race to begin with a single pair, that all 
 marry who attain to maturity, and that every marriage pro- 
 duces six children, three males and as many females ; two of 
 whom (one male and one female) die before marriage, (accord- 
 ing to which hypothesis four will remain to marry and re- 
 plenish the world,) that in thirty-three and one-third years from 
 the time when the original pair began to propagate, they shall 
 have produced their six children ; and that within the second 
 period of thirty-three and one-third years, each of the succeed- 
 ing couples shall have produced six children, and this to take 
 place continually. On these suppositions, at the beginning of 
 the scheme, the original pair alone are in life ; at the end of 
 the first period of thirty-three and one-third years, there are 
 six persons living, viz., the original pair and four others ; at the 
 end of sixty-six and two-third years, there will be twelve ; at 
 the end of one hundred years, there will be twenty-four living ; 
 and at the end of twelve hundred years, (the numbers of man- 
 kind continuing to double every thirty-three and one-third
 
 64 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 years,) the number alive will be 206,158,430,208. According 
 to the computations of the same very learned and ingenious 
 writer, the whole habitable earth does not actually contain, at 
 this moment, more than one thousand millions. 
 
 From the facts already stated with respect to our colonies in 
 North America, it appears to be abundantly confirmed by 
 actual experience, that even in circumstances which by no 
 means afforded to the prolific powers of our species their 
 greatest conceivable scope, population has gone on doubling 
 itself every twenty-five years. 
 
 Assuming this, therefore, as a general rule, (which is ob- 
 viously far short of the truth,) that population, when unchecked, 
 goes on doubling itself every twenty-five years, a late anony- 
 mous author* argues in the following manner : 
 
 " Suppose the restraints to population, all over the earth, to 
 be completely removed, and consider in what ratio the subsist- 
 ence it affords can be conceived 'to increase. If it were to be 
 increased every twenty-five years by a quantity equal to what 
 the whole world at present produces; this would allow the 
 power of production in the earth to be absolutely unlimited, 
 and the rate of its increase much greater than we can imagine 
 any possible exertions of mankind to make it. 
 
 " Taking the population of the world at any number, a thou- 
 sand millions for instance, the human species would increase in 
 the ratio of 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, &c. ; [a Geometrical ratio.] 
 And subsistence as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, &c. ; [an Arithmetical 
 ratio.] In two centuries and a quarter, the population would 
 be to the means of subsistence as 512 to 10 ; in three centuries, 
 as 4096 to 13 ; and in two thousand years, the difference would 
 be almost incalculable, though the produce in that time would 
 have increased to an immense extent" 
 
 * [Mr. Malthas is here referred to. At modified, appeared in 1803; and in Mr. 
 
 the time (c. 1800) when these Lectures Stewart's subsequent courses, (as is seen 
 
 were originally written, the Essay on from the fragment extant of a lecture in 
 
 the Principle of Population had been 1804, and from the notes taken in 1809, 
 
 only anonymously published, in 1798. by Mr. Bridges and others,) Mr. Malthus 
 
 The second edition, with the author's is explicitly quoted. See infra, plu- 
 
 e, and the reasoning considerably ries.]
 
 CHAP. I. POPULATION PHYSICALLY CONSIDEKED. 65 
 
 From this reasoning, which seems to be just in the main, it 
 may be fairly inferred, that although the rapid multiplication 
 of our species be in some states of society incomparably greater 
 than in others, it does not appear to be a part of the order of 
 Providence, that this rapidity should continue or be universal, 
 an insurmountable obstacle being opposed to it by the other 
 physical arrangements of our globe. 
 
 These considerations are sufficient, of themselves, to suggest 
 a doubt, How far it is true that a rapidly increasing population 
 is an unequivocal test of a wisely constituted government ; and, 
 Whether the mere increase of numbers ought to be a leading 
 object of attention to a legislator. That both of these ques- 
 tions are to be answered in the affirmative, under proper 
 limitations, is beyond dispute; but we may, perhaps, find 
 reason afterwards to conclude, that they have been generally 
 discussed by politicians in too vague and unqualified a form. 
 Within these few years, indeed, the connexion between Popula- 
 tion and National Prosperity has been examined with much 
 greater accuracy than before, but not perhaps in such a manner 
 as to unite completely the opinions of speculative politicians in 
 their general conclusions. The very ingenious and intelligent 
 author of L'Ami des Hommes, [Mirabeau, the Father,] appears 
 to have wavered a little in his speculations on this point. In 
 the first part of that work he maintains the superiority of 
 National Wealth to Population, and insists that the latter ought 
 to be regarded only as a secondary object by the statesman. 
 But in the second part 1 he asserts that Wealth is an inferior 
 object to Population, and that numbers of people are alone the 
 cause of riches. 2 
 
 1 See the letters annexed to Socrate lish, if they go through a second edition ; 
 Rustique, (by M. Hirzel of Zurich,) though certainly in one of them there is 
 translated by Arthur Young in his a very essential correction wanting ; for, 
 Rural Economy. in second part of L'Ami des Hommes, 
 
 2 Of this contradiction Mirabeau him- [1755,] I have expressly contradicted 
 self takes notice, in a letter addressed what I asserted as a fundamental prin- 
 to the French translator of a German ciple in the first That Population was 
 Treatise entitled The Rural Socrates. "I the consequence of Riches ; I was sensi- 
 have always," says he, " been scrupulous ble of my error in mistaking the cause 
 of making alterations in the Essay s I pub- for the effect, and have since advanced 
 
 VOL. VIII. E
 
 66 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 Mr. Arthur Young, in his Political Arithmetic, (published in 
 1774,) lays it down as a most important and fundamental 
 principle, that Population should be ever regarded as subor- 
 dinate to Agriculture. " If a measure," says he, " is beneficial 
 to the latter, give no attention to those who talk of injuring 
 population. If you act primarily from an idea of encouraging 
 populousness, you may injure husbandry ; but if your first idea 
 is the encouragement of the latter, you cannot reduce popula- 
 tion below that standard which/ being adapted to the circum- 
 stances of the country, can alone render it a source of national 
 strength and of general happiness." 1 
 
 Before, however, I enter on these discussions, it is necessary 
 for me to consider, on what political causes the population of 
 a country depends ; an inquiry of great extent and import- 
 ance, and which (in the manner I propose to treat it) will lead 
 to an examination of some of the most interesting articles of 
 Political Economy. The slight reference which I have just 
 now made to the speculations of the Marquis de Mirabeau and 
 of Mr. Young, is sufficient to shew how very intimately the 
 different branches of this science are connected together. 
 
 that Riches are the consequence of Po- anything by way of Appendix, in future 
 
 pulation. The method was simple and editions." See Addenda to Socrate 
 
 easy to have established this latter Rustiqut. Translated by A. Young, [in 
 
 opinion by some slight additions, ex- his Rural Economy, 1770.] 
 plaining the principles on which it is l See Political Arithmetic, pp. 264- 
 
 founded ; but I was unwilling to lessen 267. In the last sentence of the above 
 
 the value of the book to the first pur- quotation, I have departed a little from 
 
 chasers, and have invariably persisted Mr. Young's words ; but the limitation 
 
 in not changing the least sentence in I have added seems to be absolutely ne- 
 
 the works once published ; or adding cessary for conveying his idea fully.
 
 [CHAPTER II.] 
 
 [OF POPULATION CONSIDERED AS AN AETICLE OF 
 POLITICAL ECONOMY.] 
 
 OF the political causes which affect the population of a 
 country. 
 
 The most important of these may be referred to the three 
 following heads :* 
 
 1. The Political Institutions which regulate the connexion 
 between the Sexes ; 
 
 2. The State of Manners relative to this Connexion; and, 
 
 3. The Means of Subsistence enjoyed by the People. 
 
 [SECT. I. OF POPULATION AS AFFECTED BY THE POLITICAL 
 INSTITUTIONS WHICH REGULATE THE SEXUAL CONNEXION.] 
 
 Under the first of these heads an extensive and interesting 
 field of speculation presents itself; first, with respect to the 
 comparative effects of marriage, and of a promiscuous concu- 
 binage ; and, secondly, with respect to the comparative effects 
 of monogamy and of polygamy. 
 
 [SUBSECT. I. MARRIAGE COMPARED WITH CONCUBINAGE.] 
 
 In the very general observations concerning the Institution 
 of Marriage to which I propose to confine myself in this lec- 
 ture, I shall avoid those views of the subject which have an 
 immediate reference to the more appropriate objects of Political 
 Economy, in some of which respects (particularly in its con- 
 nexion with Population) it will necessarily fall again under 
 
 * [These will, accordingly, constitute so many Sections of this Chapter.]
 
 68 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 our review. On the other hand, it would be obviously a trifling 
 with your time, to offer any illustration of those views of 
 expediency which have induced legislators, in every instance, 
 to impose certain limitations on the vague commerce of the 
 sexes ; (as with the single exception of Mr. Godwin,) I do not 
 know that any advocates for a promiscuous concubinage are 
 to be found even among the most paradoxical writers of the 
 present age. 
 
 In the Republic of Plato, indeed, Socrates is introduced as 
 maintaining, that " in a well ordered state, all things ought to 
 be common, wives, children, and possessions." His arguments 
 for this opinion, which are fanciful and puerile, are examined 
 with much more attention than they deserve, and refuted in a 
 very satisfactory manner, in the second book of Aristotle's 
 Politics ; to which I beg leave to refer. 1 
 
 I quote the following passages from Mr. Godwin, not with 
 the view of replying to them, (the necessity of which is com- 
 pletely superseded by their unexampled extravagance,) but as 
 a specimen of that order of things which appears to the writer 
 to be imperiously recommended by the principle of Political 
 Justice. 
 
 " The abolition of marriage would be attended with no evils. 
 In this, as in other cases, the positive laws which are made to 
 restrain our vices, irritate and multiply them. Not to say that 
 the same sentiments of justice and happiness which, in a state 
 of equal property, would destroy the relish for luxury, would 
 decrease our inordinate appetites of every kind, and lead us 
 universally to prefer the pleasures of intellect to the pleasures 
 of sense." [Again :] 
 
 " It is true, that in such a state of society, it could not be 
 definitively affirmed who is the father of each individual child. 
 But it may be affirmed, that such knowledge would be of no 
 
 1 This part of Aristotle's works, which by Dr. Gillies. [In Gillies's translation 
 
 is certainly one of the most valuable of Aristotle's Practical Philosophy, the 
 
 remains of antiquity, may be perused Politics occupy the second volume ; and 
 
 by the English reader, in a translation of that volume, see particularly chapters 
 
 which has been executed, with a consi- iii. and iv. of Book II.] Taylor, [Ele- 
 
 derable degree of spirit and of elegance, ments of the Civil Law,] p. 342.
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 1.) 69 
 
 importance. It is aristocracy, self-love, and family pride, that 
 teach us to set a value upon it at present. I ought to prefer 
 no human being to another, because that being is my father, 
 my wife, or my son, but because for reasons which equally 
 appeal to all understandings, that being is entitled to prefer- 
 ence."* 
 
 Of the tendency of such a state of society with respect to 
 population, Mr. Godwin has taken no notice, nor indeed was it 
 necessary for his purpose that he should ; for it is part of the 
 same system, that if its principles were realized, the species 
 would cease to multiply by propagation, and individuals would 
 become immortal. 
 
 Neglecting therefore these paradoxes, (which are much less 
 likely to do mischief than some other passages of the same 
 work, the scope of which is not equally apparent,) I shall 
 assume as a self-evident principle, the political utility of such 
 a contract between the sexes, as is necessary for connecting the 
 offspring with both parents, by excluding (as far as law can 
 operate) a promiscuous coucubinage. 
 
 What I propose chiefly in introducing the subject here, is to 
 consider (which I shall do very briefly) the institution of mar- 
 riage as a part of the moral and physical order of nature ; and 
 to offer a few miscellaneous remarks on the tendency of some 
 modern speculations to weaken the influence of those principles 
 which have so universally consecrated this connexion, among 
 all civilized nations. 
 
 The question, whether marriage be an appointment of nature 
 or of municipal law, has been often and warmly disputed, even 
 among those who acknowledge its utility as a political institu- 
 tion. It is a question which (when thus stated at least) 
 savours so much of scholastic refinement, that I should have 
 avoided any reference to it in these lectures, if some late doc- 
 trines had not bestowed on it a temporary interest. 
 
 The diversity of opinion to which this discussion has given 
 rise, may probably be ascribed, in some degree, to the vague 
 
 * [Inquiry concerning Political Justice, Book VIII. chap. vi. pp. 850, 852, 
 original edition, 1793.]
 
 70 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 manner in which the question has been proposed. Few phrases 
 are more ambiguous than that of natural law ; and of conse- 
 quence, the circumstances which are appealed to as tests of it, 
 in one sense, do not at all apply to it when understood in 
 another. 
 
 By some writers, the laws of nature with respect to man are 
 collected from the customs of savage nations, among whom 
 artificial systems of policy have made little or no progress. By 
 others, every institution is considered as enjoined by nature, or 
 (in other words) as a part of her law, which may be inferred 
 by reason to be agreeable to her intentions : either from an 
 examination of the principles of our constitution, combined 
 with our physical condition; from the analogy of the other 
 animals whom she has taken immediately under her own guid- 
 ance ; or from the beneficial effects it has a tendency to produce. 
 T need scarcely observe, that what are understood to be laws of 
 nature, according to the former definition, will not always be 
 found entitled to that appellation, according to the latter. 
 
 That a promiscuous concubinage is the natural result of 
 savage ideas and savage manners, seems to have the universal 
 creed of antiquity. " Nam fuit quoddam tempus," says Cicero, 
 " cum in agris homines passim bestiarum modo vagabantur, et 
 sibi victu fero vitam propagabant ; nee ratione animi quidquam, 
 sed pleraque viribus corporis administrabant. Noudum divinae 
 religiones, non humani officii ratio colebatur : nemo legitimas 
 viderat nuptias ; non certos quisquam adspexerat liberos." 1 Of 
 this state of society, Lucretius, in the following verses, has pre- 
 sented a lively picture. 
 
 " Et Venus in sylvis jungebat corpora amantum. 
 Conciliabat enim vel mutua quewque cupido, 
 Vel violenta viri vis, atque impensa libido, 
 Vel pretium, glandes, atque arbuta, vel pira lecta."* 
 
 Agreeably to the same notions, the establishment of marriage 
 is always numbered among the first improvements introduced 
 by those legislators who reclaimed their fellow-citizens from 
 the fierceness and misrule of savage life. 
 
 1 De Invention?, Lib. I. [cap. ii.] * [De Rerum Natura, V. 960.]
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 1.) 71 
 
 "Concubitu prohibere vago, dare jura maritis, 
 Oppida moliri, leges iucidere ligno." l 
 
 We are told of Cecrops, in particular, the founder of the 
 Athenian constitution, that before his time marriage was not 
 known in Greece, and that the burden of children lay upon the 
 mother. To this fact innumerable allusions may be found in 
 the Greek writers ; by whom we are also informed, that on 
 account of this circumstance, Cecrops obtained the appellation 
 of JN/JUT?? or Biformis. " Cecrops dictus est Biformis, quod 
 legem tulisset, ut foeminee, quee virgines adhuc essent, uni viro 
 elocarentur ; quas Nymphas vocavit. Ante enim, illius re- 
 gionis mulieres, more pecudum, promiscue cum viris coibant ; 
 nee suo cuique viro uxor erat, sed unaquaeque mulier cuivis 
 corporis sui copiam faciebat. Unde etiam nemini constabat, 
 cujusnam films vel filia esset infans in Incem editus." 2 
 
 I do not intend to enter into a particular discussion of the 
 evidence by which these opinions and traditions are supported, 
 as it is not at all material to the argument I have in view, 
 whether we adopt or reject them. When we reflect, however, 
 on the condition of the human infant, and the impossibility of 
 a mother rearing a numerous offspring solely by her own in- 
 dustry, (at least in the earlier stages of society, and in such a 
 climate as Greece,) it is difficult to avoid a considerable degree 
 of scepticism with respect to facts of so high antiquity in point 
 of date, and of which we have no authentic memorials ; more 
 especially as a very strong presumption against them arises 
 from the whole system of the ancient mythology, (a system of 
 which the origin is confessedly lost in the obscurity of the 
 fabulous ages,) and which invariably assigns to each of the 
 deities, not excepting Jupiter himself, but a single wife united 
 with him by a legitimate marriage. 3 The account which 
 Caesar gives of the manners of the ancient Britons, is indeed 
 entitled to much respect from the known fidelity and accuracy 
 of the writer ; but it differs essentially from the state of society 
 in which the Greeks are supposed to have lived before the time 
 
 1 Horace, Ad Pisones, 398. 2 Suidas, v. 
 
 8 Goguet, Book I. chap. i. Art. 1.
 
 72 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 of Cecrops, and is by no means liable to the same objections. 
 11 It was common," he says, " for a number of brothers, or other 
 near relations, to use their wives promiscuously. The offspring, 
 however, were not common ; for each man maintained the 
 children that were produced by his own wife." 1 The informa- 
 tion is curious, and of some importance in this disquisition ; for 
 while it affords a melancholy proof of the dissolute morals that 
 once prevailed in this island, it illustrates strongly the necessity 
 of a co-operation of both sexes in rearing an infant offspring, 
 and thereby turns our thoughts to one of the most striking cir- 
 cumstances in the condition of man, which suggest the institu- 
 tion of marriage. 
 
 Suppose, however, for a moment, that we should adopt the 
 ideas of the ancients on this subject in their full extent. To 
 what other conclusion would they lead, than that the intellec- 
 tual and moral powers of our species are liable to extreme de- 
 gradation amidst the ignorance and brutishness of savage 
 manners ? To judge of the intentions of nature, requires in 
 many cases (as I already hinted) a comprehensive view of the 
 constitution of man, of the circumstances of his external condi- 
 tion, and of the mutual relations which these two parts of his 
 destiny bear to each other ; and therefore it is not to History 
 that we ought to appeal as an infallible standard in such discus- 
 sions, but to what our own reason pronounces concerning moral 
 fitness and expediency, after availing itself of all the lights it 
 can collect concerning the ends and purposes of our being. Or, 
 if any appeal is made to the actual experience of mankind, it 
 ought certainly to be to the practices of those nations among 
 whom the highest attainments of the race have been exhibited. 
 
 Among the many prejudices which have misled the specula- 
 tions of philosophers concerning the history and destination of 
 man, there is perhaps none more absurd and groundless than 
 the idea that the rudest state of our species is that which 
 
 1 " Uxores habent deni duodenique tur liberi a quibus primum virgines 
 
 inter se communes ; et maxime fratres quasque ductse sunt." [De Betto Oal- 
 
 cum fratribus, parentesque cum liberis ; lico, Lib. V. cap. xiv.] 
 sed si qui aunt ex his nati, eorum haben-
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 1.) 73 
 
 approaches most nearly to the state of nature. The contrary 
 opinion would be in every essential respect more agreeable to 
 the truth ; inasmuch as one of the most melancholy and fatal 
 consequences of human ignorance, is a presumptuous confidence 
 in the remote conclusions of reason, in opposition to what is 
 obviously suggested by the state and condition of man. We 
 may remark this not only in the moral depravity of rude tribes, 
 but in the universal disposition which they discover to torture 
 and distort the human body ; in one case compressing the 
 eyes at the corners ; in a second lengthening the ears ; in a 
 third, checking the growth of the feet ; in a fourth, by mecha- 
 nical pressures applied to the head, attacking the seat of 
 thought and intelligence. To allow the human body to attain 
 in perfection its fair proportions, is one of the latest improve- 
 ments of civilized society ; and the case is perfectly analogous 
 in those sciences which have for their object to assist nature in 
 the cure of diseases, in the correction of bad morals, or in the 
 regulation of the social order. 
 
 In the present instance, without any appeal to history, the 
 intentions of nature may be easily collected from facts which 
 fall under our daily observation. Of these facts, one of the 
 most striking is the long period during which the human infant 
 remains in a state of the most complete helplessness and de- 
 pendence. The cares of the mother are evidently not sufficient 
 for the task of rearing her offspring till they are able to pro- 
 vide for themselves ; and the difficulties of this task, so far 
 from being diminished, must be wonderfully increased by the 
 nature of those occupations on which man depends for his 
 precarious subsistence, in the earlier periods of society. In 
 such a state of things, while the mother is employed in suckling 
 her child, the care of both is obviously devolved by nature on 
 the father ; and indeed without his constant and assiduous pro- 
 tection, both the one and the other must inevitably perish. 
 
 During the long helplessness of the first infant, (a helpless- 
 ness which, in our species, Nature seems to protract, in order to 
 bind that union which love had originally formed,) the family 
 multiplies apace. Every new member adds another tie to
 
 74 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 those which existed before ; habit adds her irresistible influ- 
 ence ; and thus, without the formalities of a contract or of 
 nuptial rites, those arrangements insensibly arise, which it is 
 the pride of human policy to confirm and to sanctify. 
 
 In the rudest period, too, of society, something must be 
 allowed to a sentimental predilection, and to the effect of reci- 
 procal kindnesses and sacrifices. The affection of friendship 
 has never been denied to the savage ; and why should we doubt 
 that it may sometimes unite, in its tenderest form, with those 
 passions which prompt to the continuation of the species. 
 
 Among the ancient writers, it was often disputed whether 
 the affection of Friendship could possibly exist in its perfection 
 between more than two persons, and I believe that the common 
 decision was that it cannot. 1 For my own part, I confess I 
 can see no good reason in the case of friendship for such a 
 limitation ; and I am inclined to think that it has been sug- 
 gested rather by the fables of mythology or the dreams of 
 romance, than by good sense or a practical acquaintance with 
 mankind. What the ancients, however, alleged with respect to 
 friendship, is certainly true of love between the sexes. This 
 last affection cannot, at one time, be directed to a variety of 
 objects. It is of an exclusive and suspicious nature ; and the 
 jealousy of the one party is roused the moment an apprehen- 
 sion arises that the attachment of the other is in any degree 
 divided. In this circumstance, which is strikingly character- 
 istical of the passion between the sexes, we see not only a pro- 
 vision made for the conjugal union, but (as will appear after- 
 wards more fully) a manifestation of the law of nature on the 
 subject of polygamy. 
 
 The delicacy and modesty which seem to be natural to the 
 other sex, in a much greater degree than to ours, conspire with 
 the causes already mentioned, in grafting a moral union on the 
 
 1 iii>.).o7s tiitti p<A, K/tTa, <rr>i Ti/u/a it is impossible to love more than one at 
 
 $!/.!*>, aim IrSi^ira*, u<rvt tliSl tj the same time. . . . For a friend is a 
 
 rXuoa aft*. . . . 'Em yi{ filtt second self." Aristotle's Nicomachian 
 
 AJUf *urit. " It is impossible to be a Ethics, [IX. x. and iv. Wilkinson.] 
 
 friend (according to the idea of per- See Wollaston, [Religion of Nature, 
 
 feet friendship) to more than one, as Sect. VIII. iv."]
 
 CHAP. IL POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 1.) 75 
 
 instinctive passion. By many writers these are considered as 
 entirely factitious principles ; but the contrary might be easily 
 proved, if it were worth while at present to enter into the argu- 
 ment. I shall content myself with remarking the conspicuous 
 figure they have been found, in various instances, to make in 
 ruder ages, more particularly among the American tribes and 
 the ancient Germans. The latter are extolled on this very 
 account by Tacitus, who plainly means to insinuate, in the 
 panegyric he bestows on them, an indirect satire on the cor- 
 rupted manners of his own countrymen. " Publicatse pudicitiae 
 nulla venia: non forma, non aetate, non opibus maritum in- 
 venerit. Nemo enim illic vitia ridet ; nee corrumpere et cor- 
 rumpi seculum vocatur." 1 
 
 From the shyness and reserve natural to women, and the 
 respect paid to it by the earliest legislators, some writers have 
 very ingeniously traced the ceremonies which have been found 
 occasionally connected with the institution of marriage. Thus 
 among the early Komans, the bride appears to have been carried 
 forcibly from the lap of her mother ; and among the Spartans 
 a marriage assumed the semblance of a rape. " The virgin and 
 her relations," says Dr. [Gilbert] Stuart, " no doubt, understood 
 previously the transaction, and expected this violence. But it 
 was a compliment to her, thus to give an air of constraint to 
 her consent, to relieve her embarrassment and distress, her 
 emotion of fear and hope, anxiety and tenderness."* 
 
 The same remark is made, and not ill expressed, by Dr. 
 Taylor. 2 " The seeming violence," he observes, " with which 
 the bride is taken from her mother's lap, the lifting her over 
 the threshold, and many other incidents in the ceremony, would 
 be as proper in the rites of any other nation that did not owe 
 its foundation to an accident of this kind, as they are in the 
 Koman system. There is a propriety, that a sex whose modesty 
 
 1 " Nor is any indulgence shewn to a * [ View of Society in Europe, Note 
 
 prostitute. Neither beauty, youth, nor (6), sect. 3, chap. i. Book I.] 
 riches, can obtain her a husband ; for 
 
 no one there looks on vice with a smile, * Elements of the Civil Law, p. 
 
 or calls mutual seduction the way of the 305. 
 world." [Germania, cap. xix.]
 
 76 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 is their charter, who, by a great consent of nations, are to be 
 solicited into this union, and for a while to refuse it, should 
 in these delicate circumstances be complimented with the 
 appearance of constraint, and with that softer kind of violence 
 which suits so well with their condition, their character, and 
 education. Thus with us, and with the Athenians, as we have 
 seen above, the bride is given in marriage, and hardly appears 
 upon the face of the stipulation to be consenting. . . . And 
 though we know what these things mean, (" Scio, voluntate tua 
 coactus es,") yet the moral is sound and warrantable. This 
 compulsion testifies the retirement and abstraction that attended 
 their education, is a pledge of that honour and chastity which 
 they should bring with them to this solemnity, and guarantees 
 the modesty and decorum that is to sweeten and recommend 
 the remainder of this alliance." 
 
 These observations are not undeserving of attention, as the 
 show of violence which accompanied the marriage ceremony 
 among the Romans (that in particular of tearing the bride ex 
 gremio matris) is commonly considered by the ancient writers 
 as carrying an allusion to a celebrated event in the history of 
 the early ages, the Rape of the Sabines. In this instance we 
 meet with a striking example of that unphilosophical bias, so 
 common both among the Roman and Greek authors, to account 
 for every remarkable phenomenon in the history of man, by 
 referring it to a fabulous origin, instead of endeavouring to 
 resolve it into the general principles of human nature. 
 
 After all, the principal support of marriage among rude 
 nations, is undoubtedly the circumstance which was first men- 
 tioned, I mean the long helplessness of the human infant; 
 and, accordingly, in those parts of the world where the means 
 of subsistence are furnished by nature, with little or no exertion 
 on the part of man, the conjugal tie appears to be a much 
 slighter bond of union, than where the parties are drawn more 
 closely together by their common necessities. 
 
 In proof of the foregoing conclusions concerning the inten- 
 tions of nature with respect to the human race, Lord Kames 
 has drawn an additional argument from the economy of the
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. (1.) 77 
 
 lower animals. " The instinct of pairing," he observes, " is 
 bestowed on every species of animals to which it is necessary 
 for rearing their young, and on no other species. . . . Brute ani- 
 mals which do not pair, have grass and other food in plenty, 
 enabling the female to feed her young, without needing any 
 assistance from the male. But where the young require the 
 nursing care of both parents, pairing is a law of nature."* A 
 variety of other very judicious and pleasing remarks on the 
 economy of nature, relating to the propagation of animals, may 
 be found in the Appendix annexed to his Sketch on the Progress 
 of the Female Sex. 
 
 Mr. Hume, too, in his Essay On Polygamy and Divorce, has 
 referred to the economy of the brutes ; but the inference he 
 draws from his premises, is different from that of Kames, and 
 (in my opinion) less philosophical. " Among the inferior 
 creatures," he observes, " nature herself being the supreme 
 legislator, prescribes all the laws which regulate their mar- 
 riages, and varies those laws according to the different circum- 
 stances of the creature. Where she furnishes, with ease, food 
 and defence to the new-born animal, the present embrace 
 terminates the marriage, and the care of the offspring is com- 
 mitted entirely to the female. Where the food is of more 
 difficult purchase, the marriage continues for one season, till 
 the common progeny can provide for itself, and then the union 
 immediately dissolves, and leaves each of the parties free to 
 enter into a new engagement at the ensuing season. But 
 nature having endowed man with reason, has not so exactly 
 regulated every article of his marriage contract, but has left 
 him to adjust them by his own prudence, according to his par- 
 ticular circumstances and situation. Municipal laws are a 
 supply to the wisdom of each individual ; and, at the same time, 
 by restraining the natural liberty of men, make private interest 
 submit to the interest of the public. All regulations, there- 
 fore, on this head are equally lawful, and equally conformable 
 to the principles of nature, though they are not all equally 
 
 * [Sketches of the History of Man, Book I. Sk. vi. ; Vol. I. pp. 172, 173, original 
 edition, 1774.]
 
 78 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 convenient, or equally useful to society."* According to the 
 meaning I annex to the phrases, " principles of nature," and 
 " laws of nature," (and which I have alreadyf endeavoured to 
 shew is the proper meaning of the expression,) this last con- 
 clusion of Mr. Hume's involves a contradiction in terms. 
 
 I have hitherto touched only upon those advantages of mar- 
 riage which are obvious to the most careless inquirer, and 
 which could not fail to force themselves on the notice of men 
 in the most rude and ignorant ages. If I were to enter more 
 deeply into the subject, and to consider it in connexion with 
 the happiness of human life, with the preservation of morals, 
 and with the progressive improvement of the species, volumes 
 might be written without exhausting the subject. Much might 
 also be said on the connexion of this institution with the sub- 
 ject of population, not only as an arrangement absolutely 
 necessary for preserving undiminished the prolific powers of 
 the other sex, but as no less indispensable (even in the pre- 
 sent state of society) for rearing children with success, amidst 
 the diseases and dangers of infancy. Of this a judgment may 
 be formed from the barrenness of those connexions where the 
 circumstances of the parents do not allow them to bestow that 
 care on their offspring to which affection and duty prompt in 
 more favourable situations. " The tender plant," to borrow 
 the words of Mr. Smith, " is produced, but in so cold a soil 
 and so severe a climate, soon withers and dies/'J 
 
 What then would the consequences be, in the present state 
 of things I shall not say of the abolition of marriage but of 
 any considerable relaxation in the ideas of men concerning the 
 sacredness of this connexion, and the duties which it imposes ? 
 
 These different considerations, which I must content myself 
 with barely hinting at, illustrate sufficiently the wisdom of that 
 advice which Plato (notwithstanding his own paradoxes on the 
 subject) gives to his Legislator, when he directs him to take 
 his stand from the institution of marriage, and for the better 
 
 * [Essays, Vol. I.] J [Wealth of Nations, Book I. chap, 
 
 t [See above, Vol. I. p. 186, teq. ; viii. Vol. I. p. 120, 10th edit.] 
 Vol. II. p. 5, seq.; Vol. III. p. J58, teq.]
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. (1.) 79 
 
 ordering of his commonwealth, to begin where that also begins, 
 the arrangement of the conjugal union.* Agreeably to the same 
 idea, this union is beautifully called by Cicero, " the Seminary 
 of the republic." " Cum sit hoc natura commune animantium, 
 ut habeant lubidinem procreandi : prima societas in ipso conjugio 
 est; proxima in liberis; deinde una domus, communia omnia. Id 
 autem est principium urbis, et quasi Seminarium reipublicae."t 
 The stress which these two eminent philosophers and the 
 other political writers of antiquity have so justly laid on the 
 institution of marriage, has been appealed to in support of an 
 absurd opinion already mentioned, that it is altogether an in- 
 vention of human policy. But marriage (as I hope sufficiently 
 appears from the foregoing observations) is the result (in the 
 first instance) of that order of things which nature herself has 
 established ; and the proper business of the legislator is here, 
 as in other cases, limited to the task of seconding and enforcing 
 her recommendations, by checking the deviations from her plan 
 which are occasioned by the vices and follies of individuals. 
 The fact is precisely similar with respect to Property. The 
 idea of property is not created by municipal laws. On the 
 contrary, one of the principal circumstances which suggested 
 the necessity of laws and magistrates, was to guard against 
 those violations to which the property of the weak was found 
 to be exposed amidst the turbulence of barbarous times. It is 
 with great propriety, therefore, that Horace classes these two 
 objects of law together, the preservation of property and the 
 protection of the marriage bed ; objects, however, which so far 
 from being the creatures of municipal institutions, may be 
 justly considered as the chief sources from which municipal 
 institutions have taken rise. 
 
 " Oppida ccepernnt munire, et ponere leges, 
 Ne quis fur esset, neu latro, neu quis adnlter."J 
 
 They are indeed the two great pillars of the political fabric, 
 and whatever tends to weaken them, threatens, we may be 
 assured, the existence of every establishment essential to human 
 
 * [See De Legibus, Libb. IV. and VI.] f [Offida, I. xvii.] 
 Taylor, [Elements, &c.] p. 264. \ [Sermones, I. iii. 105.]
 
 80 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 happiness. If in some of the preceding remarks, therefore, I 
 may be thought to have expressed myself with an unnecessary 
 diffuseness, the importance of the subject, contrasted with the 
 tendency of some late speculations concerning it, will, I trust, 
 be a sufficient apology for the space which I have allotted to 
 an article which has been so often exhausted by the ingenuity 
 both of ancient and of modern writers. 
 
 One particular question connected with the institution of 
 marriage affords, (it must be owned,) when we abstract alto- 
 gether from the precepts of revelation with respect to it, a fair 
 field for argument, Whether marriage ought to be considered 
 by the legislator, merely as a civil contract, liable, like other 
 civil contracts, to be dissolved by the mutual consent of the 
 parties ? My own opinion on this point may be anticipated 
 from what I have already said, but it would encroach too much 
 on our time, to explain particularly the principles on which it 
 is founded. I must content myself, therefore, with referring to 
 a short Essay On Polygamy and Divorce, by Mr. Hume, in 
 which the argument is stated with equal conciseness and force. 
 The manner, too, in which the subject is treated by this 
 eminent writer, is peculiarly adapted to those politicians who 
 have argued for a liberty of divorce, as he disclaims all regard 
 to what he is pleased to call the common superstitious notions 
 concerning the nature of marriage, and founds his reasonings 
 entirely on considerations of political expediency. 
 
 On a superficial view of the question, Mr. Hume confesses, 
 that a liberty of divorce may appear favourable to population, 
 by removing, what is with many a powerful obstacle to mar- 
 riage, the indissoluble nature of the connexion. It is, however, 
 extremely remarkable, that " at the time when divorces were 
 most frequent among the Romans, "marriages were the most 
 rare ; and Augustus was obliged, by penal laws, to force men 
 of fashion into the married state; a circumstance which is 
 scarcely to be found in any other age or nation. The more 
 ancient laws of Rome, which prohibited divorces, are extremely 
 praised by Dionysius of Halycamassus. ' Wonderful was the 
 harmony,' says the historian, ' which this inseparable union of
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 1.) 81 
 
 interests produced between married persons, while each of them 
 considered the inevitable necessity by which they were linked 
 together, and abandoned all prospect of any other choice or esta- 
 blishment/"* It conveys, indeed, a most delightful idea of the 
 domestic manners of the Romans, when we consider a fact about 
 which all their writers are agreed, that Carvilius Ruga, who lived 
 A. u. c. 520, was the first person who divorced his wife. The 
 ground of his separation was her barrenness ; a pretext which, 
 when considered merely in a political view, is much less ridi- 
 culous than many which at a later period were considered by this 
 people as perfectly valid ; and yet we are informed [among others] 
 by Valerius Maximus, that although the divorce stood unim- 
 peached in law, the morality of his conduct was then regarded as 
 very questionable. " Repudium inter uxorem et virum, a condita 
 urbe usque ad vicesimum et quingentesimum annum, nullum in- 
 tercessit Primus autem Sp. Carvilius uxorem, sterilitatis causa, 
 dimisit. Qui quanquam tolerabili ratione motus videbatur, 
 reprehensione tamen non caruit : quia nee cupiditatem quidem 
 liberorum, conjugali fidei proponi debuisse arbitrabantur." 1 
 
 At a later period of the Roman history, when a new juris- 
 prudence taught that marriage, like other partnerships, might 
 be dissolved by the abdication of one of the associates, the 
 consequences were fatal to the virtues and to the comforts of 
 domestic life. "Passion, interest, or caprice," to borrow the 
 words of Mr. Gibbon,"f " suggested daily motives for the disso- 
 lution of marriage; a word, a sign, a message, a letter, the 
 mandate of a freedman declared the separation; the most 
 tender of human connexions was degraded to a transient society 
 of profit or pleasure. According to the various conditions of 
 life, both sexes alternately felt the disgrace and the injury; 
 an inconstant spouse transferred her wealth to a new family, 
 abandoning a numerous, and a perhaps spurious progeny to the 
 authority and care of her late husband ; a beautiful virgin 
 might be dismissed to the world, old, indigent, and friendless." 
 " A specious theory," the same author adds, " is confuted by this 
 
 * [Essays, Vol. I. On Polygamy, &c.] f [Decline and Fall, &c., chap. 
 1 Dicta Factaque, &c. II. i. 4. xlir.J 
 
 VOL. VIII. F
 
 82 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 free and perfect experiment, which demonstrates that the liberty 
 of divorce does not contribute to happiness and virtue. The 
 facility of separation would destroy all mutual confidence, and 
 inflame every trifling dispute : the minute difference between 
 a husband and a stranger, which might so easily be removed, 
 might still more easily be forgotten ; and the matron, who, 
 in five years, can submit to the embraces of eight husbands, 
 must cease to reverence the chastity of her own person." 
 
 Of the profligacy of manners produced at Home by the facility 
 of divorce, a very striking picture is given by Seneca " Vices," 
 he observes, " cease to be disgraceful so soon as they become 
 general. What woman now blushes to be divorced, since those 
 of the first rank number their years, not by the names of the 
 consuls, but by those of their husbands ? Divorce," he adds, 
 " is the object of marriage, and marriage that of divorce." 1 
 
 [SUBSECT. II. MONOGAMY COMPARED WITH POLYGAMY.] 
 
 The remarks which have been already made, appear to be 
 sufficient for illustrating the conformity of the institution of 
 marriage to the law of nature, in so far as this can be inferred 
 either from an examination of the principles of our constitution, 
 from the analogy of the lower animals, or from the beneficial 
 effects with which it is attended. 
 
 These arguments, indeed, conclude, in general, much more 
 strongly against vague love on the part of the female than of 
 the male ; although, if attentively examined, they will be found 
 to suggest powerful motives, both of a moral and political 
 nature, for a reciprocal obligation. The question, however, 
 whether a plurality of wives might not be allowed to the same 
 individual, is so different, in many respects, from that which has 
 been hitherto treated, that although some of the foregoing consi- 
 derations may be of use, yet the aid of some additional reasonings 
 is necessary, in order to establish the general conclusion. 
 
 Polygamy may be conceived to be of two kinds, according as 
 it consists in a plurality of wives, or in & plurality of husbands. 
 Of the latter, (IloXvavSpia,) modern travellers have furnished 
 
 1 De Beneficiis, Lib. III. cap. xvi. [See Martial, VI. vii.]
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 1.) 83 
 
 us with some very curious instances ; but the circumstances in 
 which it can possibly take place are so extremely rare, that it 
 does not merit a particular discussion. It is accordingly men- 
 tioned as a subject upon which there can be no diversity of 
 sentiment, even by those writers who consider the other species 
 of Polygamy as a matter which the law of nature leaves to the 
 legislator to regulate at discretion. The partiality of our sex 
 to their own prerogative has been complained of loudly, and per- 
 haps not entirely without justice in the present age. But it is 
 not altogether a modern evil. It is amusing to observe its in- 
 fluence, even on the speculations of Grotius and of St. Augus- 
 tine " Suscipiendaa prolis causa erat," says St. Augustine, in 
 defending the polygamy of the patriarchs, " uxorum pluriurn 
 simul uni viro habendarum inculpabilis consuetude ; et ideo, 
 unam feminam maritos habere plurimos honestum non erat. 
 Non enim mulier eo est foecundior ; sed meretricia potius tur- 
 pitudo est vel quaestum vel liberos vulgo quaerere."* 
 
 To the same purpose the author of the treatise De Jure Belli 
 et Pacis, who, although in general by no means a loose 
 moralist, seems disposed to vindicate the sensual indulgences 
 of his own sex, in countries which did not enjoy the light of 
 revelation ; and even goes so far as to exclude from his defini- 
 tion of the marriage connexion, any obligation to fidelity on 
 the part of the husband. " Conjugium naturaliter esse existi- 
 mamus talem cohabitationem maris cum fcemina quaa foeminam 
 constituat quasi sub oculis et custodia maris ; nani tale consor- 
 tium, et in mutis animantibus quibusdam videre est. In 
 Homine vero, qua animans est utens ratione, ad hoc accessit 
 fides, qua se foemina mari obstringit." 
 
 " Nee aliud ut conjugium subsistat natura videtur requirere. 
 Sed nee divina lex amplius videtur exegisse, ante evangelii 
 propagationem. Nam et viri sancti ante legem plures una 
 uxores habuerunt; et in lege praecepta quaedam dantur his, 
 qui plures una habuerunt; et regi praascribitur, ut nee ux- 
 orum nee equorum nimiam sibi adsciscat copiam, ubi Hebreei 
 
 * [De Doctrina Christiana, Lib. III. c. xxii. ; also De Civitale Dei, Lib. 
 <x vii. See also, ibidem, c. xviii., and XVT. c. xxxviii.]
 
 84 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 interpretes notant, octodecim sive uxores sive concubinas regi 
 fuisse concessas, et Davidi Deus imputat quod uxores ei 
 complures, et quidem illustres, dedisset." 1 
 
 Passing over, therefore, that sort of Polygamy which con- 
 sists in a plurality of hwbands, as an almost singular anomaly 
 in the history of human affairs, I shall confine myself in what 
 follows to the case of a plurality of wives ; and it is in this 
 restricted sense that I should wish the word Polygamy to be 
 always understood, when I may have occasion to employ it 
 afterwards in the prosecution of this disquisition. 
 
 That the practice of Polygamy has been very general among 
 mankind in some of the earlier stages of society, more particu- 
 larly in climates which exalt the imagination and inflame the 
 passions, is a fact about which there can be no dispute. It 
 does not, however, seem to have been universal among rude 
 nations. It was unknown among the ancient Germans, except- 
 ing in the case of a few individuals, who affected a distinction 
 of this sort as an appendage of their superior rank. " Severa 
 illic matrimonia, nee ullam morum partem inagis laudaveris. 
 Nam prope soli barbarorum singulis uxoribus contenti sunt, 
 exceptis admodum paucis, qui non libidine, sed ob nobilitatem, 
 plurimis nuptiis ambiuntur."* 
 
 " This," says Montesquieu, " explains the reason why the 
 kings of the first race had so great a number of wives. These 
 marriages were less a proof of incontinence than a consequence 
 of dignity ; and it would have wounded them in a tender 
 point, to have deprived them of such a prerogative. This 
 explains likewise," the same author adds, " the reason why the 
 example of our kings was not followed by their subjects." 2 
 
 1 De Jure Belli, &C., Lib. II. cap. v. Bociare, quanta* alere sufficeret domus ; 
 
 T 89] Ut inaudientem pelleret penatibus, 
 
 , . . Bonam volenti corde servaret sibi. 
 
 The argument in favour of Polygamy Nunc una ^ ^p,^ tomeMO nimii 
 
 is still more avowedly and explicitly vitae periclo ; nam priuaquam Intrat domum 
 
 stated by Euripides, in a fragment which Nora nupta, nulla moris ezploratio est" 
 
 remains of his Tragedy of Ino, and which * [Tadti Qermm ^ ^ 
 
 U 1 uo1 *E*prit de, Loix, Livre XVIII. 
 
 " Haud scrip ta recte jura sunt connubil*. chap. xxv. See also Stuart, [ View, &c., 
 
 Decuit beatum pluribus ec uxoribu* Note (14,) sect 3, chap, i., Book L]
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 1.) 85 
 
 It is to be remarked, however, that in the foregoing passage, 
 Tacitus mentions the manners of the Germans as, in this par- 
 ticular, an exception, and almost a singular one, to the cus- 
 toms of rude nations. " Nam prope soli barbarorum singulis 
 uxoribus contenti sunt." Dr. [Gilbert] Stuart, whose pecu- 
 liar ideas concerning the importance of women in the earlier 
 times, were strongly contradicted by the supposed prevalence 
 of Polygamy, has accordingly, in quoting this passage, sup- 
 pressed entirely the clause which was unfavourable to his 
 conclusion.* 
 
 Having mentioned this author, I cannot help adding, in 
 farther illustration of the same subject, that in controverting 
 the common opinions concerning the condition of the female 
 sex among barbarous nations, he has stated one assertion much 
 more strongly than facts authorize him. " It is a proof," says 
 he, " of the antiquity of Monogamy, that when a plurality of 
 wives is uniformly indulged, which happens not till the ages 
 of property, there is always one of them who seems more 
 peculiarly the wife, the rest appearing only as so many 
 concubines."t 
 
 It cannot be denied that this observation is countenanced by 
 some facts mentioned by travellers ; and, wherever such a pre- 
 ference of one female is found to be invariably and exclusively 
 attached to her condition, and not to result from a temporary 
 caprice of passion, we may reasonably conclude Polygamy to 
 be a deviation from the purer manners of former ages. From 
 the following passage of Captain Cook, with respect to the 
 inhabitants of the Friendly Islands, which may seem, on a 
 superficial view, to favour Dr. Stuart's remark, I should rather 
 be disposed to conclude, that Polygamy is contrary to the 
 established maxims, and is affected only by the chiefs (as 
 Tacitus tell us it was among the ancient Germans) as a mark 
 of superior rank and consequence. " Whether their marriages," 
 he [Cook] observes, " be made lasting by any kind of solemn 
 
 * [But see his View of Society, &c., fully canvassed. I quote from the ori- 
 pp. 23, and 201, 202, where the passage ginal edition.] 
 in question is adduced, translated, and f [ View, &c., Note (14,) \ 3, c. i. B. I.]
 
 86 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 contract, we could not determine with precision ; but it is 
 certain that the bulk of the people satisfied themselves with 
 one wife. The chiefs, however, have commonly several women, 
 though some of us were of opinion that there was only one that 
 was looked upon as mistress of the family." 1 Cantova says 
 expressly of his Caroline Islanders, (whose manners, in many 
 striking particulars, resemble those of the tribes visited by 
 Cook,) that a plurality of wives was among them an appendage 
 of greatness. 2 
 
 The observations made by a late very intelligent and au- 
 thentic traveller,* into the interior parts of Africa, directly 
 contradict the assertion in question. After stating that " the 
 negroes, whether Mahometan or Pagan, allow a plurality of 
 wives," he adds, " the Mahometans alone are by their reli- 
 gion confined to four ; and as the husband commonly pays a 
 great price for each, he requires from all of them the utmost 
 deference and submission, and treats them more like hired 
 servants than companions. They have, however, the manage- 
 ment of household affairs, and each in rotation is mistress of 
 the household, and has the care of dressing the victuals, and of 
 overlooking the female slaves." 3 
 
 I have laid the less stress on the manners of savages and bar- 
 barians in the article of marriage, because it appears to me, as 
 I already hinted, altogether absurd to appeal to them as the 
 standard by which we are to judge of the laics of nature ; 
 meaning by these the moral laws which she recommends to 
 man by her own established order. In the present instance, her 
 intentions cannot possibly be mistaken, by those who attend to 
 that wonderful circumstance in her providential economy, the 
 balance which she everywhere maintains in the comparative 
 numbers of the two sexes. 4 
 
 1 Cook's Voyages, VoL I., p. 400. was well known to Mr. Stewart after 
 
 Irish edition. returning from his first travels in Africa, 
 
 1 " La pluralite des fernmes est une of which expedition the account was 
 
 marque d'honneur et de distinction." published in 1799.J 
 
 Lettret Edifiantes et Curievset. Tome 8 [Travels, &c.] p. 268. 
 
 XV. p. 310. For Dr. Arbuthnot's speculations 
 
 * [This refers to Mungo Park, who on this subject, (founded on the doctrine
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 1.) 87 
 
 This balance, indeed, does not seem to be anywhere mathe- 
 matically exact, but it universally varies within so narrow 
 limits, as to shew manifestly, that the inequalities which exist, 
 whatever their final cause may be, have no relation whatever 
 to the question of Polygamy. 
 
 The proportions are probably not precisely the same in dif- 
 ferent countries, and, even in the same country, they are variously 
 stated by different writers. But there is a general coincidence 
 in the statements which relate to this part of the world, more 
 than sufficient for all the purposes of the present argument 
 
 Major Graunt, (who assisted Sir William Petty in his in- 
 quiries relative to Political Arithmetic,) from an examination 
 both of the London and Country Bills, states fourteen males to 
 thirteen females ; from whence he infers that " the Christian 
 religion prohibiting polygamy, is more agreeable to the Law of 
 Nature, than Mahometanism and others that allow it." 
 
 " This proportion of fourteen to thirteen," says Dr. Derham, 
 " I imagine is nearly just. In the hundred years of my own 
 parish register, although the burials of males and females were 
 nearly equal, being 636 males and 623 females in all that time ; 
 yet there were baptized 709 males, and but 675 females, which 
 numbers are in the proportion of 13.7 to 13." " This surplus- 
 age of males," Dr. Derham adds, " is very useful for the sup- 
 plies of war, the seas, and other such expenses of the men above 
 the women." 1 
 
 According to the author of Metrologie, [M. Paucton,] whose 
 conclusions are chiefly founded on observations made in Ger- 
 many, 104 boys are born for 100 girls. 2 He adds, however, 
 that a greater number of the former die in infancy, so that 
 towards the age of puberty, the two sexes are nearly equal. 
 
 The same author states " the number of men who die in a 
 country to be to that of women as 27 to 25. In general," he 
 says, " it has been remarked that when women have passed a 
 
 of Chances,) see Philosophical Trans- Works, Vol. VII. p. 112, teq., and Note 
 
 actions, No. 338 [For a disquisition C. p. 380, seq.] 
 
 and some more recent authorities on 1 Physico-Theology, pp. 175, 176. 
 
 the Proportion of the Sexes, see above, * Metrologie, p. 485.
 
 88 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 certain age, their longevity may be more presumed on than 
 that of men, more especially in the case of women who are 
 married." 1 
 
 Moheau, who is commonly considered as very accurate in 
 his details, declines any particular statement of the proportions 
 of the two sexes born in France ; and contents himself with 
 observing, that the actual population of women exceeds that of 
 men in the proportion of seventeen to sixteen. 2 
 
 Of late years this subject has been examined with far greater 
 accuracy than had been attempted before : by Mr. Suessmilch 
 in Germany ; by Mr. Wargentin in Sweden ; and by Dr. Price 
 in England. From their combined observations, it seems to be 
 established beyond a doubt, First, that the number of males 
 and females born, invariably approach to equality. Secondly, 
 that the excess is in favour of the males. Thirdly, that this 
 excess is partly counterbalanced by their greater mortality. It 
 is extremely remarkable too, that this greater mortality does 
 not appear to be owing merely to the accidents to which men 
 are liable in consequence of their own excesses, and the profes- 
 sional hazards to which they are exposed, but to some peculiar 
 delicacy or fragility in the male constitution. It is observed 
 sensibly even in infancy and childhood : nay, the number of 
 still-born males exceeds proportionally that of still-born 
 females. 
 
 The numbers born at Berlin during the four years beginning 
 with 1752, were, males, 9219 ; females, 8743 ; or 21 to 20. 
 
 The numbers that died under two years of age, were, males, 
 3118 ; females, 2623 ; or 7 to 6. 
 
 The numbers that died upwards of eighty years of age, were, 
 males, 135 ; females, 215 ; or 5 to 8. 
 
 The numbers that died between ninety-one and one hundred 
 and five, were, males, 21, females, 55. 3 
 
 From the account given by Mr. Muret of his observations 
 made at Vevey in the Pays de Vaud, it appears, that for 
 twenty years ending in 1764, there died in that town, during 
 
 1 Ibid. p. 485. 8 Price [On Annuities, &c.] Vol. IL 
 
 * Recherches, &c., p. 71. p. 263.
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 1.) 89 
 
 the first month after birth, of males 135, to 89 females ; and in 
 the first year, 225 to 162. 
 
 In Berlin, according to Suessmilch, 203 males die in the 
 first month, and but 168 females ; and in the first year, 489 to 
 395. The tables of these two writers shew, that, both at Vevey 
 and Berlin, the still-born moles are to the still-born females as 
 30 to 21. 
 
 From a variety of different accounts, both in England and 
 on the Continent, mentioned by Dr. Price, 1 it appears, that in 
 a long list of towns, although the proportion of males and 
 females born is no higher than 19 to 18, yet the proportion of 
 boys and girls (under ten years of age) that die is 8 to 7 ; and, 
 in particular, the still-born males are to the still-born females 
 as 3 to 2 ; a proportion which agrees remarkably with that of 
 30 to 21, as deduced from the observations at Berlin and 
 Vevey. 
 
 I shall only add farther on this very interesting article, that 
 Dr. Price has suggested a doubt whether this difference in 
 point of mortality between the two sexes be natural. The 
 following facts prove that his suspicions are not altogether un- 
 supported by evidence. 
 
 " It appears, from several registers in Suessmilch's works, that 
 this difference is much less in the country parishes and villages 
 of Brandenburg, than in the towns. And agreeably to this, it 
 appears likewise, from the accounts of the same writer, that the 
 number of males in the country comes much nearer to the 
 number of females. 
 
 " In 1056 small villages in Brandenburg, the males and 
 females in 1748 were 106,234, and 107,540 ; that is, were to 
 one another as 100 to 101 . In 20 small towns, they were 9544, 
 and 10,333 ; or as 100 to 108 j. In Berlin, they were (exclu- 
 sive of the garrison) 39,116 and 45,938 ; or as 100 to 117J. 
 
 " In the years 1738 and 1745, the number of inhabitants in 
 New Jersey was taken by order of the G-overnment, and they 
 were distinguished particularly into males and females under 
 and above sixteen. 
 
 1 [Ibid.J Vol. I. p. 360, et seq.
 
 90 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 '' In 1738 the number of 
 
 Males under sixteen was, 10,639 ; Females, 9,700. 
 Males above sixteen was, 11,631 ; Females, 10,725. 
 
 " In 1745, the numbers were, 
 
 Males under sixteen, 14,523 ; Females, 13,754. 
 Males above sixteen, 15,087 ; Females, 13,704. 
 
 " The inference from these facts," says Price, " is very ob- 
 vious. They seem to shew sufficiently, that human life in 
 males is more brittle than in females, only in consequence of 
 adventitious causes, or of some particular debility that takes 
 place in polished and luxurious societies, and especially in great 
 towns."* We may add, that in so far as their accuracy is to 
 be relied on, they shew, that in proportion as simple and natural 
 manners prevail, the balance between the births of the two 
 sexes is the more accurately preserved. 
 
 The facts which have been already stated relate almost 
 entirely to this quarter of the globe, and lead to a conclusion 
 in favour of Monogamy which is undisputed among political 
 writers. I may be thought perhaps to have entered more into 
 details than was absolutely necessary ; but (independently of 
 their connexion with our present argument) I could not avoid 
 the opportunity which the subject afforded me of turning your 
 attention to one of the most striking provisions which the 
 economy of nature has made, for those moral and political 
 arrangements which are subservient to the happiness of the 
 individual, and the multiplication of the race. 
 
 With respect to other parts of the globe, our information is 
 much less correct ; and here accordingly speculative men have 
 found themselves more at liberty to indulge their ingenuity and 
 fancy. " In Japan," says Montesquieu, upon the authority of 
 Kaempfer, " there are born rather more girls than boys ; and 
 at Bantam, the former exceed the latter in the proportion of 
 ten to one."f Hence, he seems disposed to infer, that the law 
 which permits polygamy is physically conformable to the in- 
 habitants of such countries; a conclusion which some other 
 
 [Ibid.] f [Etprit, &c., XVI. iv.]
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 1.) 91 
 
 authors have apprehended to be farther confirmed by the pre- 
 maturity and rapid decay of female beauty in some regions of 
 the East. But there is good reason to suspect the accuracy of 
 the documents on which Montesquieu proceeds. The Japan 
 account, which makes the proportion of females to males to be 
 as 22 to 18, is inconclusive, as the numbering the inhabitants 
 of a great city can furnish no inference applicable to the pre- 
 sent question. And the account of the births at Bantam is not 
 only so contrary to the analogy of all the other facts with 
 which we are acquainted, as to surpass belief, but (as we are 
 assured by Mr. Marsden) is positively false. "I can take upon 
 me to assert," says he, "that the proportion of the sexes 
 throughout Sumatra, does not differ sensibly from that ascer- 
 tained in Europe ; nor could I ever learn, from the inhabitants 
 of the many eastern islands whom I have conversed with, that 
 they were conscious of any disproportion in this respect."* 
 
 From the remarks which have been now made, it may be 
 safely concluded, that it is the duty of the legislator to prohibit 
 polygamy, and to employ all the authority he possesses in en- 
 forcing a law so strongly recommended, both by the physical 
 and moral condition of our species. It might besides be easily 
 shewn, that while he thus employs the most essential of all ex- 
 pedients for the multiplication of the race, he takes the most 
 effectual measures for securing the happiness and morals of a 
 people ; but this last consideration is foreign to our present 
 subject ; and it has been so well illustrated by Mr. Hume, that 
 nothing of importance remains to be added to his observations. 
 I have alluded to it chiefly, in order to recommend his Essay 
 \0n Polygamy and Divorce] to your attention, at a period 
 when those moral principles which the most sceptical writers of 
 former times treated with respect, have been rejected with con- 
 tempt by some theorists, whose paradoxes, from the particular 
 circumstances of the times, have had, in various parts of Europe 
 but too extensive an influence on the opinions of the multitude. 
 Among the numberless wild ideas which have been started 
 within these few years by political projectors, there are few 
 
 * [History of Sumatra.]
 
 92 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART 1. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 more alarming than one which appears from the Moniteur of 
 the 16th April 1798, to have been proposed in the Senate of 
 the Cisalpine Republic by Campagnoni. 1 
 
 [SECT. II. OF POPULATION AS AFFECTED BY THE STATE OF 
 MANNERS RELATIVE TO THE CONNEXION BETWEEN THE SEXES.] 
 
 When the legislator, however, has prohibited polygamy, he 
 has only removed one of the obstacles to population, by pre- 
 venting particular individuals from engrossing a number of 
 females. The rate at which it proceeds will depend on the 
 number of marriages which are actually contracted ; and this 
 seems to be a circumstance which depends more on the state of 
 manners in a society, than on the regulations of the politician. 
 
 The ancient lawgivers, indeed, considered it as one grand 
 object of legislation to promote population by direct rewards to 
 marriage, and by punishing celibacy. This was the case 
 among the Hebrews, the Persians, and the Greeks ; and still 
 more remarkably among the Romans, to whose institutions I 
 shall confine my attention at present. 
 
 In the history of this celebrated people we meet with 
 regulations in favour of marriage, from the time of Romulus 
 downwards. When the censorship was established, one great 
 object of it was to discourage celibacy, which the censors en- 
 deavoured to do, by condemning those who were unmarried, to 
 pay a certain fine called Mulcta uocoria. It even appears from 
 a fragment of a speech of P. Scipio Africanus, when censor, 
 (preserved by Aulus Gellius,) that it was the practice for the 
 censor not only to punish the unmarried, but to reward those 
 who had families. 2 These laws, however, in favour of matri- 
 mony, which were certainly superfluous at a period when the 
 
 1 The speech to which I refer, and Scipionis, quam censor babuit ad po- 
 
 which was plainly calculated to insinuate pulum de moribus, inter ea quse repre- 
 
 an apology for Polygamy in particular hendebat, quod contra majorum institute 
 
 cases, is quoted by D'lvernois in his fierent, id etiara eum culpasse, quod 
 
 Tableau Historique et Politiqve, p. 25. fiHus adoptivus Patri adoptatori inter 
 
 Praemia Patrum prodesset. Noctes At- 
 
 Animadvertimus, in oratione P. ticce, Lib. V. cap. xix.
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 2.) 93 
 
 advantages enjoyed by a Roman citizen as father of a family, 
 were of themselves a sufficient encouragement, became after- 
 wards little more than a dead letter, when, in the progress of 
 national corruption, the aversion to marriage increased to such 
 a degree, as neither to yield to the prospect of reward nor the 
 fear of punishment. Julius Caesar and Augustus, both at- 
 tempted to remedy the evil, by reviving and improving the 
 ancient institutions. The latter, more especially, seems to have 
 considered the extension and application of these as a principal 
 object of his reign ; and it is very remarkable, that by the 
 measures he pursued for that purpose, he incurred a more 
 general odium than by any other part of his policy. 
 
 Among the other curious facts mentioned on this subject, by 
 Suetonius and Dion Cassius, the following particulars deserve 
 to be selected, as strongly expressive of the general state of 
 manners in the Augustan age. " The Emperor," we are told, 
 " sometimes brought forward the children of his own family 
 into the place of public assembly, and exhorted his audience to 
 profit by his example ; but his zeal in this matter was far from 
 being acceptable to the people." It is added, that " he was 
 frequently accosted in the theatres and places of public resort, 
 with general cries of dislike ; and that, in consequence of the 
 complaints which were brought to him of the impossibility of 
 supporting the extravagance of women of rank, he was obliged 
 to correct many of the edicts he had published, or to abate 
 much of their rigour ; that, in order to obviate the objections 
 which were made to women of high condition, he permitted 
 the nobles to marry emancipated slaves ; that the law, never- 
 theless, was still eluded ; that pretended marriages were con- 
 tracted with children, or females under age, and the completion 
 of course indefinitely deferred ; that to prevent such evasions 
 or frauds, it was enacted that no marriage could be legally con- 
 tracted with any female under ten years of age, nor the com- 
 pletion of any marriage be delayed above two after the date of 
 the supposed contract." 1 
 
 1 Ferguson, [History of Roman Be- Dion Cassius, Book LTV. chap, xvi., 
 public, &c., Book VI. chap. iii. ; who cites and Suetonius in Octavius, chap. xxxiv.J
 
 94 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 The reflections of Dr. Ferguson on the spirit of these laws 
 are just and philosophical, and are expressed with his usual 
 eloquence. " Under this wretched succedaneum for good 
 policy, it seemed to be forgotten that where mankind are 
 happy, and children are born to bless and to be blessed, Nature 
 has provided sufficient inducements to marriage; but that 
 where the people are debased, marriage itself, and the pains 
 which are employed to enforce it, are an additional evil ; and 
 that a sovereign, whose arrival at power has made a state, into 
 which mankind are powerfully led, by the most irresistible 
 calls of affection, passion, and desire, a kind of workhouse into 
 which they must be driven by the goad and the whip ; or a 
 prison, in which they must be detained under bars and fetters 
 of iron, is justly an object of execration to his people. And 
 the Romans, accordingly, seemed to feel themselves, on the 
 present occasion, treated as the property of a master, who re- 
 quired them to multiply merely to increase the number of his 
 slaves ; and they resisted this pail of the Emperor's adminis- 
 tration more than any other circumstance of the state of 
 degradation into which they had fallen."* 
 
 During the reigns of the succeeding emperors, the evils 
 which Augustus was so anxious to correct, continued, and even 
 increased, as we learn (among other authorities) from Pliny 1 
 and from Tacitus. 2 This last author expressly contrasts the 
 manners of the Romans in this particular with those of the 
 Germans, and remarks, that whereas the latter people, without 
 either rewards or punishments, considered marriage as the 
 first duty of a citizen, and a family as the chief blessing 
 resulting from marriage ; the former, with all their laws, 
 abhorred the one relation, and dreaded to be placed in the 
 other. 
 
 In modern Europe, the evil as yet has not arrived at such an 
 extreme. It is, however, evidently on the increase, as suffi- 
 ciently appears from the growing disrelish for marriage among 
 all classes of people. This arises from various causes : above 
 
 * [Ibidem.] Annakt, Lib. XV. [L. III. c. xxv. 
 
 1 EpistolcR, Lib. IV. xv. Germania, c. six.]
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 2.) 95 
 
 all, perhaps, from men forming to themselves, in consequence 
 of the progress of luxury, a false idea of competency, which 
 prevents them, even when their situation is easy and comfort- 
 able, from choosing to embarrass themselves with the cares of 
 a family. It arises, too, in part from that prevailing taste for 
 unlawful pleasure, in our sex, which is both a cause and an 
 effect of celibacy ; and which, while it multiplies the objects of 
 temptation to one half of the species, deprives, in the same pro- 
 portion, a number of the other of any prospect of ever esta- 
 blishing themselves in an honourable connexion. In some 
 countries of Europe, the evil does not rest here, but by extend- 
 ing its influence to the morals of married women, discourages 
 those men from the conjugal union, who, in other circumstances, 
 would have placed their chief happiness in domestic enjoy- 
 ments. 
 
 These evils are common, in some degree, to all the great 
 European monarchies, and arise from the general state of 
 modern manners. But, in some countries, they are greatly 
 aggravated by the celibacy of the clergy, and in many more by 
 the numerous standing armies which are chiefly composed of 
 men, who, by their profession, are led to prefer a single life. To 
 these ecclesiastical and military celibataries, we may add the 
 domestic servants of both sexes, very few of whom are disposed 
 or have it in their power to marry ; and the younger sons of 
 noble families, in those countries where the Law of Primogeni- 
 ture is established, who inherit little from their fathers ; and 
 who, in consequence of the prejudices against trade, are pre- 
 vented from employing the only effectual means of bettering 
 their fortune. 
 
 In these circumstances, shall we conclude that the politician 
 can do nothing ? That little can be expected from direct re- 
 wards to marriage, or from punishments inflicted on celibacy, 
 has already been observed. If the evil is at all curable, the 
 remedy must be applied to its source, by the gradual operation 
 of those just and enlightened views of political economy, which 
 tend at once to multiply the means of subsistence among the 
 body of the people ; to inspire them with moderate and reason-
 
 96 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 able ideas of a competence, and to cherish that desire, so natural 
 to a happy and uncorrupted mind, of transmitting to an off- 
 spring of its own, the same blessings which it has itself enjoyed. 
 In proportion as these general causes operate, marriages will 
 Income more frequent ; and in the same proportion in which 
 they increase, the temptations to unlawful pleasure will di- 
 minish ; for all these political evils hang together, and when 
 once the remedy begins to take effect, the cure advances with 
 an accelerated progress. Every person removed from the state 
 of celibacy, weakens the influences of the causes which make 
 celibacy common. In short, put an end, as far as possible, to 
 every institution which counteracts the intentions of Nature ; 
 and without any ingenuity exerted on the part of the states- 
 man, his wishes are accomplished. The ancient sanctity of 
 domestic manners, and the ancient felicity of domestic life, 
 will gradually revive ; and men will look forward to the 
 conjugal union as to the source of the purest and most ex- 
 quisite happiness that the condition of humanity affords. 
 " Atque adeo, nihil largiatur princeps, dum nihil auferat ; 
 non alat, dum non occidat: nee deerunt, qui filios concu- 
 piscant." 1 
 
 In order, however, to prevent misapprehensions of my mean- 
 ing, it is necessary for me, before I finish this head, to take 
 notice of an important circumstance, which I shall have occa- 
 sion afterwards to illustrate more fully ; the essential difference 
 in the relative place which population occupies in the ancient 
 and in the modern systems of Political Economy. This differ- 
 ence arises chiefly from the civil and domestic liberty now en- 
 joyed in this part of Europe by the industrious orders of the 
 community, contrasted with that slavery which entered into the 
 constitutions of those states which, in the old world, were under- 
 stood to have accomplished, in the most effectual manner, the 
 great ends of government. In consequence of this mighty 
 change, produced by the dissolution of the feudal system, the 
 care of the statesman (in so far as population is concerned) is 
 necessarily transferred from the higher classes of the people to 
 
 1 riinii Fanegyricus Trajani.
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 2.) 97 
 
 a description of men, whose numbers in the/ree states (as they 
 were called) of antiquity, were recruited, as they are now in 
 the West India Islands, by importations from abroad.* It is 
 this description of men that forms the basis of that political 
 fabric which Sir William Temple has so finely compared to a 
 pyramid; and it is on their numbers, combined with their 
 character and habits, that the stability of the superstructure 
 depends. Their numbers, however, it is evident, can in the 
 actual state of things be kept up only by such political arrange- 
 ments as furnish them with the means of rearing families ; and 
 it is into the question concerning the comparative expediency 
 of the various arrangements proposed for that purpose, that the 
 problem of population ultimately resolves. 
 
 The efforts of Augustus and of the other statesmen of Rome 
 to discourage celibacy, had in view the Citizens only, and more 
 especially the nobility ; of whose importance to the military 
 strength of the country a judgment may be formed, from the 
 rings which Hannibal is said to have sent to Carthage after 
 the battle of Cannce. To correct the extravagance and profli- 
 gacy of this order of men was the great object of the laws 
 formerly mentioned ; and, accordingly, we are told that it was 
 by the knights that the repeal of these laws was most loudly 
 solicited. 
 
 In such a state of society as that in which we live, the pre- 
 valence of celibacy among those who are raised above the 
 condition of the multitude, does not so materially, at least not 
 so immediately, affect the military resources of a people, as it 
 affects their general character and manners ; partly by the con- 
 tagion of their example, and partly by the extinction of the 
 hereditary spirit and worth peculiarly characteristical of that 
 rank of men, who, by their education and circumstances, are 
 placed at an equal distance from the views of the great and 
 of the vulgar. 
 
 * [See Note, p. 32.] 
 
 VOL. vm. a
 
 98 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 [SECT, in. DEPENDENCE OF POPULATION ON THE MEANS OF 
 
 SUBSISTENCE ENJOYED BY THE PEOPLE.] 
 
 These remarks naturally lead me to consider how far the 
 population of a country depends on the means of subsistence 
 which the people enjoy. 
 
 [SUBSECT. I. Dependence of Marriage and Population on the Notion 
 held in regard to the Competent Support of a Family.] 
 
 That a country cannot be peopled beyond its resources, is 
 almost an identical proposition ; and, on the other hand, it is 
 no less certain, that population (wherever things are left to 
 their own course) will advance till checked by this limit. 
 The natural inducements to marriage are so strong, that no 
 encouragement on the part of the politician is required, pro- 
 vided the circumstances of the society are such as to present 
 to all orders of men a reasonable prospect of their being able 
 to rear and educate a family, according to the ideas of com- 
 petency which they have formed to themselves. It appears 
 to me to be necessary to modify in this way the general propo- 
 sition, which is commonly stated in too unlimited terms ; for, 
 in order to engage a man to marry, he must not only have a 
 prospect of being able to provide to his children the necessaries 
 of life, but he must have a prospect of being able to rear his 
 family, without lowering that rank to which he has been 
 accustomed ; or retrenching any of those articles of luxury 
 which, by habit, he has been accustomed to consider as essential 
 to his comfort. It is possible, therefore, that of two countries 
 which afford the means of subsistence in equal abundance, the 
 one may be much more populous than the other, in conse- 
 quence of the more moderate ideas of a competency which 
 the generality of the people entertain. 
 
 Of this last remark, no proof more satisfactory can be pro- 
 duced than what is furnished by a comparative view of the 
 state of population in England and in Ireland. Without enter-
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 99 
 
 ing into any nice computations of the number of inhabitants in 
 either country, we may venture to assert, that, in the latter, the 
 population is incomparably greater in proportion to its extent 
 than in the former, due allowance being made for the defects 
 under which it labours, of police, of commerce, and of both agri- 
 cultural and manufacturing industry. The numbers in England 
 and Wales are very variously estimated by different writers, ac- 
 cording to their political prejudices ; by Dr. Price, (in 1777, 
 [Essay, &c.]) at less than five millions; by Mr. George Chalmers, 
 (in his Political Estimate, [about 1791,]) at more than eight 
 millions. The former is of opinion that the population of the 
 kingdom has suffered a great diminution since the Revolution in 
 1688 : the latter asserts, that during this period it has received 
 an augmentation of a million and a half. With respect to our 
 sister island, notwithstanding the powerful obstacles which re- 
 tard its progress, all accounts agree in admitting a great in- 
 crease of inhabitants since the end of the last century. In 1657, 
 the number was computed by Sir William Petty to be 850,000 ; 
 and in 1672, to be IjlOtyOOO. 1 In 1688, it has been estimated 
 at 1,200,000. At present different opinions have been adopted 
 concerning its actual population, but all of them admit, that 
 the augmentation has been remarkably rapid. Mr. Young 
 states it in the year 1779 as under three millions, according to 
 the common belief then entertained by those with whom he con- 
 versed in the course of his agricultural tour. 2 Mr. Hewlett, from 
 documents transmitted to him in 1786, by Mr. Beresford, then 
 first Commissioner of the Irish Revenues, states it as amounting 
 at least to two millions and a-half; and concludes that since 
 the time of the Revolution it has nearly doubled. 3 Mr. Chalmers 
 computes it, in 1791, at no less than 4,193,158, asserting that, 
 during the last hundred years, Ireland has done much more 
 than trebled its inhabitants. 4 From the Report of the Secret 
 Committee of the Irish Parliament, published last summer, 
 
 1 See Young's Ireland, p. 88 of Ap- 3 Essay on the Population of Ireland, 
 pendix to Vol. II. ; and Chalmers's (Richardson, 1786,) pp. 15, 20. 
 Estimate, p. 223. 
 
 2 Young, ibid. * Political Estimate, p. 222.
 
 100 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 (1798,) Dr. Emmet appears to have stated the actual popula- 
 tion of that country at "five millions, whereas, at the time of 
 the Revolution, it did not exceed a million and a half" [Ad- 
 dition :] Lord Castlereagh, in his speech, (February 5, 1800,) 
 " on delivering to the House of Commons of Ireland the Lord- 
 Lieutenant's message on the subject of a union with Great 
 Britain," estimates the population of Ireland from 3,500,000 to 
 4,000,000. This he mentions as the common computation at 
 present ; and as he may be presumed, from his official situation, 
 to have availed himself on such an occasion, of all the most 
 authentic sources of information, I should be disposed amidst 
 so great a diversity of statements, to adopt his numbers in pre- 
 ference to any of the others. 
 
 This very extraordinary increase in the population of Ireland, 
 (admitted by writers of the most opposite political views,) is to 
 be ascribed almost entirely to the peculiar habits of the lower 
 orders, in consequence of which they find it so much easier than 
 the English peasantry, to satisfy their wants in the two great 
 articles of habitation and food. Something, undoubtedly, must 
 be placed to the account of the comparative advantages they 
 enjoy, in being free from the oppression of the English Poor 
 Laws, and the consequent Laws of Settlement ; l and also to 
 the account of their common food, (potatoes,) which experience 
 has shown to go much farther to the support of animal life 
 than wheat, or any of the other sorts of grain employed for food 
 in this part of the world that can be raised on the same extent 
 of surface. 8 But that the circumstances I mention are by far 
 the most important, may be inferred from the following state- 
 ments, for which we are indebted to a very intelligent observer, 
 (Mr. Young,) who made an agricultural tour in Ireland, in 
 the years 1776, 1777, and 1778. 
 
 " In England, where the poor are, in many respects, in such 
 a superior state, a couple will not marry unless they can get a 
 house to build, which, take the kingdom through, will cost 
 from twenty-five to sixty pounds ; half the life, and all the 
 
 1 Young's Ireland, Vol. H., Appen- 2 Smith's Wealth of Nations, Vol. I. p. 
 dix, p. 86. 240. Irish edit., [B. I. c. xi. First Part.]
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 101 
 
 vigour and youth of a man and woman, are passed before they 
 can save such a sum ; and when they have got it, so burthen- 
 some are poor to a parish, that it is twenty to one if they get 
 permission to erect their cottage. But in Ireland, the cabin is 
 not an object of a moment's consideration ; to possess a cow 
 and a pig is an earlier aim; the cabin begins with a hovel 
 that is erected with two days' labour, and the young couple 
 pass not their days in celibacy for want of a nest to produce 
 their young in. If it comes to a matter of calculation, it will 
 then be but as four pounds to thirty." . . . . " Of their food 
 (potatoes) there is one circumstance which must ever recom- 
 mend it, they have a belly-full, and that, let me add, is more 
 than the superfluities of an Englishman leave to his family. 
 Let any person examine minutely into the receipt and expendi- 
 ture of an English cottage, and he will find that tea, sugar, and 
 strong liquors can come only from pinched bellies. I will not 
 assert that potatoes are a better food than bread and cheese, 
 but I have no doubt of a belly-full of the one being much 
 better than lialf-a-belly-full of the other, still less have I, that 
 the milk of an Irishman is incomparably better than the small- 
 beer, gin, or tea of the Englishman, and this even for the 
 father, how much better must it be for the poor infants ? Milk 
 to them is nourishment, is health, is life. 
 
 " If any one doubts the comparative plenty which attends 
 the board of a poor native of England and Ireland, let him 
 attend to their meals. The sparingness with which our la- 
 bourer eats his bread and cheese is well known: mark the 
 Irishman's potato bowl placed on the floor, the whole family 
 upon their hams round it, devouring a quantity almost incre- 
 dible, the beggar seating himself to it with a hearty welcome, 
 the pig taking his share as readily as the wife, the cocks, hens, 
 turkeys, geese, the cur, the cat, and perhaps the cow, and all 
 partaking of the same dish. No man can have been often a 
 witness of it, without being convinced of the plenty, and I will 
 acid, the cheerfulness that attends it."* 
 
 The same author adds in another passage : " Marriage is 
 
 * [ Tour in Ireland.]
 
 102 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 certainly more general in Ireland than in England : I scarce 
 ever found an unmarried farmer or cottar ; but it is seen more 
 in other classes, which with us do not marry at all ; such as 
 servants : the generality of footmen and of women servants in 
 gentlemen's families, are married, a circumstance we very rarely 
 see in England. Another point of importance is their children 
 not being burthensome. In all the inquiries I made into the 
 state of the poor, I found their happiness and ease generally 
 relative to the number of their children, and nothing considered 
 as such a misfortune as having none. Whenever this is the 
 fact, or the general idea, it must necessarily have a consider- 
 able effect in promoting early marriages, and consequently 
 population."* 
 
 It is not, however, by preventing marriages that the poverty 
 of the lower orders chiefly obstructs population. The attach- 
 ments of sex, and the fond hopes of domestic bliss which a 
 youthful imagination inspires, are motives too powerful to be 
 always regulated by the suggestions of prudence ; and in the 
 humbler walks of life, where vanity and ambition have little 
 influence, they are sufficient to blind the judgment to all con- 
 siderations of futurity. In such circumstances the indigence 
 of the parents, while it renders the conjugal union a source of 
 constant anxiety and despondence to themselves, is attended 
 with consequences equally fatal to the community. " The 
 tender plant," as Mr. Smith has observed, " is produced, but 
 in so cold a soil, and so severe a climate, soon withers and dies. 
 It is not uncommon in the Highlands of Scotland, for a mother 
 who has borne twenty children, not to have two alive. Several 
 officers," he continues, " of great experience, have assured me, 
 that so far from recruiting their regiments, they have never 
 been able to supply it with drums and fifes from all the sol- 
 diers' children that were born in it. A greater number of fine 
 children, however, is seldom seen anywhere than about a bar- 
 rack of soldiers. Very few of them it seems, arrive at the age 
 of thirteen or fourteen. In some places, one-half the children 
 die before they are four years of age, in many places before 
 
 [Ibidem.]
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 103 
 
 they are seven, and in almost all places before they are nine or 
 ten. This great mortality, however, will everywhere be found 
 chiefly among the common people. Though their marriages 
 are generally more fruitful than those of people of fashion, a 
 smaller proportion of their children arrive at maturity." 1 
 
 These observations will be found more peculiarly applicable 
 to the very Icnvest order of the people. Those who have liter- 
 ally nothing, and who are beggars by profession, are very 
 seldom unwilling to burden themselves with the cares of a 
 family. Not to mention that a numerous offspring is rather 
 an assistance to them in carrying on their trade, their ordinary 
 habits gradually inspire them with a greater degree of confi- 
 dence in looking forward to the future, than is felt by men who 
 exist, but who are barely able to exist by their own industry. 
 That beggary which appears to the bulk of mankind the most 
 dreadful of all calamities they have already experienced ; and 
 by this experience they have learned what philosophy in vain 
 attempts to teach others, to make the important distinction 
 between the evils of reality and those of the imagination. 
 Thoughtless of the future, they enjoy the little which the pre- 
 sent moment affords them, and trust for to-morrow to that kind 
 Providence which has hitherto supplied all their necessities. 
 
 What I have here remarked with regard to common beggars, 
 is applicable also to those who have actually experienced the 
 evils of want, and to whose imaginations the idea of beggary is 
 become familiar. If this order of men contribute little towards 
 the population of the State, it is not from their remaining in a 
 state of celibacy, but from the little care they take in rearing 
 and educating their children. The effects of an unequal distri- 
 bution of property in discouraging marriage, are chiefly con- 
 fined to the middling ranks of a people, who in consequence of 
 those ideas which we imbibe in our earliest infancy, (particu- 
 larly 'in the monarchies of modern Europe,) are led to form 
 
 1 [Wealth of Nations, Book I. chap. me." Sir James Steuart, VoL I. p. 72. 
 
 viii.] " La Mendicite," says the Mare- [ Works, Vol. I. p. 94. Political (Eco- 
 
 chal de Vauban, [in his Dixme Royale,] nomy, Book I. chap, xii.] 
 " est un mal qui tue bientot son horn-
 
 104 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 notions of a competency disproportionate to the state in which 
 they are born, and to consider it as the great object of human 
 life, to rise above the rank which they inherit from their fore- 
 fathers. 
 
 From the observations already made, it appears that popula- 
 tion does not depend solely on the fertility of the soil, and the 
 industry of the inhabitants ; but on these circumstances, com- 
 bined with the habits and ideas which are generally prevalent 
 concerning the necessaries and accommodations of life. Nor is 
 this all. Much depends on the particular kind of food on 
 which the great body of the people is accustomed to subsist. 
 In the savage state, while men trust entirely to the fortunes of 
 the chase, we find tribes consisting of a few hundreds, spread 
 over regions equal in extent to the largest kingdoms in Europe. 
 From this state to that of pasturage, the transition was of im- 
 mense consequence in the progress towards improvement ; but 
 the last step is of all the most important, when human industry 
 comes to be chiefly directed to the cultivation of the soil, with 
 a view to the rearing of grains and of other esculent vegetables. 
 In this form a given extent of land may be rendered incompar- 
 ably more productive for the use of man, than in any other in 
 which it can be employed ; and it is fortunate, (at least in so 
 far as population is concerned,) when the habits of a people 
 dispose them to prefer that species of sustenance, which is so 
 strongly recommended to them by the economy of nature ; more 
 especially when the kind of vegetable which is used for daily 
 bread possesses the advantages which are experienced from 
 potatoes in Ireland, and from rice in some eastern countries. 
 
 It is universally allowed that a rice-field produces a much 
 greater quantity of food than the most fertile corn-field ; and 
 accordingly, in those countries where it is the common vegetable 
 food of the people, the population is represented as immense. 
 This is remarkably the case in Hindostan, where the natives 
 are prohibited by the laws of their religion to eat the flesh of 
 animals. There the population is great, notwithstanding all 
 the disadvantages that the country labours under, in respect of 
 government ; disadvantages of a peculiar description, as they
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 105 
 
 unite all that is oppressive in a despotism, with all the insta- 
 bility and vicissitude which are commonly connected with 
 popular constitutions. 
 
 The food produced by a field of potatoes is much superior to 
 what is produced by a field of wheat, and (according to Mr. 
 Smith) is not inferior in quantity (although not perhaps 
 equal in nutritious power) to that produced by a field of rice. 
 " Should this root," he observes, " ever become, in any part of 
 Europe, like rice in some rice-countries, the common and 
 favourite vegetable food of the people, so as to occupy the same 
 proportion of the lands in tillage which wheat and other sorts 
 of grain for human food do at present, the same quantity of 
 cultivated land would not only maintain a much greater number 
 of people, but the labourers being generally fed with potatoes, a 
 greater surplus would remain after replacing all the stock, and 
 maintaining all the labour employed in cultivation. A greater 
 share of this surplus too would belong to the landlord. Popu- 
 lation would increase, and rents would rise much beyond what 
 they are at present." * 
 
 " It is difficult," the same author adds, " to preserve potatoes 
 through the year, and impossible to store them like corn, for 
 two or three years together. The fear of not being able to sell 
 them before they rot, discourages their cultivation, and is per- 
 haps the chief obstacle to their ever becoming in any great 
 country, like bread, the principal vegetable food of all the dif- 
 ferent ranks of the people." f 
 
 It has been remarked by some late writers, that " in England, 
 notwithstanding the produce of the soil has been in our times 
 considerably increased by the enclosure of wastes, and the 
 adoption, in many places, of a more successful husbandry, yet 
 we do not observe a corresponding addition to the number of 
 inhabitants ;" and this has been ascribed " to the more general 
 consumption of animal food. Many ranks of people, whose 
 ordinary diet was, in the last century, prepared almost entirely 
 from milk, roots, or vegetables, now require every day a con- 
 siderable portion of the flesh of animals : and hence a great 
 
 * [Wealth of Nations, Book I. chap. xi. Part First.] f [Ibid.]
 
 106 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 part of the richest lands of the country are converted into pas- 
 turage. Much also of the bread-corn, which went directly to 
 the nourishment of human bodies, now only contributes to it, 
 by fattening the flesh of sheep and oxen. 1 The mass and volume 
 of provisions are hereby diminished ; and what is gained in the 
 melioration of the soil, is lost in the quality of the produce." 
 "This consideration," says Mr. Paley, "may satisfy us, that 
 tillage, as an object of national care and encouragement, is 
 universally preferable to pasturage ; because the kind of pro- 
 vision which it yields, goes much farther in supplying the 
 essential wants of human life." 1 " Indeed, pasturage," he adds, 
 " seems to be the art of a nation, either imperfectly civilized, as 
 are many of the tribes which subsist by it in the internal parts 
 of Asia, or of a nation like Spain, declining from its summit by 
 luxury and inactivity." 2 
 
 It cannot be denied that there is some foundation for these 
 remarks, but they are certainly expressed in too unqualified 
 a manner. Whatever a people principally consume as the 
 means of their subsistence, must necessarily be the great object 
 of the husbandman in his culture. Thus, in France, where 
 bread is said to form nineteen parts in twenty of their food, 
 corn, and especially wheat, is the only great object of their culti- 
 vation. In England, on the contrary, the quantity of meat, and 
 of the produce of the dairy consumed by all ranks, is immense. 
 Hence, to our farmer, cattle is an object no less important than 
 corn ; and, accordingly, vast quantities are kept in proportion 
 to what we find in France. It would be rash, however, to draw 
 any inference from this fact in favour of French husbandry as 
 compared with English. It leads, in truth, to a conclusion 
 directly opposite, in the opinion of a very competent judge, 
 Mr. A. Young, who has paid more attention than any other 
 individual to the agriculture of both countries. 
 
 " Let us consider," says Mr. Young, " on what principles the 
 farmers of England and of France must necessarily manage 
 their lands. In England, they keep such parts of their lands 
 
 1 Vol. II. pp. 361, 362. [Works, Vol. II. p. 72, ed. 1819. Moral and 
 Political Philosophy, Book VI. chap, xi.] 8 Ibid.
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 107 
 
 in meadow and pasture as are by the nature of the soil so 
 adapted; and throw their arable land into such courses of 
 crops, that several are introduced, which are either summer 
 or winter food for cattle." Upon this system, for the details 
 of which I must refer to Mr. Young's work, a considerable 
 part of the whole farm, and a large portion of what is arable, 
 are employed for cattle ; the quantity of dung raised is, of course, 
 very great, which being spread, as it usually is, on the arable 
 fields, insures great returns ; so much better than if such stocks 
 of cattle were not kept, that I question if three acres are not 
 quite as productive as five would be. " Nay," says Mr. Young, 
 " I have in this point no doubt but the barley and wheat in a 
 farm thrown into a proper course, with a due proportion besides 
 of meadow, yield a greater value than the corn in general would 
 if one year was fallow, and the three following ones were wheat 
 and barley ; of such importance is this system of manuring."* 
 
 In the French system of husbandry, (which Mr. Young has 
 likewise described particularly,) much the greatest part of the 
 farm is arable ; the meadow and pasture being very trifling, 
 except in spots that cannot otherwise be applied, and near 
 great towns. Thus very little cattle can be kept except for 
 tillage; in very many farms no other. Here we find manuring 
 cut off at once, almost completely, and consequently the crops 
 must be poor. Besides this, one-half or one-third of the land 
 is fallow, at a mere barren expense ; a system, which we know 
 from the experience of our own open fields, is miserable, and 
 not to be compared for profit to those in which crops for cattle 
 are made the preparation for corn. 
 
 " Wheat being in France the great object, all the expense of 
 the farmer is applied to its production. A year's fallow is 
 given, and what little dung they raise is all spread on it. This 
 produces a middling, perhaps a good crop; and when the 
 farmer reaps his wheat, he often finds himself out of pocket, 
 and has to depend for his profit on a poor crop of spring corn. 
 Thus the little demand for meat, and the produce of the dairy, 
 obliges him to confine his views to corn alone. The conse- 
 
 * [Political Arithmetic.]
 
 108 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 quence is, be pursues a bad course of crops ; he raises no 
 manure, his produce is small, and his profit comparatively 
 nothing. 
 
 " It must surely be evident to every one, that there is a great 
 advantage to the English farmer, from corn and cattle being in 
 equal demand, since he is thereby enabled to apply all his lands 
 to those productions only to which they are best adapted ; 
 while, at the same time, the one is constantly the means of 
 increasing the produce of the other. 
 
 "To suppose, therefore," continues the same writer, "that 
 we should be more populous, if we lived as much on bread as 
 the French, is an idea that seems doubtful. It is a strange 
 position at best, that bad husbandry should add to our popu- 
 lation ; and yet this is a necessary consequence of the propo- 
 sition in question ; for if the demand for meat is changed to 
 an increased one for wheat, the farmers must change their good 
 course to the bad one of the French, by abandoning those crops 
 which form the best preparation for corn. 
 
 " In so far as population is concerned, the question comes to 
 this, Whether a tract of land, applied to yielding bread, will 
 yield more than if applied to bread and meat ?" Mr. Young 
 endeavours to show, that in the latter form it is far more pro- 
 ductive than in the former. For the details of his argument, 
 in support of this opinion, I must refer to his book, contenting 
 myself with stating his general result; that "where tillage 
 and pasturage are properly combined, so as to have the farms 
 from one-third to half of meadow or pasture ; and the other 
 two-thirds or half thrown into a proper course for the winter 
 support of the cattle, such a farm will be found to feed more 
 men than if it is all ploughed up, and as much wheat as is 
 possible raised upon the French system." 1 
 
 Of the justness of Mr. Young's reasonings, in so far as they 
 involve a knowledge of agricultural practices, I am not a com- 
 petent judge. But one general conclusion may be safely 
 deduced from them ; that in this part of the world, if the use 
 of animal food were abandoned, after the use of some Eastern 
 
 1 Political Arithmetic, p. 158, et seq.
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 109 
 
 nations, the plan would at least in part defeat itself. In those 
 climates where water alone renders the soil perpetually fertile 
 in producing vegetable food, such habits are not disagreeable to 
 the physical circumstances of the inhabitants, and an immense 
 population is almost a necessary consequence. But here the 
 physical economy of nature points out a mixture of animal and 
 of vegetable food ; the fertility of the soil failing when it is kept 
 constantly in tillage, and cattle supplying that species of 
 manure which is most effectual in adding to its produce. 
 
 After all, it is far from being impossible that the luxury of 
 this country may have carried the demand for animal food 
 beyond its due proportion. 1 
 
 1 [It is doubtful, from the manuscript 
 of these Lectures, whether what is 
 placed in the following note, should not 
 have constituted part of the text.] It 
 would be worth while to ascertain, by 
 accurate experiments, the comparative 
 nutritious power of a given extent of fer- 
 tile land, when employed in raising ani- 
 mal and vegetable food. The only attempt 
 of the kind that I have met with, (ex- 
 cepting some hints by A. Young,) is a 
 letter addressed to Colonel Dirom, by Mr. 
 William Mackie of Ormiston, in East 
 Lothian, which is published at the end 
 of an Inquiry into the Corn Laws and 
 Corn Trade of Great Britain, 1796, 
 by the late Mr. Dirom of Muiresk, in 
 the county of Aberdeen. The result of 
 Mr. Mackie's computations is, that 504 
 acres of fertile land (the garden ground 
 not included] will maintain, when well 
 cultivated, 1977 people, old and young ; 
 and if the population of Great Britain 
 amounts to 9,000,000, it would require 
 only 2,412,746 fertile acres, well culti- 
 vated, to maintain them, when living on 
 the same portion of vegetable food aa 
 the common people do in Scotland. 
 The data on which Mr. Mackie pro- 
 ceeded were some facts ascertained by 
 an examination of several families in his 
 neighbourhood ; from which it appeared, 
 that about 2 Ibs., avoirdupois, raw 
 
 potatoes, and 5J oz. good oat-meal, when 
 made into porridge, did actually main- 
 tain, for one day, in good health and 
 condition for labour, on an average, each 
 individual of a family, composed of two 
 parents and three children, as long as 
 their stock of potatoes lasted. 
 
 The same gentleman calculates, (upon 
 data which appeared to him to be rea- 
 sonable,) that the above farm of 504 
 acres, when employed in pasturage, will 
 yield a produce competent only to the 
 support of 103 individuals throughout 
 the year ; and that it would require 
 44,475,728 fertile acres to maintain the 
 population of Great Britain ; each indi- 
 vidual consuming 2J Ibs. of butcher 
 meat per day. The same number of 
 acres would support a population of 
 165,921,725 individuals of all ages, if 
 the inhabitants lived on the same por- 
 tions of vegetable food, which at present 
 maintain the common labourers in Scot- 
 land. 
 
 "I have calculated," says Mr. Mackie, 
 " these two extremes of the produce of 
 land under the plough, or in pasture, 
 merely for fattening cattle, without in- 
 cluding a dairy in either case ; in order 
 to place this object in a strong point of 
 view, and to show the different effects 
 which living on vegetable or animal food 
 will have in supporting an increased
 
 110 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 But whatever opinion may be formed on this point, it is 
 evidently a matter which no law should attempt to regulate ; 
 and the same observation may be applied to the complaints 
 which have been founded on the cultivation of hops, and 
 
 population, or in rendering sustenance 
 plentiful or scarce in a country. Hence 
 it may be inferred, that it was to en- 
 courage and preserve the immense po- 
 pulation of the Eastern nations, the 
 original lawgivers of India discharged 
 the eating of animal food, and engrafted 
 this political maxim upon the ancient 
 stock of superstition in the country. 
 The abstaining from animal food, how- 
 ever, seems best suited to those coun- 
 tries situated under a burning sun, 
 where water alone renders the soil per- 
 petually fertile in producing vegetable 
 food for supporting the inhabitants. In 
 more temperate climates, the soil cannot 
 be kept in a constant state of producing 
 bread for man, without materially injur- 
 ing its fertility ; a circumstance which 
 renders occasional pasturage indispen- 
 sably necessary. The beasts of the 
 field are also the children of nature, and 
 the land must be allowed to afford grass 
 for their sustenance ; and man being 
 formed to live on a mixture of animal 
 and vegetable food, avails himself of 
 this economy of nature to add to his 
 enjoyment. 
 
 " From this cause, agriculture, in tem- 
 perate climates, will be carried to the 
 greatest perfection in those countries 
 where the inhabitants add a certain pro- 
 portion of animal to their vegetable food. 
 But there is a certain proportion from 
 which, if, in the progress of luxury, they 
 deviate, by increasing the quantity of 
 their animal food, they will certainly 
 feel the want of bread-corn, which ap- 
 pears to be one of the principal causes 
 that, of late years, there is an evident 
 deficiency in the growth of corn in 
 Britain, or rather in England, to supply 
 the inhabitants, and that we are every 
 
 year becoming more and more dependent 
 upon foreign nations for our daily sup- 
 port, in place of being able as formerly 
 to spare a large surplus quantity annu- 
 ally for exportation." 
 
 In the further prosecution of the same 
 interesting inquiry, Mr. Mackie sketches 
 out for the same farm of 504 acres, a 
 plan of cultivation suited more nearly to 
 the average consumption and population 
 of the country. From his computations 
 founded on this plan, it appears " that a 
 farm of 504 acres of very fertile land in 
 a high state of cultivation, could main- 
 tain 392 people, old and young, living on 
 a mixture of animal and vegetable food ; 
 and to maintain the inhabitants of Great 
 Britain, computing the number at 
 9,000,000, and each individual to con- 
 sume daily on an average the quantity 
 of animal and vegetable food mentioned 
 above, there would be occasion for 
 11,793,799 acres of very fertile land in 
 a high state of cultivation. But if, at 
 any time, from the increase of luxury in 
 the nation, every inhabitant was to con- 
 sume an ounce more of animal food per 
 day, in that case it would require an addi- 
 tional 803,079 acres of fertile land, one 
 half in rich pastures, and nearly the 
 other half in turnip, to fatten and pro- 
 duce the necessary quantity ; four- 
 sevenths of which, or 458,900 were 
 annually carrying luxuriant crops of 
 corn. But even computing these crops 
 at the low average of two quarters per 
 acre, it would occasion an annual failure 
 of 917,800 quarters, which will account 
 for the difference between the most 
 flourishing period of the corn trade, and 
 the deficiency of latter times. Who- 
 ever, therefore, considers with attention 
 the increased consumption of animal
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) Ill 
 
 madder, and other crops which do not afford food for man. In 
 all such cases the husbandman is the best judge of his own in- 
 terest ; and when he increases his private wealth, he employs 
 the most effectual means in his power for advancing that 
 measure of population which is useful to his country. 
 
 I cannot help remarking also in this place, (although the 
 observation is not connected immediately with our present sub- 
 ject,) the inconsistency of the remonstrances which some avowed 
 friends to agriculture have made against the waste of animal 
 and vegetable food occasioned by modern cookery. The French 
 economists expressly brand this species of luxury by calling it 
 " an inversion of the natural and essential order of national ex- 
 penses, which increases the mass of unproductive expenses to 
 the prejudice of those conducing to production." The true 
 encouragement to agriculture, (as will afterwards appear,) is 
 the extension of the market for the commodities it furnishes ; 
 and the effect is the same to the farmer, whether the market is 
 opened by the necessities of the industrious orders, or by the 
 extravagance of the opulent. 
 
 One political benefit, too, it must not be forgotten, arises 
 
 food in Britain within these last fifty to be deserving of attention, although I 
 
 years, and particularly since the peace would neither be understood to vouch 
 
 of 1763, will see good cause for the for the accuracy of his results, nor to 
 
 growing scarcity of corn." give any opinion on a subject which is 
 
 I shall only add to these extracts, a so foreign to my own studies, 
 
 remark of the same author with respect [In reference to this subject, I find 
 
 to another effect of luxury in adding to from notes written by Mr. Bridges in a 
 
 the scarcity both of animal and vege- subsequent session, that Mr. Stewart 
 
 table food, and that is the great degree farther observed, " It ought also to be 
 
 cf fatness which the people of England taken into account, that among other 
 
 now require in their beef and mutton. economical advantages obtained by at- 
 
 " There is reason to believe that half the tention to the breeds of cattle, the pos- 
 
 quantity of land would feed cattle moder- sibility has now been established of 
 
 ately fat, that is required to put them communicating to animals a constitu- 
 
 in condition for slaughtering in Eng- tional propensity to a state of fatness ; 
 
 land ; and it is more than probable, that in consequence of which some become 
 
 the great noise that has been made of marketable at a much smaller expense 
 
 late years about increasing the size of than others of a more ' lean and hungry ' 
 
 live stock, is a species of quackery which habitude." See Marshall's Bural Eco- 
 
 is a real loss to the nation." nomy of the Midland Counties, &c., 
 
 The observations which I have quoted 1790; and Culley's Observations on 
 
 from this intelligent writer, seem to me Live Stock, 1786.]
 
 112 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PARTI. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 from the waste of food in years of plenty, (however blameable 
 this waste may frequently be on the part of individuals^) that 
 by increasing the demand for the productions of the earth, it 
 operates like a freedom of exportation, in securing a regular 
 surplus to meet the occasional pressure of a scarcity. 
 
 It is with peculiar pleasure I add, that in such an emergency 
 there is now every reason to hope that additional resources may 
 be derived from the prosecution of such experiments as Count 
 Rumford has lately begun with so much credit to himself, on 
 the subject of Nutrition. 
 
 The reasonings which have been already offered, are sufficient 
 to shew in general, how intimately the state of population in a 
 country is connected with the stafe of its agriculture, and that 
 the most effectual measure a lawgiver can employ for advancing 
 the former, is to give every possible encouragement to the 
 latter. I do not speak here of such direct rewards to the hus- 
 bandmen as were held out by the legislators of antiquity, and 
 which probably would not produce much effect in the present 
 state of society. I have in view merely the care which the 
 statesman should take to secure to the husbandman the com- 
 plete and exclusive enjoyment of the fruits of his own industry; 
 the only effectual and universal excitement in this or any other 
 employment to human labour. All therefore that the laws can 
 do, is to secure this right to the occupier of the ground ; so 
 that the full and entire advantage of every improvement go to 
 the benefit of the improver ; that every man may work for him- 
 self and not for another ; and that no one share in the profit 
 who does not contribute to the production. 1 These are advan- 
 tages which, in former times, the husbandman enjoyed nowhere, 
 and which, in many parts of Europe, he still enjoys in a very 
 imperfect degree. 
 
 In order to illustrate this general and fundamental principle, 
 it is necessary for me to take a pretty wide compass, and to treat 
 at some length of Agriculture and Manufactures, considered 
 in their relation to Population. 
 
 1 Paley, Vol. II. p. 363. [ Works, Vol. II. p. 73, ed. 1819. Moral and Political 
 Philosophy, Book VI. chap, xi.]
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. (3.) 113 
 
 [SUBSECT. II. Of Agriculture and Manufactures, considered in 
 relation to Population.] 
 
 [i. Andjirst, of Population ill connexion with Agriculture.] 
 
 The various circumstances which conspired to discourage 
 Agriculture in the ancient state of Europe after the fall of the 
 Roman Empire, and the gradual steps by which the lower 
 orders raised themselves from a servile condition to that com- 
 parative independence in which we now see them, have been 
 very fully and ingeniously illustrated by Mr. Smith.* 
 
 [1. Kinds of Farm Tenure.] In all the countries of 
 Europe, during the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries, slaves 
 seem to have formed the most numerous part of the com- 
 munity. In France, about the time of the commencement of 
 the third race of kings, all the ground was cultivated by slaves, 
 and the towns were chiefly filled by people of the same descrip- 
 tion. It appears, from Doomsday Book, that the case was 
 nearly the same in England at the time of the Conquest. 
 
 Among the causes which favoured, in the first instance, the 
 rise of the lower orders, Lord Kamesf lays particular stress on 
 the extensive estates into which land property was divided; 
 and which forced the proprietors, for their own interest, to 
 encourage, by a more liberal policy, the industry of those culti- 
 vators whom they could not (as on a small farm) place under 
 the immediate inspection of an overseer. This soon suggested 
 the idea of making the bondman a colonus partiarius, by com- 
 municating to him a proportion of the product, in place of 
 wages. The proprietor furnished him with the seed, cattle, 
 and instruments of husbandry ; and the tenant became bound 
 to pay a certain proportion of the fruits. Tenants of this 
 description are called in French, Metayers ; and we are told by 
 M. Turgot, in a book published in 1766,1 that at the period 
 when he wrote, five parts out of six of the whole kingdom of 
 France were thus cultivated. In Picardy, Normandy, the 
 environs of Paris, and the greater part of the provinces of the 
 
 * Wealth of Nations, Book III. chap. f [SfatcJies of Man, B. I. sk. ii. et alibi.] 
 
 ii. ; Vol. II. p. 90, seq., tenth edition, J [De la grande et de la petite Cul- 
 
 1802.] ture; (Euvres, Tom. IV.] 
 
 VOL. VIII H
 
 114 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 north of France, the ground was cultivated by farmers who 
 employed their own stock, paying a certain rent to the land- 
 lord. In the south, the land was almost universally laboured 
 by metayers. The same author adds, that "the different 
 effects of the two modes of cultivation were such as to strike 
 the most careless observer." And that this must have been the 
 case, no person can doubt who has attended to the conse- 
 quences produced by tithes in the other part of our island. 
 
 " It is evident," says Mr. Smith, " that it never could be the 
 interest of a colonus partiarius to lay out in the farther im- 
 provement of the land, any part of the stock which he might 
 save from his own share of the produce ; because the proprietor 
 who laid out nothing was to get one half of whatever was pro- 
 duced. In France, accordingly, it was a common complaint, 
 that the metayers took every opportunity of employing their 
 master's cattle rather in carriage than in cultivation ; because 
 in the one case they got the whole profit to themselves, in the 
 other, they shared them with their landlord."* 
 
 To this species of tenantry succeeded, though by very slow 
 degrees, farmers properly so called, who traded upon their own 
 stock, and paid a fixed rent for the land they possessed. By 
 this means the tenant came to be excited to yet greater in- 
 dustry, by having the whole benefit of it to himself; and the 
 advantages experienced from this, naturally led the way to the 
 last step of the progress, which was giving the tenant a lease 
 for a certain term of years, and thereby encouraging him to 
 undertake still more extensive and costly plans of improvement. 
 It was long, however, before this progress was completed in any 
 country of Europe ; and in many parts of it much remains to 
 be done at this day. Even in England, till the reign of Henry 
 VII., a farmer could be legally outed of his lease before the 
 expiration of his term, by the fictitious action of a common 
 recovery ; and it was not till the period now mentioned, that 
 the lessee was protected against these contingencies, and his 
 interest rendered secure and permanent. This security in the 
 condition of the English farmers, together with some other 
 
 * {Wealth of Nations, Book III. chap. ii. ; Vol. II. pp. 91, 92, tenth edition, 1802.]
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 115 
 
 circumstances peculiarly favourable to the yeomanry of that 
 country, have (in the opinion of Mr. Smith*) contributed more 
 to the present grandeur of England than all her boasted regu- 
 lations of commerce taken together. When we reflect on these 
 circumstances, it cannot fail to excite our surprise, that in a 
 country so distinguished for liberality, and where the happy 
 consequences resulting from an equitable system of laws have 
 been so long experienced, there should still be found, among 
 the English proprietors of land, so large a proportion of indi- 
 viduals, who either grant no leases, or grant them under such 
 restrictions as defeat, in a great measure, the beneficial pur- 
 poses for which they are calculated. This is the more won- 
 derful, as the practice seems formerly to have been different ; 
 and that, even at present, the prevailing system is loudly con- 
 demned by all those whose opinions might be expected to possess 
 any authority. It is reprobated unanimously by the respectable 
 writers who have drawn up the county surveys for the Board of 
 Agriculture ; all of whom concur in ascribing to leases whatever 
 improvements have been made by the farmers of England. 
 
 In the history of this part of rural economy among our 
 southern neighbours, several stages are remarked by one of 
 these writers. " The first," he observes, " was probably leases 
 for lives, formerly it should seem very general, and still far 
 from being uncommon. The second step seems to have been 
 a transition into the opposite extreme of no leases at all, by 
 far the most general tenure by which lands are rented at 
 present. The third originated in an attempt to remedy the evils 
 of the second, by granting leases (at first) for three years, and 
 afterwards for five, seven, nine, eleven, and sometimes for fourteen 
 years, loaded, however, with restrictions upon the management 
 and culture of the lands. The fourth and last, is leases founded 
 on more just and enlightened principles, extending to such a 
 term as to give complete encouragement to the industry of the 
 husbandman, by affording him a prospect of recovering before 
 his removal all his advances with a competent profit. From a 
 rough calculation, founded on an examination of the different 
 
 * [Wealth of Nations, Book III. chap. ii. ; Vol. II. p. 93, tenth edition.]
 
 116 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 surveys, it has been inferred, that if we divide England and 
 Wales into^ve parts, probably two-fifths are farmed by tenants 
 at will, that is, by tenants whose security is only from year 
 to year ; one-fifth by tenants for life ; one-fifth by the owners 
 themselves ; and probably much less than the remaining j^/M 
 by tenants for a term of years. Of this last portion it should 
 seem, besides, that there is hardly one-fifth (that is one-twenty- 
 fifth of the whole) farmed in lease for twenty-one years; 
 the rest being let from three to fourteen. Calculations of this 
 sort, it is hardly necessary for me to observe, cannot fail, in the 
 present state of our information, to be wide of the truth ; but 
 the data on which they proceed are sufficiently accurate, to 
 evince the extent of the evil which led me to introduce these 
 observations. It may be worth while to add, that the counties 
 in which a refusal of leases appears to be most general, (and in 
 some of them it is almost universal,) are Cumberland, York, 
 Derby, Nottingham, Leicester, Rutland, North Wales, Salop, 
 Worcester, Northampton, Cambridge, Berks, and Bedford. In 
 a number of other counties, the same mischievous system pre- 
 vails, though in an inferior degree, particularly in Westmore- 
 land, Cheshire, Gloucestershire, Somersetshire, Monmouthshire, 
 Kent, Essex, and probably several others." 1 
 
 The fact is so curious, that I could not help mentioning it 
 as an interesting subject of examination ; but I am too imper- 
 fectly acquainted with the state of the other part of the island, 
 to attempt any explanation of the circumstances which have 
 occasioned it ; nor do any of the surveys which I have looked 
 into afford much satisfaction with respect to it 
 
 In Scotland, where we fall short, in so many important 
 articles of national improvement, of our southern neighbours, 
 the ideas of our landed proprietors at present are certainly much 
 more favourable to the progress of Agriculture, in so far as it 
 depends on the security of the farmers tenure, than those of 
 the same order in England. Leases are now general in every 
 part of this country; extending commonly to nineteen or 
 twenty-one years. Formerly leases for three nineteen years 
 
 1 See Robertson's General Report.
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 117 
 
 were frequent ; and instances of them are still to be met with 
 in several of the counties. Leases for such long terms are 
 recommended by several of the surveyors, particularly in those 
 counties which have not kept pace with the others in point of 
 cultivation. They have certainly been attended with great 
 advantages in many instances. It is observed in the Survey 
 of the County of Fife, that "many entailed estates there, and 
 indeed throughout Scotland, were tied down not to grant leases 
 longer than nineteen years; but the proprietors considering 
 that this had proved, in many cases, a bar to improvement, 
 applied to Parliament, and were authorized to grant a lease 
 of thirty-one years, upon certain conditions of improvement, 
 which, it is believed, has proved, in general, to be for the benefit 
 of the proprietors, the tenant, and the country at large : that 
 other proprietors who were not restricted by entails, have some- 
 times granted leases of nineteen, twenty-one, twenty-five, thirty- 
 one, thirty-eight years ; and that leases of twenty-five, thirty- 
 one, or two nineteen years, are commonly granted, where heavy 
 advances, in the way of building, inclosing, or draining, are to 
 be made by the tenant." 
 
 When I reflect on these facts, (combined with some others 
 that will fall under our consideration afterwards, more espe- 
 cially our exemption from poor-rates and tithes,) I can scarcely 
 bring myself to acquiesce in an assertion of Mr. Smith's, when 
 applied at least to the two parts of the United Kingdom during 
 the last forty years, that " Scotland is not only much poorer 
 than England, but that the steps by which it advances to a 
 better condition seem to be much slower and more tardy."* 
 
 It is observed by Mr. Smith, that " the law which secures 
 the longest leases against successors of every kind is peculiar 
 to Great Britain."f It was introduced into Scotland so early 
 as 1449, by a law of James II., (a proof that the state of the 
 peasants was then considerably improved ;) but its beneficial 
 influence has been much obstructed by the restrictions with re- 
 spect to the duration of leases which entails generally impose. 
 
 * [Wealth of Nations, Book I. chap. t [IWd. Book III. chap. ii. ; Vol. II. 
 ix. ; Vol. I. p. 137, tenth edition.] p. 94, tenth edition.]
 
 118 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 In other parts of Europe tenants are secured against heirs and 
 purchasers only for a short period. In France, for example, 
 this period was limited to nine years from the commencement 
 of the lease, till it was extended to twenty-seven, under the 
 administration of M. Turgot. In Spain and Italy (according 
 to Arthur Young) the sale of an estate vacates the lease. 1 
 
 [2. Farm Burthens.] Besides paying the rent, the farmers 
 were anciently understood to be bound to perform a number 
 of services to the landlord, not specified in the lease, but 
 regulated by custom, and of consequence arbitrary and vexa- 
 tious. They were also bound to many public services ; such 
 as making and repairing high roads, and providing horses, 
 carriages, and provisions for the King's troops when they 
 passed through the country. This last service was exacted in 
 England, in consequence of what was called the Royal prero- 
 gative of purveyance and pre-emption, a prerogative which 
 was understood "to give the Crown a right of buying up 
 provisions and other necessaries, by the intervention of the 
 King's purveyors, for the use of his royal household, at an 
 appraised valuation, in preference to all others, and even with- 
 out consent of the owner ; and also of forcibly impressing the 
 carriages and horses of the subjects to do the King's business 
 on the public roads, in the conveyance of timber, baggage, and 
 the like, however inconvenient to the proprietor, on paying him 
 a settled price." 2 The oppressions to which it gave rise in the 
 golden days (as they have been termed) of Queen Elizabeth, 
 may be judged of from a passage in Lord Bacon's Speech 
 touching Purveyors ; a passage which, though somewhat long, 
 deserves to be quoted, as exhibiting a lively and authentic 
 picture of the obstacles which then existed to agricultural 
 industry. He says, speaking of the abuses of the Purveyors : 
 
 " These do naturally divide themselves into three sorts : The 
 first, they take in kind that they ought not to take ; the second, 
 they take in quantity a far greater proportion than cometh to 
 
 1 Political Arithmetic, p. 189. 
 
 1 Blackstone, [Cotnmentarics, Sic.] Vol. I. p. 287.
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 119 
 
 your Majesty's use ; the third, they take in an unlawful manner, 
 in a manner expressly prohibited by divers laws. 
 
 In i\& first of these, I am a little to alter their name ; for, in- 
 stead of takers they become taxers ; instead of taking provision 
 for your Majesty's service, they tax your people ad redimendam 
 vexationem ; imposing upon them, and extorting from them, 
 divers sums of money, sometimes in gross, sometimes in the 
 nature of stipends annually paid, ne noceant, to be freed and 
 eased of their oppression. Again, they take trees, which by law 
 they cannot do ; timber trees, which are the beauty, countenance, 
 and shelter of men's houses ; that men have long spared from 
 their own purse and profit ; that men esteem, for their use and 
 delight, above ten times their value; that are a loss which 
 men cannot repair or recover. These do they take, to the 
 defacing and spoiling of your subjects' mansions and dwellings, 
 except they may be compounded with to their own appetites. 
 And if a gentleman be too hard for them while he is at home, 
 they will watch their time when there is but a bailiff or servant 
 remaining, and put the axe to the root of the tree, ere ever the 
 master can stop it. Again, they use a strange and most unjust 
 exaction in causing the subject to pay poundage of their own 
 debts, due from your Majesty unto them ; so as a poor man 
 when he has had his hay or his wood, or his poultry, which 
 perchance he was full loth to part with, and had for the pro- 
 vision of his own family and not to put to sale, taken from him, 
 and that not at a just price, but under the value, and cometh 
 to receive his money, he shall have after the rate of twelve- 
 pence in the pound abated for poundage of his due payment 
 upon so hard conditions. Nay, farther, they are grown to that 
 extremity, as is affirmed, though scarce credible, that they will 
 take double poundage, once when the debenture is made, and 
 again the second time when the money is paid. 
 
 " For the second point, most gracious Sovereign, touching the 
 quantity which they take, far above that which is answered to 
 your Majesty's use ... it is affirmed to me by divers gentle- 
 men of good report and experience in these causes, as a matter 
 which I may safely avouch before your Majesty . . . that there
 
 120 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 is no pound profit which redoundeth unto your Majesty in 
 this course, but induceth and begetteth three pound damage 
 upon your subjects, beside the discontentment. And to the end 
 they make their spoil more securely, what do they? Whereas 
 divers statutes do strictly provide, that whatsoever they take 
 shall be registered and attested, to the end, that by making a 
 collation of that which is taken from the country, and that 
 which is answered above, their deceits might appear ; they, to 
 the end to obscure their deceits, utterly omit the observation 
 of this, which the law prescribeth. 
 
 "And, therefore, to descend, if it may please your Majesty, 
 to the third sort of abuse, which is of the unlawful manner of 
 taking, whereof this omission is a branch, it is so manifold, as 
 it rather asketh an enumeration of some of the particulars than 
 a prosecution of all. For their price : by law, they ought to 
 take as they can agree with the subject ; by abuse, they take 
 at an imposed and enforced price ; by law, they ought to make 
 but one apprizement by the neighbours in the country; by 
 abuse, they make a second apprizement at the Court Gate ; 
 and when the subjects' cattle come up many miles, lean and 
 out of plight, by reason of their great travel, then they prize 
 them anew at an abated price. By law, they ought to take 
 between sun and sun ; by abuse, they take by twilight and in 
 the night-time, a time well chosen for malefactors. By law, 
 they ought not to take in the highways, (a place by her Majesty's 
 high prerogative protected, and by statute by special words 
 excepted ;) by abuse, they take in the ways," &c. &c.* 
 
 This branch of the King's prerogative and revenue was 
 resigned by Charles II. at the Restoration. The oppressions 
 similar to it which existed on the Continent have been like- 
 wise much moderated in later times. In Sweden they were 
 abolished entirely by Gustavus Adolphus. They affected (as 
 appears from what has been said) both landlords and tenants, 
 but must have fallen more peculiarly hard on the latter. 
 
 The public taxes to which the farmers were subjected in 
 
 * [The Speech touching Purveyors Work*, Vol. VI., and the passage in 
 is found in Montagu's edition of Bacon't question at p. 7, et seq.]
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 121 
 
 these ancient times, were as oppressive as the services. Such, 
 for example, was the taille in France. It was a tax upon the 
 supposed profits of the fanner, estimated by the stock on his 
 farm, and which (of consequence) prevented effectually what- 
 ever stock accumulated upon the land from being employed in 
 its improvement. The ancient tenths and fifteenths in Eng- 
 land seem, so far as they affected the land, to have been taxes 
 of the same nature with the taille. 
 
 The ancient policy of Europe was farther unfavourable to the 
 improvement of land. 1. By the prohibition of the exportation 
 of corn ; 2. By the restraints laid upon inland commerce ; by 
 the absurd laws against engrossers, regrators, and forestallers ; 
 and by the privileges of fairs and markets. For a complete 
 illustration of these particulars, I must refer to Mr. Smith.* 
 
 In all the successive changes which have taken place in the 
 system of rural economics over Europe, the landholder has 
 uniformly found his advantage in communicating to the occupier 
 of the ground, a greater and greater degree of security in his 
 possession ; and the public prosperity has kept pace with this 
 good administration of the landholder's private estate. 1 Various 
 suggestions for still farther improvements in this liberal and 
 enlightened policy have been offered by different writers ; but 
 the consideration of these is foreign to our present object. One 
 thing, however, is certain and indisputable: that the actual 
 cultivators of the soil are eminently entitled to the protection 
 and encouragement of the Legislator ; not only on account of 
 the essential importance of this occupation to national pros- 
 perity, but because, with all the liberty and security which 
 law can give, they must necessarily improve under great 
 disadvantages. " The farmer," as Mr. Smith observes, " com- 
 pared with the proprietor, is as a merchant who trades with 
 borrowed money, compared with one who trades with his own. 
 . . . The station of a farmer besides, is, from the nature of 
 things, inferior to that of a proprietor ; and is even regarded, 
 in modern Europe, as inferior to that of a great merchant or 
 
 * [Wealth of Nations, Book IV. chnp. v. ; Vol. II. p. 804, seq., tenth edition.] 
 1 Ogilvie's Essay on Property.
 
 122 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK L POPULATION. 
 
 master manufacturer. . . . After all the encouragement, there- 
 fore, which agriculture has received from the policy of later 
 times, little stock is likely to go from any other profession to 
 the improvement of land in the way at farming"* Nor is this 
 all The nature of his profession precludes him from com- 
 manding at a reasonable price, like other artists, the rude 
 materials on which his industry is to be employed. " He is 
 confined in his inquiry and choice to that narrow district of 
 country with which he is acquainted, and even to the small 
 number of farms that may happen to fall vacant about the 
 same time with his own: And in this narrow district a 
 monopoly is established against him in the hands of a few 
 landholders. In this respect, therefore, his situation is much 
 inferior to that of the artist, who can go to a cheap market 
 wherever it is found, and can bring his rude materials from a 
 great distance to his home ; while the cultivator," as an in- 
 genious writer observes, "must carry his home to his rude 
 materials when he has been so fortunate as to find them." 
 
 Among the actual discouragements to Agriculture still exist- 
 ing in Great Britain, none appears to claim the attention of 
 the Legislature so strongly as that tax upon industry which 
 is imposed by tithes in England. 1 The nature and extent of 
 this grievance cannot be better stated than in the words of 
 Mr. Archdeacon Paley, whose sentiments upon this subject, 
 considering his professional rank, do great honour to his 
 liberality. " A claimant," says he, " here enters into the pro- 
 duce, who contributed no assistance whatever to the production. 
 When years, perhaps, of care and toil, have matured an im- 
 provement ; when the husbandman sees new crops ripening to 
 his skill and industry, the moment he is ready to put his sickle 
 to the grain, he finds himself compelled to divide his harvest 
 with a stranger. Tithes are a tax not only upon industry, but 
 upon that industry which feeds mankind; and upon that 
 species of exertion, which it is the aim of all wise laws to 
 cherish and promote ; and to uphold and excite which, com- 
 
 * [ Wealth ofNationt, Book III. chap. ii. ; Vol. II. p. 97, tenth edition.] 
 1 See Arthur Young's Farmert 1 Letters, p. 335, et $ey.
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 123 
 
 poses the main benefit that the community receives from the 
 whole system of trade, and the success of commerce. And 
 together with the more general inconveniency that attends 
 the exaction of tithes, there is this additional evil, (in the mode 
 at least according to which they are collected at present,) that 
 they operate as a bounty upon pasturage. The burden of the 
 tax falls with its chief, if not with its whole weight, upon 
 tillage ; that is to say, upon that precise mode of cultivation 
 which it is the business of the State to relieve and remunerate 
 in preference to every other."* 
 
 Of the extent to which this grievance is actually felt in many 
 instances, some very striking examples are given in the View 
 of the Agriculture of Middlesex, lately published by Mr. 
 Middleton. They would appear indeed scarcely credible to 
 an inhabitant of this part of the island, were it not for the 
 sanction which the Board of Agriculture gave to the general 
 accuracy of the author's information, by presenting him with 
 the first gold medal which they bestowed on any literary 
 performance, as a mark of their approbation. 
 
 " In many parishes of this county," he observes, " the tithes 
 are taken in kind ; and, which is nearly the same, in others 
 they are annually valued and compounded for. In several 
 parishes a reasonable composition is taken; in some it has 
 been very little advanced during the last twenty years ; happily 
 there are farms which pay a modus, and others that are entirely 
 tithe free. 
 
 " I met with an instance, near Longford, of a farmer having, 
 with great pains, and by an expensive culture, raised large 
 crops. He offered a guinea an acre (which was exactly the 
 rent he paid) as a composition for the tithe of his wheat ; but 
 it was refused, and taken in kind. 
 
 " A late rector of Kensington, after a lawsuit in the Court of 
 Exchequer, obtained a decree that pine apples and other fruits 
 which are raised at the expense of hot-houses, should yield their 
 tithe in kind. I have not heard how many hot-houses were 
 
 * [Moral and Political Philosophy, Book VI. chap. xi. ; Works, Vol. II. p. 105, 
 eJ. London, 1819.J
 
 124 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 pulled down on that occasion ; but a very exorbitant composi- 
 tion was demanded and received from the inhabitants in lieu 
 of actual payment 
 
 " A gentleman was at the expense of making a hop planta- 
 tion at Denbys, in Surrey. The vicar refused to compound on 
 any reasonable terms, and insisted on taking the tithes in kind, 
 and also on having them picked. A suit in the Court of 
 Exchequer was litigated, and the decree going against the 
 improver, he grubbed up his hops, sowed grass seeds, and made 
 a pasture of the lands. Thus was a produce of upwards of 
 thirty pounds reduced to three. 
 
 "A few instances equally oppressive with these have hap- 
 pened in every county of England ; and the necessary conse- 
 quence is, that they have put a stop to many expensive but 
 promising improvements. Every matter of this kind becomes 
 a subject of general conversation among farmers, and of course 
 discourages similar attempts. In short, an Act of Parliament, 
 to prohibit the improvement of land by any considerable expen- 
 diture, would not more effectually do it than the tithe laws. 
 
 " Within the narrow limits of my own knowledge," the same 
 writer adds, " several premeditated bills of inclosure have been 
 given up, rather than the land should be subjected to yield 
 tithes in kind, after the great expense of the Act, the survey, 
 the making of new roads, the building of bridges, the fencing 
 and erecting of new buildings, and cultivating the land should 
 be incurred." 
 
 To the same purpose it is observed, in the Report of the 
 County of Kent, (the author of which has the reputation of 
 great practical skill in agriculture,) that " nothing can be de- 
 vised that would so much set improvements afloat, as a com- 
 mutation for tithe." 1 
 
 [3. Size of Farms.'] In the foregoing general conclusions 
 concerning the protection and encouragement due by govern- 
 ment to the immediate cultivators of the land, all the writers on 
 population are unanimously agreed. There are, however, some 
 
 1 See MontUy Review for December 1799.
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 125 
 
 other questions of a much more complicated nature, (relating to 
 the same branch of rural economics,) on which there still subsists 
 a wide diversity of opinion among our most respectable politi- 
 cians. Such is the question which has given rise to so much dis- 
 cussion of late concerning the comparative effects on population 
 produced by GREAT or by SMALL FARMS. It is proper for me in a 
 general review of this sort, to take some notice of a controversy 
 which has been carried on with so much warmth ; and which 
 (although from its nature incapable of being ever adjusted on any 
 fixed general principles) has given occasion, not only to mush 
 ingenious argument, but to many important observations. 
 
 One of the first writers who distinguished himself by his 
 zeal against the engrossment of farms in England, was Mr. 
 Kent, in his Hints to the Gentlemen of Landed Property. 
 " Those," says he, " who contribute towards the destruction of 
 small farms, can have very little reflection. If they have, their 
 feelings are not to be envied. Where this has been the prac- 
 tice, we see a number of families reduced to poverty and misery, 
 the poor-rates much increased, the small articles of provision 
 greatly diminished in quantity and number, and consequently 
 augmented in price." ..." There are thousands of parishes, 
 which, since little farms have been swallowed up in greater, do 
 not support so many cows as they did by fifty or sixty in a 
 parish; and the inhabitants have decreased in proportion." 
 ..." Every speculative Englishman," he remarks in another 
 passage, "who travels through the Austrian Netherlands, is 
 astonished at the great population of that country, and at the 
 sight of the markets, which are plentiful beyond description. 
 Upon inquiring into the internal state and regulations of the 
 country, he finds that there are no large farms ; no class of men 
 who pass under the character of gentlemen farmers, acquiring 
 large fortunes merely by superintending the business of farm- 
 ing ; but that the whole country is divided into much smaller 
 portions than land is with us, and occupied by a set of labori- 
 ous people, who in general work for themselves, and live very 
 much on a footing of equality." He concludes his observations 
 on this subject, with expressing his anxious wishes, that " the
 
 126 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 destructive practice of engrossing farms may be carried no 
 farther ; the stab already given by it to plenty and population 
 having greatly affected the population of this country." 
 
 The same argument has been much insisted on by Dr. Price, 
 who expresses great apprehensions that the evil will go on in- 
 creasing ; " the custom of engrossing farms easing landlords of 
 the trouble attending the necessities of little tenants and the 
 repairs of cottages." " A great farmer," he observes farther, by 
 having it more in his power to speculate and command the 
 markets, and by drawing to himself the profits which would 
 have supported several farmers, is capable, with less culture, of 
 paying a higher rent." " But it is indeed," says he, " creating 
 private benefit on public calamity ; and for the sake of a tem- 
 porary advantage, giving up the nation to depopulation and 
 distress." 1 
 
 In confirmation of this conclusion, he quotes some observa- 
 tions from a Memoir on the State of Population in the Pays de 
 Vaud, by M. Muret, Secretary to the Economical Society at 
 Vevay This paper was published in 1766, and contains an 
 enumeration of the principal causes which, in the judgment of 
 the writer, obstruct population in that part of Switzerland. 
 Among these, he insists particularly on engrossing farms ; re- 
 marking in support of his opinion, that "a large tract of land 
 in the hands of one man, does not yield so great a return as 
 when in the hands of several, and does not employ so many 
 people." In proof of this, he mentions two parishes in the 
 Pays de Vaud, one of which (once a little village) having been 
 bought by some rich man, was sunk into a single demesne ; 
 and the other (once a single demesne) having fallen into the 
 hands of some peasants, was become a little village. 2 
 
 So prevalent were these ideas in France at the beginning of 
 
 1 On Annuities, Vol. II. pp. 274, which before they did with many ; re- 
 
 275. semLling a stocking-loom, (for instance,) 
 
 * A large farm has, on this account, which enables the master manufacturer 
 
 been considered by some in the light of an to turn off half his hands, and yet make 
 
 agricultural machine, enabling the culti- more stockings than before. Young's 
 
 valors of the soil to do that with few hands Political Arithmetic, p. 294.
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 127 
 
 the Revolution, that many of the Cahiers demanded a law to 
 limit the size of farms, and to prevent their union. This re- 
 quest is to be found even in the Cahier of Paris. 1 
 
 On the other hand, the advantages of large farms are main- 
 tained : by Arthur Young in his Political Arithmetic, (pub- 
 lished in 1774) ; in his various Tours through England ; 2 in 
 his Travels through France in 1787-88-89 ; and in the Annals 
 of Agriculture : 3 by Mr. Howlett in different political publi- 
 cations, particularly in an Essay, (published in 1788,) On the 
 Insufficiency of the Causes to which the Increase of our Poor 
 and of the Poor-Hates have been commonly ascribed : by the 
 authors of the French Encyclopedic, (Tom. vii.) : by the Mar- 
 quis de Mirabeau, in his Ami des Hommes : by M. Herren- 
 schwand, in his Discourses Sur I'Economie Politique, and Sur 
 la Division des Terres : and by many other authors at home 
 and abroad. 4 
 
 Mr. Smith, too, has laid it down as a general proposition, 
 though without entering at all into the argument, that " in 
 every country, after small proprietors, rich and great farmers 
 are the principal improvers." 5 In another part of his work too, 
 speaking of the great rise in the price both of hogs and poultry 
 in Great Britain, he observes that "it has been frequently im- 
 puted to the diminution of cottagers, and other small occupiers 
 of land; an event," he adds, "which has, in every part of 
 Europe, been the immediate forerunner of improvement and 
 better cultivation." 6 
 
 Considerable additional light has been lately thrown on this 
 subject in the County Reports drawn up for the consideration 
 
 1 Young's France, p. 402. led to expect much from any of his per- 
 
 * See in particular his Six Months' formances. He appears to me to be an 
 Tour through the North of England, uncommonly vague and diffuse writer, 
 Vol. IV. pp. 192, 251,253, 264. although he is characterized by Mr. 
 
 * Vol. VII. p. 510. Young as " one of the greatest political 
 
 * Of one of the works now referred geniuses of the present age.' 1 France, 
 to, (Herrenschwand's Essai sur la Divi- p. 408. 
 
 tion des Terres,) I cannot speak from 6 [ Wealth of Nations, Book III. 
 
 my own personal knowledge ; but from chap. ii. ; Vol. II. p. 98, tenth edition.) 
 
 what I know of his Treatise Sur ' [Ibid. Book I. chap. xi. ; Vol. I. p. 
 
 t Economic Politique, I should not be 354, tenth edition.]
 
 128 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 of the Board of Agriculture. The arguments on both sides of 
 the question will be found there very fully detailed ; more par- 
 ticularly in favour of large farms, for which, with a very few 
 exceptions, all the authors of the surveys are zealous advocates. 
 Some of the reasonings in the papers, as well as in other pub- 
 lications of a similar nature, might perhaps have been spared, 
 if the writers had explained with a little more precision the 
 ideas they annexed to the words large and small as em- 
 ployed in this controversy ; words which are not only indefinite 
 in their signification, in consequence of the want of a given 
 standard of comparison ; but which must necessarily vary in 
 their import, in different parts of the country, according to 
 local circumstances. The advocates for small farms (for ex- 
 ample) sometimes include under that denomination, farms from 
 150 to 200 acres, (which are far above the highest average of 
 small farms in Great Britain,) contrasting these with farms of 
 1500 or 2000 acres, which are so very far above the highest 
 average of large farms, that they should be considered as 
 exceptions. 1 
 
 Many of these writers, too, seem to have proceeded on the 
 supposition, that the principles on which the size of farms ought 
 to be settled, are of a much more universal application than 
 they will be found to admit of in reality. A few of them, how- 
 ever, have been completely aware of this consideration, remark- 
 ing that the size of farms must necessarily be regulated by a 
 variety of local peculiarities, such as soil, situation, modes of 
 husbandry, and the extent of capital possessed by the class of 
 farmers; and that, admitting the general maxim, The best 
 size of farm is that which affords the greatest proportional 
 produce, for the least proportional expense, the application of 
 this maxim will be found to lead to widely different conclusions, 
 in different districts. 2 
 
 In general, it should seem, that in proportion as Agriculture 
 advances, the size of farms should be reduced ; or rather, that 
 farms should divide themselves in proportion as the task of 
 superintendence became more difficult. In the meantime, 
 
 1 Robertaon'8 Report, pp. 41, 42. * Ibid. p. 48.
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 129 
 
 much praise is due to the authors who have exerted so raucn 
 industry and ingenuity, in attempting to enlighten landlords 
 and tenants with respect both to their own interests and those 
 of the community. It is in this way alone, that any good can 
 result from such speculations ; for I take for granted, that, in 
 the present state of Political Science, all idea of legislative in- 
 terference in adjusting the terms on which farms are to be let 
 or hired, is entirely out of the question. 
 
 With respect to the supposed tendency of small farms to 
 promote population, I shall only remark before leaving this 
 article, that it must not be judged of merely from the numbers 
 which are subsisted on the spot. The idea that " the mode of 
 culture which employs most hands, is most favourable to the 
 population of the State," is justly reprobated by the author of 
 L'Ami des Eommes [the elder Mirabeau] as a vulgar preju- 
 dice. " The surplus of produce carried to market," he ob- 
 serves, " is no less beneficial in this respect by feeding towns, 
 than if eaten on the fields that produced it. The more, there- 
 fore, that the industry and riches of the farmer enable him to 
 economize the labour of men, the greater is the surplus which 
 remains for the subsistence of others." 1 To suppose, as some 
 authors have done, that small farms add to the numbers of a 
 people, while, at the same time, it is granted, that they neither 
 yield an adequate produce nor rent, amounts very nearly to a 
 contradiction in terms. 
 
 What can be so adverse to population as the high price of 
 the necessaries of life ? And what circumstance can contribute 
 more infallibly to augment this price, than to increase unne- 
 cessarily, by the multiplication of servants, labourers, and cattle, 
 the expense of bringing the produce of the land to market ? 
 Granting that in this way some small farmers may be con- 
 verted into labourers, and some labourers thrown out of em- 
 ployment, the same cause which gives rise to large farms, (I 
 mean the demand for workmen and the increased consumption 
 produced by flourishing manufactures,) will furnish employ- 
 ment to these labourers elsewhere, while the part of the produce 
 
 1 Tome V. p. 43, Tome VI. p. 79, (quoted by Young in his France, p. 408.) 
 VOL. VIII. I
 
 130 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 which they formerly consumed on the spot, will be sold in the 
 market at a price lower than the farmer could otherwise have 
 afforded, contributing in a manner more advantageous to the 
 general interest of the community, to the maintenance of a 
 number of individuals equal to that of the labourers displaced. 
 
 It is thus that, in such a state of society as that in which we 
 live, great farms not only supply, by an increased produce, the 
 means of subsistence to an increasing population, but by econo- 
 mizing the expense of agricultural operations, have a tendency 
 to keep down the price of provisions to those who are engaged 
 in other kinds of industry. 
 
 It must not, however, be admitted as a universal fact, that 
 the consolidation of farms has the effect of diminishing popula- 
 tion on the spot ; for although this is its natural and acknow- 
 ledged effect, (the state of cultivation being supposed to remain 
 the same,) the result will be directly opposite, if the capital of 
 the great farmer, by extending the scale of his improvements, 
 should enlarge the field of agricultural industry, in a greater 
 proportion than that in which it economizes the mode of its 
 employment. Nor is this reasoning merely hypothetical. In 
 the agricultural reports, many instances occur of three or four 
 small farms, after being thrown into one, having not only 
 raised greater produce and paid a higher rent, but having 
 added to the population maintained on the surface, by increas- 
 ing the quantity of work, and of consequence, the demand for 
 labourers. 1 Mr. Hewlett affirms that this happens in nine cases 
 out of ten. 2 
 
 Even, however, where the case is otherwise, it remains to be 
 considered, of what description the population is which small 
 farms promote ; and whether the real strength of a State is 
 increased by multiplying mouths, without providing a propor- 
 tional produce to feed them. Nor must it be forgotten that the 
 same want of economy which on small farms multiplies unne- 
 cessary labourers, multiplies unnecessary horses, and thereby 
 occasions a most ruinous waste of national produce. " I 
 have found from a close inspection," says Mr. Young, speaking 
 
 1 Robertson's General Report. * Insufficiency of the Cautct, &c. [1788,] p. 85.
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 131 
 
 of the division of a country into small farms, " that the number 
 of horses in such a country is treble and quadruple the number 
 found on large farms. There was a farm in this parish (at 
 present my property) of only sixteen acres of land, and yet the 
 man kept two horses; no wonder he failed, notwithstanding 
 the most intense industry. There is another remaining of 
 twenty-eight acres, on which there are three horses kept. A 
 contiguous one of three hundred and fifty has only ten upon it. 
 Those who are advocates for little farms, in order that pigs and 
 poultry may be plentiful, forget the swarms of horses that eat 
 up what would feed myriads of pigs and chickens. I know," 
 he adds, "little farmers that keep two horses, yet have not 
 one cow." 1 
 
 That the engrossment of farms has been a real grievance to 
 many individuals is beyond all dispute ; but the case is the 
 same with every alteration in the policy of a State which 
 obliges numbers to seek out a new employment. The same 
 objection lies against every new mechanical contrivance for 
 shortening labour, and even against the expediency of a peace 
 at the close of a long and expensive war. In uniting small 
 farms into larger ones, without any regard to the future pro- 
 vision of former possessors, much inhumanity, it is probable, 
 has been displayed by particular proprietors ; but in judging 
 of the policy of such innovations in the habits of a country, it 
 is absolutely necessary to abstract from the individual hard- 
 ships that may fall under our notice, and to fix our attention 
 on those general principles which influence the national 
 prosperity. 
 
 It may be proper to add, before leaving this article, that in a 
 considerable number of the Surveys very liberal ideas are sug- 
 gested, with respect to certain appendages which ought to be 
 connected with large farms, particularly an establishment for 
 married servants or cottagers. Some striking instances are 
 mentioned of the happy effects they have produced in different 
 districts in lowering the poor-rates, and in promoting the 
 industry and good order of the labourers. 
 
 1 Annals of Agriculture, No. 42, p. 516.
 
 132 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 [4. Enclosures.'] Nearly connected with this question con- 
 cerning large and small farms, is another which has also given 
 occasion to much controversy in England during the last thirty 
 years ; the question concerning the advantages or disadvantages 
 of ENCLOSURES, considered in respect of their influence on popu- 
 lation. On this subject, as well as on the former, it would lead me 
 into details inconsistent with my general plan, if I were to attempt 
 a particular discussion of the argument ; and, indeed, I have in- 
 troduced both into these lectures, not so much with the view of 
 supporting any opinion concerning them, as in order to give 
 some arrangement to your private studies in examining this 
 branch of Political Economy, and to point out the principal 
 authors from whom you may derive assistance in the prosecution 
 of the inquiry. By following this plan, (which, as I hinted in my 
 first lecture, I intend to do in various other parts of the course,) 
 I am sensible that I must necessarily deprive my speculations 
 of the systematic form affected by those writers, who bring 
 every particular question (however complicated by existing 
 institutions or by local peculiarities) to the test of a few abstract 
 principles; but I flatter myself that this inconvenience will 
 be in some measure compensated by the variety of matter 
 which I shall be able to suggest for your future consideration. 
 In truth, it is chiefly by thus marking out the field of inquiry, 
 and by exhibiting such an outline of its principal parts, as may 
 direct the attention of the student to a methodical survey of 
 the whole, that academical lectures seem to me to possess much 
 utility, when the subject treated of is so extensive and various as 
 that which I comprehend under the title of Political Economy. 
 At any rate, it is all that I would be understood to attempt at 
 present, in mentioning such topics as those which are now 
 under our review. 
 
 Dr. Price, who has distinguished himself so much by his 
 zeal against Great Farms, has taken up the argument against 
 Enclosures with no less warmth. " How astonishing is it," he 
 observes, "that our Parliament should choose to promote 
 depopulation, by passing every year, bills almost without 
 number for new enclosures I"
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 133 
 
 In order to prevent misapprehensions of his meaning, he 
 adds, that he " has here in view enclosures of open fields and 
 lands already improved. It is acknowledged," he says, " by 
 even the writers in defence of enclosures, that these diminish 
 tillage, increase the monopolies of farms, raise the prices of 
 provisions, and produce depopulation. Such enclosures, there- 
 fore, however gainful they may be at present to a few indivi- 
 duals, are undoubtedly pernicious. On the contrary, enclosures 
 of ivaste lands and commons would be useful, if divided into 
 email allotments, and given up to be occupied at moderate 
 rents by the poor. But, if besides lessening the produce of 
 fine wool, they bear hard on the poor by depriving them of a 
 part of their subsistence, and only go towards increasing farms 
 already too large, the advantages attending them may not 
 much exceed the disadvantages."* 
 
 The argument on the other side of the question may be 
 found in two pamphlets by Mr. Howlett, vicar of Great Dun- 
 mow, Essex. The one is entitled, " An Enquiry into the 
 influence ivhich Enclosures have had upon the Population of 
 this Kingdom" (1786.) The other, " Enclosures a cause of 
 improved Agriculture, of plenty and cheapness of Provisions, 
 of Population, and of Wealth, both private and national," 
 (1787.) 
 
 This writer, who has certainly treated of the subject with 
 considerable ability and much candour, confesses after a review 
 of the opposite representations and reasonings that have been 
 laid before the public, that enclosures, according to particular 
 circumstances, are attended with great advantages and great 
 disadvantages, with respect to population, so that (although 
 probability seems strongly on the favourable side) it does not 
 appear merely from a theoretical view of the controversy, alto- 
 gether indisputable, which of the two is prevalent in the vast 
 number of enclosures which have taken place in this kingdom 
 during the last twenty or thirty years. In order, therefore, to 
 bring the question to the test of experience, he procured a list 
 of the Enclosure Bills from the Journals of the House of Com- 
 
 * Price On Annuities, Vol. II. p. 292.
 
 134 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 mons, (amounting to very near a thousand, between the years 
 1750 and 1781,) and applied to the clergy of the enclosed 
 parishes for the annual register of baptisms. In this inquiry 
 he omitted the counties of Nottingham, York, and Lancaster, 
 because Dr. Price himself acknowledges these to be increased 
 greatly. The result of the very extensive information he col- 
 lected, was decidedly in favour of the enclosed parishes, and 
 seems to amount to little short of demonstration of the bene- 
 ficial influence of enclosures on the general population of the 
 kingdom. 
 
 The prejudice against Enclosures is of a very early date in 
 England, and has been sanctioned by the opinions of some very 
 eminent writers ; among others, by Lord Bacon, who expresses 
 himself thus, in his History of Henry the Seventh* " Enclo- 
 sures at that time, (1489,) began to be more frequent, whereby 
 arable land, which could not be manured without people and 
 families, was turned into pasture, which was easily rid by a 
 few herdsmen. . . . This bred a decay of people. ... In 
 remedying this inconvenience, the King's wisdom and the Par- 
 liament's was admirable. Enclosures they would not forbid, 
 . . . and tillage they would not compel ; . . . but they took 
 a course to take away depopulating enclosures and depopulating 
 pasturage, ... by consequence. The ordinance was, ' that 
 all houses of husbandry, with twenty acres of ground to them, 
 should be kept up for ever, together with a competent propor- 
 tion of land to be occupied with them/ and in nowise to be 
 severed from them. ... By this means, the houses being 
 kept up, did, of necessity, enforce a dweller ; and the propor- 
 tion of land for occupation being also kept up, did, of necessity, 
 enforce that dweller not to be a beggar or cottager," &c. " The 
 statute here mentioned was renewed in Henry Eighth's time, 
 and every person who converted tillage into pasture subjected 
 to a forfeiture of half the land, till the offence was removed." 1 
 
 Mr. Hume, who, in his History of England, has interspersed 
 
 * [There being no general divisions of this book, I must refer to Montagu's edi- 
 tion of Bacon's Works, Vol. III. p. 234 ] 
 1 Price [On Annuities,] Vol. II. p. 292.
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 135 
 
 his narrative with many of the most important principles of 
 Political Economy, dissents widely from Lord Bacon, in the 
 judgment he pronounces on this part of Henry Seventh's policy. 
 " The law enacted against Enclosures," he observes, " and for 
 the keeping up of farm-houses, scarcely deserves the high 
 praises bestowed on it by Lord Bacon. If husbandmen under- 
 stand agriculture, and have a ready vent for their commodities, 
 we need not dread a diminution of the people employed in the 
 country. All methods of supporting populousness, except by 
 the interest of the proprietor, are violent and ineffectual. Dur- 
 ing a century and a half after this period, there was a frequent 
 renewal of laws and edicts against depopulation, whence we 
 may infer that none of them were ever executed. The natural 
 course of improvement at last provided a remedy."* 
 
 Another very curious document of the sentiments of former 
 times on this subject, exists in a pamphlet first published in 
 1581, entitled "A Compendium, or Brief Examination of cer- 
 tain ordinary Complaints of divers of our Countrymen in these 
 our Days" The initials of the author's name are W. S. ; from 
 which circumstance, strengthened by some vague tradition, and 
 probably also by the dramatic form of the work, it was long 
 and very generally ascribed to William Shakespeare. But it 
 appears from Wood's Fasti, and Farmer's book On the Learning 
 of Shakespeare, that the real author was a person of the name 
 of Stafford. The arguments both for and against Enclosures, 
 are certainly stated in it with uncommon spirit and force, and 
 anticipate the principal ones which have been brought forward 
 in the course of the late discussions concerning them. The 
 speakers in the dialogue are " a Merchant, a Knight, a Hus- 
 bandman, a Capper, and a Doctor of Divinity." 
 
 I have dwelt longer on this article than I should have 
 thought necessary on a question of so very local a nature, 
 because it has formed one of the most conspicuous objects of 
 internal policy under the present reign. During that of King 
 William, not a single act was passed for enclosing wastes or 
 dividing commons ; and in the two succeeding reigns, only 
 
 * [History of England, Cbap. xxvi., anno 1509.]
 
 136 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 twenty-five in whole. In the reign of George II., (which lasted 
 thirty-three years,) they amounted to a hundred and eighty- 
 two ; whereas they are said, during the first fourteen sessions 
 of the present reign, to have exceeded seven hundred. " In 
 this manner," says Mr. Chalmers, " was more useful territory 
 added to the Empire, at the expense of individuals, than had 
 been gained by all the wars since the Revolution. In acquir- 
 ing distant dominions, through conquest, the State is enfeebled 
 by the charge of their establishments in peace, and by the still 
 more enormous debts incurred in war for their defence. In 
 gaining additional lands by reclaiming the wild, improving the 
 barren, and appropriating the common, the limits of our island 
 are virtually extended, and a solid foundation is laid, in the 
 additional produce of the soil, for the multiplication of the 
 people." 1 
 
 Impressed with these ideas, a variety of writers have for many 
 years contended for the expediency of a General Enclosure Bill ; 
 and a bill for that purpose actually passed the House of Com- 
 mons in the session of Parliament 1799, but was thrown out by 
 the Lords. The Lord Chancellor, [Loughborough,] in his speech 
 on the 3d of July last, (1800,)* when certain resolutions of the 
 Commons concerning bills of enclosure were under considera- 
 tion, stated that the Bill of 1799 had been rejected, because 
 it was loosely and vaguely drawn, and expressed his doubts of 
 the possibility of framing any general law which should not be 
 liable to material objections. "If a canon could be devised, 
 comprising all such provisions as by experience have been 
 found necessary in most bills of enclosure, it would certainly 
 have its use, but this he feared would be impracticable ; and, 
 (as in the case of the general Highway Act, which had not 
 in the least tended to shorten private highway bills,) so a 
 general canon of enclosure law might not in the least have the 
 effect of shortening future private bills of enclosure." The 
 Duke of Bedford expressed himself nearly to the same pur- 
 
 1 Estimate of the Comparative Strength of Great Britain during the present and 
 four preceding Reigns. By George Chalmers, pp. 145, 146. 
 
 * [This marks the year in which this part, at least, of the lecture was written.]
 
 CHAP. IL POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 137 
 
 pose ; avowing himself friendly to a system of general enclosure, 
 but disapproving of the attempt to effect it by a general bill. 
 Of the beneficial tendency of enclosures with respect to popula- 
 tion, no doubt appears to have been suggested in the course of 
 the debate. On the contrary, it was universally admitted that 
 the population of the kingdom had of late years considerably 
 increased ; that the means of supplying that population had 
 not increased in proportion; and that every measure which 
 facilitated a general system of enclosure, was in a high degree 
 wise and salutary in our present circumstances. The Chan- 
 cellor alone doubted " whether any regulations adopted by the 
 Legislature, could serve to promote the cultivation of waste 
 lauds and commons. He rather believed that enclosures in 
 general must depend upon the spirit, the activity, and the 
 ability of private individuals, who feel it their interest to set 
 about enclosing, and apply to Parliament for bills of enclo- 
 sure." 
 
 About one point, however, there can be no controversy, that 
 if the multiplication of enclosures be a desirable object, it is 
 the duty of the Legislature to remove as much as possible those 
 obstacles to them which are created by the heavy expenses 
 attending enclosure bills at present. The expense occasioned 
 by fees to the officers of the two Houses, amounts to 209 per 
 parish, however many there may be in an act ; but this is, in 
 many instances, trifling, in comparison of what is expended in 
 paying solicitors and witnesses in London. Hence the impossi- 
 bility of coming to Parliament for small enclosures ; and the 
 discouragements which oppose themselves even to more exten- 
 sive projects of improvement. 1 
 
 The expediency of reducing this expense as much as possible, 
 is placed in a strong light by an acknowledged fact, on which 
 has frequently been founded a plausible but very fallacious 
 argument against the policy of enclosures in general. The 
 great profit which speculations of this sort afford to individuals 
 (it is well known) is derived from soils which are adapted to 
 the purposes of the grazier. " Upon dry land well adapted to 
 
 1 Young's Pamphlet, [On the Question of Scarcity, 1800,] p. 73.
 
 138 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 corn, the advantage is far inferior. The consequence is, that 
 immense tracts of this last sort of land remain open and waste; 
 while the heavy, rich, deep soils that have been constantly 
 yielding wheat under a low rent, are enclosed and converted 
 into grazing land at double or treble the rents they formerly 
 paid." " Such soils," says Mr. Young, " will bear any expense ; 
 and these have been thus taken from corn, which is the food of 
 the poor, and thrown to bullocks to feed the rich." 
 
 It is acknowledged, however, by this writer, that these con- 
 siderations afford no argument against the general encourage- 
 ment of enclosures by the Legislature. The evil of which he 
 complains is irremediable by legislative authority, being the 
 natural consequence of the present circumstances of the country ; 
 and, so far from being diminished, it is increased by the ex- 
 isting impediments to enclosures, impediments which, while 
 insufficient to prevent enclosures where they are injurious to 
 Agriculture, throw a bar in the way of improvement, in the 
 case of those dry and poorer wastes, which might be converted 
 into corn-fields for the benefit of the people. 1 
 
 [5. Size of Properties.] In the observations hitherto made 
 on the relation between Population and Agriculture, I have 
 had in view chiefly the effects produced on the latter, by the 
 condition of those who cultivate farms which do not belong to 
 them in property. It appeared to me to be the most natural 
 arrangement, to begin with the consideration of this order of 
 men, as it is chiefly by them that Agriculture is carried on 
 in this part of the world. I now proceed to make a few remarks 
 on the same subject, considered in its connexion with the actual 
 proprietors of the land. 
 
 That the division and subdivision of landed property pro- 
 mote population in an eminent degree, is admitted as an 
 indisputable maxim by political writers of all descriptions. 
 " Only revive," says Mr. Suessmilch, " the laws of Licinius, 
 forbidding any Roman to hold more than seven j'ugera of land ; 
 or that of Bomulus, which limited every Roman to twojugera, 
 
 1 Pamphlet On the Scarcity, p. 74.
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 139 
 
 and you will soon convert a barren desert into a busy and 
 crowded hive." Ample illustrations of this proposition may 
 be found in Dr. Wallace's Dissertations on the Numbers of 
 Mankind, and in the Political Tracts of Dr. Price. 
 
 I shall have occasion to shew, in another part of this course, 
 how much this equality in the distribution of landed property 
 was favoured by all the ancient systems of legislation. I shall 
 confine myself at present to the example of the Romans. 
 
 For about two hundred and fifty years after the foundation 
 of Rome, during the monarchy, the whole land was divided 
 into equal portions of two jugera, that is, a little more than 
 an English acre, and a little less than one Scotch ; and each 
 citizen had one of these portions assigned to him. Soon after 
 the expulsion of the kings the quantity was increased, and 
 inequalities of fortune arose ; yet for about another two 
 hundred and fifty years, the general size of a Roman farm was 
 only seven jugera, or somewhat less than four and a half Eng- 
 lish acres. In the progress of luxury and avarice, however, so 
 great an alteration took place in the manners of the people, 
 that in the year of Rome 375, (under the tribuneship of 
 Licinius Stolo,) a law was found necessary to limit estates 
 to five hundred jugera, or about three hundred and twelve 
 English acres. When the Roman Consuls and Dictators had 
 only so small a portion of land which they laboured with the 
 help of their slaves, and often with their own hands ; it is easy 
 to conceive with what frugality and simplicity they must have 
 lived; how completely the ornamental arts must have been 
 excluded ; and how easy it must have been to support a family. 
 In the family of such a Dictator or Consul, Dr. Wallace reckons 
 the husband and wife, two or three children, and a slave or two ; 
 (which last allowance is probably under the truth, as slaves 
 were very numerous.) A Roman family, therefore, which had 
 not above seven jugera, or four and one-third English acres, to 
 maintain them, might consist of seven persons or more, and 
 had less than an acre, often perhaps not more than half an 
 acre, for each individual : whereas, (according to Templeman's 
 calculation,) the eight millions of inhabitants of England have
 
 140 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 very near thirty-two millions of acres to support them, or four 
 acres per head. 
 
 In consequence of the influence of these laws, and the system 
 of manners which they encouraged, the agriculture of the 
 Romans appears to have been carried to a singular degree 
 of perfection ; and the effects continued for a long course of 
 years after the causes had ceased to operate. Depending 
 entirely on agriculture for the means of life, trained to it 
 from generation to generation, cultivating every corner and 
 inch of their little fields, the old Romans were not only dis- 
 tinguished above all other people for simplicity of manners, 
 but set an example of economy, accuracy, and minute attention 
 in the cultivation of land, which has never been equalled in 
 this part of the world. It is observed by the author of one ot 
 the Reports presented to the Board of Agriculture, that the 
 Garden System of Agriculture, which continued to be general 
 for near five hundred years, probably laid the foundation of all 
 that excellence to which Roman husbandry was afterwards 
 carried ; that the rural industry, practices, and ideas handed 
 down from former times, long preserved their existence ; and 
 that the more extensive farms which afterwards took place, 
 were cultivated with as religious and minute a care as the little 
 allotments in earlier ages. 1 
 
 In the pictures which have been transmitted to us of the old 
 Roman manners, uniting in so wonderful a degree the simpli- 
 city and moderation of rural life, with all that is heroic and 
 splendid in human character, there is undoubtedly something 
 which is peculiarly interesting to the imagination. " Gaudente 
 terra," as Pliny* expresses it, " laureate vomere et triumphali 
 jiratore." Nor is it surprising that they should be so often 
 mentioned by way of contrast, to what the poet calls " The 
 sober, gainful arts of modern days." The following stanza 
 forms part of a beautiful Ode which he has addressed on this 
 subject to the country gentlemen of England. 
 
 1 Robertson's Report, pp. 71, 72. 
 
 [Eittoria Natvralit, Lib. XVIII. cap. iii.]
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 141 
 
 " Have ye not heard of Laccdaemon's fame ? 
 Of Attic chiefs in Freedom's war divine ? 
 Of Rome's dread generals ? The Valerian name ? 
 The Fabian sons ? The Scipios ? matchless line ! 
 Your lot was theirs. The farmer and the swain 
 Met his lov'd patron's summons from the plain. 
 The legions gathered ; the bright eagles flew ; 
 Barbarian monarchs in the triumph mourn 'd ; 
 The conqu'rors to their household gods return 'd, 
 And fed Calabrian flocks, and steer'd the Saline plough." * 
 
 When we indulge such ideas, we are extremely apt to forget 
 the essential differences between the circumstances of mankind 
 in ancient and in modern times. Granting the fact, that when 
 a family has just land enough for its subsistence, that portion 
 will be well cultivated, what deductions can be drawn from it 
 applicable to the present policy of Europe ? Of what use in a 
 modern kingdom would be a whole province thus divided, ex- 
 cept for the mere purpose of breeding men ? A province of 
 such farmers would consume nothing but the produce of their 
 lands ; they could neither possess the desire nor the ability to 
 purchase manufactures ; and they could pay no taxes without 
 an oppression that would reduce them to misery. The case 
 was widely different in the early times of the Roman Republic, 
 for then the more abundant such population was, the more 
 easily could the State levy that tax which consisted in personal 
 service. 1 Hence an important distinction between the practice 
 of agriculture as a direct means of subsistence, and as a trade 
 bearing a relation to the other trades and occupations which 
 enter into the general system of Political Economy. The 
 former was exemplified in Rome, and in various other ancient 
 republics. The latter is exemplified in Modern Europe, where 
 it is the object of the farmer, by raising a surplus produce for 
 the market, not only to provide a fund for the payment of taxes, 
 but to acquire the means of purchasing from the artisan and 
 manufacturer, whatever accommodations his habits may lead 
 him to consider as contributing to his comfort. This distinc- 
 
 * [Akenside, Odes, XII. ix.] 
 
 1 Young's Political Arithmetic, pp. 47, 48.
 
 142 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 tion is much insisted on by Sir James Steuart in the Fourteenth 
 Chapter of his First Book, [of The Principles of Political 
 (Economy.'] 
 
 It is justly observed by the same writer, that " those passages 
 of Koman authors which mention the frugality of that people, 
 and the small extent of their possessions, cannot be rightly un- 
 derstood without the knowledge of many circumstances relative 
 to the manners of those times. For if you understand such a 
 distribution of lands to have extended over all the Koman ter- 
 ritory, the number of the citizens would have exceeded what 
 they appear to have been by the census, and even surpass all 
 belief. But farther, I may be allowed to ask, Whether or not 
 it be supposed that these frugal Romans laboured this small 
 portion of lands with their own hands, and consumed the 
 produce of it ? If I am answered in the affirmative, (which is 
 necessary to prove the advantages of agriculture's being exer- 
 cised by all the classes of a people,) then I ask, From whence 
 were the inhabitants of Rome and other cities supposed to 
 come, who fed the armies when in the field ? If these were 
 fed by foreign grain imported, or plundered from their neigh- 
 bours, where was the advantage of this subdivision of lands, 
 and of this extensive agriculture which could not feed the in- 
 habitants of the State ? If it be said, that notwithstanding 
 this frugal distribution of property among the citizens, there 
 was still found surplus enough to supply both Rome and the 
 armies, will it not then follow, that there was no necessity for 
 employing all the people in agriculture, since the labour of a 
 part might have sufficed ?"* 
 
 I shall have occasion afterwards to take notice of some of 
 the difficulties started in the foregoing passage, when I come 
 to consider (in another part of the course) the immense impor- 
 tations of corn which, from the earliest times, were understood 
 to be necessary for the subsistence of Rome. At present I 
 shall only remark, (as I already hinted,) that whatever may be 
 supposed to be the merits or defects of the agricultural policy 
 of the Romans, considered in relation to the national objects 
 
 * [Political (Economy, Book I. chap. xiv. ; Works, Vol. I. p. 116.]
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. (3.) 143 
 
 which they had in view, this policy is manifestly inapplicable 
 to the present state of society in Europe. Mr. Hume, after 
 acknowledging its tendency to promote that population which 
 the exigencies of their state required, and even admitting that 
 this population was partly to be ascribed to the want of com- 
 merce, (the small number of artisans who depended on the 
 labour of the fanners leaving a greater share for the main- 
 tenance of the soldiers,) proposes the following question: 
 " Whether sovereigns might not now return with advantage to 
 the maxims of ancient policy ?" His answer is, " That it ap- 
 pears to be almost impossible ; and that, because ancient policy 
 was violent, and contrary to the more natural and usual course 
 of things.'"* It were to be wished, that Mr. Hume had ex- 
 plained a little more fully the idea suggested in the last clause 
 of this sentence, but I presume his meaning was, that ancient 
 policy aimed too much at modifying, by the force of positive 
 institutions, the order of society, according to some precon- 
 ceived notion of expediency, without trusting sufficiently to 
 those principles of the human constitution, which, wherever 
 they are allowed free scope, not only conduct mankind to hap- 
 piness, but lay the foundation of a progressive improvement in 
 their condition and in their character. The advantages which 
 modern policy possesses over the ancient, (as I have elsewhere 
 observed), arises principally from its conformity, in some of the 
 most important articles of Political Economy, to an order of 
 things recommended by nature ; and it would not be difficult 
 to show, that where it remains imperfect, its errors may be 
 traced to the restraints it imposes on the natural course of 
 human affairs. 
 
 The policy of the Komans, in the instance now under our 
 consideration, " was," to use Mr. Hume's language, " violent 
 and contrary to the natural course of things" inasmuch as it 
 attempted, by the force of Agrarian Laws, to prevent that in- 
 equality in the distribution of landed property, which is plainly 
 a part of the order of nature, and which (as I shall afterwards 
 endeavour to shew) is intimately connected with the progres- 
 
 * [Essays, Vol. I., Of Commerce.]
 
 144 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 sive improvement of the human species. Among them, it was 
 the great object of State to keep up and to multiply the breed 
 of soldiers ; a narrow and oppressive scheme of Government, 
 undoubtedly, when compared with that enlightened and gener- 
 ous system, which estimates national felicity, not merely by the 
 register of births, but by the degree in which it distributes 
 among all orders of the people, (together with the comforts 
 connected with their animal existence,) all the gratifications of 
 which man is susceptible as an intelligent and a moral being. 
 
 Conformable to this agricultural and military policy of the 
 Romans, were the ideas imbibed by their youth from early in- 
 fancy, and inculcated in the writings of all their most esteemed 
 authors. From the most ancient period of their history de- 
 scended that maxim which always continued to have a won- 
 derful influence on their manners, that no employment was 
 honourable but the plough and the sword ; and hence, as both 
 Pliny and Columella inform us, an enrolment into any of the 
 Four City Tribes (" sub umbra Civitatis intra mcenia desides 
 cunctari ") was understood not to accord well with the spirit 
 which became a Roman.* 
 
 In later times, an affectation of more effeminate habits seems 
 to have gained ground even among their military characters, 
 from the natural effects of a city life, and to have been re- 
 garded with some degree of jealousy and indignation by those 
 who adhered to the occupation and sentiments of their an- 
 cestors. We are told by Valerius Maximus, that when Scipio 
 Nasica (then a young man) was standing candidate for the 
 office of Curule jEdile, this affectation defeated his hopes of 
 attaining that dignity. " As he was passing," it is said, 
 " where the tribes both of the city and country were assem- 
 bled, (practising, it should seem, the same attentions which 
 are usual among modern candidates for popular favour,) while 
 he was squeezing the hand of a labouring man whom he knew, 
 he could not forbear jesting with him on its hardness and cal- 
 lousness " Joci gratia ; interrogavit eum Num manibus soli- 
 tus esset ambulare ?" " This jest," the writer adds, " cost him 
 * [Hist. Nat., Lib. XVIII. cap. iii. Dt Be Ruttica, Praef.]
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. (3.) 145 
 
 dear ; for it was repeated immediately from one to another, and 
 all the tribes offended with the contumeliosa urbanitas which 
 it discovered, unanimously rejected a candidate whom the 
 effeminacy of Home had rendered so supercilious and petu- 
 lant." 1 
 
 While these ideas concerning the dignity exclusively attached 
 to the professions of agriculture and of war maintained their 
 influence, the mercantile and lucrative arts were entirely aban- 
 doned to aliens, slaves, and freedmen ; and for a succession of 
 ages not a citizen was found to practise them. In the time of 
 Cicero other notions had begun to prevail, and these arts had 
 risen considerably in the public estimation ; and yet, what a 
 contrast does the following passage present to the ideas now 
 fostered by those establishments which have accomplished in 
 the most effectual manner, and, in a far greater degree, than 
 any of the ancient constitutions, all the most essential purposes 
 of the political union ! 
 
 " Concerning the arts, and the means of acquiring wealth, 
 which are to be accounted liberal, and which, mean, the follow- 
 ing are the sentiments usually entertained. In the first place, 
 those professions are discreditable which are odious to man- 
 kind, such as the business of tax-gatherers and usurers. The 
 arts of all hirelings, too, are illiberal and mean, who are paid 
 for their labour and not for their skill. The wages they receive 
 are the badges of servitude. They also are to be considered 
 as dishonourably employed, who buy from merchants what 
 they immediately retail. For they gain nothing unless they 
 lie extravagantly, and, consequently, owe their profit to the 
 basest of all the vices. All mechanics are occupied in mean 
 employments ; nor is it possible that anything liberal can be 
 connected with a workshop. Least of all ought the arts to be 
 esteemed which minister to pleasure, such as the arts of fish- 
 mongers, butchers, cooks, and confectioners. To these may be 
 added, if you please, perfumers, dancers, and the whole tribe of 
 such as administer to gaming. 
 
 1 Valerius Maximus, [De Dlctis, &c.] thwayt'a Dictionary, &c. ; Article Manu- 
 Lib. VII., cap. v. (Quoted in Postle- factures.) 
 
 VOL. VIII. K
 
 146 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 " But those arts which require a superior degree of skill, and 
 from which arise a higher degree of utility, as medicine, archi- 
 tecture, instruction in liberal arts, are employments honourable 
 to those with whose rank they correspond. As to commerce, 
 it is mean, if it be inconsiderable; but if it be great and 
 abundant, if it bring largely from every country, and without 
 deceit supply an extensive market, it is an occupation not 
 much to be censured, (non admodum vituperanda ;) nay, if the 
 persons who follow it could be satiated, or rather be content 
 with their profits, not making long voyages, but returning 
 speedily to their farms and landed estates, they would deserve 
 to be rather commended. But after all, among the various 
 pursuits from which gain is derived, there is none which sur- 
 passes agriculture ; none more profitable ; none more delight- 
 ful ; none more worthy of a man who loves independence." 1 
 
 I have quoted this passage as an additional illustration of 
 the absurdity of drawing parallels between the condition of the 
 ancient Komans and our own ; and of imagining that the agricul- 
 tural policy of the former is applicable to that state of society in 
 which we live, I shall only add farther on the subject at present, 
 that the commerce with which the Romans were acquainted, was 
 essentially different, both in its nature aud effects, from that 
 which has changed the face of human affairs in Modern Europe. 
 It was a saying of Manius Curius Dentatus, (and repeated 
 by Cicero in the person of Cato,) that he thought it more 
 glorious to conquer those who possessed gold, than to possess it 
 himself. 2 The natural effect, however, of this spirit of conquest, 
 (notwithstanding the disinterested views with which it was 
 long connected in the case of many illustrious individuals,) was 
 to bring immense sums of money into the city. Satisfactory 
 proofs of this are produced by Dr. Wallace, (even in the early 
 ages of the Republic,) from the high prices which were paid for 
 things merely ornamental, at a time when all the ancient sim- 
 
 1 Omnium rerum, ex qnibus aliquid * Non enim aurnm habere, preeclarnm 
 
 acquiritur, nihil cst agriculture melius, sibi viilcri, dixit ; sed iis, qui habuerunt 
 
 nibil uberius, nihil dulciua, nihil homine aurum, imperare. [De Senectute, cap. 
 
 libero dignius. [De Officiu, Lib. I. xvi.J llollin, Artt and Sciencet, I. 
 
 cap. xlii.J p. 17.
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 147 
 
 plicity of manners remained, and the necessaries of life were to 
 be purchased for a trifle. Towards the end of the Common- 
 wealth, and afterwards under Augustus, riches and luxury in- 
 creased to an extent unknown in the annals of the world. 
 Julius Csesar's debts, before he had been in any office, were, ac- 
 cording to some, 2,018,229 ; according to others, 807,291. 
 Crassus was his surety for 160,812. Mark Anthony owed on 
 the Ides of March, 322,916 sterling, and paid it before the 
 Calends of April. The expenses of these Komans were on a 
 scale proportioned to their estates and debts, and far exceeded 
 the most extravagant ideas of modern times. Much curious 
 information concerning them may be found in Dr. Arbuthnot's 
 Treatise on Coins, and in Wallace's Dissertation on the 
 Numbers of Mankind. As this wealth was not acquired by 
 commerce, it had no tendency to encourage a commercial spirit, 
 excepting in so far as ministered to luxury. On the contrary, 
 we find that commerce was dreaded on account of the obvious 
 effect which it had to drain their riches ; for as they had no 
 commodity of their own to give in exchange for the luxuries 
 which they imported at so immense a price from distant 
 provinces, they must have paid for everything in silver and 
 gold. " Hence it was, that the emperors forbid the people to 
 send gold to the barbarians ; which law appears (by the way) 
 to have been in force before, from Cicero's Oration for L. 
 Flaccus : l Exportari Aurum non oportere, cum ssepe antea 
 Senatus, turn, me Consule, gravissime judicavit.'" 1 
 
 The fatal consequences of this influx of wealth, and of the 
 excessive luxury which attended it, (particularly after the con- 
 quest of Asia.) are sufficiently known. Juvenal has painted 
 them strongly in a single line. 
 
 " Saevior armis 
 Luxuria incubuit ; victumque ulciscitur orbem."* 
 
 The same remarks which have been now made with respect 
 to Home, are applicable, with some slight limitations, to most 
 of the ancient republics. In States formed upon such a model, 
 and in ages when commerce and manufactures were yet in their 
 
 1 [I 28.] Taylor's Elements, &c., p. 499. * [Sat. vi. 291.]
 
 148 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 infancy, a sudden influx of riches from abroad was justly 
 dreaded as an evil alarming to the morals, to the industry, and 
 to the freedom of a people. How different in its tendency is 
 that wealth which, in a commercial country, is the gradual re- 
 sult of national industry ! If we survey the countries around 
 us, we uniformly find, that the most wealthy states are those 
 where the people are the most laborious, and where they enjoy 
 the greatest degree of liberty. Nay, it was the general diffu- 
 sion of wealth among the lower orders of men which first gave 
 birth to the spirit of independence in Modern Europe, and 
 which has produced, under some of its governments, and more 
 especially under our own, a more equal diffusion of freedom 
 and of happiness, than took place under the most celebrated 
 constitutions of antiquity. 
 
 I may perhaps appear to have insisted longer than was 
 necessary, on institutions and manners so strikingly contrasted 
 with those which exist at present. But it seemed to me to be 
 of consequence to take the earliest opportunity which my sub- 
 ject afforded, of obviating some of the prepossessions which the 
 study of the classics is apt to inspire in favour of agrarian 
 regulations, to the prejudice of that more comprehensive and 
 enlightened policy, which, giving full scope in all directions to 
 human industry, allows agriculture and commerce to act and 
 re-act on each other, in multiplying the comforts of human 
 life, in developing all the capacities that belong to our nature, 
 and in diffusing as widely as the imperfection of human insti- 
 tutions will permit, the blessings of knowledge and civilisation 
 among all classes of the community. 
 
 Independently of the violent operation of Agrarian Laws, 
 some authors have expressed their doubts, whether in some of 
 the countries of Modern Europe, the subdivision of landed pro- 
 perty has not been, in certain combinations of circumstances, 
 carried to a pernicious excess, by the operation of natural 
 causes. The following passage from Mr. Young's Agricultural 
 Survey of France* (in the years 1787-89), will shew, that this 
 doubt rests on something more than mere hypothesis. It is 
 
 * [That is, his Travels in France during the Yean 1787, 1788, and 1789.]
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 149 
 
 proper for me to premise, that, according to his computation, 
 the number of little farms in that kingdom belonging in pro- 
 perty to the actual cultivators, was at that time so great as to 
 occupy one-third of the whole territory. 
 
 " Before I travelled," says he, " I conceived that small farms 
 in property were susceptible of good cultivation ; and that the 
 occupier of such having no rent to pay might be sufficiently at 
 his ease to work improvements, and carry on a vigorous hus- 
 bandry ; but what I have seen in France has greatly lessened 
 'my good opinion of them. In Flanders I saw excellent hus- 
 bandry on properties of thirty to one hundred acres ; but we 
 seldom find here such small patches of property as are common 
 in other provinces. In Alsace, and on the Garonne, that is, 
 on soils of such exuberant fertility as to demand no exertions, 
 some small properties also are well cultivated. In Beam I 
 passed through a region of little farmers, whose appearance, 
 neatness, and ease, charmed me ; it was what property alone 
 could on a small scale effect: but these were by no means 
 contemptibly small ; they were, as I judged by the distance 
 from house to house, from forty to eighty acres. Except these, 
 and a very few other instances, I saw nothing on small pro- 
 perties except a most unremitting industry." ..." The circum- 
 stance which in France produces so immense a number of small 
 farms in property, is the division which takes place after the 
 death of the proprietor, commonly amongst aU the children, 
 but in some districts among the sons only. Forty or fifty- 
 acres in property are not incapable of good husbandry; but 
 when divided, twenty acres must be ill cultivated ; again di- 
 vided, they become farms of ten acres, of five, of two, and even 
 one ; and I have even seen some of half, and even of a quarter 
 of a rood, with a family as much attached to it as if it were 
 an hundred acres. The population flowing from this division 
 is, in some cases, great, but it is the multiplication of wretched- 
 ness. Couples marry and procreate, on the idea, not the reality, 
 of a maintenance ; they increase beyond the demand of towns 
 and manufactures ; and the consequence is distress, and 
 numbers dying of diseases, arising from insufficient nourish-
 
 150 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 ment. Hence, therefore, small properties much divided, prove 
 the greatest source of misery that can be conceived ; and this 
 has operated to such an extent in France, that" (in the 
 opinion of Mr. Young) "a law undoubtedly ought to have 
 been past, to render all division below a certain number of 
 acres illegal."* 
 
 " If the industry of towns and manufactures were active 
 enough to demand the surplus of all this population as fast as 
 it arose, the advantages of the system would be clear. ... It is 
 idle to state in its favour the example of America, where an im- 
 mensity of fertile land lies open to every one who will accept of 
 it ; and where population is valuable to an unexampled degree, 
 as we see in the price of their labour. But what comparison 
 between such a country and France, where the competition for 
 employment is so great, (arising from too great a populousness,) 
 that the price of labour is seventy-six per cent, below that of 
 England, though the prices of provisions are as high in the 
 former country as in the latter." f 
 
 These remarks of Mr. Young are chiefly levelled at some 
 modern theories of Political Economy, according to which a 
 country is flourishing in proportion to the equal distribution 
 of the people over the territory; and "the greatest possible 
 division of landed property is the best." That these maxims 
 ought to be received with great restrictions appears obvious 
 from this, that " on the supposition such a system were allowed 
 time to operate, a nation would necessarily arrive at the limit 
 beyond which the earth, cultivate it as you please, will feed 
 no more mouths ; yet those simple manners which instigate to 
 marriage still continue. What, then, is the consequence, but the 
 most dreadful misery imaginable ! You soon would exceed the 
 populousness of China, where the putrid carcases of domestic 
 animals, and every species of vermin, are sought with avidity 
 to sustain the lives of wretches who were born only to be 
 starved." | 
 
 * [Travels in France during the Years 1787, 1788, and 1789, being an Agri- 
 cultural Survey of the Kingdom, p. 407, teq.] 
 
 t [Ibid. p. 410.] | [Ibid. p. 409-]
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 151 
 
 Some of the foregoing remarks from Young have been sug- 
 gested to him by the following passage in Sir James Steuart'a 
 Political (Economy. 
 
 " I would recommend in countries where this minute sub- 
 division of lands has taken place, that for the future none 
 under a certain extent or value should be suffered to be divided 
 among the children, but ordered to be sold, and the price 
 divided among them, and that the same regulation should be 
 observed upon the death of such proprietors where lands are 
 not sufficient to produce three times the physical-necessary of 
 the labourers. This would engage a people to exercise agri- 
 culture as a trade, and to give over that trifling husbandry 
 which produces no surplus, and which involves so many poor 
 people in the oppression of land-taxes. . . . The principle," he 
 adds, " is so evident, that I never found any one who did not 
 immediately agree to the justness of my observation ; although 
 in imposing land-taxes I have nowhere found it attended 
 to."* 
 
 I have quoted these passages, because I am always much 
 more anxious to suggest a variety of ideas for your examina- 
 tion, than to establish any particular system. I confess, for 
 my own part, I have no doubt that, in so far as Agriculture and 
 Population alone are concerned, their interests would be most 
 effectually promoted by a perfectly free commerce of land. The 
 evil complained of in France, plainly arose from the artificial 
 value set on landed property, in consequence of prevailing in- 
 stitutions and habits. In a commercial country where there 
 were no perpetuities, and no regard paid to primogeniture, the 
 attachment to land would be nearly proportioned to its intrinsic 
 value, and the natural course of things would bring small 
 estates into the market, upon the death of every proprietor who 
 left a numerous family. Nay more, this free commerce of land 
 would put an end to that monopoly-price which it everywhere 
 bears, and which, by diverting small capitals from such pur- 
 chases, contributes perhaps more than any other cause to 
 depress agriculture below the level of the commercial arts. In 
 
 * [Book V. Chap. xii. ; Works, Vol. IV. p. 315.]
 
 152 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 such a state of things, a law similar to that proposed by Sir 
 James Steuart, would probably be found unnecessary; although 
 I am far from asserting that in a country circumstanced as 
 France then was, it might not have contributed to keep 
 population more on a level with the means of subsistence. 
 
 The opinion, however, that we form on this point, is of little 
 consequence, as the evils resulting from too minute a division 
 of land must necessarily be confined to very unusual combina- 
 tions of circumstances. Those which arise from the opposite 
 extreme of an accumulation of this species of property in the 
 hands of a small number of individuals, is a political disorder 
 much more deeply rooted in our prevailing ideas and institu- 
 tions, and affecting far more extensively and powerfully the 
 general interests of society. 
 
 On this particular branch of our subject, which is perhaps 
 the most important of all, I do not mean to enlarge at present, 
 partly because it will again fall under consideration in the 
 farther prosecution of my general plan ; but chiefly because 
 the effects of Entails and of the Law of Primogeniture, in 
 checking the progress of agriculture, have been illustrated very 
 fully by Mr. Smith. The remarks which this author has made 
 on the circumstances from which these institutions naturally 
 arose during the disorders and violence of the feudal times, are 
 more especially deserving of attention, as they throw much 
 light on the origin of that state of society, and system of man- 
 ners, with which we are connected. 
 
 [ii. Second, of Population (and Agriculture) considered in 
 connexion with Manufactures.] 
 
 Having treated, at some length, [from p. 113,] of the relation 
 between Population and Agriculture, in so far as it depends on 
 the condition of the actual cultivators of the soil, and on the 
 distribution of landed property, I proceed now to make some 
 observations on the same subject, considered in connexion with 
 the influence of manufactures. 
 
 " The proper and only right encouragement for agriculture," 
 says Sir James Steuart, " is a moderate and gradual increase of 
 demand for the productions of the earth ; this works a natural
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. (3.) 153 
 
 and beneficial increase of inhabitants, and this demand must 
 come from cities."* The author would, I think, have expressed 
 his idea more unexceptionably, if he had contented himself 
 with saying, that " the demand must come from manufactures ;" 
 as the language he employs prejudges a much controverted 
 question concerning the most beneficial form in which manu- 
 factures may be established, whether when collected into cities, 
 or when scattered over a territory. In other respects, the ob- 
 servation is unquestionably just, and may be regarded as a 
 fundamental principle in this inquiry. In truth, if we except 
 the essential duty of protecting and maintaining the rights of 
 the husbandman, the excitement of a spirit of manufacturing 
 industry is the most effectual measure by which a statesman 
 has it in his power, in the actual circumstances at least, of this 
 part of the world, to influence the agriculture of his country. 
 The seeming exceptions which may occur to this remark, (such 
 as that of Switzerland, where, according to Mr. Hume, " we 
 find at once the most skilful husbandmen and the most bung- 
 ling tradesmen in Europe,")f do not in the least invalidate the 
 general observation, as the effect, in all such instances, may be 
 easily traced to some very peculiar and anomalous combina- 
 tions of circumstances. And, at any rate, " Is it just reason- 
 ing," says Mr. Hume, " because agriculture may, in some cases, 
 flourish without trade or manufactures, to conclude, that, in 
 any great extent of country, or for any great tract of time, it 
 would subsist alone ?" " The most natural way, surely, of en- 
 couraging agriculture, is,jftrst } to excite other kinds of industry, 
 and thereby afford the labourer a ready market for his commo- 
 dities, and a return of such goods as may contribute to his 
 pleasure and enjoyment. This method," he adds, " is infalli- 
 ble and universal" $ 
 
 A few very slight remarks in illustration of this proposition 
 will be sufficient for my present purpose. 
 
 Let us suppose then, a nation which practises no art but 
 
 * [Political (Economy, Book I. chap. f [Essays, Vol. I. Essay, Of the Po- 
 x. ; Works, Vol. I. p. 70.J pulousness of Ancient Nations.] 
 
 i [Ibid.]
 
 154 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 husbandry, and which subsists entirely on the rude produce of 
 the soil. In such a situation, it is evident there would be no 
 motive for the cultivator to increase his skill or industry be- 
 yond what is necessary for the bare support of himself and his 
 family ; for men will not labour merely from the patriotic view 
 of increasing their numbers. The only thing that can quicken 
 human industry, is the wants of men, real or imaginary ; and 
 these wants can be created only by the introduction of manu- 
 factures. 
 
 On a superficial view of the subject, it may perhaps appear 
 that manufactures are rather the effects than the causes of that 
 multiplicity of wants to which they are subservient ; and that 
 this has actually been the history of many of them, cannot be 
 disputed. In general, however, it will be found, that refine- 
 ments in the arts are more owing to the temptations held out 
 by the industry and invention of the artists, than to the in- 
 creased demand for the novelties they furnish, arising from the 
 natural progress of luxury among their employers. 
 
 This has been well illustrated by the feelings which most 
 persons must have experienced, in some degree, on visiting any 
 of those shops which minister to the extravagance of a great 
 city. Everything we see appears either necessary, or at least 
 highly convenient ; and we begin to wonder how we could have 
 been so long without that which we never thought of before, 
 and of which it is possible, after we are possessed of it, that we 
 may never think again. 1 
 
 A trifling anecdote mentioned by Dr. Franklin in one of his 
 Letters, places the whole of this natural process in a stronger 
 light than I can possibly do by any general observations. It 
 exhibits at once the effects of imitation and fancy in creating a 
 taste for superfluities, and the effect of this taste in stimulating 
 human industry. 
 
 " The skipper of a shallop, employed between Cape May and 
 Philadelphia, had done us some small service, for which he 
 refused to be paid. My wife understanding that he had a 
 
 1 Sir James Steuart, Vol. I. p. 178. [Political (Economy, Book II. chap. iii. ; 
 Workt, Vol. L p. 240.]
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 155 
 
 daughter, sent her a present of a new-fashioned cap. Three 
 years after, this skipper being at my house with an old farmer 
 of Cape May, his passenger, he mentioned the cap, and how 
 much his daughter had been pleased with it. ' But/ said he, 
 ' it proved a dear cap to our congregation/ ' How so ?' ' When 
 my daughter appeared with it at meeting, it was so much ad- 
 mired, that all the girls resolved to get such caps from Phila- 
 delphia ; and my wife and I computed that the whole could 
 not have cost less than a hundred pounds.' ' True,' said the 
 farmer, ' but you do not tell all the story. I think the cap was 
 nevertheless an advantage to us ; for it was the first thing that 
 put our girls upon knitting worsted mittens for sale at Phila- 
 delphia, that they might have wherewithal to buy caps and 
 ribbons there ; and you know that that industry has continued, 
 and is likely to continue and increase to a much greater value, 
 and answer better purposes.'" 
 
 In this simple narrative, we have a lively picture, in the first 
 place, of the origin of artificial wants ; and, secondly, of their 
 influence in encouraging that labour which multiplies the 
 necessaries and accommodations of life. The same process is 
 exhibited every day before our eyes in a thousand instances ; 
 but in the new world, the political mechanism is less compli- 
 cated, and its principle more obvious, while at the same time 
 the rapidity with which the progress of improvement advances, 
 magnifies the scale of observation. Nor must it be forgotten, 
 that it is in consequence of the very peculiar circumstances in 
 which mankind have there begun their career, that philosophers 
 have been found whose attention was alive to such familiar in- 
 cidents, and who were qualified to perceive the beautiful lights 
 which they throw on the infancy of polished society. 
 
 While manufactures stimulate, in this manner, the industry 
 of the husbandman, by multiplying his wants, they create, at 
 the same time, a market for the rude produce of the earth, and 
 communicating to him a portion of the commercial spirit, ani- 
 mate and enlighten his labours by the same motives to which 
 the other lucrative arts owe their progress. 
 
 Hence it appears, that, in a civilized country, the importance
 
 156 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 of a great proportion of the people is to be estimated, not from 
 the intrinsic value of what they produce, but from its subser- 
 viency to increase the industry of others. A hat, or a riband, 
 or even a watch, may not in itself be very useful to a peasant, 
 but if they lead him to increase his skill and his industry in 
 order to be able to purchase them, and furnish employment to 
 the artists who are to consume his surplus produce, an im- 
 portant advantage is gained. In this view manufacturers are 
 useful members of the community, no less than husbandmen ; 
 and it may with truth be affirmed, that the artist who, in the 
 centre of a populous town, is employed in polishing a button or 
 a watch-chain, contributes to advance the agriculture of the 
 state, as really, though not so immediately, as if with his own 
 hands he threw the seed into the ground. 
 
 According to this view of the subject, it would appear that 
 the great use of manufacturers in a State, is to set the hus- 
 bandmen at work : and hence arises a most important distinc- 
 tion of labourers, into those who are immediately productive, 
 and those who are instrumentally productive; a distinction 
 to which I shall have occasion to recur afterwards. 
 
 1. To prevent misapprehensions of what has been now stated, 
 it is necessary to recollect, in the first place, that in these 
 observations I confine my attention entirely to the policy of 
 nations which exclude the institution of Slavery. If we appeal 
 to the history of the ancient commonwealths, striking excep- 
 tions will immediately present themselves to our conclusions. 
 But, as I have already repeatedly hinted, their systems of poli- 
 tical economy were founded on principles, and had a reference 
 to circumstances so essentially different from ours, that the 
 consideration of the one can be of little use in illustrating the 
 other, excepting in the way of contrast. 
 
 " In ancient times," says Sir James Steuart, " men were forced 
 to labour the ground because they were slaves to others. In 
 modern times, the operation is more complex ; and as a modern 
 statesman cannot make slaves of his subjects, he must engage 
 them to become slaves to their own passions and desires. This 
 is the only method to make them labour the ground ; and pro-
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 157 
 
 vided this be accomplished, by whatever means it is brought 
 about, mankind will increase."* 
 
 2. It must be remembered, also, that in the greater part of 
 my reasonings, I have in view the actual state of society in this 
 part of Europe ; that state of society I mean which resulted 
 from the dissolution of the feudal system, and which (though 
 on the whole more favourable to human improvement than any 
 that ever existed before in the history of mankind) has been 
 influenced by some powerful causes operating in a manner by 
 no means agreeable to the general analogy of human affairs. 
 Mr. Smith has shewn that, " according to the natural course of 
 things, the greater part of the capital of every growing society 
 is first directed to agriculture, afterwards to manufactures, and 
 last of all, to foreign commerce. This order of things is so 
 very natural, that in every society that had any territory, it has 
 always perhaps been in some degree observed. Some of their 
 lands must have been cultivated before any considerable towns 
 could be established, and some sort of coarse industry of the 
 manufacturing kind must have been carried on in these towns, 
 before they could well think of employing themselves in foreign 
 commerce. 
 
 " But though this natural order of things must have taken 
 place in some degree in every such society, it has, in all the 
 modern States of Europe, been in many respects entirely in- 
 verted. The foreign commerce of some of their cities has in- 
 troduced all their finer manufactures, or such as were fit for 
 distant sale ; and manufacture and foreign commerce together, 
 have given birth to the principal improvements of agriculture."f 
 In what way things were forced into this unnatural and re- 
 trograde order by the manners and customs introduced by the 
 feudal governments, Mr. Smith has explained with great in- 
 genuity in the Third Book of his Wealth of Nations. 
 
 The case is very different in the States of America, the wealth 
 of which is founded entirely on agriculture, and where (as one 
 of their own writers [Franklin ?] expresses it) " the industry of 
 
 * [Political (Economy, Book I. chap. f [ Wealth of Nations, Book III. 
 x.\i. ; Works, Vol. I. p. 204.] cbnp. ir.]
 
 158 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 man, in its first movements, attaches itself to the bosom of our 
 common parent, as the infant hangs upon the breast of its 
 mother." 1 In that quarter of the globe, besides, there are other 
 circumstances which discriminate the condition of the inhabi- 
 tants so essentially from that of European nations, that in 
 speculations no parallel ought to be attempted between them. 
 It is sufficient to mention the extreme cheapness of unculti- 
 vated land, and the extraordinary profits which may be made 
 by the employment, either of a great or of a small capital in 
 its improvement 
 
 I thought it of particular consequence to state this last cir- 
 cumstance, because it has been frequently overlooked by very 
 respectable political writers. Impressed strongly (it is proba- 
 ble) with the beauty and excellence of that order which (accord- 
 ing to Mr. Smith) would everywhere have regulated the course 
 of improvement, if it had not been disturbed by human insti- 
 tutions, they have indulged themselves in general unqualified 
 maxims, the truth of which is obvious and striking wherever 
 this order has been realized, but which are unfortunately not 
 applicable, without many limitations, to that state of things in 
 which we are more peculiarly interested. " Agriculture," says 
 the anonymous author of a late Essay on Taxation of Income, 
 " as the first and most important object with all nations of ter- 
 ritory, should be carried to the greatest possible perfection, 
 before any considerable encouragement is given to manfactures. 
 It ought, indeed, to be considered as the life and soul of all 
 manufactures, which will everywhere prosper and flourish, 
 nearly in proportion as the agriculture of the country is more 
 or less in a state of perfection." 2 
 
 " Is there any profession or business," says Mr. A. Young, 
 " which ought to be advanced to the height it is capable of, 
 before others are encouraged which draw off the working hands 
 from the former ?"...." The answer," he adds, " is clear, 
 precise, and determinate. Agriculture, that greatest of all 
 manufactures, ought to flourish to the full cultivation of the 
 
 1 Memorial addressed to the Sove- * Three Essays, &c. (London, 1799,) 
 reiffiu of Europe, &c. Almon, 1780. p. 116. [By Benjamin Bell, Esq.]
 
 0AP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. (3.) 159 
 
 land, before what we commonly call ' manufactures' take place 
 as articles of trade and commerce. And after cultivation is at 
 its height, those manufactures ought first to be encouraged 
 which work upon materials of our own growth ; and last of all, 
 those which employ foreign materials." 1 
 
 In this passage, Mr. Young has described exactly what Mr. 
 Smith calls the natural progress of opulence in a country. 
 This progress, however, it has been already observed, has been 
 in a great measure inverted in Modern Europe ; and the causes 
 which have produced this effect are beyond the control of any 
 statesman. If we wish our speculations, therefore, to be prac- 
 tically useful, we must attend to the actual circumstances of 
 the case ; applying our reasonings (if I may borrow the homely 
 language of a very old English writer) "to the Common 
 Wealth as it is, not as a philosopher may frame it by discourse, 
 imitating herein, not a breaker of horses, whose part it is to 
 perfect the horse in all his natural actions, but a good rider, 
 who must strive to use him to the best advantage, such as he 
 finds him." 
 
 The encouragement indeed which some modern statesmen 
 have given to manufactures, has been founded on very partial 
 and erroneous views, and has contributed powerfully to coun- 
 teract that effect on agricultural improvement, which they are 
 naturally calculated to produce, wherever their operation is not 
 thwarted by injudicious systems of policy. Much, too, remains 
 to be done in most countries to forward the progress of hus- 
 bandry, by removing those obstacles which were thrown in its 
 way during the ignorance and barbarism of former times, and 
 which, however consecrated in the estimation of our ancestors 
 by ancient prejudices, are widely at variance with the just and 
 liberal ideas of the present age. 
 
 I have already hinted, that although manufactures and 
 commerce have a more powerful tendency than any other 
 cause whatever to quicken Agriculture, it is nevertheless 
 possible, by an injudicious policy, to encourage the former at 
 the expense of the latter. It has been supposed by the most 
 
 1 Farmers' Letters, c., [1767,] pp. 3, 4.
 
 160 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 intelligent French writers, that this was the radical error in 
 the administration of the celebrated Colbert ; and the effects 
 which it produced are represented as of the most ruinous 
 nature. The subject is interesting, as it is intimately con- 
 nected with the history of what has been since called the 
 Economical or Agricultural System of Political Economy. 
 
 " Colbert" says M. de Boulainvilliers, " to whom Lewis con- 
 fided the care of augmenting his power by an augmentation of 
 commerce, raised his edifice before he had laid the foundation. 
 He saw the grandeur of the monarchy through the medium 
 of manufactures, instead of viewing these in their due sub- 
 serviency to the productions of the soil. He fixed his atten- 
 tion too much upon the Arts, and too little upon Agriculture ; 
 always fabricating, but never creating. His genius embraced 
 every part of the detail, but was incapable of rising to the 
 comprehensive views of a legislator. The minister was lost in 
 the manufacturer. In spite of his high reputation, (a reputa- 
 tion acquired by all who make great changes in a government,) 
 he projected none of those masterly designs" (those coups 
 d"&at) " which decide the fortune of a nation. He moved on in 
 a beaten track without ever venturing to strike out a path of 
 his own."* 
 
 The substance of various other censures bestowed by the 
 French political writers on the administration of Colbert, is 
 collected into one view in the following passage of [the Kev.] 
 Mr. Harte's Essays on Husbandry, [1764.] My principal 
 reason for transcribing it is, that the author (who was himself 
 a practical farmer) had an opportunity in the course of his 
 travels, of examining the agriculture of France with much 
 accuracy ; and, therefore, his judgment on this point possesses 
 a weight which does not belong to the assertions of common 
 observers. 
 
 " Colbert rather depressed than promoted the interests of 
 his country, when he conceived a project of enriching it by 
 establishing a vast number of manufactures ; flattering him- 
 self, at the same time, that by making the productions of his 
 
 * [Etat de la France, &c.]
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. (3.) 161 
 
 manufactures subservient to luxury and falsely refined elegance, 
 he should multiply the wealth of his own nation by supplying 
 and feeding the extravagance and vanity of other nations ; but 
 some part of the folly happened to stick where it took its rise, 
 and became infectious at home ; which shews that luxury is an 
 unfortunate fashion in any country, though at the same time 
 it prescribes the mode to foreigners, and induces them to pur- 
 chase such merely ornamental elegancies as are the workman- 
 ship of our own artists. Under the idea of hoarding up great 
 quantities of provisions for the support of his work- folks, (and 
 that principally by obstructing the free vent and exportation 
 of corn,) this minister had the applause of the poor, who 
 naturally favour every scheme, real or imaginary, that promises 
 to lower the price of bread ; for their understandings can rarely 
 see deeply into the truth of things, any more than the ad- 
 vantage of a nation in general, or of themselves upon the 
 whole. In like manner the historians and poets loaded the 
 Prime Minister with panegyrics, as the true father of the 
 people, and made no ceremony to depreciate the wiser conduct 
 of Sully. But, alas ! it never truly appeared that trade and 
 commerce, even in their most flourishing state, enriched a 
 kingdom like the solid revenues that proceed from a right and 
 effectual cultivation of the earth. Thus, though the French 
 nation was intoxicated with the hopes of immense riches, and 
 though they supplied all Europe with silks and embroideries 
 and expensive trifles, yet the fund of real wealth was deficient 
 at bottom ; famine made its appearance frequently and almost 
 periodically. The proprietors of landed estates (for they with 
 others at first ran into the universal notion of admiring the 
 project) thought themselves very happy, after a considerable 
 tract of time, to advance their rents a sixth part, though money 
 bore one-third a greater value than before ; imposts and taxes 
 were increased immoderately ; and a considerable part of the 
 lands (not being found, or at least not believed to answer the 
 expenses of cultivation) was overlooked and neglected by little 
 and little, and at length degenerated into waste and desolated 
 tracts of country. All which may suffice to shew, that the 
 
 VOL. VIIJ. L
 
 162 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 cultivation of the earth ought not to be superseded by a passion 
 for commerce."* 
 
 The great features of Colbert's policy are still more strongly and 
 distinctly marked in the following slight outline of Mr. Smith. 
 
 " Accustomed by the habits of his education to regulate the 
 different departments of public offices, and to establish the 
 necessary checks and controls for confining each to its proper 
 sphere, Colbert endeavoured to regulate the industry and com- 
 merce of a great country upon the same model ; and instead of 
 allowing every man to pursue his own interest his own way, 
 upon the liberal plan of equality, liberty, and justice, he be- 
 stowed upon certain branches of industry extraordinary privi- 
 leges, while he laid others under as extraordinary restraints. 
 He was not only disposed, like other European ministers, to 
 encourage more the industry of the towns than that of the 
 country, but in order to support the industry of the towns, he 
 was willing even to depress and keep down that of the country. 
 In order to render provisions cheap to the inhabitants of the 
 towns, and thereby to encourage manufactures and foreign com- 
 merce, he prohibited altogether the exportation of corn, and 
 thus excluded the inhabitants of the country from every foreign 
 market, for by far the most important part of the produce of 
 their industry. This prohibition, joined to the restraints im- 
 posed by the ancient provincial laws of France, upon the trans- 
 portation of corn from one province to another, and to the 
 arbitrary and degrading taxes which are levied upon the culti- 
 vators in almost all the provinces, discouraged and kept down 
 the agriculture of that country very much below the state to 
 which it would naturally have risen in so very fertile a soil, and 
 so very happy a climate. This state of discouragement and 
 depression was felt more or less in every different part of the 
 country, and many different inquiries were set on foot concern- 
 ing the causes of it. One of those causes appeared to be the 
 preference given by the institutions of Colbert to the industry 
 of the towns above that of the country ;"f or, in other words, 
 to Manufactures in preference to Agriculture. 
 
 * [L. ].] f [ Wealth of Nations, B. IV. c. ix. ; Vol. III. pp 2, 3, tentb edition.]
 
 CHAP. IL POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 163 
 
 The result of these speculations in France, was the Economi- 
 cal system of M. Quesnai, of which I shall have occasion to 
 treat afterwards, and which Mr. Smith accuses of a fundamental 
 error, the reverse of that which misled Colbert, but equally 
 wide of the truth ; the error of undervaluing that species of 
 industry to which Colbert had in a great measure confined his 
 encouragement. 
 
 It is not necessary for me at present to inquire how far Mr. 
 Smith's censure, in this instance, is well founded. I confess, 
 for my own part, that he appears to me to have carried it too 
 far, and that I think his criticisms apply rather to the language 
 which the Economists have used, than to the substance of their 
 doctrine when fully unfolded. One indisputable conclusion, at 
 least, results from the facts which they have stated, that how- 
 ever powerfully manufactures may tend to stimulate agriculture 
 under the influence of wise and equal laws, it is possible, not 
 only for the former to flourish without a correspondent progress 
 in the latter, but that the comparative encouragement which 
 they receive from Government may be so great, as to withdraw 
 from the other its natural share of capital and of industry. 
 
 It will appear afterwards, that the advantages of manu- 
 factures in encouraging agricultural industry, are explicitly 
 acknowledged, and indeed strongly stated, by all the Economical 
 writers ; and therefore, their opinions must not be confounded 
 with those maintained by Mr. Arthur Young, in his Agri- 
 cultural Survey of France* where he asserts that " there is 
 something in manufactures pestiferous to agriculture." It is 
 remarkable, indeed, of this author, (to whose industry and 
 activity the public unquestionably lies under great obligations,) 
 that notwithstanding the asperity with which he generally 
 speaks, particularly in his later works, of the Economists, he has 
 carried that part of their system which Mr. Smith considers as 
 the most paradoxical of the whole, far beyond the limits assigned 
 to it by their principles. As the illustrations, however, which 
 Mr. Young has collected, are interesting and valuable, I shall 
 (agreeably to my general plan) select some of the most strik- 
 
 * [That is, his Travels in France.]
 
 164 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 ing facts which he has mentioned in support of his argument ; 
 although my knowledge of local circumstances is much too im- 
 perfect to enable me to remove completely the objections which 
 they may suggest to some of the foregoing reasonings. 
 
 " The greatest fabrics of France are the cottons and woollens 
 of Normandy, the woollens of Picardy and Champagne, the 
 linens of Brittany, and the silks and hardware of the Lyonnais. 
 Now, if manufactures be the true encouragement of agriculture, 
 the vicinity of these great fabrics ought to be the best cultivated 
 districts in the kingdom, whereas the fact is very strikingly the 
 reverse. Considering the fertility of the soil, which is great, 
 Picardy and Normandy are among the worst cultivated coun- 
 tries I have seen. The immense fabrics of Abbeville and 
 Amiens have not caused the enclosure of a single field, or the 
 banishment of fallows from a single acre. Go from Elbceuf to 
 Rouen, if you would view a desert ; and the Pays de Caux, 
 possessing one of the richest soils in the world, with manufac- 
 tures in every hut and cottage, presents one continued scene of 
 weeds, filth, and beggary ; a soil so villanously managed, that 
 if it were not naturally of an inexhaustible fertility, it would 
 long ago have been utterly ruined. The agriculture of Cham- 
 pagne is miserable, even to a proverb : I saw there great and 
 flourishing manufactures, and cultivation in ruins around them. 
 In Brittany, which affords but one spectacle, that of a dreary, 
 desolate waste, you find yourself in the midst of one of the 
 greatest linen manufactures in Europe, and throwing your eye 
 around the country, can scarcely believe the inhabitants are fed 
 by agriculture ; if they subsisted by the chase of wild animals, 
 their country might be as well cultivated. From hence across 
 the kingdom to Lyons, all the world knows the immense fabrics 
 found there ; and yet we are told by a very competent judge, 
 M. Roland de la Platiere, ' de toutes les provinces de France 
 le Lyonnais est le plus miserable/ What I saw of it gave me 
 little reason to question the assertion. The remark of another 
 French writer makes the experiment double. ' L'Artois est im 
 des provinces les plus riches du Royaume. C'est une verit^ in- 
 contestable . . . elle ne possSde point de manufactures.' I
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 165 
 
 will not presume to assert that the agriculture of these districts 
 is bad, became they abound with manufactures, though I be- 
 lieve it to be very much the case in the Pays de Caux ; I 
 merely state the facts. The fabrics are the greatest in the 
 kingdom, and certainly the agriculture is among the worst."* 
 
 In farther confirmation of the same view of the subject, Mr. 
 Young refers to some facts stated in his Tour through Ireland 
 many years ago,f with respect to the effects of the vast linen 
 manufacture which spreads all over the north of that kingdom. 
 " There," says he, " I found the same spectacle that Brittany 
 offers ; husbandry so miserably, so contemptibly bad, that I 
 have shewn by calculation the whole province converted into a 
 sheep-walk, and feeding but two sheep per acre, would yield, in 
 wool only, a greater value than the whole amount of the linen 
 fabric ; a circumstance I attribute entirely to the manufacture 
 spreading into the country, instead of being confined to towns. 
 1 Wherever the linen manufacture spreads, there tillage is bad,' 
 said that attentive observer, the Lord Chief Baron Forster. 
 The Earl of Tyrone has an estate in the county of Derry, 
 amidst manufactures, and another in that of Waterford, where 
 there are none ; and he assured me that if the Derry land were 
 in Waterford, or absolutely freed from fabrics, he should clear 
 full one-third more money from it. If we pass into England, 
 we shall find something similar, though not in an equal degree; 
 the manufacturing parts of the kingdom being among the 
 worst cultivated. You must not go for agriculture to York- 
 shire, Lancashire, Warwickshire, or Gloucestershire, which are 
 full of fabrics, but to Kent, where there is not the trace of a 
 fabric ; to Berkshire, Hertfordshire, and Suffolk, where there 
 are scarcely any : Norwich affords an exception, being the only 
 manufacture in the kingdom in a thoroughly well-cultivated 
 district, which must very much be attributed to the fabric being 
 kept remarkably within the city, and spreading (spinning ex- 
 cepted) not much into the country ; a circumstance that de- 
 
 * [Travels in France during the Tears 1787, 1788, and 1789 ; being an Agri- 
 cultural Survey of the Kingdom, p. 507, seq.] 
 f [In 1776 1779.]
 
 166 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 serves attention, as it confirms strongly the preceding observa- 
 tions. But the two counties of Kent and Lancaster are ex- 
 pressly to the purpose, because they form a double experiment : 
 Lancaster is the most manufacturing province in England, 
 and amongst the worst cultivated ; Kent has not the shadow 
 of a manufacture, and is perhaps the best cultivated. 
 
 "Italy will furnish instances yet more to the purpose than 
 any yet cited. The richest and most flourishing countries in 
 Europe, in proportion to their extent, are probably Piedmont 
 and the Milanese. All the signs of prosperity are there met 
 with ; populousness well employed and well supported, a great 
 export without, a thriving consumption within, magnificent 
 roads, numerous and wealthy towns, circulation active, interest 
 of money low, and the price of labour high. In a word, you 
 can name no circumstance that shall prove Manchester, Bir- 
 mingham, Rouen, and Lyons to be in a prosperous state, that 
 is not found diffused throughout the whole of these countries. 
 To what is all this prosperity to be ascribed ? Certainly not to 
 manufactures, because they possess hardly the trace of a fabric. 
 There are a few of no consideration at Milan, and there are in 
 Piedmont the silk-mills, to give the first hand to that product, 
 but on the whole to an amount so very trifling, that both 
 countries must be considered as without fabrics. They are 
 equally without commerce, being excluded from the sea ; and 
 though there is a navigable river that passes through both 
 these territories, yet no use is made of it, for there are five 
 sovereigns between Piedmont and its mouth, all of whom lay 
 duties on the transit of every sort of merchandise. As these 
 two countries do not owe their riches to manufactures or com- 
 merce, so undoubtedly they are not indebted for them to any 
 peculiar felicity in their governments. Both are despotisms ; 
 and the despot of Milan makes that country a beast of burden 
 to Germany ; the revenues are remitted to Vienna, and the 
 clothes, even for the troops, paid by Milan, come from Germany. 
 The origin and the support of all the wealth of these countries 
 are to be found in agriculture alone, which is carried to such 
 perfection, as to prove that it is equal to the sole support of a
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 167 
 
 modern and most flourishing society, to keep that society in a 
 state of great wealth, and to enable the governments to be, in 
 proportion to their extent, doubly more powerful than either 
 France or England. Piedmont supports a regal court, and 
 pays 30,000 men. The same extent of country, or number of 
 people, effect the half of this in any other dominion of Europe. 
 But are these territories really without manufactures ? No ; 
 nor is any country in the world : it is not possible to find a 
 people totally exempt from them. The present inquiry de- 
 mands no such exemption : it is only necessary to shew that 
 the manufactures found in the Milanese and Piedmont, are 
 such as arise absolutely in consequence of agriculture ; that it 
 is agriculture which supports and nourishes them ; and that on 
 the contrary these manufactures are so far from doing anything 
 politically for agriculture, that they occasion the exposing of it 
 to restrictions and monopolies ; for the governments in these 
 countries have been bitten by the same madness of commerce 
 that has infected other kingdoms ; and have attempted by such 
 means to raise these trifling fabrics into foreign export. 
 Happily they have never been able to do it ; for there is reason 
 to imagine, that success would have suggested other restrictions 
 unfavourable to the great foundation of all their prosperity. 
 Thus the instances produced are expressly to the purpose, as 
 they exhibit two opulent States, supported by agriculture alone, 
 and possessing no other manufactures or commerce than what 
 every country must possess that enjoys a flourishing cultiva- 
 tion ; for it is not to be expected that such great results are to 
 be found attending common exertions only. On the contrary, 
 those that have converted part of those noble territories into a 
 garden, have been great and exemplary."* 
 
 These facts are certainly highly deserving of attention, and I 
 have no doubt that, if they were accurately examined, they 
 would throw much new and important light on this subject. 
 It is indeed only by thus bringing fairly into view the apparent 
 exceptions that occur to our general principles, that we can 
 
 * [Pp. 508-510.]
 
 168 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 either hope to limit them with the necessary precision, when 
 they have been stated in too unqualified terms, or can be 
 enabled to exhibit in full force the important truths they may 
 involve. 
 
 It seems to have been with the design of bringing this very 
 subject under public discussion, that the Abbe Raynal, about 
 ten years ago, [c. 1790,] remitted a sum of money to the Royal 
 Society of Agriculture at Paris, as a prize for the best Disser- 
 tation on the following question : " Whether does a flourishing 
 Agriculture tend more to promote the prosperity of Manufac- 
 tures, or the groivth of Manufactures to promote the prosperity 
 of Agriculture ?" Of the Essays which appeared on this occa- 
 sion, I have never heard any account. 
 
 A few very slight general remarks is all that I propose to 
 offer at present on Mr. Young's statement. To examine it in 
 detail, would lead me into a field of boundless extent, and 
 would require a knowledge of local circumstances, not to be 
 acquired but by personal observation. Of the inconclusiveness, 
 however, of a beadroll of facts so loosely stated, a judgment 
 may be formed by directing our attention to one of those in- 
 stances on which Young lays the greatest stress, the flourishing 
 state of agriculture in the county of Kent, in which he asserts 
 there is not a shadow of a manufacture. How far this asser- 
 tion is well founded, may be judged of from the statements of 
 a very accurate and intelligent writer, whose observations were 
 published more than twenty years before those of Mr. Young, 
 I mean Campbell [?] in his Agriculture of Kent. After re- 
 marking that " in respect of plenty, Kent is another Canaan, 
 fruitful in all good things, and in which there are fewer forests 
 and waste lands than in most other counties," he continues in 
 the same tenor, through passages to which I shall only refer. 1 
 
 I have no doubt that Young's other instances, if carefully 
 examined, would be found equally irrelevant to the question 
 now under consideration, but I must not prosecute this view of 
 the subject any farther. My principal reason for referring to it 
 
 1 Vol. I. pp. 380, 402, 408. But in into account the vicinity of London, arid 
 regard to Kent, we ought also to take the practice of Gavil Kind.
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 169 
 
 was to point it out as an object of curiosity, and to show that 
 the question concerning the reciprocal effects of agriculture and 
 of manufactures, is still far from being exhausted. 
 
 That Mr. Young's facts do not warrant the general conclu- 
 sion, that " there is something pestiferous to agriculture in the 
 neighbourhood of a manufacture," we may venture to assert 
 with confidence. They prove, indeed, in a striking manner, 
 the miserable effects produced in France, by the discourage- 
 ments under which agriculture has laboured in that country ; 
 and that manufactures of themselves can do little where the 
 rights of the husbandman are not only insecure, but systemati- 
 cally violated. Nay, farther, they prove that in such a state of 
 things the encouragement which is given to the industry of 
 towns may withdraw from agriculture some part of the capital 
 which it would otherwise have employed even in its actual 
 state of depression. Wherever this is the case, the effect may 
 be expected to be most conspicuous in the neighbourhood of 
 extensive manufactures; and, in fact, (as Mr. Young has 
 hinted,) something of the same kind, though in a very inferior 
 degree, has been remarked in England. Where large manu- 
 factures are established, yielding much more tempting profits 
 than can be obtained by agriculture, the wages given to work- 
 men will naturally attract the labourers from the surrounding 
 districts, and its money capital will have a tendency to follow 
 the same direction. Landholders and farmers will both be in- 
 duced either to form mercantile connexions themselves, or to 
 establish their sons in trade; and in this manner, notwith- 
 standing the curious and refined husbandry exhibited on the 
 small properties of a few individuals enriched by commerce, 
 agriculture in general will languish, from the failure of the 
 funds destined by the natural course of things for its support 
 and encouragement. 1 
 
 It does not, however, follow from all this, either that manu- 
 factures are unfavourable in their general tendency, or that 
 they have, even in France, prevented agriculture from advan- 
 cing so rapidly as it would have done, if they had not existed in 
 
 1 Bell's Pamphlet, p. 119. [TJiree Essays, &c., 1799.]
 
 170 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 that kingdom. They may have intercepted part of the in- 
 dustry and capital which would otherwise have gone to the 
 improvement of land, without counterbalancing by this incon- 
 venience their salutary effects on the agricultural industry of 
 the whole territory. 
 
 It has been shewn by Mr. Smith, that " the greatest and 
 most important branch of the commerce of every nation is, that 
 which is carried on between the inhabitants of the town and 
 those of the country. The inhabitants of the town draw from 
 the country the rude produce which constitutes both the mate- 
 rials of their work, and the fund of their subsistence ; and they 
 pay for this rude produce, by sending back to the inhabitants 
 of the country a certain portion of it manufactured and pre- 
 pared for immediate use. The trade which is carried on 
 between these two different sets of people, consists ultimately 
 in a certain quantity of rude produce exchanged for a certain 
 quantity of manufactured produce. The dearer the latter, 
 therefore, the cheaper the former ; and whatever tends in any 
 country to raise the price of manufactured produce, tends to 
 lower that of the rude produce of the land, and thereby to dis- 
 courage agriculture. The smaller the quantity of manufactured 
 produce which any given quantity of rude produce is capable 
 of purchasing, the smaller the rude value of that given quantity 
 of rude produce, the smaller, of consequence, is the encourage- 
 ment which either the landlord has to increase its quantity by 
 improving, or the farmer by cultivating his land." It has been 
 shewn also, that " whatever tends in any country to diminish 
 the number of artificers and manufacturers, tends to diminish 
 the home market, the most important of all markets for the 
 rude produce of the land, and thereby to discourage agriculture 
 still farther." 1 That the only possible way to make a manu- 
 facture thrive, is to procure a ready vent for the goods it 
 furnishes, was never once disputed ; and why should we doubt 
 that the same maxim applies to agriculture, which Young him- 
 self has repeatedly and justly called " the most important of 
 
 1 Wealth of Natimt, Vol. IT. p. 286. [Book IV. chap. w. ; Vol. III. pp. 40, 41, 
 tenth edition.]
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 171 
 
 all manufactures ;" and which (as he has remarked after Sir 
 James Steuart, in numberless parts of his works, [see above, pp. 
 141, 142]) is to be considered in Modern Europe not merely as 
 a means of subsistence for the cultivators, but as one of the trades 
 which enter into the general system of Political Economy ? 
 
 On this point, indeed, we may fairly quote one part of Mr. 
 Young's works against another. " The manufactures of the 
 single city of Norwich (he observes in a book published in 
 1780) amount to as much as the whole linen export of Ire- 
 land, but it is very far from being the whole exported produce 
 of the county of Norfolk. On the contrary, this county, besides 
 feeding its capital, besides feeding Yarmouth and Lynn, two of 
 the greatest ports in England, and a variety of other towns, 
 exports, I believe, more corn than any other county in the 
 kingdom ; and whoever is acquainted with the supply of the 
 London markets, knows that there are thousands of black 
 cattle fattened every year on Norfolk turnips, and sent to 
 Smithfield. What a spectacle is this ! The most productive 
 agriculture in the world, in the way of exportation, around one 
 of the greatest manufactures in Europe. It is thus that 
 manufactures become the best friends to agriculture, that they 
 animate the farmer's industry by giving him ready markets, 
 until he is able not only to supply them fully, but pushes his 
 exertions with such effect, that he finds a surplus in his hands 
 to convert into gold in the national balance, by rendering 
 foreigners tributary for their bread. Examine all the other 
 fabrics in the kingdom, you see them prodigious markets for 
 the surrounding lands ; you see those lands doubling, trebling, 
 quadrupling their rents, while the farmers increase daily in 
 wealth. Thus you see manufactures rearing up agriculture, and 
 agriculture supporting manufactures. You see a reaction which 
 gives a reciprocal animation to human labour : Great national 
 prosperity is the effect. Wealth pours in from the fabrics, which, 
 spreading like a fertilizing stream over all the surrounding lands, 
 renders them, comparatively speaking, so many gardens, the 
 most pleasing spectacles of successful industry."* 
 
 * [ Tour through Ireland, &c.]
 
 172 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 I cannot help adding to these extracts from Mr. Young, that 
 I do not know of any author in our language whose writings 
 abound more with inconsistencies and contradictions. This is 
 more particularly remarkable in the general principles relating 
 to Political Economy which he has interwoven with his differ- 
 ent Agricultural Tours. 
 
 In the passages now under consideration, the inconsistency of 
 his conclusions arises, in part, from his confounding together 
 (in the extract which I quoted from his account of France) 
 two questions which are essentially different. The one is the 
 general question concerning the influence of manufactures on 
 agriculture ; the other is the question concerning the compara- 
 tive effects of manufactures when confined to towns, and when 
 spread over the country. 
 
 The confusion which runs through Mr. Young's later specu- 
 lations on this subject, is the more remarkable, that in his 
 Tours through Ireland, [1776, &c.] he has been at pains to 
 distinguish these two questions, enlarging on the beneficial 
 influence of manufactures in the one case, and on their ruinous 
 effects in the other. I before remarked, (if I am not mistaken,) 
 that this work bears fewer marks of haste and negligence, than 
 most of his other publications. 
 
 " In the north of Ireland you behold a whole province 
 peopled by weavers ; it is they who cultivate, or rather beggar 
 the soil, as well as work the looms. Agriculture is there in 
 ruins ; it is cut up by the root, extirpated, annihilated ; the 
 whole region is the disgrace of the kingdom. No other part of 
 Ireland can exhibit the soil in such a state of poverty and 
 desolation. 
 
 " But the cause of all these evils, which are absolutely ex- 
 ceptions to everything else on the face of the globe, is easily 
 found ; a most prosperous manufacture, so contrived as to be 
 the destruction of agriculture, is certainly a spectacle for which 
 we must go to Ireland. It is owing to the fabric spreading 
 over all the country, instead of being confined to towns. This 
 in a certain degree is found in some manufactures in England, 
 but never to the exclusion of farmers ; whereas, literally speak-
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 173 
 
 ing, there is not a farmer in a hundred miles of the linen 
 country in Ireland. The lands are infinitely subdivided ; no 
 weaver thinks of supporting himself by his loom; he has 
 always a patch of potatoes, of oats, or of flax, and grass or 
 weeds for a cow ; so that his time is divided between his loom 
 and his farm. The land is sown with successive crops of oats, 
 until it does not produce the seed again, and then left to 
 become grass as it may, in which state it is under weeds and 
 rubbish for four or five years. As land thus managed will not 
 yield rent, they depend for that on their web. If linen sells 
 indifferently, they pay their rents indifferently ; and if it sells 
 badly, they do not pay them at all : rents in general being 
 worse paid there than in any other part of Ireland. 
 
 " But if instead of the manufacture having so diffused itself as 
 absolutely to banish farmers, it had been confined to towns, the 
 very contrary effect would have taken place, and all those vast 
 advantages to agriculture would have followed, which flourish- 
 ing manufactures in other countries occasion. The towns 
 would have been large and numerous, and would have proved 
 such ample markets to all the adjacent country, that it could 
 not have failed to become well cultivated, and to let at double 
 the present rent. The manfacturers would have been confined 
 to their own business, and the farmers to theirs ; and both 
 trades would have flourished the better for this arrange- 
 ment." 1 
 
 If this reasoning of Mr. Young's be just, it will go far to 
 account for the very extraordinary facts I quoted on his autho- 
 rity, with respect to the state of manufacturing and of agricul- 
 tural industry in France ; for he tells us that the poor all over 
 that kingdom abound with domestic manufactures. The cul- 
 ture of hemp or flax, in particular, for home uses, prevails 
 (according to him) universally : And in so far as this is the 
 case, no advocate for manufactures, however sanguine, could 
 possibly expect from them any beneficial effects on husbandry. 
 If every family in the country have a patch of flax or hemp for 
 its own supply of all the articles manufactured from these 
 
 1 [Tour through Ireland, &c.] Vol. IT. p. 162.
 
 174 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 materials, the exchanges between the country and the town are 
 in the same proportion diminished ; and if a similar practice 
 were extended to every other article, the circulation would stop 
 completely. The farmer would have nothing to buy, and would 
 soon have nothing to sell " A countryman thus living on his 
 own little property, industriously employed with his family in 
 manufacturing for all their own wants, exhibits, it must be 
 owned, a pleasing spectacle of simple and sober manners, but 
 of manners perfectly inconsistent with the prosperity of a great 
 society in the actual circumstances of Modern Europe." 1 
 
 Various other particulars, in Mr. Young's statement, which 
 have a very paradoxical aspect at first view, would probably 
 appear in a different light, if we were acquainted with all the 
 circumstances. Thus, in the Pays de Caux, (the country, 
 to wit, from Havre to Rouen,) upon which he has laid parti- 
 cular stress, the difficulty is completely explained by some facts 
 mentioned by Young himself, on a different occasion. " The 
 soil," we are informed, " is among the finest in France. The 
 number of small properties, and consequently population, is 
 very great, which is the reason for the price and rental of land 
 through this country being vastly out of proportion to the pro- 
 ducts. Landlords also divide their farms according to the 
 demand, as the rise of rent tempts it ; but they often find them- 
 selves depending for the rent of their land on the prosperity of a 
 fabric. Had the Pays de Caux been a miserably poor, rocky, 
 or barren territory, the result would have been beneficial, for 
 the fabric would have covered such a district with cul- 
 tivation.'^ 
 
 Mr. Young informs us further, that the farmers in the Pays 
 de Caux are not only manufacturers, but have an inclination 
 also for trade. The large ones engage in commercial specula- 
 tions at Havre, particularly in the cotton trade, and some even 
 in that of the West Indies. " This," he adds, " is a most per- 
 nicious circumstance ; the improvement of their cultivation 
 being never the object or result of their growing rich, but 
 merely the engaging more largely in trade or manufacture. If 
 
 1 Young, [Travel* through France,] p. 504> f [Ibidem, p. 505, teq.]
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 175 
 
 they get a share in an American adventure, no matter whether 
 docks and thistles cover their fields."* Such facts are abun- 
 dantly curious ; but it is surely unfair to state merely the 
 general result, without any specification of the peculiarities of 
 the case, in order to invalidate the important doctrine of the 
 influence of manufactures on the improvement of a country. 
 
 I shall take this opportunity of remarking, (as a more con- 
 venient one may not occur afterwards,) that Mr. Young's 
 assertions, with respect to the pernicious effects of domestic 
 manufactures, (an opinion, by the way, in which he has 
 persevered more uniformly than in most of his other general 
 principles,) are stated in too unqualified a form. Dr. Crumpe, 
 in an Essay which gained the prize from the Irish Academy, 
 expresses strong doubts (founded on some observations com- 
 municated to him by Dr. Burrowes) whether Mr. Young's 
 description of the farming manufacturers in Ulster is not 
 highly exaggerated. And at any rate, the circumstances of 
 that people are too peculiar, in many other respects, to autho- 
 rize us to draw from them any general conclusions. The same 
 remark may be applied to this opinion, in so far as it rests on 
 the state of agriculture in France. 
 
 It is certainly true in general, that the two employments of 
 a farmer and a manufacturer will be carried on to greater per- 
 fection when divided, than when united in one person. " A 
 country weaver," as Mr. Smith observes, " who cultivates a 
 small farm, must lose a good deal of time in passing from his 
 loom to his field, and from the field to the loom. A man com- 
 monly saunters a little in turning his hand from one sort of 
 employment to another ; and this renders him almost always 
 slothful and lazy, and incapable of any vigorous application 
 even on the most pressing occasions/'f 
 
 Although, however, it follows from this, that a domestic 
 manufacture must always be a most unprofitable employment 
 for an individual who depends chiefly for his subsistence on the 
 produce of a farm, the converse of the proposition seems to 
 
 * [Ibidem, p. 506.] 
 
 t [Wealth of Nations, Book T. chap. i. ; Vol. I. pp. 13, 14, tenth edition.]
 
 176 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 require some limitations. A man, indeed, who exercises a 
 trade which occupies him from day to day, must, of necessity, 
 be disqualified for the management of such agricultural con- 
 cerns as require a constant and undivided attention. But it 
 does not appear equally evident, how the improvement of the 
 country should be injured by his possessing a few acres as an 
 employment for his hours of recreation ; nor does it seem likely, 
 on the other hand, that his professional skill and industry 
 will be more impaired by his occasional labour in the fields, 
 than by those habits of intemperate dissipation in which 
 all workmen who have no variety of pursuit are prone to 
 indulge. 
 
 The manufacture of our national broad-cloth, affords a con- 
 trast to some of the examples mentioned by Young. " This 
 manufacture," as is remarked by a late writer On Taxation of 
 Income* " is almost everywhere carried on by unconnected 
 workmen, who employ all the hours which they devote to re- 
 laxation and amusement, in the care of their garden and other 
 small portions of ground which they happen to possess, to 
 which they and their families become commonly so much at- 
 tached, that they have been known to remain in them (small 
 as their properties commonly are) for many generations. Nor 
 does the possession of this variety make them worse tradesmen ; 
 on the contrary, this class of manufacturers are everywhere 
 noted for their industry, and the article which they furnish, 
 which has long been considered as the staple commodity of our 
 country, is the best and most perfect of its kind that can any- 
 where be met with/'f 
 
 The advantages to health and to morals attending manufac- 
 tures of this description, when compared with the effects of 
 manufacturing towns, are so great that some political writers 
 have gone so far as to assert, that it is only when spread over 
 the face of a country they can be considered as a public 
 benefit. Mirabeau, [the son,] in his book On the Prussian 
 Monarchy, maintains this opinion, and lays it down as a general 
 
 * [Mr. Benjamin Bell, the eminent Surgeon of Edinburgh, in Three Essays, &c., 
 1799.] t [Three Essays, &c., pp. 132, 133.]
 
 JHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 177 
 
 proposition, " That great manufactures belonging to individuals 
 who hire workmen by the day, can never form an object worthy 
 of the attention of Government" 1 
 
 In stating these considerations I would not be understood to 
 deny the truth of Young's reasonings in favour of manufac- 
 turing towns compared with scattered manufactures ; for I am 
 sensible that much may be alleged in support of his system. 
 But he has unquestionably carried it too far, by keeping com- 
 pletely out of view the arguments which favour the opposite 
 conclusion. The fact is, that in all human establishments we 
 may expect to find a mixture of good and of evil ; and the only 
 question is, which of the two preponderates ? It is sufficient 
 for me in the case of this incidental question, to have suggested 
 some doubts in opposition to Mr. Young's unqualified asser- 
 tions. The prosecution of the discussion would lead me too 
 far aside from my principal subject. 2 
 
 It is not, however, only by the peculiarity in the manufac- 
 turing establishments of France, which has occasioned this 
 digression, that Mr. Young has complicated the general ques- 
 tion concerning the influence of Manufactures on Agriculture. 
 Much depends on the species of manufactures that are estab- 
 lished in a country ; and in this respect the choice of Colbert 
 seems to have been guided by narrow and erroneous principles. 
 The manufactures which he encouraged were chiefly those 
 which minister to luxury and to elegance; the demand for 
 which depending to so great a degree on fashion and caprice 
 cannot be so constant and steady as for articles which are sub- 
 servient to the real wants and necessities of mankind. It has 
 been observed in our own country, that the manufacturers of 
 Norwich, who deal in fine crapes and other delicate stuffs, are 
 laid idle three times for once that the Yorkshire manufacturer, 
 who deals chiefly in low-priced serviceable cloths, experiences 
 a similar misfortune. 3 The disturbances which have so often 
 
 1 Tome III. p. 109. Young, [Travels James Steuart, [Political (Economy,] 
 in France,] p. 505. Book I. chap. x. ; [Works, Vol. I. p. 
 
 65, seq.] 
 
 2 Some important remarks on th 3 Anderson, On National Industry, 
 disadvantages of cities are made by Sir p. 57. 
 
 VOL. VIII. M
 
 178 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 been occasioned by the silk-weavers of Spitalfields, and which 
 have exceeded any that have taken place among the other 
 classes of our manufacturers, have been ascribed partly to the 
 same circumstance. This error, however, has been long per- 
 ceived and corrected in France ; and, under the old govern- 
 ment, a variety of the most useful manufactures were advancing 
 rapidly to perfection. 
 
 The Manufactures that, in addition to their other advantages, 
 draw from the farmer the materials on which they depend, 
 and thereby present a new stimulus to Agriculture, possess un- 
 doubtedly great advantages over those that work up materials 
 imported from abroad. Some remarks on this subject that 
 deserve attention, blended with other speculations of less con- 
 sequence, may be found in Dr. Anderson's Observations on 
 the Means of Exciting a Spirit of National Industry in 
 Scotland. 
 
 I have been led into these observations (which have extended 
 to a much greater length than I expected) by the passage 
 quoted from Mr. Young's Account of France, in which he has 
 plainly lost sight of some important general principles, to the 
 truth of which he has, on other occasions, borne ample testi- 
 mony. If I should be thought, in stating them, to have 
 sometimes forgotten the general title under which they were 
 introduced, I have only to remark, by way of apology, (in the 
 words of Sir James Steuart,) " that the complicated mechanism 
 of society in modern times, (so different from the simplicity of 
 ancient manners,) has rendered almost every disorder in the 
 political body an obstacle to that useful population that consti- 
 tutes national strength."* This, it is evident, holds more 
 particularly true of every disorder which affects agricultural 
 industry. 
 
 Before concluding my observations on Agriculture and Manu- 
 factures considered in their relation to population, I cannot 
 help remarking once more, the extravagance of general decla- 
 
 * [Political (Economy, Book I. chap. xii. ; Worlct, Vol. I. p. 91 ; the meaning, 
 but not the words, identical.]
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 179 
 
 mations in favour of Agriculture when accompanied with 
 invectives against those employments from which the farmer 
 derives his market. It is very justly observed by Mr. Smith, 
 that those systems which, in order to promote Agriculture, 
 would impose restraints upon manufacturing and foreign trade, 
 act contrary to the very end which they propose, and indirectly 
 discourage that very species of industry which they mean to 
 promote. They are so far more inconsistent than even the 
 system which would encourage manufactures and foreign 
 trade in preference to Agriculture; inasmuch as the latter, 
 while it turns a certain portion of the capital of the society 
 from supporting a more advantageous, to support a less advan- 
 tageous species of industry, really accomplish their favourite 
 object. Those agricultural systems, on the contrary, in their 
 ultimate tendency, discourage that very species of industry 
 which it is their professed aim to animate.* 
 
 Mr. Smith (as I already hinted) accuses the French Econo- 
 mists of this very inconsistency, of proposing to advance agri- 
 culture by depressing manufactures.f I am doubtful if in this 
 charge he has treated them with his usual candour ; but the 
 remarks he has made on this alleged imperfection of their 
 system, are just and profound, and are strictly applicable to 
 the reasonings of Mr. Young, and of various other later writers. 
 
 If, indeed, by depressing manufactures be understood the 
 abolition of all those institutions which have hitherto given the 
 industry of towns an advantage over that of the country, so as 
 to allow the industry and capital of the society to follow as 
 much as possible its natural course, without receiving any par- 
 ticular determination on the part of Government ; it must be 
 owned that the Economists are, in this sense, advocates for 
 agriculture in preference to manufactures. But this is equally 
 the tendency of Mr. Smith's own system, which seems to me, 
 so far as the present question is concerned, to differ from that 
 which he criticises only in its phraseology ; according to both 
 systems, the perfection of policy consists in abolishing all re- 
 
 * [Wealth of Nations, Book IV. chap. ix. ; Vol. III. p. 41, tenth edition.] 
 t [Ibidem, p. 3.]
 
 180 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 gulations which tend either to preference or to restraint ; and 
 in allowing every man to bring both his industry and his 
 capital into competition with those of any other man or order of 
 men, so long as he confines himself within the limits of justice. 
 After all, in the present circumstances of Europe, allowances 
 ought to be made for the zeal with which some writers have 
 taken up the argument in favour of Agriculture, when we con- 
 eider the discouragements under which it has so long laboured, 
 and which still contribute so powerfully to retard its progress. 
 Nothing indeed could be so absurd as to think of advancing it, 
 by depressing that species of industry to which it owes its chief 
 improvements ; but still it must be owned, that it stands in 
 need, in a very peculiar degree, not only of the protection, but 
 of the fostering care of Government. Mr. Smith has himself, 
 in another part of his work, made some observations which 
 tend strongly to confirm this conclusion. " With all the 
 liberty and security which law can give, the occupiers of land 
 must always improve under great disadvantages. The farmer, 
 compared with the proprietor, is as a merchant who trades 
 with borrowed money, compared with one who trades with his 
 own. The stock of both may improve, but that of the one, 
 with only equal good conduct, must always improve more 
 slowly than that of the other, on account of the large share of 
 the profit which is consumed by the interest of the loan. The 
 lands cultivated by the farmer must, in the same manner, with 
 only equal good conduct, be improved more slowly than those 
 cultivated by the proprietor, on account of the large share of 
 the produce which is consumed in the rent, and which, had 
 the farmer been proprietor, he might have employed in the 
 further improvement of the land. The station of a farmer 
 besides, is, from the nature of things, inferior to that of a pro- 
 prietor. Through the greater part of Europe, the yeomanry 
 are regarded as an inferior rank of people, even to the better 
 sort of tradesmen and mechanics, and in all parts of Europe 
 to the great merchants and master manufacturers. It can 
 seldom happen, therefore, that a man of any considerable stock 
 should quit the superior to place himself in an inferior station ;
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 181 
 
 and therefore, even in the present state of Europe, little stock 
 is likely to go from any other profession to the improvement of 
 land in the way of farming. More does perhaps in Great Bri- 
 tain than in any other country, though even there the great 
 stocks which are in some places employed in farming, have 
 generally been acquired by farming, the trade, perhaps, in which 
 of all others stock is commonly acquired most slowly."* 
 
 Nor is this all. The education and habits of a husbandman, 
 his solitary life and stationary residence, naturally attach him 
 to the practices with which he is familiar, and prevent, in this 
 order of men, the possibility of a mutual communication of 
 lights analogous to what exists all over the commercial world, 
 among tradesmen and artists of every description. 1 
 
 Hence the duty of Government to give every possible assist- 
 ance to Agriculture by promoting the circulation of useful 
 knowledge ; and the duty of those who fill the higher stations 
 in society, to instruct and animate their inferiors by the in- 
 fluence of example. In the various departments of Trade, 
 individuals may be safely left to themselves, and are most 
 likely to advance both the public interests and their own, when 
 they exercise freely their private judgment concerning the most 
 effectual means of bettering their fortune. But experience 
 shows that this maxim does not apply in its full extent to the 
 cultivators of the soil, whose situation precludes them, in a 
 great measure, from all information but what is supplied by 
 the narrow circle of their professional employments. The 
 general progress of improvement, therefore, in this most im- 
 portant of all arts, is likely to be extremely slow, where it does 
 
 * [Wealth of Nations, Book III. because their neighbours would laugh 
 
 chap. ii. ; Vol. II. pp. 97, 98, tenth edi- a t them ; and in some districts (such as 
 
 tion.] Bedfordshire) it is stated, that the art 
 
 1 The Reports presented to the Board of husbandry is a century behind the 
 of Agriculture are full of complaints nearly adjoining counties. Some very 
 against the inveteracy of local preju- striking facts in illustration of this re- 
 dices and practices, and the repugnance mark are mentioned by Harte in his 
 with which fanners listen to any ideas Essays on Husbandry, [1764,] p. 222 ; 
 that are new. In remote situations, Second Edition. "Nothing shows more 
 such as Wales, (we are told,) the people strongly the inattention and indolence 
 will not adopt English improvements, of Mankind," &c.
 
 182 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 not engage the superintending care of Government, and is not 
 aided by the enlightened example of landed proprietors ; and 
 it is pleasing to reflect on the attention which begins to be paid 
 to it, in our own country, as a national object. The rapid pro- 
 gress which the more refined systems of modern husbandry 
 have made in some districts, in consequence of the exertions of 
 a few leading individuals, is a satisfactory proof, that however 
 difficult it may be to struggle with ignorance and prejudice, 
 these obstacles are by no means insurmountable. 
 
 Justice, too, and humanity, as well as sound policy, plead 
 strongly in favour of a class of men, who, while they are em- 
 ployed in laying the only solid foundation of national greatness, 
 are necessarily, in the present circumstances of the world, left 
 behind by those who follow the commercial arts. Nor ought 
 we to forget what is due to the simple and interesting virtues 
 which seem, in every age, to be attached to this primitive occu- 
 pation of man ; and on which, in a far greater degree than on 
 the arithmetical numbers of a people, the prosperity and the 
 resources of a country essentially depend. They are beauti- 
 fully described in the following fragment of Old Cato : 
 
 " Majores nostri. . . . virum bonum cum laudabant, ita 
 laudabant : ' bonum Agricolam, bonumque Colonum.' Am- 
 plissime laudari existimabatur, qui ita laudabatur. Merca- 
 torem autem, strenuum studiosumque rei quaerendae existimo ; 
 verum (ut supra dixi) periculosum et calamitosum. At ex 
 agricolis, et viri fortissimi et milites strenuissimi gignuntur; 
 maximeque pius qua3stus stabilissimusque consequitur, inini- 
 meque invidiosus. Minime quoque male cogitantes sunt, qui 
 in eo studio occupati sunt."* 
 
 In some of my last lectures, I have enlarged, at considerable 
 length, on the essential importance of Manufactures as a 
 stimulus to Agriculture, in the present circumstances of Modern 
 Europe: and I have also touched slightly on the incidental 
 disadvantages attending them, when established on erroneous 
 principles. The subject, I am sensible, is far from being 
 
 * [M. Cato, Dt Re Ruslica, cap. i.J
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 183 
 
 exhausted ; and, indeed, the new views of it which open upon 
 us at every step of our progress, are so various, that I find it 
 extremely difficult to proceed with steadiness towards those 
 general conclusions which I wish to establish. Some of these 
 views, I flatter myself, I may be able to prosecute hereafter, 
 when I shall have leisure to survey more comprehensively, the 
 whole field of inquiry. At present, the multiplicity of other 
 articles to which I am anxious to direct your attention, com- 
 pared with the limited extent of the course, obliges me to 
 hasten to speculations of a different nature. 
 
 [1. On the Employment of Children in Factory Work : its 
 Advantages and Disadvantages.] 
 
 I cannot, however, bring to a close the discussions in which 
 we have been last engaged, without taking notice of a neiu 
 form in which manufacturing labour has lately appeared in 
 this country, I allude to those establishments which, by em- 
 ploying crowds of children separated from the inspection of 
 their parents, appear to threaten (at least on a superficial view 
 of the subject) the most fatal consequences to the health and to 
 the morals, as well as to the numbers, of the rising generation. 
 The following statement of the fact, as it is exemplified on a 
 very great scale, in Lancashire and some of the neighbouring 
 counties, I borrow from Dr. Aikin's Description of the Country 
 round Manchester. 
 
 " In the cotton mills, children of very tender age are em- 
 ployed ; many of them collected from the workhouses of London 
 and Westminster, and transported in crowds, as apprentices to 
 masters resident many hundred miles distant, where they serve, 
 unknown, unprotected, and forgotten by those to whose care 
 Nature or the laws had consigned them. These children are 
 usually too long confined at work, in close rooms, often during 
 the whole night; the air they breathe, from the oil, &c., 
 employed in the machinery, and other circumstances, is in- 
 jurious ; little regard is paid to their cleanliness ; and frequent 
 changes from a warm to a cold atmosphere are predisposing 
 causes to sickness and debility, and particularly to the epidemic
 
 184 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK. I. POPULATION. 
 
 fever which so generally is to be met with in these factories. It 
 is also much to be questioned, if society does not receive detri- 
 ment from the manner in which children are thus employed 
 during their early years. They are not generally strong for 
 labour, or capable of pursuing any other branch of business 
 when the term of their apprenticeship expires. The females 
 are wholly uninstructed in sewing, knitting, and other domestic 
 affairs, requisite to make them notable and frugal wives and 
 mothers. This is a great misfortune to them and to the public, 
 as is sadly proved by a comparison of the families of labourers 
 in husbandry, and those of manufacturers in general. In the 
 former, we meet with neatness, cleanliness, and comfort; in 
 the latter, with filth, rags, and poverty, although their wages 
 may be nearly double to those of the husbandman. It must 
 be added, that the want of early religious instruction and 
 example, and the numerous and indiscriminate association in 
 these buildings, are very unfavourable to their future conduct 
 in life." 
 
 These facts seem abundantly to justify the quaere of a late 
 humane and liberal writer, (Sir Frederick Morton Eden,) 
 " Whether any manufacture, which, in order to be carried on 
 successfully, requires that cottages and workhouses should be 
 ransacked for poor children ; that they should be employed by 
 turns during the greater part of the night, and robbed of that 
 rest which, though indispensable to all, is most required by the 
 young ; and that numbers of both sexes of different ages and 
 dispositions, should be collected together in such a manner, 
 that the contagion of example cannot but lead to profligacy 
 and debauchery, will add to the sum of national felicity ?"* 
 
 The subject, undoubtedly, even when viewed in the most 
 favourable light, is far from being pleasing ; nor is it possible 
 for any views of remote expediency to reconcile the mind to 
 commercial projects, which are not only injurious to the morals 
 of the community, but which require a sacrifice of the happi- 
 ness attached by nature, to the gaiety, the freedom, and the 
 innocent activity of childhood. As most political subjects, 
 
 [State of the Poor, &c. Lond. 1797.]
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 185 
 
 however, may be considered under different aspects, and as it 
 is more useful to attempt the melioration of unavoidable evils 
 than to indulge ourselves in declamations against what it is 
 beyond our power to remedy, it may be worth while to employ 
 a few moments in examining, first, Whether the misery and 
 profligacy described by Dr. Aikin be necessarily connected with 
 these establishments, in the extent which he has stated ; and, 
 secondly, Whether they may not have their use in palliating 
 some other disorders of a still more alarming nature, in a 
 commercial and luxurious society, such as that in which they 
 have arisen. 
 
 In answer to the first of these inquiries, it gives me great 
 pleasure to mention the following particulars, which evince, in 
 a very striking manner, how much may be effected by the 
 active zeal of private humanity when wisely and systematically 
 directed to its object, in alleviating those evils which, as they 
 seem to originate in causes intimately connected with national 
 wealth and prosperity, it is scarcely possible for the Legislator 
 to remedy. The particulars I am to state relate to the Cotton 
 Manufactory in the neighbourhood of Lanark, lately the pro- 
 perty of Mr. Dale at Glasgow.* 
 
 The supply of workers for this establishment comes either 
 from the native inhabitants of the place ; from families who 
 have been collected about the works from the neighbouring 
 parishes, and more distant parts of the country ; or, lastly, from 
 Edinburgh and Glasgow, both of which towns constantly afford 
 great numbers of destitute children. 
 
 The period during which they are engaged varies according 
 to the circumstances of their situation. Those who receive 
 weekly wages (the greater part of whom live with their parents) 
 are commonly engaged for four years ; while such as are sent 
 from the workhouse in Edinburgh, or who are otherwise with- 
 out friends to take the charge of them, are bound four, five, six, 
 
 * [The same philanthropic care of tended by his son-in-law, Mr. Robert 
 
 these factory children, in relation to Owen; whose theories though we must 
 
 their comforts and education, was, after reject, we cannot but admire the here- 
 
 Mr. Dale's death, continued and ex- volence of his intentions.]
 
 186 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 or seven years, according to their age ; their service continuing 
 until they have completed their fifteenth year. Children of this 
 last description receive, instead of wages, their maintenance 
 and education. 
 
 The hours of labour are eleven and a half each day, from six 
 in the morning till seven at night, with half an hour of inter- 
 mission at nine o'clock for breakfast, and a whole hour at two 
 for dinner. 
 
 Seven is the hour for supper ; in half an hour after which 
 the children go to school, where they continue till nine o'clock. 
 In 1796, (after which period I cannot speak on the subject 
 with the same accuracy,) the schools were attended by five 
 hundred and seven scholars ; in instructing whom in reading, 
 writing, and the principles of arithmetic, besides the common 
 branches of education appropriated to females, sixteen teachers, 
 with two occasional assistants, were employed. Besides these 
 night schools, there were two day schools for children too 
 young for work ; all of them unattended with any expense to 
 the scholars. The utmost attention was paid, at all times, to 
 the purity of their morals, and to their religious instruction. 
 
 Of the attention given to cleanliness, diet, and everything 
 else connected with health, the following statement of the 
 number of children in the boarding-house at different periods, 
 compared with the annual deaths, affords the most satisfactory 
 evidence. The greatest part of the workers, it is to be observed, 
 are lodged with their parents, who reside either in the village, 
 in the immediate neighbourhood, or in the town of Lanark, one 
 mile distant ; and, therefore, this statement is to be understood 
 as applying to those who receive their maintenance instead of 
 wages, and who are all lodged together in one house. Thia 
 number, in 1796, amounted to 396 boys and girls. 
 
 In 1792 270 Boarders 2 Deaths. 
 
 ,,1793 288 .... 1 
 
 ,,1794 306 , 
 
 ,,1796, .... 384 .... 5 
 
 8
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. (3.) 187 
 
 With respect to their aptitude for other employments and 
 the general state of their bodily strength, when their size dis- 
 qualifies them for this species of labour, we are assured by Mr. 
 Dale, in a printed letter addressed to Mr. Bailey of Hope, near 
 Manchester, that " the workers, when too big for spinning, are 
 as stout and robust as others of the same age. The male part 
 of them are fit for any trades ; a great many, since the com- 
 mencement of the war, have gone into the army and navy, and 
 others are occasionally going away as apprentices to smiths or 
 joiners, but especially to weavers ; for which last trade, from 
 the expertness they acquire in handling yarn, they are particu- 
 larly well fitted, and of course are taken as apprentices on 
 better terms. The females very generally leave the mills 
 and go to private family service, when about sixteen years 
 of age. " Were they disposed to continue at the mills," Mr. 
 Dale adds, "these afford abundant employment for them, as 
 well as for many more young men than ever remain at 
 them." 
 
 I shall only observe farther, before concluding this article, 
 that if it were possible to restrain the unjustifiable practice of 
 ransacking cottages and dissolving family connexions, by carry- 
 ing away children to a distance from their homes ; and if such 
 establishments as have been now under review were confined 
 to the orphan and destitute, supplied in such abundance by 
 our great cities, their evil consequences would be much 
 diminished ; and they might even be considered as a salutary 
 provision for some political disorders inseparably connected 
 with our present system of manners. It will appear, in another 
 part of the course, that the poverty and beggary which has 
 prevailed so much in these last ages among the lower orders, 
 arose necessarily from that important change which has gra- 
 dually taken place in this part of Europe ; the decrease of 
 villainage, and the dependence of the body of the people on 
 their own industry. This evil, therefore, is necessarily con- 
 nected (although I am far from thinking that it is so to the 
 extent in which it exists) with the manufactures and com- 
 merce to which this nation owes so much of its prosperity. In
 
 188 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 such a state of society, the number of destitute children cannot 
 fail to be great ; and it is increased to a wonderful degree by 
 the licentious morals so prevalent in all our towns, but more 
 especially in the capital. The condition of the unfortunate 
 objects of manufacturing speculation cannot, therefore, be fairly 
 compared with that of the young who enjoy the inestimable 
 advantages of parental care and tenderness, but with what 
 their own situation would probably have been if they had not 
 found such an asylum. 
 
 From some facts, indeed, that have been very strongly 
 stated in the other part of the island, it would appear that the 
 protecting interference of the Legislature is loudly called for, 
 in the case of parish children transported, as is often the case, 
 from workhouses in the metropolis, to factories in distant 
 counties. A late writer of most respectable character, [the Rev.] 
 Mr. Gisborne* assures us, that he has known, from indisputable 
 authority, cruel punishments inflicted on such as have found 
 the means of representing the hardships they suffered, in order 
 to deter them and their companions from similar attempts ; 
 an abuse which cannot be checked while magistrates have no 
 power of entering the workshops of manufacturers for the 
 purpose of inquiring into the treatment of the children whom 
 they employ. Government, certainly, can never be better 
 occupied than in measures, which, by promoting the comforts, 
 the health, and the morals of those whom Providence has 
 deprived of their natural guardians, re-establish, in some 
 measure, those ties which the unfortunate accidents of life 
 have broken, and give vigour to the first principles on which 
 the political fabric depends. 
 
 [2. On Machinery as a Substitute for Labour : its Advant- 
 ages and Disadvantages.] 
 
 To the same branch of our subject belongs another question, 
 which has not only occasioned much discussion among specu- 
 lative politicians, but has given rise to frequent insurrections 
 among the labouring classes of the people. The question con- 
 
 * [Inquiry into the Dvtiet of Men, &c. Lend. 1794, 1795.]
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 189 
 
 cerning the tendency of mecJtanical contrivances for superseding 
 or for abridging labour, to increase or to diminish the popula- 
 tion of a country, in consequence of their tendency to increase 
 or to diminish the quantity of employment to those whose 
 subsistence depends on their own industry. 
 
 On this question I must confine myself, at present, to a few 
 imperfect hints. I shall begin with stating the opinion of 
 Montesquieu, whose sentiments coincide with those of some 
 other very distinguished writers of the same country. 
 
 " Where there is an Agrarian Law," he observes, " and the 
 lands are equally divided, the country may be well peopled 
 though there are but few arts ; because every citizen receives 
 from the cultivation of his land whatever is necessary for his 
 subsistence; and all the citizens together consume all the 
 fruits of the earth. Thus it was in some of the ancient 
 republics. 
 
 " In our present situation, in which lands are so unequally 
 distributed, they produce much more than those who cultivate 
 them can consume ; and consequently, if the arts should be 
 neglected, and nothing attended to but Agriculture, the country 
 could not be peopled. Those who cultivate, having corn to 
 spare, nothing would engage them to work the following year. 
 The fruits of the earth would not be consumed by the indo- 
 lent, for these would have nothing with which they could 
 purchase them. It is necessary then that the Arts should be 
 established, in order that the produce of the land may be con- 
 sumed by the labourer and the artificer. In a word, it is now 
 proper that many should cultivate much more than is neces- 
 sary for their own use. For this purpose they must have a 
 desire of enjoying superfluities, and these they can receive only 
 from the artificer. 
 
 " Those machines which are designed to abridge art are not 
 always useful. If a piece of workmanship is of a moderate 
 price, such as is equally agreeable to the maker and buyer, 
 those machines which render the manufacture more simple, or 
 in other words, diminish the number of workmen, would be 
 pernicious. And if water-mills were not everywhere estab-
 
 190 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 lished, I should not have believed them so useful as is pre- 
 tended, because they have deprived an infinite multitude of 
 their employment, a vast number of persons of the use of 
 water, and the greater part of the land of its fertility." 1 
 
 I recollect few passages in the writings of this very eminent 
 author in which he appears to me to have reasoned in so loose 
 and slovenly a manner. The chapter which I have now quoted 
 is entitled, " Of the Number of Inhabitants with relation to the 
 Arts." From the scope of the argument in the first part of it, 
 we are naturally led to expect that the author is pointing at 
 a distinction formerly illustrated, between that state of society 
 in which Agriculture was practised as a means of subsistence, 
 and the state of society in Modern Europe, in which it is prac- 
 tised as a trade, with a view of shewing the disadvantages 
 of machines in the former case, and their utility in the latter. 
 Of this speculation, however, he makes no use whatever in 
 the concluding paragraph ; but, on the contrary, seems to 
 call in question the expediency of water-mills even at present. 
 " If water-mills were not everywhere established, I should 
 not have believed them so useful as is pretended, because they 
 have deprived an infinite number of hands of their employ- 
 ment, a vast number of persons of the use of water, and a great 
 part of the land of its fertility." Of these three considerations, 
 the last two, it is evident, are perfectly inapplicable to the 
 general question, as they would only prove, even if they were 
 admitted as just, the inferiority of wafer-mills to wind-mills. 
 I shall confine myself, therefore, to the first ; the tendency of 
 such contrivances to diminish the quantity of employment in a 
 manufacturing and commercial country. 
 
 Before entering on the argument, it may not be a disagree- 
 able relief to the attention, in the midst of these discussions, to 
 quote a very beautiful Greek epigram, occasioned by the inven- 
 tion here objected to by Montesquieu, and which has frequently 
 struck me as bearing a strong resemblance to the general strain 
 of Dr. Darwin's Imagery in the Botanic Garden. The ancients, 
 (it may be proper to premise,) during many ages, knew nothing 
 
 1 Spirit of Laws, Book XXIII. chap. xv.
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 191 
 
 but hand-mitts * and in Greece the labour of turning tbem 
 was committed to the women. The case would appear to have 
 been the same among the Egyptians, from the following passage 
 of Scripture : " All the first-born of Egypt shall die, from the 
 first-born of Pharaoh that sitteth upon the throne, even to the 
 first-born of the maid-servant that is behind the mill/' 1 I 
 shall quote the Epigram, (which is ascribed to Antipater,) in an 
 elegant Latin version by Bowing 
 
 * [Ass-mills (Molse Asinaria)) were 
 long as well known in antiquity as 
 Hand-mitts, (Molac Manuariae, Trusa- 
 tiles.)] 
 
 1 The mechanism of the machine is 
 still more explicitly alluded to in that 
 prohibition, where Moses forbids the 
 Israelites " to take the upper or the 
 nether mitt-stone in pledge." 
 
 f [The author of this Epigram is 
 Antipater of Thessalonica, not Antipater 
 of Sidon. He flourished during the 
 Augustan age, and was a contemporary 
 of Vitruvius, who notices the introduc- 
 tion of Water-Mills as then recent. 
 (Architectura, X. x.) The reference to 
 Ceres in the Epigram is appropriate ; 
 that goddess being commemorated as the 
 inventor of Corn-Mills in general. (Pliny, 
 H. N. VII. kvi.) The Epigram is not 
 contained in the Planudinn Anthology 
 or Collection of Greek Epigrams, but is 
 preserved, with many other anecdota, in 
 the famous Palatine Codex, or Heidel- 
 berg Manuscript. From thence it was 
 first published by Sulmasius in a note 
 on the Augustan History. (Lampridii, 
 Heliof/., cap. xxiv.) John Boivin (M. 
 Boivin le cadet) afterwards published 
 the original, with French and Latin ver- 
 sions, in his " Bemarques Historiques et 
 Critiques sur I" Antliologie manuscrite 
 qui est a la Bibliotheque du Roy." 
 (Mem. de I'Acad. des Jnscript., T. ii. p. 
 279, seq.~) The manuscript there quoted 
 was a copy derived from that of Heidel- 
 berg, through the transcript of Salma- 
 
 sius ; of whose publication of the Epi- 
 gram, in his note upon Lampridius, 
 Boivin was, however, unaware. (Ibid. p. 
 316.) The original is subjoined, with 
 an emendation of two corrupted places. 
 The first and more obtrusive is indeed 
 silently made by Boivin. I give the 
 Epigram as it appears in the Mantissa 
 Quarto, p. 426 of the third volume of 
 De Bosch's Anthologia; and annex the 
 version of Grotius to compare with 
 Boivin's. I have not, on this occasion, 
 looked into the collection of Brunk or 
 of Jacobs. 
 
 fivi.tt.7ar, xXirgiats, JuSiri 
 
 [1. l(<vr 
 
 K.r,y co 
 
 hut, 
 
 tt y& 
 irin 
 A! cl 
 
 *A%ata, Siviuouiriy' a 3' axrivtiro-n l\ixra.7( 
 2r0uifaTai Turvgur [I. "S-Toutya. rat 
 
 Aaivufftiai Atiovs t^yec ili&ffxaf&iiiL." 
 
 " Parcite pistricesmanibus.longumque soporem 
 
 Carpite, mane licet gallus adesse canat. 
 Flava Ceres chorea* [?] en Ny mphis imperat : 
 
 illae 
 
 Saltantes summo molliter orbe super 
 Circumagunt azem: radii momenta aequon- 
 
 tur, 
 
 Bis duo [?] Tersantea concara saxa mohc. 
 Vita redit veterum, quando Cerealia nostro 
 Dona frui nobU absque labor e datur."]
 
 192 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK L POPULATION. 
 
 " Stcrtite jam fanmlse ; cesset mola ; brachia ccssent : 
 
 Stertite, dum gallus provocat ore diem. 
 Alma Ceres liquidas operi suocedere vestro 
 
 Naiadas, et mamram jussit obire vicem. 
 Scandit Nympha rotam celeri pede ; vertitur axis, 
 
 Versatur celeri turbine rapta mola. 
 Rursum sevi veteris fruimur bona. Dat eua nobis 
 
 Munera non ullo parta labore Ceres." 
 
 I have alluded to this Epigram, not merely as an object of 
 curiosity, but as it exhibits a picture of a state of society which, 
 when contrasted with that of the more polished nations in 
 modern Europe, affords of itself, without any comment, a strong 
 general presumption against Montesquieu's conclusion. How 
 have mankind been enabled to emerge from barbarism to civi- 
 lisation, but by the introduction and the progressive improve- 
 ment of machinery ? It is by these that all human arts are 
 carried on, and that the condition of the citizen is distinguished 
 from that of the savage ; a fact so striking and so important in 
 the history of human affairs, that Franklin has somewhere 
 fixed on it as the best foundation for a definition of Man. And, 
 undoubtedly, if all such definitions were not absurd, that of being 
 & tool-making animal, or engineer, which he has humorously 
 substituted instead of some of those proposed by the philoso- 
 phers of antiquity, must be allowed to possess considerable 
 merit, inasmuch as it turns upon one of the most essential cha- 
 racteristics by which our species is discriminated from the 
 brutes. How intimately it is connected with the progress of 
 mankind, more especially in the advanced stages of their im- 
 provement, will appear more fully hereafter. In the meantime, 
 the experience of the past is sufficiently decisive on the subject, 
 to discourage all attempts to fetter human ingenuity and inven- 
 tion. The simplest machines and implements, without which 
 we now should be at a loss how to subsist, were new in their 
 day ; and, in many instances, the invention of them undoubtedly 
 diminished, perhaps annihilated, the demand for some species 
 of labour which was before in request In what situation 
 would the world now be had these inventions been proscribed, 
 out of tenderness to the old workmen ; and who will venture to
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 193 
 
 pronounce, that human life has yet attained to its highest de- 
 gree of refinement ? l 
 
 It is hardly possible to introduce suddenly the smallest in- 
 novation into the Political Economy of a' State, let it be ever 
 so reasonable, nay, ever so profitable, without incurring some 
 inconveniences. But temporary inconveniences furnish no 
 objection to solid improvements. Those which may arise 
 from the sudden introduction of a machine cannot possibly 
 be of long continuance. The workmen will, in all probability, 
 be soon able to turn their industry into some other channel ; 
 and they are certainly entitled to every assistance the public 
 can give them, when they are thus forced to change their pro- 
 fessional habits. "An advantageous and honourable peace," 
 as Sir James Steuart well remarks, " at the end of a long and 
 destructive war, is attended with the same inconvenience as the 
 invention of a machine. A number of soldiers are disbanded, 
 and become burdensome to the public ; but the evil is of short 
 duration, and bears no proportion to the extensive and solid ad- 
 vantages of which peace is productive." 2 At the end of the war 
 before last, more than a hundred thousand soldiers and sailors 
 were all at once thrown out of employment, a number equal 
 to what is employed in the greatest manufactories ; and yet 
 (according to Mr. Smith*) no sensible inconvenience happened 
 to the country. Many of the seamen probably betook them- 
 selves to the merchant service, while the rest, with the soldiers, 
 (adverse as the habits of both are to manufacturing industry,) 
 were very soon absorbed in the great mass of the people. 
 
 In what I have hitherto said, I have taken for granted, that 
 the invention of a machine must necessarily diminish the 
 quantity of employment in that particular branch of industry 
 which it is its object to facilitate ; and that it is necessary, upon 
 such an occasion, for those who are deprived of their former 
 
 1 See Gisborne, [Paley's Critic. An 8 Political (Economy, Book I. chap. 
 
 Inquiry into the Duties of Men in the xix.; [Works, Vol. I. p. 161.] 
 Higher Sank and Middle Classes of 
 
 Society in Great Britain, resulting from * [Wealth of Nations, Book IV. 
 
 their respective Stations, Professions, chap. ii. ; Vol. II. p. 204, tenth edi- 
 
 and Employments. Lond. 1794.] tion.] 
 
 VOL. VIII. N
 
 194 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 mode of subsistence, to betake themselves to some other trade 
 or manufacture, in which the demand for labourers still con- 
 tinues. But this is by no means a necessary consequence of 
 such inventions ; for it is far from being impossible, that by 
 lowering the price of commodities, and improving their quality, 
 they may increase the demand for work in a greater proportion 
 than that in which they diminish the number of hands by 
 which it is carried on. By lowering the price, they may open 
 new markets abroad, or place the commodities within the 
 reach of a lower class of people at home ; or, on the other 
 hand, by improving the fabric, they may bring them into 
 request, both at home and abroad, among the higher orders ; 
 and, in this manner, a larger quantity wrought in a more com- 
 pendious manner, may employ as many hands as a less quantity 
 in a way more laborious. In fact, this can scarcely fail to be 
 the consequence, inasmuch as the demand for labour has no 
 other limit than the extent of consumption ; and in the present 
 state of the world, consumption may be fairly said to have no 
 limit which may not be extended by a reduction of price. 
 When such an effect has once taken place, its operation in- 
 creases and extends beyond calculation ; for the increased 
 demand for the commodities produced by the assistance of the 
 machine, increases the demand for all the various materials and 
 all the various trades which are subservient to the manufacture, 
 and which furnish perhaps employment to an immense number 
 of hands without admitting of a mechanical abridgment. 
 
 It may be worth while to add, that the same state of society 
 which multiplies these compendious processes in the old and 
 established trades, is continually multiplying the number of 
 pursuits and occupations, and enlarging our prospect of that 
 boundless field which will never be exhausted by human in- 
 dustry. 
 
 Another consideration, too, which adds much force to the 
 foregoing reasonings, may be deduced from the effect of 
 mechanical abridgment of labour, in disengaging corresponding 
 quantities of the manufacturing capital of the country. In 
 proportion as this happens, the funds destined for the main-
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. (3.) 195 
 
 tenance of labour receive a virtual augmentation ; and, in a 
 nation such as ours, cannot fail to find immediate employment 
 either in extending the scale of old establishments, or in striking 
 out new channels of industry. In truth, all that has been 
 alleged by Turgot, Smith, and Bentham, in proof of the asto- 
 nishing effects produced by the accumulation of capital, may 
 be fairly urged in favour of those machines which render a 
 given quantity of capital more productive. 
 
 These observations, however, relate only to the eventual or 
 possible advantages of machines in increasing employment, 
 and, by no means, do justice to the present argument. Their 
 infinite importance, or rather, indeed, their absolute necessity to 
 maintain the national prosperity of a commercial country like 
 Great Britain, will appear from the following considerations. 
 
 " The Russians," we are told,* " had no other way of making 
 planks, till near the end of the last century, but by hewing or 
 chipping away a whole tree to the necessary thickness ; not- 
 withstanding which, they could afford to sell them cheaper 
 than their neighbours. Suppose that two Russians could, in 
 this manner, finish a plank in a day, and that in the same 
 time two common sawyers could cut out twenty, it follows that 
 the Russians must work for one-twentieth part of the sawyers' 
 wages. If a sawyer in Sweden can get tenpence a day, the 
 Russian must be paid with a halfpenny." .... 
 
 " In Sweden," Postlethwayt adds, " there are a kind of 
 mills turned by water, and so contrived as to take in large trees 
 on the upper side of the stream, and deliver them out on the 
 lower, sawed into planks in a few minutes." One of these 
 mills will make at least five hundred planks, whilst the Russian 
 could make a single one by hewing ; and consequently, with the 
 attendance of a single person, it performs the work of a thou- 
 sand men labouring with the axe. 
 
 It is only by such contrivances, combined with that division 
 of labour which is intimately connected with them, that nations, 
 among whom the wages of labour are comparatively high, can 
 maintain the competition in foreign markets ; and to what an 
 
 * [Postlethwayt's Dictionary, &c.; Article, Machine.]
 
 196 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 extraordinary extent the productive powers of industry may 
 thus be multiplied, the commercial history of our own island 
 affords a proof hitherto unequalled among mankind. 
 
 In a country where, by increase of money, by a load of taxes, 
 and by various other causes, the price of labour has risen 
 higher than among its commercial competitors, its trade must 
 necessarily go to decay, unless this circumstance is counteracted 
 by others of an opposite tendency. So strongly does this remark 
 apply to our own case, that many of our manufacturing towns 
 must long ago have given up all thoughts of foreign commerce, 
 if they had not been constantly struggling against the advancing 
 price of manual labour, by those astonishing combinations of 
 mechanical ingenuity which nothing but necessity can account 
 for. It is a fortunate arrangement in human affairs, that the 
 same circumstances which create the evil should thus furnish 
 the remedy. When demands from abroad slacken, and foreign 
 rivals, in consequence of the cheapness of labour, are on the 
 point of securing the prize, the pressure of necessity awakens 
 invention ; and by the seasonable introduction of a new machine, 
 re-establishes the manufacture, lowered in its price or improved 
 in its quality. The competition, in truth, among commercial 
 nations at present, is not merely a competition of industry, but 
 of ingenuity and skill ; and it is likely to become so in a greater 
 and greater degree, as the progress of Science and of Art 
 advances. It is this inexhaustible fund of mechanical inven- 
 tion, in which we have now left all our competitors far behind, 
 aided by the division of labour arising from mercantile opulence, 
 and protected by civil liberty, which is the great foundation of 
 our commercial prosperity. 
 
 The foregoing observations, while they appear to me to go far to 
 justify the general principle on which mechanical abridgments of 
 labour proceed, suggest, at the same time, if I am not mistaken, 
 an additional confirmation of some reasonings formerly stated 
 in vindication of the consolidation of farms. [P. 124, seq.] 
 
 It was long ago observed by Mr. Jenyns,* (and, indeed, the 
 remark must have occurred to every person who has bestowed 
 
 * [Thoughts on the present High Price of Provisions : 1767.]
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 197 
 
 a moment's consideration on the subject,) " That although no 
 tax is immediately laid, in Great Britain, on corn, it is taxed 
 as effectually as if a duty by the bushel had been primarily 
 laid upon it ; inasmuch as out of its price, all the innumerable 
 taxes drawn from the farmer on windows, soap, candles, malt, 
 hops, leather, salt, and a thousand others, must be repaid." . . . 
 " The price of corn, therefore" he concludes, "must necessarily 
 be advanced." 1 Since the time he wrote, how astonishingly 
 have taxes increased and multiplied on the farmer's articles of 
 consumption; and yet the price of corn has not, certainly, 
 risen in the same proportion. Indeed, under all this weight 
 of taxation, its price, at an average, appears to have fallen in 
 the course of the present century. 
 
 To what cause can we ascribe this very important fact, but 
 to the accumulation of agricultural capital in the hands of 
 those men who are accused of consolidating farms ? and who, 
 in consequence of the circumstances which have been already 
 explained, are enabled to bring their grain to the market at a 
 reduced expense. The advantages which manufacturers derive 
 from the division of labour, and from the use of machinery, 
 cannot be attained, but in a very inconsiderable degree, by the 
 husbandman ; and hence the inestimable value of every arrange- 
 ment which, by economizing his operations, prevents the price 
 of the necessaries of life from keeping pace with the growing 
 weight of taxation. These circumstances, it must be confessed, 
 render agriculture less profitable than formerly to small far- 
 mers, and they have, perhaps, a tendency unfavourable to the 
 agricultural population of the country. But although this 
 must be allowed to be an evil, it is not to be compared in mag- 
 nitude with a dependence on foreign nations for the means of 
 subsistence. From the increasing importations of grain, for a 
 good many years past, there is but too much reason to appre- 
 hend that the remedy is not altogether adequate to the disorder; 
 but the efficacy of the remedy, to a certain extent, is unques- 
 tionable ; and if it had not operated very powerfully indeed, 
 the mischief would long before now have been incalculable in 
 
 1 See Davies, [Rev. David,] The Case of Labourers, &c., [1795,] p. 51.
 
 198 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 its consequences. Could we suppose it possible that, by an 
 increase of taxes, wheat might be imported at a less expense 
 than that at which it can be raised, on how precarious a founda- 
 tion would the grandeur of this empire rest ! 
 
 It affords some consolation, under the impression of these 
 gloomy ideas, to reflect, that the discouragements to agriculture, 
 and the checks to agricultural population, are consequences, not 
 of the natural progression of things, but of those accidental 
 causes which have produced our public burdens ; and that, 
 therefore, if we could indulge the prospect of a short respite 
 from the calamities of war, a reduction of taxes might gradually 
 operate in placing agriculture more upon a level with the other 
 branches of national industry. 
 
 [SUBSECT. III. Is the Density of Population in Proportion to the 
 Extent of Country, a certain Index of National Prosperity*] 
 
 In the course of the foregoing Lectures, I have repeatedly 
 intimated my dissent from a very common opinion, that the 
 number of a people compared with the extent of their territory, 
 furnishes the most unequivocal of all the tests that can be ap- 
 pealed to, in our inquiries concerning national prosperity. That 
 in order to ascertain in how far a country is flourishing, nothing 
 more is necessary than to examine this proportion, is by many 
 writers assumed as a fundamental maxim ; and yet the slightest 
 consideration may satisfy us, that it is the industrious alone 
 who constitute the strength of a nation, and that a population 
 composed of the idle and the indigent is to be dreaded as one 
 of the greatest of political evils.* 
 
 (Interpolation from Notes.) One of the first writers who 
 seems to have become aware of this important truth, was Sir 
 James Steuart, who clearly pointed out the essential differences 
 
 * [In the manuscript Lectures several no volume in my possession marked 
 blank pages are here left, and there is POL ; and I have endeavoured to sup- 
 subjoined the following memorandum : ply the lacuna here left from the notes 
 " See Volume marked POL. Paley, taken of the course in 1809 by Mr. 
 vol. ii. p. 348 ; Townsend ; Arthur Bridges, and by the late Mr. Bonar.j 
 Young ; Sir James Steuart. " There is
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 199 
 
 between a population of industrious citizens, and a population 
 of idle men and of beggars.* The same distinction was taken 
 about the same time by several French writers, and from them 
 was adopted by Mr. Arthur Young. In his Survey of the 
 Agriculture of France, he states it explicitly as his opinion, 
 that the population of that country was too great, in conse- 
 quence of the excessive subdivision of land in many dis- 
 tricts, and that the prosperity of the nation would be greatly 
 enhanced if the inhabitants could be reduced by five or six 
 millions at least. He founds particularly on the remarks made 
 in an excellent Report on Beggary, drawn up by M. de la 
 Rochefoucauld Liancourtf 
 
 In some other countries of Europe, we find population forced 
 beyond its natural limit, by expedients expressly and avowedly 
 intended for this purpose. Such was the policy which induced 
 the Spanish Government to establish a colony of Germans in 
 the Sierra Morena, though every province in Spain swarmed 
 with vagrants, who owed their support to the hierarchy and 
 monasteries. Of this attempt and its ill success, a very in- 
 teresting account is given by Mr. Townsend.| The failure of 
 the whole project might indeed have been anticipated. Where 
 a country has already a greater population than the State can 
 govern well, public evils are not to be remedied by the intro- 
 duction of new settlers. A cure for these must be found 
 nearer home, in a melioration of the government and of the 
 condition and circumstances of the people. 
 
 The policy adopted in some nations, of increasing population 
 by holding out inducements to marriage, has been suggested by 
 the same views as the expedient of inviting foreign settlers. 
 No maxim can be more certain than this, that marriages will 
 take place in every instance where they ought to do so. There 
 is no example of a country furnishing regular employment to 
 industry where these are not entered into. The policy, therefore, 
 is at best useless ; but it can scarcely fail to be hurtful In 
 
 * [Political (Economy, Book I. chap. J [Journey through Spain in the 
 
 xiv. ; Works, Vol. I. p. 117, et alibi.] years 1786, 1787, &c. Vol. II. p. 266, 
 f [Travels in France, p. 409.] seq., first edition. 1
 
 200 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 Spain such an expedient was tried by Charles IV., who ex- 
 tended the privileges of nobility to married men for a certain 
 number of years, and to the father of six children, for life ; 
 whilst, on the contrary, those nobles who continued bachelors 
 after twenty-five years of age, were deprived of all the immunities 
 of their order. This edict was without effect ; and it was in 
 vain that attempts were made to enforce it. (End of interpola- 
 tion from Notes.) 
 
 In all such cases as have now been under consideration, 
 where the numbers of a people have increased steadily for a 
 length of time, without a proportional increase in the means of 
 subsistence, alarming consequences may be apprehended to fol- 
 low sooner or later : and although this might be the ultimate 
 result of the most perfect model of human policy, (were it 
 possible to realize it,) at least in so great a degree as ought to 
 lower the pride of philosophical speculation, yet if it appear 
 that the same evil may be produced without adding, in the 
 meantime, to the sum of national happiness, the political 
 arrangements in which it originates cannot be too anxiously 
 avoided as sources of an unmixed accumulation of mischiefs. 
 In China, where population has been forced by a variety of un- 
 natural expedients, by the permission which parents have to 
 expose their children, by the singularly abstemious habits of 
 the people, and by the indiscriminate use they are led to make 
 of everything through which life can be supported, the fatal 
 effects of a policy, artificially contrived to extend the multipli- 
 cation of the race beyond its just limits, are seen in all their 
 magnitude. In such circumstances, any deficiency in the ordi- 
 nary produce, arising from an unfavourable season, cannot fail 
 to be followed by the horrors of famine. The miseries which 
 have so often been experienced from this in Hindostan are, in 
 like manner, the obvious consequences of a population pushed to 
 its utmost possible limit, relatively to the means of subsistence. 
 The ordinary habits of frugality to which the people are accus- 
 tomed, leave no superfluities to be retrenched in a year of scarcity. 
 
 The conclusion to which these considerations lead is mani- 
 fest, that the only equitable and beneficial means which can be
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 201 
 
 employed for the advancement of population, suppose a corre- 
 sponding increase in the funds necessary to support it ; and that 
 every project to encourage it in any other way, can only add to 
 the number of human creatures born to poverty, to vice, and to 
 wretchedness. To consider population merely in the narrow 
 commercial view, of producing men who are to be subservient 
 to the fortunes of the opulent, and who, by their increasing 
 numbers, are to lower the reward of labour, and to favour the 
 competition of our manufacturers in foreign markets, is a policy 
 not only inexpedient, but unjust and inhuman, and dictated by 
 the same spirit which has led men, in so many other instances, 
 to overlook, in the eagerness of mercantile speculation, the 
 rights, the feelings, and the morals of those who are doomed to 
 be the instruments of their avarice. 
 
 This general principle furnishes an infallible criterion for 
 adjusting the relative claims of Agriculture and of Manufac- 
 tures to the attention of the statesman. The powerful stimulus 
 which manufactures give to agriculture has been already illus- 
 trated ; and in so far as this operates without any check from 
 adventitious causes, their tendency is wholly beneficial, inasmuch 
 as they at once multiply the numbers of the people and provide 
 the additional food by which they are to be supported. It must 
 however be remembered, that although this is a natural effect, 
 it is not the necessary effect of manufactures, and that it is 
 possible for them to advance population in a far greater degree 
 than that in which they add to the produce of the earth. It 
 has been shewn, that in the actual history of modern Europe, 
 the spirit of the prevailing systems of legislation has obstructed. 
 in a variety of ways, the natural and salutary operation of ma- 
 nufacturing upon agricultural industry, more particularly by 
 the encouragement which they have given to the labour of towns 
 in preference to that of the country ; and wherever this has 
 been the case, although the lower orders may have multiplied, 
 and may even, in consequence of collateral circumstances, have 
 increased the sum of their enjoyments, yet a large proportion of 
 them must have been deprived of their full share of those pro- 
 gressive advantages which Nature, if not thwarted by human
 
 202 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 policy, would not fail to distribute, with an equitable hand, 
 among all her industrious children. 
 
 The legal provision which is made for the poor in the other 
 part of the island, although originating in motives which reflect 
 the highest honour on the benevolence of our countrymen, is 
 obviously liable to this objection, that while it tends to increase 
 population by encouraging marriage, it has no tendency to 
 provide additional food for the people. Nor is this all: the 
 population it increases is chiefly that of idle consumers ; and, 
 therefore, it not only diminishes the quantity of provisions 
 which the labour of the industrious man can command, but 
 abridges his share of the comforts of life, to feed those who are 
 a burden on the community. The evils occasioned by all such 
 expedients cannot fail to be progressive ; for whatever depresses 
 the condition of the labouring classes must eventually multiply 
 the objects of charity. 1 But of this subject I shall have occasion 
 to treat afterwards. 
 
 The agricultural improvements of which this country is sus- 
 ceptible, present immense resources both for meliorating the 
 state of the lower orders, and for adding to the numbers of the 
 most valuable part of its inhabitants. That its produce might 
 be easily doubled, or even trebled, has been affirmed by very 
 competent judges ; 2 but without aiming at arithmetical preci- 
 sion on this point, it may be confidently asserted, that the pre- 
 sent population of our island is far short of what the territory, 
 if properly cultivated, would be able to maintain. It is not 
 merely the commons and the waste lands, (the extent of which 
 in Great Britain has been computed 3 to amount to twenty-two 
 millions of acres, that is, to more than one-fourth of the whole 
 
 1 Essay on the Principle of Papula- come, &c., Edin., 1799 ; 2- Essays on 
 
 tion. [In 1798, by Malthua.] Agriculture, &c., Edin., 1802.] 
 
 Estential Principles of Wealth of 
 
 * Bell's Pamphlet, p. 119. [According Nationt, [1797, by Grey,] p. 130. In the 
 
 to the notes of the later Courses of ReportoftheCommitteeon Waste Lands, 
 
 Political Economy, Mr. Stewart quotes it is stated that there are throughout the 
 
 Mr. Benjamin Bell by name, and with kingdom no less than 7,800,000 acres in 
 
 approbation ; and in Watt's Bibliotheca a perfectly uncultivated condition. 
 
 there are given to him, as author, Lord Carrington't Speech in the House 
 
 ! Three Eisays, on Taxation of In- of Lords, July 3, 1800.
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 203 
 
 kingdom ;) it is not merely these, which open a field for future 
 exertions in husbandry ; but, if we except a few districts where 
 the soil is naturally rich, and which have been long in a state 
 of high cultivation, scarcely a farm is to be found, of which the 
 occupier will not readily grant, that the produce might be 
 greatly augmented. Nor is there the smallest reason to doubt, 
 in a country so eminently distinguished by enterprising and 
 enlightened industry, and which enjoys so many advantages 
 over neighbouring states, that the natural course of events, 
 aided by such laws as now unite the suffrages of politicians ot 
 all descriptions, would advance both its agriculture and popula- 
 tion with a rapidity equal to our most sanguine wishes, if the 
 circumstances of Europe should ever enable us to enjoy, undis- 
 turbed, for a course of years, the blessings of peace. 
 
 In order to damp the exertions inspired by such prospects, 
 it has been frequently urged, that supposing them to be attended 
 with complete success, and a similar spirit to animate the 
 legislators of other countries, the globe would, at no very distant 
 period, be overstocked with inhabitants, and would be rendered 
 a scene of incalculable misery. An idea of this kind serves as 
 the ground-work of a late very ingenious and candid Essay, 
 " On the Principle of Population as it affects the Future Im- 
 provement of Society ;"* an Essay distinguished by originality 
 of thought, and which (among some general speculations, more 
 plausible, perhaps, than solid) contains a variety of acute and 
 just reflections of a practical nature. A remarkable passage, too, 
 of a similar tendency, forms the conclusion of Pinto's Treatise, 
 On Circulation and Credit.^ Nor has this calamitous conse- 
 quence of the natural course of events been altogether over- 
 looked by the romantic authors of some late political theories. 
 It was plainly perceived in its full force by Godwin, when he had 
 
 * [By Malthus. The Essay, as no- not as yet acknowledged the publication, 
 
 ticed, was originally published anony. See p. 64. 
 
 mously, in 1798. It will be seen that this t [Pinto's Essay on Circulation and 
 
 speculation from the first strongly ex- Credit was not only published in French 
 
 cited the attention of Mr. Stewart. See in Holland, but translated into English, 
 
 pp. 62, 64, 205, seq. If these Lectures if I recollect aright, in 1774 See App. 
 
 were written in 1800, Mr. Malthus had I- P- 429, seq.]
 
 204 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 recourse (in order to solve the difficulty) to the most para- 
 doxical of all his hypotheses, that in consequence of the intel- 
 lectual and moral improvement of man, the passion between the 
 sexes will be gradually extinguished, and that, while the period 
 of human life will, in the case of individuals, be indefinitely 
 prolonged, the species will cease to propagate.* The same 
 difficulty led Dr. Wallace, fifty years ago, to conclude much 
 more philosophically, "that the existence of perfect govern- 
 ments (even though they were consistent with the human 
 passions and appetites) is physically inconsistent with the 
 circumstances of mankind upon the earth." 1 (Interpolation 
 from Notes.) " How happy," he also says, " would be the 
 consequences of such an excellent government ! Every dis- 
 couragement to marriage would be effectually removed. Wise 
 regulations would be established to gratify the natural passion 
 of love, in an easy and agreeable manner. No false maxims 
 which corrupt the taste in this grand concern would be in 
 vogue, nor any temptation from interest to mislead the choice. 
 Poverty being effectually banished, and every one upon an 
 equal footing, the numerous impediments arising from an in- 
 equality of rank, estates, or other circumstances, would be 
 wholly removed. In this situation, according to the original 
 blessing and command, mankind would be fruitful, and multi- 
 ply, replenish the earth, and subdue it." ..." How long the 
 earth, with the best culture of which it is capable from human 
 genius and industry, might be able to nourish its perpetually 
 increasing inhabitants, is as impossible as it is unnecessary to 
 be determined. It is not probable that it could have supported 
 them during so long a period as since the creation of Adam. 
 But whatever may be supposed of the length of this period, of 
 necessity it must be granted, that the earth could not nourish 
 them for ever, unless either its fertility could be continually 
 augmented, or by some secret in nature, like what certain 
 
 * [Inquiry into Political Jwtice, &c., [The following memorandum is at this 
 
 1793, B. VIII. chap, vi.] place appended :] " Introduce here, by 
 
 1 Prospects of Mankind, &c. [1761, way of Appendix, an examination of the 
 
 Pr. iv. p. 125.] Euay on the Principle of Population."
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 205 
 
 enthusiasts have expected from the philosopher's stone, some 
 wise adept in the occult sciences should invent a method of 
 supporting mankind quite different from any thing known at 
 present. Nay, though some extraordinary method of support- 
 ing them might possibly be found out, yet if there was no 
 bound to the increase of mankind, which would be the case 
 under a perfect government, there would not even be sufficient 
 room for containing their bodies upon the surface of the earth." 
 . . . "It would be impossible, therefore, to support the great 
 numbers of men who would be raised up under a perfect 
 government ; the earth would be overstocked at last, and the 
 greatest admirers of such fanciful schemes must foresee the 
 fatal period when they would come to an end." ..." Dur- 
 ing all the preceding ages, while there was room for increase, 
 mankind must have been happy ; the earth must have been a 
 paradise in the literal sense, as the greatest part of it must 
 have been turned into delightful and fruitful gardens. But 
 when the dreadful time should at last come, when our globe, 
 by the most diligent culture, could not produce what was 
 sufficient to nourish its numerous inhabitants, what happy ex- 
 pedient could then be found out to remedy so great an evil ?"* 
 In one very important respect, indeed, Dr. Wallace has mis- 
 apprehended the subject, in supposing that the evils of an 
 overgrown population were placed at a great and almost im- 
 measurable distance, and that they could not be realized till 
 the whole world was cultivated like a garden. In opposition 
 to this idea, Mr. Malthus has shown, and I think with demon- 
 strative evidence, that the evils in question would be imminent 
 and immediate ; and that in every period of the progress to the 
 time when the whole earth should be cultivated like a garden, 
 the distress for want of food would be constantly pressing on 
 all mankind, supposing them all on a footing of equality. 
 Though the produce of the earth might be increasing every 
 year, the population would advance much faster, and the re- 
 dundance must be reduced by the return of periodical disease, 
 or the constant action of misery. 
 
 * [Prospects, &c., Prs. iii. iv. pp. 104, 115-117. Dr. Robert Wallace was one of 
 the Ministers of Edinburgh.]
 
 206 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 The following curious Apologue from Mr. Townsend's Dis- 
 sertation on the Poor Laws, [1780,]* as it so well illustrates 
 the relation of human society to population, I shall present 
 without any comment. 
 
 " Navigators relate, that in the South Seas there is an island, 
 which, from the first discoverer, is called Juan Fernandes. In 
 this sequestered spot, John Fernando placed a colony of goats, 
 consisting of one male, attended by his female. This happy 
 couple finding pasture in abundance, could readily obey the 
 first commandment, to increase and multiply; till in process of 
 time they had replenished their little island. 1 In advancing to 
 this period they were strangers to misery and want, and seemed 
 to glory in their multitude ; but from this unhappy moment 
 they began to suffer hunger : yet, continuing for a time to in- 
 crease their numbers, had they been endued with reason, they 
 must have apprehended the extremity of famine. In this 
 situation the weakest first gave way, and plenty was again re- 
 stored. Thus they fluctuated between happiness and misery, 
 and either suffered want or rejoiced in abundance, according as 
 their numbers were diminished or increased ; never at a stay, 
 yet nearly balancing at all times their quantity of food. This 
 relation of equipoise was from time to time disturbed, either by 
 epidemical diseases or by the arrival of some vessel in distress. 
 On such occasions their numbers were considerably reduced ; but 
 to compensate this alarm, and to comfort them for the loss of their 
 companions, the survivors never failed immediately to find a re- 
 turn of plenty. They were no longer in fear of famine ; they 
 ceased to regard each other with an evil eye ; all had abundance, 
 all were contented, all were happy. Thus, what might have 
 been considered as misfortunes, proved a source of comfort ; 
 and, to them at least, " partial evil" was " universal good." 
 
 " When the Spaniards found that the English privateers 
 
 * [Sect. viii. p 37, seq. In this little an Anglican clergyman, has anticipated 
 
 work, (passim,) to say nothing of his his brother divine, Mr. Malthus, in the 
 
 other books, (See his Free Thoughts, roost important doctrines touching Po- 
 
 chap. ix. ; Journey through Spain, Vol. pulation.J 
 I. 383, seq.; II. 269, seq.; 361, teq.; 
 III. 107, teq. Mr. Townsend, who was * Dampier, Vol. I. part ii. p. 88.
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 207 
 
 resorted to this island for provisions, they resolved on the total 
 extirpation of the goats ; and for this purpose they put on shore 
 a greyhound dog and bitch. 1 These in their turn increased 
 and multiplied, in proportion to the quantity of food they met 
 with ; but in consequence, as the Spaniards had foreseen, the 
 breed of goats diminished. Had they been totally destroyed, 
 the dogs likewise must have perished. But as many of the 
 goats retired to the craggy rocks, where the dogs could never 
 follow them, descending only for short intervals to feed with 
 fear and circumspection in the valleys, few of these, besides the 
 careless and the rash, became a prey ; and none but the most 
 watchful, strong, and active of the dogs could get a sufficiency 
 of food. Thus a new kind of balance was established. The 
 weakest of both species were among the first to pay the debt of 
 nature ; the most active and vigorous preserved their lives. It 
 is the quantity of food which regulates the numbers of the 
 human species," &c. But to return : 
 
 The reasonings of Mr. Malthus, therefore, in so far as they 
 relate to the Utopian plans of Wallace, Condorcet, and God- 
 win, are perfectly conclusive, and strike at the root of all such 
 theories. But they do not seem to justify those gloomy infer- 
 ences which many persons are disposed to draw from them 
 concerning the established order of nature. And the very 
 ingenious and liberal author has assured us explicitly, that he 
 did not mean, when he stated these considerations to the 
 public, to insinuate any argument against the expediency of 
 meliorating, to the utmost of our power, the real imperfections 
 of our existing institutions. In one point only, I am disposed 
 to differ from Mr. Malthus. He seems to me to lay by far too 
 little stress on the efficacy of those arrangements which nature 
 herself has established for the remedy of the evils in question, 
 and to trust too little to that vis medicatrix natures, which is 
 not less susceptible of an application to the political than to 
 the natural world. But these remarks I shall have occasion to 
 illustrate more fully when I come to treat of the Economical 
 system. (End of interpolation from Notes.} 
 
 1 Ulloa, Book II. chap. iv.
 
 208 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 I shall not enter into the argument at present, although I am 
 fully persuaded that the subject is still unexhausted, and that if 
 prosecuted with a dispassionate love of truth, it would open an 
 interesting and not unpleasing field of speculation. It is suffi- 
 cient for my purpose to observe, that whatever opinion we may 
 form concerning it, no solid reason can be suggested, which ought 
 to have any practical effect in diminishing our zeal to advance, 
 to the utmost of our power, the prosperity of that society with 
 which we are connected. For, although the greater that pro- 
 sperity, the sooner must population arrive at that ultimate limit 
 where it ceases to be a blessing, yet it belongs not to us, in the 
 contemplation of a remote contingency, to supply what appears 
 to our limited faculties an imperfection in the arrangements of 
 Providence, by neglecting those duties to which we are called 
 in the present moment. The field which yet remains to em- 
 ploy the labours of ourselves and our children, is sufficiently 
 ample to animate the exertions of the most sanguine beneficence ; 
 and it is a miserable misapplication of the time and talents 
 which are now in our possession, to waste them in fruitless 
 anticipations of the condition of remote ages, while so mucli 
 may be done to lighten the pressure of actual evils. The article 
 of Political Economy to which I have now been directing your 
 attention, illustrates, with peculiar force, the truth of these 
 remarks, when we compare, in the first place, the actual popula- 
 tion of the globe with the prolific powers of the sexes, and still 
 more when, in the second, we reflect on the importance of that 
 sublime function entrusted to the legislator, of being able even- 
 tually to bestow not only existence but happiness on millions 
 who would never otherwise have seen the light. 
 
 (Interpolation from Notes.) These general principles coin- 
 cide, in most essential respects, with the system of the Econo- 
 mists and of Quesnai ; one of whose fundamental maxims is, 
 that the statesman should fix his attention rather on the 
 increase of national wealth than on the increase of populaT 
 tion, that is, aim at the advance of population only through 
 the medium of agriculture, and consider manufactures and 
 commerce as useful only in so far as they tend to aug-
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. ( 3.) 209 
 
 ment the territorial produce by the stimulus of an extended 
 market. 
 
 This view of the subject may perhaps enable us to clear up 
 an inconsistency formerly referred to, (p. 65,) which occurs 
 in the work of the very ingenious author of the Ami des 
 Hommes. The change of opinion which this author acknow- 
 ledges, may easily be accounted for by the varying point of 
 view in which he considers his subject. The two opinions, 
 when stated with proper limitations, will both be found agree- 
 able to truth. That population is the consequence of riches, is 
 a maxim which, I believe, holds true without any exception, 
 and no illustration of it can be more striking than what is 
 afforded by the progress of population in America. On the 
 other hand, when we cast our eyes on what has happened in 
 modern Europe, we find riches to be the consequence of an 
 increasing population. 
 
 It is to this last state of society that it is necessary for us to 
 confine our attention, if we wish our speculations to be practi- 
 cally useful ; I mean, to that state of society where there are no 
 laws favouring the division of landed property, as in the ancient 
 republics, or an open field for agricultural enterprise, as in the 
 New World ; but where a great accumulation of land in the 
 hands of a few proprietors is the necessary consequence of 
 existing institutions, while, at the same time, the lower orders 
 are left dependent on the free and voluntary exertions of their 
 own industry. The question is not how a speculative politician 
 should regulate the course of human affairs ; but in what man- 
 ner, subject to existing conditions, the peace of society may be 
 effectually maintained, and the greatest amount of happiness 
 secured. But how this is to be accomplished, independently 
 of Manufactures and Commerce, I confess myself unable to 
 form even an idea. The writers who, in their zeal for agri- 
 culture, have been led to declaim against manufactures and 
 commerce, placing to their account all the evils which result 
 from the mutual jealousy of nations, seem to have entirely lost 
 sight, not only of the causes which have brought agriculture to 
 its present state, but of the operation of commerce and manu- 
 
 VOL. VIII. O,
 
 210 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 factures in applying a cure to the anarchy which prevailed for 
 ages after the abolition of villanage. 
 
 The existence of many poor was in reality the necessary 
 effect of breaking down this institution established by the feudal 
 system. By that revolution, all those who had formerly been 
 serfs to the proprietors of land, were left to depend on their 
 own industry for subsistence, instead of receiving, directly or 
 indirectly, maintenance from their feudal lord. Hence, in the 
 progress of human affairs, it could not but ensue that a great 
 number became indigent. Not many years ago the condition 
 of the poor in Scotland, in consequence of scarcity, was un- 
 doubtedly distressing ; but how limited and transitory was the 
 suffering at that time, compared with what was here chronically 
 prevalent towards the end of the seventeenth century ? This 
 contrast may be seen from the statement made by Mr. Fletcher 
 of Saltoun, in a Discourse addressed to the Scottish Parliament 
 in 1698.* He estimated the number of beggars then in Scot- 
 land at no fewer than 200,000. The only remedy he, a 
 Republican by principle, could suggest, was to restore the 
 ancient state of villanage, and to make slaves of all those who 
 were unable to provide for their own subsistence. 
 
 In England, although from various causes the career of 
 improvement began at an earlier period, a similar progress of 
 order and regular police accompanied the advancement of 
 national industry ; and it is not a little remarkable how com- 
 pletely the licentiousness and insubordination of the lower 
 classes bid defiance to the authority of the wisest and most 
 vigorous princes, till a gradual extension of the field of em- 
 ployment insensibly converted the multitude to better habits. 
 During the sixteenth century, the police of England does not 
 appear to have been better than that of Scotland at the end of 
 the seventeenth. In proof of this I may refer to Harrison's 
 account of the state of England in the reigns of Henry VIII. 
 and of Queen Elizabeth, [in his Historical Description.] The 
 most satisfactory proof that I know of the disorderly condition 
 of England, is a statement preserved in Strype's Annals, drawn 
 up in 1596, by a justice of peace in Somersetshire. 
 
 * ^Ditcourses; Second Discourse concerning the Affairs of Scotland.]
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. APP. 21 1 
 
 Against such a state of anarchy there are only two remedies. 
 The one is a return to the institution of Villanage of the feudal 
 ages, or to the Agrarian policy of the Koman Commonwealth ; 
 the other is the operation of Manufactures and Commerce, 
 which have already accomplished such wonders in this part of 
 the world, and not yet occasioned any general inconvenience 
 which may not be traced to the caprice of that policy 
 diverting them from their natural channels, or to those acci- 
 dents, perhaps inseparable from the lot of humanity, which 
 occasionally disturb those pacific relations on which the pro- 
 sperity of nations depends. The facts, accordingly, which I 
 have borrowed from Mr. Fletcher, led him not unnaturally to 
 regret the emancipation of the lower orders, and to recommend 
 strongly the revival of such a policy as subsisted in the ancient 
 republics. The same ideas have plainly warped the speculations 
 of Dr. Wallace.* The disorders which appeared to this author 
 so formidable as to require the violent and cruel laws of anti- 
 quity, must be admitted by those who were not affected by the 
 same classical prepossessions, to afford a strong confirmation of 
 what has been already urged in favour of the remedy which the 
 natural course of things in modern Europe has provided for the 
 gradual extirpation of these evils. All that it is necessary for 
 the statesman to remember, is that the care of population be- 
 longs exclusively to nature, and that it is his peculiar business, 
 by securing employment to all ranks of the people, and by 
 directing all the various kinds of industrious speculation, to 
 bestow due encouragement on that art which alone can render 
 an increasing population the source of an increasing fund for 
 its own subsistence. (End of interpolation from Notes.) 
 
 [APPENDIX. OF THE MEANS WHICH HAVE BEEN EMPLOYED TO 
 ASCERTAIN THE STATE OF POPULATION IN PARTICULAR 
 INSTANCES.] 
 
 In entering on this article, it may be proper to remark in 
 general, that it is obviously one of those where mathematical 
 accuracy cannot possibly be attained. Even supposing an actual 
 * [See his books ; On the Numbers, and On the Prospects of Mankind.]
 
 212 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 numeration to be made of all the inhabitants of a country, 
 the result would not be consistent with truth, unless the obser- 
 vations were carried on in all the different parts of it at the 
 same time ; nor would this result, however correctly it might 
 state the fact at the moment when it was ascertained, afford 
 anything more than a single measurement of an object, which, 
 from its nature, is always varying, less or more, in its dimen- 
 sions. Such a method, however, of ascertaining the number 
 of a people is unquestionably susceptible of a greater degree of 
 precision than any other, although, in most cases where it has 
 been attempted, numerous errors have been committed in the 
 execution ; partly from the want of method in those to whom 
 the details have been entrusted ; and partly from the prejudices 
 which dispose the more ignorant classes of the community to 
 distrust the views of Government in proposing such a measure. 
 
 In by far the greater number of instances, inquiries concern- 
 ing Population have been conducted on a plan much more 
 indirect, and affording a still less accurate approximation to 
 the truth. In order to shorten the labour necessarily attending 
 an operation of so great a magnitude, certain facts have been 
 fixed upon which are supposed to have a constant relation to 
 the whole number of the people, and from these (by an appli- 
 cation of general rules founded on experience) this number 
 has been inferred or computed. Such, for example, is the 
 number of Houses, the quantity of Consumption ; and, above 
 all, the state of Births, Deaths, and Marriages. 
 
 The first person who led the way in this department of 
 political science was Sir William Petty ; and it was by him 
 that the phrase Political Arithmetic was introduced. The 
 idea which he annexed to the term may be judged of from 
 the explanation he gives of it in the title of one of his books : 
 " Political Arithmetic ; or, A Discourse concerning the Extent 
 of Land, People, Buildings, Husbandry, Manufacture, Com- 
 merce, Fishery, Artisans, Seamen, Soldiers, Public Revenues, 
 Interest, Taxes, Superlucration, Eegistries, Banks, Valuation 
 of Men, Increasing of Seamen, of Militias, Harbours, Situation, 
 Shipping, Power at Sea, &c., as the same relates to every
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. APP. 21? 
 
 Country in general, but more particularly to the territories of 
 his Majesty of Great Britain, and his neighbours of Holland, 
 Zealand, and France." This book was presented in manuscript 
 to King Charles II., but was not printed till the year 1690. 
 Lord Shelborne, the author's son, in his dedication of it, ob- 
 serves, " that it was styled by his father Political Arithmetic, 
 inasmuch as things of Government, and of no less concern and 
 extent, than the glory of the Prince, and the happiness and 
 greatness of the People, are by the ordinary rules of arithmetic, 
 brought into a sort of demonstration. He was allowed by all," 
 it is added, " to be the inventor of this method of instruction, 
 where the perplexed and intricate ways of the world are 
 explained by a very mean part of science." On the same 
 subject, Sir William Petty himself writes as follows : " The 
 method I take is not very usual ; for, instead of giving only 
 comparative and superlative words and intellectual argument, 
 I have taken the course (as a specimen of the Political 
 Arithmetic I have aimed at) to express myself in terms of 
 number, weight, or measure, to use only argument of sense, 
 and to consider only such causes as have visible foundations 
 in nature ; leaving those that depend on the mutable minds, 
 opinions, appetites, and passions of particular men to the con- 
 sideration of others Now, the observations or positions 
 
 expressed by number, weight, and measure, upon which I bottom 
 the ensuing discourses, are either true, or not apparently false ; 
 and which, if they are not already true, certain, and evident, 
 yet may be made so by the sovereign power, (nam id certum 
 est quod certum reddi potest ;) and if they are false, not so 
 false as to destroy the argument they are brought for, but at 
 worst are sufficient as suppositions, to show the way to that 
 knowledge I aim at. ... Which, if it shall be judged material 
 and worthy of a better discussion, I hope all ingenious and candid 
 persons will rectify the errors and imperfections which may pro- 
 bably be found in any of the positions on which my ratiocinations 
 are grounded. Nor would it misbecome authority itself, to clear 
 those matters which private endeavours cannot reach to." 1 
 
 1 Preface to Political Arithmetic.
 
 214 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 I have quoted these passages at greater length than I should 
 otherwise have thought necessary, in order to show, with how 
 little reason the German writers value themselves as the 
 authors of that science to which they have given the name of 
 Statistics. " It is now about forty years ago," says Zimmermann 
 in his Political Survey of Europe, " that a branch of political 
 knowledge, which has for its object the actual and relative 
 power of the several modern states, the power arising from 
 their natural advantages, the industry and civilisation of their 
 inhabitants, and the wisdom of their governments, has been 
 formed, chiefly by German writers, into a separate science. It 
 used formerly to be improperly connected with geography ; 
 and it was but superficially treated amidst the topographical 
 and descriptive details of the larger geographical works. By 
 the more convenient form it has received, and by its growing 
 importance, this science, distinguished by the new-coined name 
 of Statistics, is become a favourite study in Germany." 1 The 
 Baron de Hertzberg informs us, in one of his Academical 
 Discourses, that since the middle of the present century it has 
 been gradually supplanting among his countrymen, what used 
 formerly to be the principal object of attention, in the German 
 system of academical education, the system of Natural Juris- 
 prudence. 
 
 With respect to Sir William Petty, however, whatever his 
 merits were in opening this new field of political research, it 
 must be owned, that in the execution of the plan, he did little 
 more than set an example to his successors. His object was 
 to compute the number of the people from the trade and con- 
 sumption of the nation, and from the number of houses in the 
 kingdom. For the former branch of information he trusted to 
 the accounts of the Excise and the Customs, and for the latter 
 to the gross produce of the hearth-money. But on none of these 
 articles did he possess the means of ascertaining the truth ; 
 
 1 Sinclair's Account of the Origin and vention of this branch of science to Italy 
 
 Progress of the Board of Agriculture, and to his countryman Botero, who lived 
 
 (p. 34.) [Denina, in his Prusse Litlf- long before Petty.] 
 raire, vindicates, as I recollect, the in-
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. APP. 215 
 
 and, accordingly, his computations often proceed on erroneous 
 or uncertain data. His most valuable reasonings are founded 
 on the bills of mortality and the registers of births, which he 
 appears to have studied with great care, with a view to the 
 population both of this and of other countries. A spirit of theory, 
 however, runs through all his speculations, calculated to flatter 
 the wishes and prejudices of government; and hence his 
 anxiety to overrate the resources of England, and to undervalue 
 those of our neighbours. It is thus only we can account for 
 such assertions as the following: 1 "That France exceeded 
 Great Britain very little in point of territory ; that our num- 
 bers approach near to those of the French, and, in point of 
 strength, are as efficient ; that France was under a natural and 
 perpetual incapacity of being powerful at sea ; and that it had 
 not above fifteen thousand seamen to manage its trade, out of 
 which not above ten thousand could be spared for a fleet of war." 
 
 " Every good Englishman," says Postkthwayt, " does un- 
 doubtedly wish all this had been true ; but we have since had 
 manifest proofs that this great genius was mistaken in all these 
 assertions, for which reason we have ground to suspect, he 
 rather made his court than spoke his mind." 
 
 ^Researches similar to those which Sir William Petty had 
 recommended and exemplified, were afterwards prosecuted 
 (about the end of last century) by Mr. Gregory King, whose 
 results are to this day much valued for their accuracy ; and by 
 Dr. Davenant, " the best," (according to Dr. Price,) " while not 
 venal, of all political writers." 2 
 
 The greatest step, however, that has ever been made in this 
 branch of science, by any one individual, was undoubtedly by 
 the original and inventive genius of Dr. Halley, whose observa- 
 tions (of which I shall afterwards have occasion to take notice) 
 have not only contributed much to correct the ideas of political 
 writers on the subject now under our consideration, but have 
 led the way to all the improvements which have since been 
 made in the doctrine of annuities, a doctrine which forms the 
 
 1 Postlethwayt's Dicticmary; Article, * Price, On Annuities, Vol. II. p. 
 Political Arithmetic. 275.
 
 216 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK L POPULATION. 
 
 basis of an immense branch of commercial speculation in this 
 country, and which proceeds on one of the most refined general 
 principles that have yet been applied successfully to human 
 affairs, the possibility of counteracting the inconveniences re- 
 sulting from the precarious duration of life in the case of 
 individuals, by the uniformity of those general laws by which 
 those events that appear the most accidental on a superficial 
 view, are found to be regulated in the order of nature. 
 
 Among the different methods which have been employed for 
 estimating the state of population, one of the most simple is 
 founded on the supposed proportion between the number of 
 houses and that of the inhabitants. In order, however, to 
 employ this method with advantage, in particular instances, 
 much attention is necessary to the circumstances of the case. 
 
 The proportion between the number of houses and that of 
 their inhabitants must vary widely, it is evident, according to 
 the opulence or poverty of the people ; according to their habits 
 of living ; according to their residence in towns or in the 
 country ; according to the size of towns, their commercial or 
 dissipated manners, and many other accidents. 
 
 The calculations of Gregory King on this subject are founded 
 on an examination of the hearth-books, and of the assessments 
 on marriages, births, and burials, and (in the opinion of Dr. 
 Davenant) " are more to be relied on than anything of the 
 same kind that had ever been attempted." 
 
 According to these calculations, 
 
 London within the walls produced almost . . 5J per house. 
 
 Sixteen Parishes without, full 4J 
 
 The rest of the hills of mortality, almost 4J 
 
 The other cities and market towns, ... 4^ 
 
 The villages and hamlets 4 
 
 Upon the whole, (making allowance for divided houses, 
 occupied by different families, for uninhabited houses, &c.,) he 
 was led to conclude, that in England and Wales the people 
 answer to four and a half per house and four per family. 1 
 
 1 Chalmers's Ultimate, pp. 54, 56.
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. AFP. 217 
 
 Subsequent inquirers have enumerated the houses and the 
 inhabitants of various villages, towns, and cities, instead of 
 relying on the defective returns of tax-gatherers ; and from 
 their researches it appears, that King's estimates of the number 
 of dwellers which he allowed to every house, and to every family, 
 were considerably under the truth. 
 
 From a table published by Dr. Price in his Treatise on An- 
 nuities, containing the results of actual surveys of the number 
 of inhabitants, houses, and families in many different places, 
 that ingenious writer was led to conclude, " That six to a 
 house was probably too large an allowance for London, and 
 that ./foe to a house was certainly an allowance sufficiently large 
 for England in general." 1 The same Table (although not quite 
 so complete) is inserted in Morgan's Doctrine of Annuities 
 and Assurances. Mr. Hewlett, [Examination, &c.] from a still 
 more extensive series of observations, insists for Jive and two- 
 fifths, which, in the opinion of Mr. Chalmers, we may reason- 
 ably conclude to be the smallest number which dwells in every 
 house, on an average of the whole kingdom. 2 M. Moheau, in 
 his Researches concerning the Population of France, (published 
 in 1778,) allows only five inhabitants to a house, on a general 
 average of the population, both in towns and in the country. 
 
 Another principle from which conclusions have sometimes 
 been deduced on the subject of population, is the quantity of 
 consumption in the article of food. Supposing the mean con- 
 sumption of individuals in bread-corn to be known, and also 
 the annual produce of the national territory, with the imports 
 and the exports, the population of the State would of conse- 
 quence be determined ; or, vice versa, the mean consumption 
 might be ascertained on converting the hypothesis. The quan- 
 tity of wheat, in like manner, imported into a town during a 
 year, compared with the mean annual consumption of an indi- 
 vidual, would determine the population of the town, and, in the 
 opinion of a very competent judge, M. Paucton, would afford 
 one of the nearest approximations to the truth that can be 
 obtained in an inquiry of this nature. 3 
 
 1 Vol. I. p. 247. 2 Estimate, p 57. 3 Metroloyie, [1780,] p. 507.
 
 218 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 The state of manners, however, (it must be remembered,) in 
 the country where he wrote, rendered researches of this sort 
 much more practicable than in others where the habits of living 
 are different. Bread is, in France, a universal article of con- 
 sumption among all classes of the people ; to a very great 
 proportion of individuals the only means of subsistence, and to 
 the whole nation a most important part of diet. Even in 
 France, however, the rate of consumption must vary greatly 
 according to circumstances; according to the temperature of 
 the climate (for example) which differs considerably in the 
 northern and in the southern provinces, and according to the 
 species of grain which the province produces. The results, 
 besides, must vary in towns where flour is manufactured into 
 various forms by the arts of cookery, and in villages where it 
 is all converted into bread ; in districts where wine and animal 
 food are within reach of the lower orders, compared with others 
 which are destitute of these resources ; and in numberless other 
 cases which may be easily imagined. The consumption, too, 
 of individuals in the same family is extremely unequal ; diver- 
 sified as these individuals are by age, by sex, or by habits of 
 indolence, or of bodily exertion. In founding calculations 
 accordingly on data of this description, it is necessary, not only 
 to make allowances for all the varieties of local peculiarities, 
 but in examining any particular city or district, to conduct 
 our observations on so great a scale that circumstances may 
 fully compensate each other, and enable us to ascertain, within 
 as narrow limits as possible, the mean consumption which falls 
 to the share of individuals. 1 
 
 It would be perfectly superfluous to enter into any particu- 
 lar statement of the French calculations on this subject, more 
 especially as their results vary very considerably. In one 
 conclusion indeed, they are pretty generally agreed, that the 
 consumption of the people in wheat (one with another) may 
 be rated at three setters a year. This is the opinion of the 
 author of the Essai sur lea Monnoies, [M. Dupre,] printed at 
 Paris in 1746; and most of the later writers on Political 
 
 1 Moheau [Becherchet], pp. 57, 58.
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. APP. 219 
 
 Arithmetic have adopted his determinations. The setier is 
 equal to something more than four Winchester bushels ; and 
 three setters will be found rather to exceed one quarter, four 
 bushels, three pecks, London measure. 1 This conclusion agrees 
 very nearly with the result of the most accurate researches that 
 have been made in England, with respect to the consumption 
 of the labouring classes; and is strongly confirmed by a remark 
 which the ingenious author of the Corn Tracts deduces from 
 an extensive induction, " that the quantity of corn consumed 
 by those who derive their means of subsistence from the work of 
 their hands, has been in all times, and in all places, nearly the 
 same, varying only according as the quantity of other food 
 was more or less." 2 
 
 Although, however, facts of this sort may have their use in 
 comparing together the population of such cities as London 
 and Paris, they can lead to no conclusion concerning the 
 general population of an extensive country, without a know- 
 ledge of particulars, which it would be as difficult to ascertain 
 as to accomplish an actual census of the people. In the year 
 1784, when M. Necker published his work On the Administra- 
 tion of the Finances, he there asserts, that the quantity of con- 
 sumption in wheat over France was still unascertained; and 
 he adds, that " the most accurate idea of it is to be formed 
 from the state of population." Some of his conclusions, in- 
 deed, he founds on the consumption of salt, which, next to 
 grain, was, in France, the most universal article of domestic 
 expenditure. To this inquiry concerning the relation between 
 consumption and population a greater degree of attention has 
 been paid in France than in any other country. Some in- 
 teresting facts with respect to it may be found in Moheau's 
 Researches on Population, and in a useful work, entitled 
 Metrologie, [by M. Paucton ;] but it has, of late years, been 
 treated with far greater accuracy than before by two celebrated 
 writers, Lavoisier and Lagrange. Their calculations, with 
 some others of a similar description, have been collected into 
 
 1 Corn Tracts, [by Charles Smith, pub- 1804, with a life of the author, by George 
 lished in 1758 and 1759, and reprinted in Chalmers, p. 190.] * Ibidem, p. 196.
 
 220 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 a small pamphlet by Koederer. The Essay, by Lavoisier, is 
 more particularly valuable, and cannot fail to excite in those 
 who read it, the deepest regret that the author should have 
 fallen a victim to the ferocity of his countrymen, at a moment 
 when he was beginning to divert his profound and original 
 genius from those physical pursuits which have immortalized 
 his name, to speculations still more immediately connected 
 with the happiness of society. The slight sketch which he 
 published a short time before his death, of his intended labours, 
 is sufficient to show what light he was qualified to throw on 
 some of the most important questions of Political Economy. 
 
 The plan which he has sketched for ascertaining with a pre- 
 cision hitherto unattempted, from time to time, the agricultural 
 produce of France in all its different branches, the state of its 
 commerce, and the state of its population, if it were actually 
 carried into execution, would exhibit (as he has observed) in 
 a few pages, the most important results of that science ; " or 
 rather," he adds, " Political Economy would, on that supposi- 
 tion, cease to be a science. Such statements would form an 
 accurate Thermometer of public prosperity, and would afford a 
 palpable standard for estimating the expediency or inexpedi- 
 ency of existing institutions." 
 
 With respect to the quantities of the several sorts of grain 
 consumed annually in England, there is a very valuable collec- 
 tion of facts and observations in the supplement to an accurate 
 and useful work, entitled " Tracts on the Corn Trade and 
 Corn Laws," first published in 1758, and reprinted, with 
 additions, in 1766. [See p. 219.] 
 
 From these speculations, which afford but a feeble and un- 
 certain light where questions concerning national population 
 are under discussion, I proceed to another source of informa- 
 tion, from which far more authentic and accurate documents 
 may be derived. The registers which are kept in most civilized 
 countries (with greater or less degrees of exactness) of Births, 
 Deaths, and Marriages. 
 
 In my Lectures on Moral Philosophy, I have founded several 
 important arguments on the uniformity which takes place in
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. APP. 221 
 
 events depending on contingent circumstances ; on the wonder- 
 ful balance (for instance) which is everywhere preserved be- 
 tween the two sexes, and the proportion which the number of 
 birtlis and of deaths bears to the whole inhabitants of a 
 country.* I may add, as another illustration of the same 
 remark, the proportion which marriages bear to the number of 
 a people who possess the means of subsistence in abundance, 
 and whose manners have not been corrupted by luxury. 
 
 Some general rules relative to these proportions are collected 
 in a book which I have repeatedly quoted, (entitled Metrologie,) 
 but I learn from one of the Baron de Hertzberg's Academical 
 Discourses, that the subject has been much more fully dis- 
 cussed by a German writer (Mr. Suessmilch) in a work entitled, 
 " The Divine Order in the Population and in the Revolutions of 
 the Human Race" 
 
 " In this work," says the author from whom I borrow my 
 information, [Hertzberg,] " Mr. Suessmilch has collected to- 
 gether, with as much judgment as erudition, almost everything 
 which can be said upon the subject of population, giving the 
 justest rules and the most accurate modes of calculation, for 
 estimating the population of nations ; shewing the best means 
 of advancing population, and of removing the obstacles to it ; 
 illustrating the favourable tendency, in this respect, of the 
 Christian religion, and demonstrating that Providence has 
 established an admirable order for the continuance of the 
 human race, by a certain proportion of births, of deaths, and of 
 marriages, which is nearly equal throughout the world." I do 
 not know that this book has been yet translated into our lan- 
 guage, nor am I at all acquainted with its merits, except from 
 the account given of it by the Baron de Hertzberg, Dr. Price, 
 and some French writers, who all unite in bearing testimony to 
 the industry, the accuracy, and the ingenuity of the author. 
 
 The regular proportions which have now been mentioned, 
 can only obtain, or at least can only be observed, in a district 
 where there are no settlers or emigrants. Thus, " in France," 
 
 * [Works, Vol, VII. pp. 108-119, 380-382; and these Lectures, supra, pp. 
 87-92.]
 
 222 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 Necker informs us, " that the number of births is in proportion 
 to that of the inhabitants as one to twenty-three and twenty- 
 four ; in the districts which are not favoured by nature, nor by 
 moral circumstances, this proportion is as one to twenty-five, 
 twenty-five and a half, and twenty-six in the greater part of 
 France; lastly, each birth corresponds with twenty-seven, 
 twenty-eight, twenty-nine, and even thirty inhabitants in 
 cities, proportionably to their extent and their trade. They 
 even exceed this proportion in the metropolis." He adds, in- 
 deed, that " the difference arising from settlers and emigrants, 
 and many other causes, acquires a kind of uniformity, when 
 collectively considered, and in the immense extent of such a 
 kingdom as France."* 
 
 The number which Necker fixes on, (in his work on the 
 French Finances,) is twenty-five and three-fourths, by which he 
 multiplies the births, in order to form an estimate of the popu- 
 lation of that kingdom. The multiplier fixed on by Moheau 
 for the same purpose is twenty-five and a half. The grounds 
 on which he proceeds in making this choice are particularly 
 stated in the Treatise already referred to. 
 
 The results of these writers receive considerable confirmation 
 from the observations made in other countries. In Sweden, 
 the number of inhabitants was found, by an actual survey, to 
 be, in 1763, 2,446,394. The average of annual births for nine 
 years ending in 1763, was 90,240, or a twenty-seventh part and 
 a tenth of the inhabitants. These facts are stated on the 
 authority of M. Wargentin, whose memoir is published in the 
 fifteenth volume of the Collection Academique, printed at Paris 
 in 1772. 1 In the kingdom of Naples, (where there is a survey 
 made every year, and published in the Court Calendar ,) the 
 number of inhabitants was in 1777, 4,311,503. In the same 
 kingdom, the average of annual births for five years ending in 
 1777, was 166,808, or a twenty-fifth part and four-fifths of the 
 inhabitants. 
 
 From a great number of very accurate documents relative to 
 the Prussian dominions, Mr. Suessmilch (as we are informed by 
 
 * [De I' Administration des Finance*.] ' Morgan, On Annuities, [1779,] p. 291.
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. APP. 223 
 
 the same Baron de Hertzberg) was led to reckon one birth for 
 every twenty-six living persons. The coincidence of these dif- 
 ferent results, on the whole, is not a little remarkable, when 
 the nature of the subject is considered. 
 
 Of the three tests of population which I mentioned in enter- 
 ing upon this article, (Births, Deaths, and Marriages,) the first 
 is that which is chiefly to be relied on. The last depends so 
 much on the state of manners, that in the present circum- 
 stances of society in Europe, it can scarcely be assumed as a 
 principle of reasoning. 
 
 [In regard to the second,] the Bills of Mortality are often 
 appealed to in speculations of this kind; and they are cer- 
 tainly applicable (as will hereafter appear) to most important 
 purposes. When considered, however, as a direct measure of 
 population, they are obviously much more uncertain than the 
 register of Births, the waste of life being influenced by a variety 
 of accidental causes ; such as epidemical disorders, healthful or 
 sickly seasons, which do not affect the constant and regular 
 supplies which nature secures to the human race. If, in order 
 to compensate these irregularities, we extend our observations 
 over a greater number of years, the data we assume become 
 less and less applicable to the circumstances which determine 
 the present population. It is not therefore surprising, that the 
 results of calculations upon this head should vary more widely 
 than on the former. 1 
 
 Under the present division of our subject, it may not be im- 
 proper to mention, that, according to Dr. Eattey, the number 
 of persons in a country able to bear arms may be computed at 
 a little more than one-fourth of the whole inhabitants, more 
 accurately at nine thirty-fourths of the whole. 2 Of this class 
 he reckons all males betwixt eighteen and fifty-six, preferring 
 these numbers to the limits of sixteen and sixty, which other 
 authors have fixed on ; because, " at the former age," he ob- 
 serves, "men are generally too weak to bear the fatigues of 
 
 1 See Moheau, Paucton, Price, Mor- 2 Miscellanea Curiosa, Vol. I. p. 
 gan. 286.
 
 '224 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 war, and at the latter too infirm, notwithstanding particular 
 instances to the contrary." As great use has been made of this 
 rule by later writers, I think it of importance to add, that it is 
 not only confirmed by modern observations, but by two passages 
 (quoted by Dr. Wallace) from Ccesar and Strabo, who may be 
 justly ranked among the most authentic authors of antiquity. 
 
 " The first of these relates, that after he had conquered the 
 Helvetii, who had abandoned their country to seek new habita- 
 tions, and in this view had carried their wives and children 
 along with them, he found in their camp, rolls of all who had 
 undertaken this expedition, distinguishing such as could bear 
 arms, and the old men, women, and children separately. 
 
 " In the rolls the number stood thus, 
 
 OftheHelvetii 263,000 
 
 Tulingi, 36,000 
 
 Latobrigi 14,000 
 
 Kauraci, 23,000 
 
 Boii 32,000 
 
 Sum, . 368.00C 
 
 " And of the whole number, those who could bear arms were 
 92,000, which is the fourth part, and agrees perfectly with 
 Halley's computation. 
 
 " The same rule is confirmed by a passage in Strabo. 
 
 " When Augustus Caesar rooted out the nation of the Salassii, 
 who dwelt upon the Alps, he sold 36,000 persons for slaves, of 
 whom 8,000 were able to bear arms. And though by Halley's 
 rule there ought to have been a few above 9000, this incon- 
 siderable difference may be reasonably accounted for, by the 
 number whom we may presume to have been killed before 
 they were subdued."* 
 
 I shall conclude this article with a slight outline of the prin- 
 ciples on which calculations concerning Population are founded 
 on Bills of Mortality, combined with Registers of Births. 
 
 * [A Dissertation on the Numbers of Mankind, 1753, second edition, 1809, 
 
 p. 40, 9Cq.]
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. (APPEND.) 225 
 
 It is evident, that in so far as population depends on mere 
 procreation, it is regulated by two circumstances. 1,) By the 
 number of births ; and 2,) By the expectation of a child just 
 born. The one circumstance determines the rate at which 
 population receives its fresh supplies ; the other determines the 
 number of co-existent individuals. It may not perhaps be 
 superfluous to add, that by the expectation of life, is to be 
 understood the number of years which mankind, taken one with 
 another, enjoy, either from birth or any age proposed ; the 
 excess in the life of those who survive it being exactly equal to 
 the deficiency in the life of those who do not reach it. 
 
 The manner in which the probabilities of life are ascertained 
 is equally simple and ingenious. 
 
 Supposing the number of inhabitants in a city or country to 
 be nearly equal for a course of years, and the number of settlers 
 and of emigrants to be either inconsiderable in respect of the 
 whole, or to balance each other, it would be manifestly an easy 
 matter to find the probabilities of life from an exact register of 
 the deaths, specifying the respective ages of the dead. 
 
 As the population of the place in question is supposed to 
 remain nearly constant, the whole number of births must be 
 equal to the whole number of deaths. If the births and deaths, 
 therefore, of the infants who die in the first year be subtracted, 
 both the remainders will be equal, or the numbers who live to 
 the end of the first year will be equal to the number of persons 
 dying annually above the age of one. For the same reason, the 
 number of persons who live to ten, or any other age, is equal 
 to the number of annual deaths above that age ; therefore, if 
 we add the numbers in the bills of mortality from any age up- 
 wards, the sum is the number of those born in one year who 
 attain that age ; and thus a table may be composed, exhibiting 
 the rate of mortality at every age, and consequently the proba- 
 bility of living to any age proposed. 
 
 It is convenient to reduce these tables to the proportion of 
 one thousand persons, and to mark both the number alive at 
 the end of each year, and the number that die during the year. 
 
 1 Price, On Annuities, Vol. I. p. 278. 
 VOL. VIII. P
 
 226 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 Such tables, accordingly, consist of three columns; the first 
 exhibiting the years of life in their natural order, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 
 <fcc., continued to the utmost probable extent of life ; the second 
 exhibiting the numbers alive at the end of each year, (the 
 number at the end of the first year-being stated at 1000 ;) the 
 third exhibiting the number of annual deaths. Hence the 
 probability, that a person whose age is given shall reach any 
 age proposed, may be found by mere inspection ; that is, by 
 comparing the numbers alive at these two periods of life. 
 According to the practice of mathematicians, in similar cases, 
 it is expressed by a fraction, the numerator of which is the 
 number in life at the age proposed, and its denominator the 
 number in life at the age given. In the doctrine of chances, 
 it is to be observed, certainty is represented by one, and any 
 degree of probability by a fraction ; the denominator expressing 
 the number of possible cases, and the numerator the number of 
 cases in which the proposed event is found by experience to 
 succeed. 
 
 The first table of this kind was constructed by Dr. Halley, 
 whose thoughts appear to have been turned towards the subject 
 by the obvious defects in the deductions drawn by Sir William 
 Petty from the bills of mortality in London and Dublin. In 
 these bills he remarks three imperfections : " First, the num- 
 ber of the people is wanting ; secondly, the ages of the people 
 dying is not mentioned ; lastly, both London and Dublin, by 
 reason of the great and casual accession of strangers, (as 
 appears in both from the great excess of the funerals above the 
 births,) are rendered unfit to be employed as standards for the 
 purpose, which requires, if it were possible, that the people 
 should not at all be changed, but die where they were born, 
 without any adventitious increase from abroad, or decay by 
 migration elsewhere." 
 
 " This defect," continues Dr. Halley, " seems in a great 
 measure to be rectified by the curious tables of the bills of 
 mortality at the city of Breslau, wherein both the ages and 
 sexes of all that die were monthly delivered, and compared with 
 the number of the births, for five years, viz., 1687, 1688, 1689,
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. (APPEND.) 227 
 
 1690, 1691, the statement appearing to be made with all the 
 exactness and sincerity possible."* 
 
 As this city (the capital of Silesia) has acquired a consider- 
 able degree of celebrity among writers on Political Arithmetic, 
 in consequence of the important conclusions deduced from its 
 bills of mortality by Dr. Halley, it may be worth while to 
 observe, that it is situated on the western bank of the river 
 Oder, near the confines of Germany and Poland, and very near 
 the latitude of London. It is at a great distance from the sea, 
 and as much a mediterranean place as can be desired, so that 
 the confluence of strangers is but small ; and the manufacture 
 of linen, which is the chief, if not the only merchandise of the 
 place, gives employment to the poor people of the town as well 
 as of the adjacent country. " For these reasons," says Dr. 
 Halley, " the people of this city seem most proper for a standard, 
 and the rather, for that the births do a small matter exceed the 
 funerals. The only thing wanting is the number of the whole 
 people, which, in some measure, I have endeavoured to supply, 
 by the comparison of the mortality of the people of all ages, 
 which I have from the said bills traced out with all the accuracy 
 possible." f 
 
 Dr. Halley 's tables, constructed from these Silesian observa- 
 tions, have been found to correspond nearly with the bills of 
 mortality of some manufacturing towns in England. Others 
 in a still more correct form have been composed from the 
 London Bills by Mr. Simpson ; and of late, many important 
 suggestions, tending to farther improvement in the practical 
 application of them, have been offered by Dr. Price. 
 
 In order to understand the use of these tables, in calculations 
 concerning population, it is necessary to consider, first, that if 
 all the births happened on the first day of the year, and all the 
 deaths on the last, the sum of the table of probabilities would 
 be equal to the whole number of inhabitants. This is obvious ; 
 since the table of probabilities, as directly inferred from the bills 
 of mortality, (that is, without being reduced to the proportion 
 of 1000 persons, in the manner already mentioned,) consists of 
 
 * [Miscellanea Curiosa, 1708, Vol. I.] t [Ibid.]
 
 228 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 the number of inhabitants alive at birth, and at the end of the 
 first, second, and following years. On the other hand, if all the 
 births happened on the last day of the year, and the deaths on 
 the first day, the number of inhabitants would be less than on 
 the former supposition by the whole number born in one year. 
 As the truth, therefore, lies in the middle, between these two 
 suppositions, (the births and deaths neither happening all at 
 the beginning, nor all at the end of the year, but occurring 
 equally during the whole course of it,) the true number con- 
 stantly alive together will be the arithmetical mean between 
 the hypothetical results, and, consequently, may be found by 
 subtracting half the sum of the annual births from the sum of 
 the table of probabilities. 
 
 What has been hitherto said proceeds on the supposition, 
 that the place whose bills of mortality are given supports itself 
 by procreation only, unaided by recruits of settlers, and undi- 
 minished by the migrations of natives. 
 
 This is seldom or never the case with great cities, where, as 
 the burials always exceed the births, the population would 
 necessarily decline if they were not constantly supplied with 
 recruits from the country. The age at which these recruits 
 generally settle may be inferred from the bills of mortality. 
 In these circumstances, in order to find the true number of the 
 inhabitants, from bills of mortality containing an account of 
 the ages at which all die, it is necessary that the proportion of 
 the annual births to the annual settlers should be known, and 
 also the period of life at which the latter remove. The follow- 
 ing considerations will convey a general idea of the principles 
 which afford, in such cases, an approximation to the truth. 
 
 In London, the burials are about one-fourth more than the 
 births ; and the bills of mortality from the age of ten to twenty, 
 correspond nearly with others ; but after twenty, the proportion 
 of burials compared with those under twenty, is twice as great 
 as in other places. This is occasioned by the number of 
 strangers who resort to the capital about that age, whose deaths, 
 as well as those of the natives, are inserted in the bills ; and 
 although no register of births were kept, we might infer
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. (APPEND.) 229 
 
 from that sudden increase in the number of burials above 
 twenty, that the population of London was supported by 
 strangers who flocked to it about that age. In order to reduce 
 the London bills to a useful form, we must divide the deaths 
 above twenty into two parts, distinguishing those of the natives 
 and settlers; and the burials under twenty, (which includes 
 few settlers,) being completed by such a proportion of the 
 burials above twenty as arise from the natives only, may be 
 safely used for forming tables of probabilities. 
 
 Without this correction, the number of inhabitants would 
 be overrated, the tables giving the probabilities of life, and 
 consequently the expectation of life, too high in all ages under 
 twenty. The true probabilities and expectations may be cal- 
 culated from the corrected tables, and the true number of in- 
 habitants is found, by multiplying the number of births by the 
 expectation of life at birth, and the number of settlers by the 
 expectation at the age of settlement. 
 
 An objection indeed obviously occurs to this correction, that 
 it proceeds on a supposition (not strictly true) that all the 
 settlers in London resort to it at the age of twenty. As this 
 is not the case, the correction instead of being made at once, 
 should be introduced at different ages, in proportion to the 
 numbers that settle at each age. But the bills, when cor- 
 rected as above, come pretty near the truth ; and in inquiries 
 of this sort, mathematical precision is out of the question. 
 
 The country is so favourable to population, that though many 
 of the inhabitants remove to cities and foreign countries, the 
 number of inhabitants remains undiminished. In this case, the 
 bills of mortality give the probabilities of life and number of 
 inhabitants too low. In order to calculate the true probabili- 
 ties, the bills must be corrected, by adding the deaths of the 
 emigrants, supposing them to waste at the same rate as the 
 natives. To calculate the number of inhabitants, we multiply 
 the number of births by the expectation of life at birth, com- 
 puted from the true probabilities, and subtract from the pro- 
 duct the number of emigrants, multiplied by their expectation 
 of life at the time of their removal.
 
 230 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 *In some countries, there is a rapid increase of the number of 
 inhabitants from the stock of natives. In this case the bills 
 will also give the probabilities of life too low ; for the first 
 effect of the increase is to enlarge the number of children 
 beyond the due proportion of adults, and consequently enlarge 
 the number of burials in the first stage of life. 
 
 Some cities, on the contrary, increase rapidly by reason of a 
 resort of strangers, though the numbers be not maintained from 
 the original stock. In this case, the bills must give the pro- 
 babilities of life much too high, and much too low about that 
 period of life when the strangers in general settle, and somewhat 
 but not so much too low in the latter stages of life, providing 
 the place has been in that situation for a course of years. 
 
 On the same principles, we might trace the effects of a 
 decrease in the number of inhabitants, whether occasioned by 
 a defect in the births, by extraordinary mortality, by migra- 
 tions, or by a combination of these causes. 
 
 It appears, from the comparison of tables, that the duration 
 of life is greatest in the country, shorter in towns, and still 
 shorter in great cities. This may be accounted for from the 
 circumstance of great numbers being crowded in a small com- 
 pass, by which the air is rendered unwholesome, and infectious 
 diseases more prevalent ; the sedentary employments and want 
 of exercise in the open air, and especially from the luxury and 
 excess which prevails in cities. The difference is greatest in 
 infancy, and very considerable in the first years of manhood, 
 and becomes gradually less in the more advanced stages of life. 
 In old age, the waste of life is as slow, or perhaps slower, in 
 cities than in other places ; the reason of which probably is, 
 that all persons of weak constitutions are cut off in earlier 
 years, and none but those who possess an uncommon share of 
 natural vigour ever reach that period. It is also observed, that 
 the lives of women, especially after the middle period of life, 
 waste more slowly than those of men. " In general," Dr. Price 
 observes, " there seems reason to think that in towns (allowing 
 
 * [The three following paragraphs are ambiguously deleted in the manu- 
 script]
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. (APPEND.) 231 
 
 for particular advantages of situation, trade, police, cleanliness, 
 and openness, which some towns may have) the excess of the 
 burials above the births, and the proportion of inhabitants 
 dying annually, are more or less as the towns are greater or 
 smaller. In London itself, about 160 years ago, when it was 
 scarcely a fourth of its present bulk, the births were much 
 nearer to the burials than they are now. But in country 
 parishes and villages, the births almost always exceed the 
 burials ; and I believe it never happens, except in very par- 
 ticular situations, that more than a fortieth part of the inhabi- 
 tants die annually. In the four provinces of New England, 
 there is a very rapid increase of inhabitants ; but notwithstand- 
 ing this, at Boston, the capital, the inhabitants would decrease, 
 were there no supply from the country ; the burials from 1731 
 to 1762, having all along exceeded the births. So remarkably 
 do towns, in consequence of their unfavourableness to health, 
 and the luxury which generally prevails in them, check the 
 increase of countries." * 
 
 For a full illustration of these particulars, I must refer to 
 Dr. Price, who has treated it with great ability and accuracy. 
 
 Some of Dr. Price's statements with respect to the progres- 
 sive unhealthiness of London, have been disputed upon very 
 plausible grounds by Mr. Wales, f 
 
 Having treated, at considerable length, of the general prin- 
 ciples which influence population, I shall now take leave of the 
 subject, after stating a few remaiks more peculiarly applicable 
 to our own country, and some other miscellaneous particulars 
 which I could not easily refer to any of the foregoing heads, or 
 which escaped my attention when considering the articles with 
 which they are connected. 
 
 Before entering into any details concerning the population of 
 particular countries, it may not be improper to premise the 
 statement of M. Paucton, with respect to the total population 
 
 * [Observations, &c.] and the Proportion which the present 
 
 f [An Inquiry into the Present State Number bears to the Number at Former 
 of Population in England and Wales, Periods. London, 1781.]
 
 232 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 of the globe. It proceeds, as may be supposed, on very vague 
 data ; but it derives some authority from the general accuracy 
 of the author, and from the near coincidence between his result 
 and that of Dr. Wallace. 
 
 In this computation, the population of Asia is stated at 650,000,000 
 Of Africa, at .... 150,000,000 
 
 Of America, at . . . 150,000,000 
 
 OfEurooe at ... 130,000,000 
 
 1,080,000,000' 
 
 The number is probably below the truth, as the writer cer- 
 tainly underrates the population of this part of the globe, in 
 various instances. The population of China, too, is stated by 
 him only at two hundred millions ; although (from later 
 accounts to be mentioned afterwards,) it appears to amount to 
 three hundred and thirty-three millions. 
 
 It is not a little curious, that this population of China ex- 
 ceeds considerably that of the whole earth, according to Sir 
 William Petty's estimate, which supposes the number of man- 
 kind now existing, not to exceed three hundred and twenty 
 millions. Even according to Paucton and Dr. Wallace, the 
 Chinese form, in point of numbers, one-third of the human 
 race. But this subject I shall have occasion to resume in 
 another lecture. 
 
 The question concerning the actual population of Great 
 Britain, and its progress and decline since the period of the 
 Revolution, has been at different times very keenly agitated by 
 political writers, whose opinions on the point in dispute have 
 been, in general, not a little biassed by their favourable or 
 unfavourable sentiments of the system of policy pursued by 
 our Government in the course of the present century. During 
 the war in 1756, the controversy was carried on by Dr. Brack- 
 enridge on the one side, and by Mr. Forster on the other ; the 
 former contending for an increase, the latter for a decrease in 
 the number of the people. The American war revived the 
 
 1 The superficial extents of Europe, ing to Paucton, respectively as the num- 
 Africa, Asia, and America, are, accord- bers 1, 4, 5, and 7.
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. (APPEND.) 233 
 
 contest in a form still more interesting to the public ; some 
 writers of distinguished abilities having espoused opposite sides 
 of the argument, resting their conclusions not merely on the 
 details of Political Arithmetic, but on those general principles 
 which regulate the multiplication of the species. A few years 
 before the commencement of hostilities, Dr. Price had opened 
 the discussion in his Observations on Reversionary Payments, 
 published in 1769 ; but he afterwards entered into it much 
 more fully in an Appendix to Mr. Morgan's Essay On An- 
 nuities, in which he attempted to prove, by a comparison of 
 the number of houses in 1690 and 1777, a gradual decline 
 in the population of England and Wales. At Lady-day 1690, 
 the number of houses in England and Wales was (according 
 to the Hearth-books, as examined by Dr. Davenant) one million 
 three hundred and nineteen thousand two hundred and fifteen. 
 In 1777, the total of houses charged, chargeable, and excused, 
 (according to the returns of the surveyors of the house and 
 window-duties,) was only nine hundred and fifty-two thousand 
 seven hundred and thirty-four.* The population of England 
 and Wales, therefore, Dr. Price concluded, must have decreased 
 since the Revolution near a quarter; f an effect which appeared 
 to him to result naturally and necessarily from a variety of 
 causes which have been operating during that period. Among 
 these he insists chiefly on the following : 
 
 1. "The increase of our Army and Navy, and the constant 
 supply of men necessary to keep them up. 
 
 2. " A devouring Capital, too large for the body that sup- 
 ports it 
 
 3. " Three long and destructive Continental Wars, in which 
 we have been involved during the present century. 1 
 
 4. " The migrations to our settlements abroad, particularly 
 to the East and West Indies. 
 
 5. " Engrossing of Farms. 
 
 6. " Inclosing of Commons and Waste Grounds. 
 
 * [Essay appended to Morgan, On 1 Dr. Price's Essay (it must be re- 
 Annuities, p. 288, first edition.] membered) was published in 1779. 
 
 f [Ibid. p. 293.]
 
 234 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK L POPULATION. 
 
 i 
 
 7. " The high price of Provisions. 
 
 8. " The increase of Luxury, and of our Public Debts and 
 Taxes."* 
 
 In support of the same opinion, several other considerations 
 are suggested by Price, particularly the decrease of burials in 
 the London bills of mortality, and the decrease in the hereditary 
 and temporary excise. 
 
 One of the earliest opponents of Dr. Price was Mr. Arthur 
 Young, whose arguments in proof of an increased population, 
 rest chiefly on the progressive improvements of the country in 
 Agriculture, in Manufactures, and in Commerce. He was 
 soon followed by Mr. Eden, (now Lord Auckland,) whose obser- 
 vations on Dr. Price's statements may be found in a collection 
 of [Four] Letters to Lord Carlisle, published in 1779. They 
 relate thiefly to Price's reasoning, founded on his comparative 
 view of the number of houses at the Revolution, and at 
 present. 
 
 The most formidable of Dr. Price's antagonists, however, 
 were indisputably Mr. Wales and Mr. Hewlett. The former 
 (who had previously distinguished himself as a practical ma- 
 thematician and astronomer in the course of his voyage with 
 Captain Cook) published his Inquiry in 1781. In reply to 
 Price's fundamental argument founded on the comparison of 
 houses at different periods, he shews, 1- That the returns of 
 houses to the tax-office are far from being always precise; 
 2- From actual enumeration of a great variety of places taken 
 indiscriminately, he proves a progressive population during the 
 period in question. The present number of inhabitants (for 
 example) in thirty-eight parishes in different parts of England, 
 (according to the register of births and burials in these 
 parishes,) was found to be to the number which was in the same 
 thirty-eight parishes at the Revolution, as eight to three nearly. 
 The present number of inhabitants in one hundred and forty- 
 two parishes, taken in the same manner as in the former in- 
 stance, is to the number which were in the same parishes 
 between the years 1740 and 1750, as ten to seven nearly. 
 
 * [Ibid. p. 305.]
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. (APPEND.) 235 
 
 Many other facts leading to a similar conclusion are stated by 
 the same writer, and certainly form a mass of evidence of great 
 importance in determining the general question. 
 
 " In every instance," says Mr. Wales, " the places have been 
 taken indiscriminately, that is, just as I could procure them, 
 and I have omitted no place which I could procure ; it may, 
 therefore, be concluded, that they represent justly the state of 
 the kingdom in general, and this argument cannot be over- 
 turned but by producing a greater number of parishes which 
 tend to prove the contrary, or an equal number of facts of a 
 more certain nature." 1 
 
 Mr. Howlett's Examination of Price's Essay followed imme- 
 diately after, [1781.] It was written without any communication 
 with Mr. Wales, and corroborates strongly his reasonings and 
 statements. Both writers adopt the same mode of investigation, 
 appealing to the testimony of parochial registers, in a variety 
 of places, at distinct periods ; and as their researches were, in 
 general, directed to different quarters, each of them has fur- 
 nished a separate contribution of facts leading to the same 
 conclusion. 
 
 It is impossible for me, in this place, to enter into so exten- 
 sive and complicated an argument, as that which relates to the 
 present population of Great Britain. One consideration, how- 
 ever, mentioned by Mr. Hewlett in a pamphlet 2 published two 
 years ago,* deserves notice on account of the stress laid on it 
 by so very intelligent a writer, and I shall accordingly state the 
 fact particularly, although I am far from thinking it so deci- 
 sive as he conceives it to be. It is founded on the flourishing 
 and increasing state of our hop plantations. 
 
 The annual average number of bags of hops, two hundred- 
 weight two quarters to the bag, grown in this kingdom during 
 four successive periods of twenty-one years each, has been nearly 
 as follows : 
 
 1 Inquiry into the State of Population, tensions occasioned by the Present State 
 published 1781. of our Corn Trade: 1797. 
 
 * [This Lecture thus apparent!/ 
 * Dispersion of the Gloomy Appre- written in 1799.]
 
 236 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 Annual average of number of bags during the twenty-one years, 
 
 ending with 1731, .... 36,527 
 Ditto, ending with 1752, .... 50,752 
 Ditto, ending with 1773, .... 65,799 
 Ditto, ending with 1794, .... 77,195 
 
 In the opinion of Mr. Hewlett, a great increase of population 
 can alone account for this great increase in the growth of hops. 
 Fifty years ago, the majority of our peasants brewed each of 
 them a cask or two of good ale every year. Now a very small 
 proportion of them, from a deficiency of wages, are able to 
 purchase either hops or malt. Our tradesmen, our farmers, 
 and in general all of the middle classes, drink more wine and 
 spirits than they formerly did, and, of course, a less quantity of 
 beer ; and yet, notwithstanding these deficiencies, the total 
 consumption of hops is amazingly increased. What is the 
 plain inference, but that the number of our inhabitants must 
 have augmented with a correspondent rapidity ? For can it 
 be imagined that the increased exportation of ale, beer, and 
 porter, great as it has been, can have equalled the increased 
 produce ? especially when it is remembered that the expor- 
 tation of any article of home-production is comparatively 
 nothing to that applied to domestic use. This .is strikingly 
 exemplified by the trifling exports of cloth and of leather from 
 our manufactures of wool, of skins, and of hides, in proportion 
 to what they afford for the home market. 
 
 Besides, however, the increased population of the country, 
 various other obvious causes might be mentioned which must 
 have contributed greatly to increase the consumption of hops 
 in the home market ; and, therefore, the fact, although ex- 
 tremely worthy of examination, affords very little additional 
 light with respect to the question at issue. But I must not 
 dwell any longer on the details of this controversy. 
 
 The arguments founded on the general state of the country 
 as affecting the acknowledged causes of population, are of a 
 much more interesting nature ; and it is here that Dr. Price 
 appears to the greatest disadvantage. In the investigation
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. (APPEND.) 237 
 
 and analysis of facts, his experience and skill in Political 
 Arithmetic have given him, in various instances, a superiority 
 over his opponents, but when he attempts to reason from 
 general economical principles, his views are often confined and 
 erroneous. It is but justice to him, however, to add, (what has 
 not been always attended to by those who have combated his 
 reasonings,) that, after a long and minute investigation of the 
 subject, he requested " it might be remembered, that his opi- 
 nion in this instance was by no means a clear and decided 
 conviction ;" and that he candidly allowed " there was a pro- 
 bability that in continuing to support his former arguments, he 
 might be influenced too much by a desire to maintain an 
 assertion once delivered." 1 
 
 In reflecting on the general causes which have an immediate 
 influence on population, our attention is led in the first instance 
 to the quantity of employment which the country affords. 
 " The demand for men," says Mr. Smith, " like that for any 
 other commodity, necessarily regulates the production of men, 
 quickening it when it goes on too slowly, and stopping it when 
 it advances too fast. It is this demand which regulates and 
 determines the state of propagation in all the different coun- 
 tries of the world ; in North America, in Europe, and in 
 China, which renders it rapidly progressive in the first, slow 
 and gradual in the second, and altogether stationary in the 
 last."* It may be laid down, therefore, as a first principle 
 on this subject, that population will keep pace with employ- 
 ment ; that where hands are wanted, hands will be found ; 
 that an increasing demand for agricultural labour will mul- 
 tiply the number of those who cultivate the earth, and an 
 increasing demand for manufactures will swell our towns and 
 cities. 
 
 The progress which agriculture, and manufactures, and 
 foreign commerce, have made during the course of the present 
 century, is well known, more particularly the two last, which have 
 increased with a rapidity of which history does not furnish a 
 
 1 Monthly Magazine for September * [ Wealth of Nations, B. I. c. viii. ; 
 1796. Vol. I. p. 122, tenth edition.]
 
 238 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 parallel instance. The progress, however, even of agriculture, 
 must have been very great, as we may infer from an acknow- 
 ledged fact, that " during the course of the last century, taking 
 one year with another, grain was dearer in both parts of the 
 United Kingdom than during the present."* At least on an 
 average of the sixty years which terminated the last century, it 
 was dearer than during the first sixty years of the present. 1 
 To whatever cause the effect be ascribed, whether to the bounty 
 on exportation as some have supposed, or (according to the 
 opinion of others) to collateral circumstances wholly uncon- 
 nected with this regulation, it is a fact that from nearly the 
 commencement of the present century, our exports of grain 
 continually increased, and our imports as constantly diminished 
 till about 1750, when the former exceeded the latter by an 
 annual average of about 800,000 quarters. Since that time, 
 indeed, a striking reverse has taken place ; our imports con- 
 stantly gaining on our exports, till at length the balance of im- 
 portation against us has amounted to an enormous value. Of 
 this last circumstance I shall have occasion to take notice after- 
 wards. In the meantime, I would only remark the evidence 
 we have in proof of the progress of agriculture during the first 
 half of this century ; and, accordingly, even those writers who 
 have expressed the greatest alarm about its late decline, 
 acknowledge its prosperous state till about the year 1750. 
 This is repeatedly and strongly asserted by Mr. Dirorn in his 
 Inquiry into the Corn Laivs ; and Dr. Price himself admits, 
 that from the Revolution till the period now mentioned, tillage 
 seems to have been increasing over the kingdom. 2 
 
 It is, however, unquestionably since that period that agricul- 
 ture has advanced with the greatest rapidity. Of this, pre- 
 sumptive evidence is afforded by the rise of rents both in 
 England and Scotland. In the latter part of the island the 
 fact is sufficiently known; and in the former, Mr. Howlett 
 asserts, that in most places they have been increased one- 
 fourth, in many one-third, in some one-half ; and that in the 
 
 * [Ibid. p. 115.] > Townsend, [On the Poor-Lawi,} p. 10. 
 
 1 [On Annuities f] Vol. II. p. 289.
 
 CHAP. It POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. (APPEND.) 239 
 
 neighbourhood of large manufacturing towns, they have been 
 trebled and quadrupled. In the meantime, rates, taxes, and 
 the expenses of farming and of living have been increasing so 
 fast, that a diminution of rents must necessarily have followed, 
 had not their effects been counteracted and greatly overbalanced 
 by a more spirited, and more extended, and a more skilful cul- 
 tivation. 1 
 
 A still more palpable proof, if possible, of a general spirit of 
 agricultural improvement during the period in question, may be 
 derived from some facts mentioned in the First Report from 
 the Committee on Waste Lands. In the reign of Queen Anne, 
 it appears that there were only two bills of enclosures ; in that 
 of George I. sixteen ; in that of George II. two hundred and 
 twenty-six ; whereas, during the present reign, there have been 
 one thousand five hundred and thirty-two. The increase in 
 the extent of land, or number of acres enclosed, has been vastly 
 greater than the increased number of enclosures. The number 
 of acres enclosed in the former periods of sixty years, was only 
 33,676 ; but in the latter of only thirty-six years, there have 
 been 2,770,521 ; that is, there has been an absolute increase of 
 more than eighty to one in the total quantity ; and the medium 
 annual increase above one hundred and fifty to one. The en- 
 closure of almost 3,000,000 of acres whether of wastes and 
 commons, or of open fields under prior cultivation and manage- 
 ment, must have occasioned great expense to the proprietors of 
 the land, and this expense they must necessarily have redeemed 
 by an increase of rent. Accordingly the increased rent of the 
 enclosures, even of common fields, under previous but imper- 
 fect culture, is stated to have been seldom less than one-fourth, 
 sometimes one-third, and not unfrequently one-half; while the 
 advanced rents of wastes and commons have been from the 
 merest trifle to 15s. or 20s. an acre. In order to pay these 
 increased rents, the tenants must necessarily, from an improved 
 and extended cultivation, have raised a produce of value equi- 
 valent to three, four, or even five times the increased rent ; 
 
 1 Dispersion of the Gloomy Apprehensions occasioned by the Present State of 
 our Corn-Trade: 1797.
 
 240 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 and that they have actually done so, is evident from their in- 
 creased opulence and prosperity. 
 
 I am abundantly sensible that doubts may be entertained 
 how far the demand for agricultural labour increases in the 
 same proportion with the general improvement of the country; 
 and whether the prevalence of large farms, and the increase of 
 pasturage occasioned by the progress of luxury, may not operate 
 in the opposite direction. But granting this to be the case, 
 (which, however, is far from being admitted by some of the 
 more sanguine advocates for our increased population,) it can 
 scarcely be doubted, that the demand for agricultural labour 
 has increased on the whole. Something, indeed, more than 
 mere conjecture may be offered in proof of this. By inquiries 
 made in the different counties of England in 1770, by Mr. A. 
 Young, and by calculations founded by him on data, (which 
 Mr. Chalmers considers as sufficiently accurate^) he was led to 
 conclude, that the persons engaged in farming alone amounted 
 to two millions eight hundred thousand ; besides a vast number 
 of people who are as much maintained by agriculture as the 
 ploughman that tills the soil. Whereas in an account which 
 Gregory King has left of the number of all the ranks of the 
 people, from the highest to the lowest, the two orders at the 
 bottom of his scale, including labourers and out-servants, cot- 
 tagers, paupers, and vagrants are estimated only at two millions 
 six hundred thousand. 1 
 
 Calculations of this sort, however, must necessarily be ex- 
 tremely vague; nor is it material to the present argument 
 what judgment we pronounce on their accuracy. It is one 
 great advantage (as I have repeatedly observed) of our modern 
 systems of Political Economy, that they have converted agri- 
 culture into a trade, clearing the country of superfluous hands, 
 and providing employment for those who would otherwise have 
 added to the number of idle consumers. The great question 
 is, What is the state of our population on the whole? And, 
 therefore, even if we should suppose a diminution in the 
 numbers who derive their subsistence immediately from hus- 
 
 1 Chalmers, [Estimate, &c.] p. 207.
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. (APPEND.) 241 
 
 bandry, it remains to be considered, whether this may not be 
 far overbalanced by the increased population which it supports 
 at a distance. On this point there can scarcely be a diversity 
 of opinion, after the statements given by Mr. Chalmers of the 
 progress of our manufactures, commerce, and navigation during 
 the present century, a progress which necessarily implies an 
 increasing demand for labourers in these various departments 
 of national industry. 
 
 The woollen manufacture of Yorkshire alone, appears from 
 documents mentioned by Mr. Chalmers to be, in the present 
 day, of equal extent with the woollen manufactures of England 
 at the Revolution. Since that era, too, we may be said to have 
 gained the manufactures of silks, of linen, of cotton, of paper, 
 of iron, of glass, of the potteries, besides many others. 
 
 Of the increased demand for labour occasioned by our 
 extended commerce, some interesting proofs are to be found in 
 Mr. Chalmers's Estimate, to which I must beg leave to refer for 
 more particular information on the subject 
 
 The public works, too, and private enterprises which have 
 been carried into execution during the last fifty years, such as 
 high-roads, navigable rivers, canals, bridges, harbours, &c., 
 while they furnish the most unequivocal proofs of general 
 prosperity, must have added greatly to the amount of national 
 employment, not only by the labour to which they necessarily 
 gave occasion, but by their effect in extending that commercial 
 intercourse from which they derived their origin. 
 
 Among these, the system of inland navigation, now extended 
 to every corner of the kingdom, is, in a more peculiar degree, 
 characteristical of the opulence, the spirit, and the enlarged 
 views which distinguish the commercial interest of this 
 country. " The town of Manchester," says Dr. Aikin,* " when 
 the plans now under execution are finished, will probably 
 enjoy more various water communications than the most com- 
 mercial town of the low countries has ever done. And instead 
 of cutting them through level tracts, so as only to make a 
 wider ditch, its coals are situated in mountainous districts, 
 
 * [Description of the Country about Manchester, &c., 1795.J 
 VOL. VIII. Q
 
 242 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 where the sole method of avoiding the difficulties of steep 
 ascent and descent has been to perforate hills, and to navigate 
 for miles within the bowels of the earth. At the beginning of 
 this century, it was thought a most audacious task to make a 
 high-road practicable for carriages over the hills and moors 
 which separate Yorkshire from Lancashire ; and now they are 
 pierced through by three navigable canals." ..." Nothing 
 but highly flourishing manufactures can repay the vast expense 
 of these undertakings ; and there is some reason for thinking, 
 that in the other part of the United Kingdom, the spirit which 
 still prompts to their unbounded extension, originates in that 
 passion for bold and precarious adventure, which scorns to be 
 limited by reasonable calculations of profit" 1 
 
 The effects, however, of these artificial navigations, which 
 join the Eastern and Western Seas, and connect almost every 
 manufacturing town in England with the capital, together with 
 that of our multiplied highways, must be incalculably great on 
 the internal commerce of the country. It is this branch of our 
 trade which, in point of extent, is the most important of any, 
 and which, at the same time, rests on the most solid founda- 
 tion ; the best customers of Britain (according to an old obser- 
 vation) being the people of Britain? 
 
 As I cannot, at present, prosecute this discussion any farther, 
 I shall only state the results of the opposite calculations which 
 it has suggested. According to Dr. Price, the number of 
 inhabitants in England and Wales must be short of five 
 millions. His calculation proceeds on the number of houses as 
 collected from the Returns of the surveyors of the house and 
 window-duties. From these it appears that the number of 
 houses in England and Wales in 1777, was 952,734. Sup- 
 posing it, however, to amount to a million, and reckoning five 
 persons to a house, which (according to Price's observation) is 
 a high allowanee for England in general, this gives only five 
 millions for the whole number of people in England and Wales. 
 The inhabitants of Scotland, Price supposes to be more than 
 a fifth part of Britain. 
 
 1 Pp. 136, 137. * Chalmers, Estimate, p. 125.
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. (APPEND.) 243 
 
 On the other hand, it is contended by Mr. Chalmers in the 
 edition of his Estimate published in 1794, from data which he 
 has particularly stated, that the present population of England 
 and Wales exceeds eight millions ; and that since the Revolu- 
 tion there has been an augmentation of a million and a half. 1 
 *Mr. Howlett, in a pamphlet published in 1797, states the 
 augmentation at a little less than two millions. 2 According to 
 some later writers, even Mr. Howlett's computations fall greatly 
 short of the truth. In a pamphlet (for example) published a 
 few months ago (1800) by Arthur Young, entitled " The Ques- 
 tion of Scarcity plainly stated" I n'nd the following passage: 
 
 " Some years ago, I calculated that England and Wales 
 contained ten millions of souls. This was the result of com- 
 paring the population as estimated by Dr. Price, from the 
 houses returned to the tax-office, with the errors discovered in 
 these lists by actual enumeration ; and it ought farther to be 
 observed, that the indefatigable researches of Sir John Call, 
 Bart., in every county of the kingdom, have proved fully to his 
 satisfaction, that the people have increased one-third in ten 
 years, that is, from 1787 to 1797." 
 
 If this very astonishing fact should be admitted, the people 
 of England and Wales (as Mr. Young remarks) cannot be 
 short of twelve millions. 
 
 I confess, for my own part, I have no great faith in the 
 accuracy of any of these results ; and my scepticism on the 
 subject is not a little increased by observing at the end of Mr. 
 Middleton's Vieio of the Agriculture of Middlesex, (published 
 1798,) a letter from Mr. Howlett, (a very able writer on Popu- 
 lation, and formerly extremely dogmatical in his assertions,) 
 a frank avowal of the exaggerations into which he had inadver- 
 tently been led in the course of his controversy with Dr. Price. 
 
 " In my Examination" he observes, " of Dr. Prices Essay, 
 I made the population of the kingdom to be between eight and 
 nine millions. This estimate was formed upon principles so 
 
 1 Chalmers, [Estimate,} p. 221. ence to Middleton's Eeport, (infra, p. 
 
 245,) added in 1800.] 
 * [From this to the end of the refer- 2 Dispersion, &c., p. 9.
 
 244 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK 1. POPULATION. 
 
 extremely unfounded, which I did not then know, but very 
 soon discovered, as rendered the final result utterly erroneous. 
 From a more minute and accurate investigation of the subject, 
 about fourteen or fifteen years, (which I intended to publish, 
 but did not, and I believe never shall,) I am nearly confident 
 our population did not then amount to seven millions and 
 a half, and that at present it does not exceed eight millions. 
 It is somewhat extraordinary that the fallacy which misled me, 
 neither the public nor the keen penetrating eyes of Dr. Price, 
 ever saw. The Doctor, indeed, pointed out an apprehension which 
 he supposed me to be under ; but that was entirely groundless." 
 
 The difference in these statements will appear the less won- 
 derful when we consider the difficulty which has been experienced 
 in arriving at anything like certainty with respect to the popu- 
 lation of London. The inquiry has of late years occupied the 
 industry of a number of writers of acknowledged abilities, and 
 yet their results vary from each other by more than 400,000. 
 
 Dr. Price published very plausible reasons in support of the 
 opinion, that about one in twenty and three-fourths died an- 
 nually in London between the years 1758 and 1769. And, 
 taking the interments at 29,000, it produced him the number 
 601,750, as the amount of the whole population within the bilk 
 of mortality. 
 
 Mr. Wales, in 1771, states them at 625,131. Dr. Fordyce 
 within these few years states them at 1,000,000 ; and still more 
 lately, Mr. Colquhoun asserts that the inhabitants of the Metro- 
 polis amount to 1,200,000. 
 
 Mr. Hewlett, in a pamphlet published about 1782, computed 
 the number of inhabitants within the bills of mortality at 
 between eight and nine hundred thousand. In his late letter, 
 however, addressed to Mr. Middleton, he confesses that the 
 data on which the reasonings and deductions, which appear 
 in his pamphlet in answer to Dr. Price, were founded, are too 
 vague and precarious to be safely depended on, and that he has 
 long been inclined to think that the number of inhabitants 
 within the bills have never yet amounted to 700,000. 
 
 Mr. Middleton, from a calculation founded on some sugges-
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. (APPEND.) 245 
 
 tions of Mr. Hewlett's, computes " the total present population 
 within the bills to be 628,484."* 
 
 During the last hundred years, Mr. Chalmers thinks that 
 Ireland has done more than treble its inhabitants. And 
 although this computation may perhaps be somewhat exagger- 
 ated, yet the data on which he proceeds sufficiently demonstrate 
 a great progressive population, and afford a strong collateral 
 argument against the reasonings of those who are of opinion 
 that the population of England has been decreasing during the 
 same period. According to some late statements, Mr. Chalmers's 
 estimate falls short of the truth. From the Report of the 
 Secret Committee of the Irish Parliament, published in 1798, 
 Dr. Emrnet appears to have stated the actual population of 
 Ireland " at five millions," whereas, " at the time of the Revolu- 
 tion, it did not much exceed a million and a half." (The same 
 gentleman is said to have acknowledged that this symptom of 
 national prosperity had grown out of the connexion of Ireland 
 with Great Britain.) 
 
 The progressive population of Scotland, from the year 1755, 
 is demonstrated by very authentic documents. In the year 
 1743, Dr. Webster, an eminent clergyman of this cit} r , and 
 distinguished for his accuracy and skill as a political arithme- 
 tician, established a general correspondence over the country, 
 both with clergy and laity, one object of which was to procure 
 lists, either of individuals, or of persons above a certain age, in 
 the different parishes of Scotland. When the lists contained 
 only those above a certain age, he calculated the amount of the 
 whole inhabitants, by the proportion which they might be sup- 
 posed to bear to the number of souls, according to the most 
 approved tables, compared with the fact in many parts of Scot- 
 land, where the ministers, at his desire, not only' numbered 
 their parishioners, but distinguished their respective ages. This 
 inquiry was completed in 1755, at which period Dr. Webster 
 
 1 Middleton's Report, p. 451. the Union, (1800,) estimated it from 
 
 8 Lord Castlereagh in his speech on 3,500,000 to 4,000,000. (Added Note.)
 
 246 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 computed the number of souls in this part of the United King- 
 dom at l^SS^SO. 1 
 
 From the statistical accounts published by Sir John Sinclair, 
 it appears, that a very great augmentation has taken place 
 since that period, although, perhaps, not so immense a one as 
 that gentleman at one period apprehended. 
 
 In the Statistical Table of Scotland, lately drawn up by Mr. 
 Robertson of Granton, (from the Agricultural Surveys, the 
 Statistical Accounts, and whatever other sources of information 
 on the subject the public is as yet possessed of,) the population 
 of Scotland is stated at 1,227,892. As the principal documents, 
 however, on which he proceeds have been collected during a 
 period of six years, (from 1792 to 1798,) his result, when 
 applied to the population of the country at the present moment, 
 must be understood with a certain degree of latitude. Accord- 
 ing to these computations, the increase of population from 1755 
 to 1798 would appear to be 262,512. 2 
 
 A remarkable illustration of the natural bias even of en- 
 lightened minds in favour of times past, is mentioned by Sir 
 John Sinclair, in one of his publications relative to this subject. 
 " I have found the clergy," says he, " in guessing the population 
 in 1755, exceed in every instance the number stated by Dr. 
 Webster, and that they have almost uniformly fallen short of 
 the truth, if they made a rough guess of the number of their 
 parishioners at the time, before undertaking the trouble of an 
 actual enumeration." 
 
 I mentioned in a former part of this Lecture, a very curious 
 fact with respect to the state of our corn trade since about the 
 year 1750, [see p. 238,] of which, however, I made no use in 
 the course of my subsequent reasonings. It has, indeed, been 
 often appealed to, by one set of writers, as a palpable proof of 
 an increased population, while others have concluded from it, 
 that the agriculture of the country is going fast to ruin. The 
 truth is, that when considered abstractedly from other circum- 
 
 1 Chalmers, Estimate, p. 224. stated in the same Table at 68,045 ; 
 
 thatof Leith at 13,241; that of Glas- 
 * The population of Edinburgh is gow at 64,743.
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. (APPEND.) 247 
 
 stances, it neither justifies the former inference nor the latter, 
 as the effect is manifestly influenced by a great variety of causes 
 combined together. It may be proper, however, now to state it 
 more particularly. 
 
 " From a representation drawn up in the year 1790 by the 
 Lords of the Committee of his Majesty's Council for Trade, 
 ' upon the present State of the Laws for regulating the Impor- 
 tation and the Exportation of Corn,' it appears, that this king- 
 dom which, in former times, used to produce more corn than 
 was necessary for the consumption of the inhabitants, has of 
 late years been under the necessity of depending on foreign 
 countries for a part of its supply." In proof of this their lord- 
 ships state, " that while, upon an average of nineteen years, from 
 1746 to 1765, the nett returns to the nation from the grain 
 exported is supposed to have been no less than 651,000 per 
 annum, so great is the subsequent change of circumstances, that 
 on an average of eighteen years, from 1770 to 1788, it appears 
 that this country paid to foreign nations no less than 291,000 
 per annum to supply its inhabitants." I am not in possession 
 of the latest information on the subject ; but from a state- 
 ment some years posterior to the former, it appears that the 
 annual value of imported corn has amounted to about a million 
 sterling. 1 
 
 In one of the printed reports of the Chamber of Commerce 
 at Glasgow, this change in the circumstances of the corn trade 
 is placed solely to the account of a rapidly increasing popula- 
 tion ; while a late very respectable writer, Mr. Dirom of 
 Muiresk, ascribes it to the alterations in our old Cora Laws, 
 which began to take place about 1750. " In consequence of 
 these alterations," he observes, "our agriculture, which gra- 
 dually advanced, from the commencement of the present cen- 
 tury, out of the lowest state of depression, till it arrived, between 
 the years 1730 and 1750, at the highest degree of prosperity, 
 has ever since been rapidly declining." He adds, that "the 
 principal increase of our population in the course of this century 
 was prior to 1750, and that 137,256 persons were employed in 
 
 1 See Robertson's Report on the Size of Farau.
 
 248 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 the cultivation of our lands, between the years 1741 and 1750, 
 more than between the years 1773 and 1784.* 
 
 This work of Mr. Dirom, which was published a few years ago, 
 [1796,] with some additional tracts by Mr. Mackie of Ormiston, 
 gave occasion to a pamphlet by Mr. Howlett, entitled, Disper- 
 sion of the Gloomy Apprehensions, of late repeatedly suggested 
 from the Decline of our Corn Trade ; [1798.] The great object 
 of the author is to show, that various other causes have been 
 operating to produce the necessity of an importation, and which 
 are fully adequate to the effect, without supposing the agricul- 
 ture of the kingdom to be in a state of decline. I shall touch 
 slightly on the most important of these, referring to Mr. 
 Hewlett's Essay for the particular results of his calculations. 
 
 1. The first of these is, the increased consumption arising 
 from the vast increase of our population. The reality of the 
 cause is here assumed as sufficiently established by other proofs ; 
 and supposing it to amount (as Mr. Howlett does) to two 
 millions and a half within the compass of the last forty or fifty 
 years, it certainly goes a considerable way to remove the 
 difficulty. 
 
 2. Immense numbers now consume the finest wheat, whose 
 ancestors were confined to oats and barley. 
 
 In a book formerly referred to, entitled Corn Tracts ft (pub- 
 lished about fifty years ago,) the author, after estimating the 
 actual population of England and Wales at six millions, com- 
 putes the number of persons who used wheaten bread to be 
 3,750,000. The increase since that period must have been very 
 great, from its gradual introduction among the labouring 
 classes in various parts of the kingdom, where it was formerly, 
 in a great measure, unknown. In the northern counties of 
 England it was scarcely an article of food ; at present its con- 
 sumption must be considerable, from the vast augmentation of 
 manufactures and of opulence. 
 
 The following fact I mention on the authority of Sir F. M. 
 Eden, whose information with respect to the North of England 
 
 [Inquiry into the Corn Laws and Corn Trade, &c.] 
 t [By C. Smith, see p. 219.J
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. (APPEND.) 240 
 
 seems to be more particularly correct. " About fifty years ago, 
 so little was the quantity of wheat used in the county of Cum- 
 berland, that it was only a rich family that used a peck of 
 wheat in the course of a year, and that was at Christmas. An 
 old labourer of eighty-five, remarks, that when he was a boy he 
 was at Carlisle market with his father, and wishing to indulge 
 himself with a penny loaf made of wheat-flour, he searched for 
 it for some time, but could not procure a piece of wheaten 
 bread at any shop in that city." 1 
 
 Of the increased consumption of wheat in some parts of Scot- 
 land, a very striking proof occurs in the Agricultural Survey 
 of Mid-Lothian. "About the year 1735, (we are told,) the 
 total annual consumption of wheat did not much exceed 
 25,000 bolls ; whereas, at present it amounts to about 144,540, 
 a quantity nearly six times greater than was consumed only 
 sixty years ago." 
 
 The same writer informs us, that " the whole country fifty 
 years ago did not sow above a thousand acres of wheat, and 
 about the year 1727, not above five hundred, but that there are 
 now seven or eight thousand ;" he adds, that " the total consump- 
 tion of the country is estimated to be three times its produce." 
 
 3. Another consideration on which Mr. Howlett lays great 
 stress, is the increased consumption of the fruits of the earth 
 occasioned by the immense multiplication of oxen, sheep, hogs, 
 and above all of horses. 
 
 The multiplication of this last species of animal is beyond all 
 accurate calculation, in consequence of the increased demand 
 occasioned, not only by the ostentation and luxury of the great, 
 but by carriers' waggons, post-chaises, mail, stage, and hackney 
 coaches. 
 
 The increase of these several denominations, Mr. Mackie 
 estimates at 400,000 ; and he allows three acres of fertile land 
 for the maintenance of each horse, which allowance requires 
 1,200,000 acres for the support of the whole number. Mr. 
 Howlett thinks this allowance much too little for those descrip- 
 tions of horses which have been chiefly multiplied. It is cer- 
 
 1 [State of the Poor, &c., 1797,] Vol. I. p. 564.
 
 250 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 tainly much under the common computation. Mr. Kent states 
 the quantity of land of the common medium quality as neces- 
 sary for the support of a horse at seven acres ; and Mr. Howlett 
 thinks this statement not extravagant, if confined to horses 
 destined for continual and vigorous exertion. Mr. Townsend, 
 in his Dissertation on the Poor Laws, observes, that a horse to 
 be fully fed, requires five tons of hay, and from thirteen to three- 
 and-twenty quarters of oats, per annum, according to his work 
 Some farmers, he says, allow the former, and the latter is given 
 by the great carriers on the public roads, which would bring the 
 computation to about eight acres each for horses used in hus- 
 bandry ; whichever of these estimates we adopt, the consump- 
 tion by horses must be enormous. Allowing five acres for the 
 average of the horses which enter into Mr. Mackie's compu- 
 tation, these additional animals will require the produce of 
 2,000,000 of acres, which might otherwise have been applied to 
 the cultivation of wheat 
 
 When these different causes are combined, they go far to 
 justify Mr. Hewlett's conclusion, that the balance against us 
 in the article of importation, is so far from being wonderful 
 by its magnitude, that it is truly astonishing it should not be 
 much greater. It certainly leads to no inference to the dis- 
 advantage of our national prosperity, and indeed the progress 
 of our agriculture, and in a far greater degree that of our trade 
 and manufactures, is a fact for which we almost appeal to the 
 evidence of the senses. 
 
 In what I have hitherto said upon this subject, although I 
 have in general leaned to the side of Dr. Price's opponents, I 
 have avoided as much as possible to express a decided opinion. 
 That an increase, however, has taken place in the number of 
 inhabitants in this Island since the end of last century, I con- 
 fess appears to me to be established by a mass of evidence 
 direct and presumptive, which is almost irresistible. At the 
 same time I do not, with the greater part of these writers, con- 
 sider this increased population as an unequivocal proof, that 
 the sum of our national happiness has increased exactly in the 
 same proportion. On the contrary, a variety of considerations
 
 CHAP. II. POPULATION POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. (APPEND.) 251 
 
 conspire to render it doubtful, whether the comforts of the 
 labouring poor are now greater than they were a century ago. 
 
 That the comforts of the labouring poor depend upon the 
 increase of the funds destined for the maintenance of labour, 
 and that they will be exactly in proportion to the rapidity of 
 this increase, may be assumed as fundamental, and almost as 
 self-evident propositions. The demand for labour which such 
 increase would occasion, by creating a competition in the 
 market, must necessarily raise the value of labour ; and till the 
 additional hands required were reared, the increased funds 
 would be distributed to the same number of persons as before 
 the increase, and therefore every labourer would live compara- 
 tively at his ease. It does not, however, follow from this, (as 
 Mr. Smith has concluded,*) that every increase in the revenue 
 or stock of a society, may be considered as an increase of those 
 funds. Such surplus stock or revenue will, indeed, be always 
 considered by the individual possessing it, as an additional 
 fund from which he may maintain more labour; but it will 
 not be a real and effectual fund for the maintenance of an addi- 
 tional number of labourers, unless a great part of this increase 
 of the stock or revenue of the society be convertible into a pro- 
 portional quantity of provisions ; and it will not be so converti- 
 ble where the increase has arisen merely from the produce of 
 labour, and not from the produce of land. The fact is, Mr. 
 Smith seems to have confounded together two things which are 
 essentially different ; the number of hands which the stock of 
 the society can employ, and the number which the territory 
 can maintain. 
 
 Supposing a nation, for a course of years, to add what it 
 saved from its yearly revenue to its manufacturing capital 
 solely, and not to its capital employed on land, it is evident it 
 might grow richer (according to the common use of language) 
 without a power of supporting a greater number of labourers, 
 and, therefore, without an increase in the real funds for the 
 maintenance of labour. There would, notwithstanding, be a 
 demand for labour, from the power which each manufacturer 
 
 * [Wealth of Nations, Book I. chap. viii. ; Vol. I. p. 131, tenth edition.]
 
 252 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART L BOOK I. POPULATION. 
 
 would possess of extending his old stock in trade, or of setting 
 up new undertakings. This demand would, of course, raise 
 the price of labour ; but if the yearly stock of provisions in the 
 country was not increasing, this rise would soon turn out to be 
 merely nominal, as the price of provisions must inevitably rise 
 with it. Nothing can be plainer than this, that any general 
 rise in the price of labour, the stock of provisions remaining 
 the same, can only be a nominal rise, as it must very shortly 
 be followed by a proportional rise in the necessaries of life. 
 
 Something of this kind appears to have taken place, in this 
 island, during the course of the present century, in consequence 
 of a system of policy which has considered manufactures and 
 commerce as ultimate objects, instead of regarding them in 
 their due subserviency to agricultural improvement. The 
 exchangeable value in the market of Europe of the annual 
 produce of our land and labour has increased greatly; but 
 the increase has been chiefly in the produce of labour, and not 
 in the produce of land ; and, therefore, though the wealth of 
 the nation (according to Smith's definition of it) has been 
 advancing rapidly, the effectual funds for the maintenance of 
 labour have been increasing much more slowly, as I shall have 
 occasion to show more fully when I come to consider the state 
 of the poor* 
 
 These considerations suggest a doubt whether Mr. Smith's 
 definition of national wealth (according to which it consists in 
 the annual produce of its land and labour) be equally just 
 with that of the French Economists, who measure it by the 
 rude produce ; excluding completely from this definition, the 
 results of manufacturing industry. But this inquiry properly 
 belongs to the second branch of the course. 
 
 * [From the Notes taken of these Political Economy for winter 1800- 
 Lectures in 1809, it appears there are 1801," which is found among Mr. 
 here wanting the more recent returns Stewart's papers. As, however, the 
 of the population of Great Britain and parts deficient seem not essential to an 
 Ireland, and likewise estimates of the understanding of the more authentic lee- 
 population of France, Spain, Russia, tures, it has not been thought necessary to 
 United States of America, China, and interpolate from the notes, which, at best, 
 Holland. But the same is shown, though are comparatively old, and often hardly 
 less fully, by the " Plan of Lectures on to be relied on for numerical details.]
 
 [BOOK SECOND.] 
 
 [OF NATIONAL WEALTH/I 
 
 [CHAPTER I.*] 
 
 [OF PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE LABOUR.] 
 
 (Interpolation from Notes.) In the occasional use which I 
 have hitherto made of the phrase National Wealth, I have em- 
 ployed these words in that general and popular sense in which 
 they are commonly understood. But in analyzing the first 
 principles of Political Economy, it is proper to ascertain, with as 
 much accuracy as possible, the precise meaning of this expres- 
 sion ; for which purpose I shall introduce this Second Part of 
 the Course with an examination of the different definitions of 
 the phrase National Wealth, which have been proposed by 
 different writers, and with a comparative view of their advan- 
 tages and disadvantages. The prosecution of this subject will 
 lead me to an illustration of some of the characteristic peculiari- 
 ties of language and doctrine by which Mr. Smith's system is 
 distinguished from that of the French Economists. In con- 
 sidering, in the former part of my course, the effects of agricul- 
 ture and the appropriation of laud on general improvement, I 
 have endeavoured to illustrate their tendency to excite a 
 commercial spirit, and their connexion with the origin of most 
 of the useful arts. It would furnish a curious subject of 
 
 * [The commencement of this Book Bridges, occasionally supplemented, 
 
 and Chapter not being extant in Mr. especially in regard to quotations, by 
 
 Stewart's manuscript of these Lectures, those of Mr. Bonar. The beginning and 
 
 the want is supplied, as far as possible, end of this, as of similar interpolations, 
 
 from the very copious notes of Mr. are carefully marked.]
 
 254 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 speculation to examine this beautiful progress in detail, studying 
 the mechanism of civilized society in that grand outline which 
 Nature has sketched, and for the execution of which she has 
 provided in the constitution of man, when combined with his 
 physical circumstances. 
 
 It is evident that, in the profession of Agriculture itself, 
 abstracting from the other arts to which it gives occasion, the 
 foundation is laid for many exchanges which had no existence 
 in the former stages of society ; such, for instance, as the ex- 
 changes which arise from the difference of soil and exposure 
 which distinguish different districts of the same country. The 
 proprietors of each of these districts have their peculiar advan- 
 tages, which would invite them to a friendly intercourse, by 
 uniting them by the ties of their common interest. Experience 
 would soon teach each individual to what kind of produce his 
 land is best adapted, and would suggest the expediency of 
 turning it to that kind of produce, in hopes of procuring, by an 
 exchange with his neighbours, those articles of which he stood 
 in need. The exchange, therefore, of the productions of one 
 district for those of another, results necessarily from the physical 
 situation of the husbandman, and will advance with the in- 
 creasing multiplicity of his wants and desires. 
 
 The exchange of productions for labour is necessarily occa- 
 sioned by the long and difficult preparation which most of the 
 fruits of the earth require, in order to be fit for the use of man, 
 and by the impossibility of the husbandman performing this 
 task himself, without a ruinous waste of time and distraction 
 of attention. The same motives, accordingly, which have 
 established the exchange of commodities between the cultivators 
 of different kinds of soil, introduces an exchange between the 
 cultivators and a new order of men in the social system, men 
 who are induced by inclination, or compelled by circumstances, 
 to betake themselves to the occupation of preparing for use 
 those productions which the cultivator supplies in a rude form. 
 By this means, the success of each party is obtained by the 
 simplicity of his pursuits. The husbandman draws from his 
 field the greatest quantity it can produce, procuring to himself,
 
 CHAP. I. OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. 255 
 
 by an exchange of his surplus, the means of gratifying all his 
 other wants, with far greater facility than he could by his own 
 labour. Thus the shoemaker secures to himself a portion of 
 the harvest ; and every workman labours for the wants of the 
 others, all of whom, in their turn, labour for him. 
 
 In this circulation of labour, it cannot fail to occur, that the hus- 
 bandman possesses a distinguished pre-eminence over the other 
 classes of the community, as observed by Turgot.* On this essen- 
 tial distinction between these two kinds of labour, the system of 
 Political Economy proposed by Quesnai and his followers in a 
 great measure hinges ; and the distinction seems to me, under 
 some slight limitations and corrections, to be not only just and 
 important, but to hold a conspicuous rank among the funda- 
 mental principles of the science. I shall endeavour to illustrate 
 it as fully and clearly as I can, and to vindicate it from some 
 of the objections to which it is supposed to be liable. This 
 appears the more necessary, as, though I agree with some of 
 Mr. Smith's criticisms, I think he has not in this instance 
 placed the doctrine of the Economists in a just point of view. 
 
 According to Mr. Smith, the wealth of a country is in pro- 
 portion to the exchangeable value of the annual produce of its 
 Land and Labour, comprehending, evidently, under the word 
 labour, both manufacturing and agricultural industry. To this 
 position I do not mean to object at present, nor am I disposed 
 to limit in all conceivable cases the application of the phrase 
 National Wealth to agricultural produce. It would be mani- 
 festly an abuse of language to deny that the Dutch are a 
 wealthy people, because the means of their subsistence are 
 entirely derived from abroad, or because the same system of 
 policy would be impracticable in a different country. In con- 
 sequence of these circumstances, their wealth, undoubtedly, is 
 much less independent than that of an agricultural country ; 
 and it is evident that their example is totally inapplicable to 
 the general condition of mankind. But as long as they continue 
 to possess a complete command of the productions of other 
 regions, the wealth of Holland differs from that of other coun- 
 * [Sur la Formation et la Distribution des Hichesset, v. ; (Euvres, Tome V. p. 6.]
 
 256 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 tries only as the wealth of the monied capitalist differs from 
 that of the cultivator of the ground. The difference, indeed, in 
 a national point of view, will be found to be great and essential ; 
 but as far as appears hitherto, it would be improper to cavil at 
 Mr. Smith's expression, when it is possible by any restriction 
 to reconcile it to a just way of thinking. 
 
 Of these two sources of national wealth, Land and Labour, the 
 latter is by far the most considerable, or rather, in comparison 
 with it, the former is of trifling moment. For although the 
 difference between one country and another, in respect of natural 
 advantages, be not inconsiderable, it requires the exertion of 
 human skill and industry to render these subservient to the 
 condition of man, as Locke has observed.* 
 
 In so far as the wealth of a country arises from manufactures 
 or commerce, the argument is still clearer and more indisput- 
 able. Indeed, as Mr. Hume [in his Essay on Commerce] has 
 remarked, trade, artisanship, and manufactures, are nothing 
 more than the public storehouses of labour. 
 
 Since, therefore, the great source of national wealth is human 
 industry, the opulence of every society must be regulated by 
 the two following circumstances : first, by the proportion which 
 the number of those employed in useful labour bears to those 
 who are not so employed ; and, secondly, by the skill, dexterity, 
 and economy by which this labour is applied. It is justly 
 observed by Mr. Smith, that it seems to depend more on the 
 latter than the fonner.f 
 
 These considerations naturally suggest the inquiry to what 
 causes this difference in the effective powers of labour is owing. 
 I have substituted this word effective, instead of the term pro- 
 ductive, employed by Mr. Smith, for a reason which will afterwards 
 appear. On examination, it appears to be chiefly owing to the 
 division of labour, the effects of which Mr. Smith has very beau- 
 tifully and happily illustrated. One of the instances which he 
 mentions, places the subject in a peculiarly striking point of view. 
 
 " To take an example," he says, " from a very trifling manu- 
 
 * [Of Civil Government, Book II. chap. v. 41, 43.] 
 
 t [ Wealth of Nations, Introduction, VoL I. p. 2, tenth edition.]
 
 CHAP. I. OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. 257 
 
 facture, but one in which the division of labour has been very 
 often taken notice of, the trade of the pin-maker ; a workman 
 not educated to this business, (which the division of labour has 
 rendered a distinct trade,) nor acquainted with the use of the 
 machinery employed in it, (to the invention of which the same 
 division of labour has probably given occasion,) could scarce, 
 perhaps, with his utmost industry, make one pin in a day, and 
 certainly could not make twenty. But the way in which this 
 business is now carried on, not only the whole work is a peculiar 
 trade, but it is divided into a number of branches, of which the 
 greater part are likewise peculiar trades. One man draws out 
 the wire, another straights it, a third cuts it, a fourth points it, 
 a fifth grinds it at the top for receiving the head ; to make the 
 head, requires two or three distinct operations ; to put it on is 
 a peculiar business ; to whiten the pins is another ; it is even a 
 trade by itself to put them into the paper ; and the important 
 business of making a pin is, in this manner, divided into about 
 eighteen distinct operations, which, in some manufactories, are 
 all performed by distinct hands, though in others the same man 
 will sometimes perform two or three of them. I have seen a 
 small manufactory of this kind where ten men only were em- 
 ployed, and where some of them consequently performed two or 
 three distinct operations. But though they were very poor, and 
 therefore but indifferently accommodated with the necessary 
 machinery, they could, when they exerted themselves, make 
 among them about twelve pounds of pins in a day. There are 
 in a pound upwards of four thousand pins of a middling size. 
 Those ten persons, therefore, could make among them upwards 
 of forty-eight thousand pins in a day. Each person, therefore, 
 making a tenth part of forty-eight thousand pins, might be 
 considered as making four thousand eight hundred pins in a 
 day. But if they had all wrought separately and independently, 
 and without any of them having been educated to this peculiar 
 business, they certainly could not each of them have made 
 twenty, perhaps not one pin in a day ; that is, certainly, not 
 the two hundred and fortieth, perhaps not the four thousand 
 eight hundredth part of what they are at present capable of per- 
 
 VOL. VIII. R
 
 258 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOR II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 forming, in consequence of a proper division and combination 
 of their different operations."* 
 
 Before, however, I proceed to follow Mr. Smith through his 
 very ingenious speculations on the subject, it appears to me 
 that some attention is due to the previous question concerning 
 the relative importance of the different modes in which labour 
 may be employed, more particularly concerning the relative 
 importance of Agricultural and Manufacturing industry. This 
 inquiry will lead to a comparison of the different sources of 
 national wealth and revenue. 
 
 The remarks of Mr. Smith on this subject are not introduced 
 in his system till he has finished not only the exposition of 
 his elementary principles, but the discussion of various interest- 
 ing and complicated questions connected with the science. But 
 I must confess, it appears to me that it would greatly improve 
 the arrangement of his work, and add to the precision of our 
 ideas on the subject, if he had begun first with fixing his ideas, 
 and defining his language with respect to the different employ- 
 ments of labour. Such, at any rate, is rendered necessary by 
 the general plan which I have formed for these lectures, as the 
 questions to which I am now to attend, are the link which is 
 to connect our speculations concerning National Wealth with 
 what has already been advanced on the subject of Population. 
 
 In illustrating the distinction made by the Economists be- 
 tween Productive and Unproductive Labour, I shall intersperse, 
 as I proceed, a few strictures on such of Mr. Smith's criticisms 
 on their doctrines as do not seem to me to be well founded. 
 Those which I shall hazard on the system of the Economists I 
 shall reserve for another lecture. In the sketch, therefore, 
 which I am now to offer, I wish to be considered, in a great 
 measure, only the expounder of a system proposed by others, 
 without acquiescing implicitly in its details, excepting in those 
 instances where I shall have occasion to mention my own 
 opinion. The statements I am to give, will express, to the 
 best of my judgment, the meaning of the authors by whom 
 the phrase, productive and unproductive labour, was first 
 * [ Wealth of Nations, B. I. chap. i. ; Vol. I. p. 7, teq., tenth edition.]
 
 CHAP. I. OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. 259 
 
 introduced. But I have thought it advisable, for the sake of 
 perspicuity, to aim rather at a faithful exposition of their 
 general doctrines, than to give any full transcript of their 
 writings. How far I have succeeded in simplifying the subject, 
 I am not a competent judge ; but I am particularly aware, 
 after all that I have done in freeing it of the prolixity and 
 technical phraseology of its authors, that my speculations with 
 regard to it must necessarily appear, at first, to be expanded 
 beyond what the importance of the subject can well justify. 
 Those, however, who reflect on the advantages which, in some 
 other parts of human knowledge, have been derived from a 
 scientific arrangement of known truths unfolded in a natural 
 order, and the substitution of appropriate and definite terms, 
 instead of the looseness of common language, will not be apt to 
 form conclusions to the prejudice of the very ingenious theory 
 from which they are borrowed. 
 
 As the existence of the human race, even when limited to 
 the necessaries of life, supposes a constant consumption of food, 
 it supposes also some fund from which this expense is to be 
 defrayed. 
 
 The fund which supplies this annual expense to any indi- 
 vidual or community, constitutes a stock or revenue essential 
 to their preservation, and without which all other possessions 
 are useless. When this fund is once secured, the objects of 
 their desires are multiplied, and a more ample revenue provided, 
 if that is possible, the extent of revenue being everywhere 
 measured by the possession of those articles of subsistence or 
 accommodation which either furnish the means of gratifying 
 those desires, or enable the possessor to command the labour of 
 others. It is further obvious, that everything we are possessed 
 of comes originally from the earth, including under that term 
 the two great divisions of our globe into land and sea ; and that 
 its productions, variously modified, must supply all the wants 
 of man, and furnish the means of defraying all his expenses. 
 
 The Labour of man can be employed to increase this fund 
 only in two ways ; by adding to the quantity of those produc- 
 tions, or by making such alterations on their form as may
 
 260 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALT1I. 
 
 render them either more useful in themselves, or more valuable 
 in exchange. The first of these is the object of Agriculture, 
 the second of Manufactures. 
 
 In whatever manner the industry of man is employed, the 
 produce of his labour is necessarily burdened by the consump- 
 tion of the labourer. In estimating, therefore, the productive 
 power of any species of industry, before inquiring whether it 
 adds to the quantity, utility, or exchangeable value of the pos- 
 sessions of the society, the first question that presents itself is, 
 Whether it supplies the means of defraying the necessary con- 
 sumption by which it is maintained ? In this respect, the pre- 
 eminence of Agriculture is evidently conspicuous ; the fund 
 employed not only continuing without any diminution, but 
 being more than replaced by the additional produce which it 
 can draw from the earth. In consequence of the production 
 of this surplus, the general revenue is augmented, and can 
 defray expenses to which it was not equal before. Therefore, 
 the epithet productive is most justly applied to that labour 
 and expense by which it is raised. With respect to Manu- 
 facturing labour, the case is different ; for though by the 
 operations of the manufacturer the materials of his trade 
 become much more useful, it does not follow that he thereby 
 increases the national revenue. This revenue is the fund of 
 national consumption ; and it is not increased by any operation 
 which does not supply the means of a greater consumption. 
 That the work of the artificer yields no such supply is manifest. 
 He adds nothing to the materials of his labour but the value 
 of his own subsistence ; and only changes the form of the 
 materials so as to adapt them to the purposes of life. In this 
 respect, therefore, the labour of the artificer, however useful, 
 does not add to the general revenue in the same sense with 
 the labour of the husbandman. 
 
 It is probable, however, that those writers who contend that 
 the labour of the artificer is really productive, mean only, that 
 it increases the exchangeable value of the productions of the 
 earth. It is in this sense plainly that Mr. Smith employs the 
 term, when speaking of the probable effects of foreign com-
 
 CHAP. I. OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. 261 
 
 raerce in increasing the productive powers of manufacturing 
 industry. I shall, therefore, consider how far the proposition 
 is true, when taken with this limitation. 
 
 The exchangeable value of everything manufactured by 
 human industry depends on two circumstances ; the price of the 
 original raw material, and that of the labour which has been 
 employed on it. The price of this labour arises altogether from 
 the expense occasioned by the necessary consumption of the 
 labourer ; and this expense is all the exchangeable value which 
 the artificer can add to the raw materials, the competition of 
 others restraining him from demanding more. Therefore, 
 whatever value he adds to these materials, he destroys as much 
 of the other funds of the society, and leaves the whole of the 
 exchangeable revenue no greater than it otherwise would have 
 been. For the illustration of these reasonings, no example 
 can be more in point than that mentioned by Mr. Smith in 
 the manufacture of lace. " The person/' he says, " who works 
 the lace of a pair of fine ruffles, for example, will sometimes raise 
 the value of perhaps a pennyworth of flax to thirty pounds 
 sterling. But though at first sight he appears thereby to mul- 
 tiply the value of a part of the rude produce about seven thou- 
 sand and two hundred times, he in reality adds nothing to the 
 value of the whole annual amount of the rude produce. The 
 working of that lace cost him perhaps two years' labour. The 
 thirty pounds which he gets for it when it is finished, is no 
 more than the repayment of the subsistence which he advances 
 to himself during the two years that he is employed about it. 
 The value which, by every day's, month's, or year's labour, he 
 adds to the flax, does no more than replace the value of his own 
 consumption during that day, month, or year. At no moment 
 of time, therefore, does he add anything to the value of the 
 whole annual amount of the rude produce of the land ; the por- 
 tion of that produce which he is continually consuming being 
 always equal to the value which he is continually pro- 
 ducing."* 
 
 It is agreeably to these principles of the Economists that Dr, 
 
 * [Ibid. Book IV. chap. ix. ; Vol. III. p. 9, setj., tenth edition.]
 
 262 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 Franklin, in one of his political fragments, considers manufac- 
 tures as " subsistence metamorphosed." * 
 
 In opposition to the reasonings already stated against the 
 productive powers of manufacturing industry, Mr. Smith 
 argues thus : " It seems, upon every supposition, improper to 
 say, that the labour of artificers, manufacturers, and merchants, 
 does not increase the real revenue of the society. Though we 
 should suppose, for example, as it seems to be supposed in this 
 system, that the value of the daily, monthly, and yearly con- 
 sumption of this class was exactly equal to that of its daily, 
 monthly, and yearly production ; yet it would not from thence 
 follow that its labour added nothing to the real revenue, to the 
 real value of the annual produce of the land and labour of the 
 society. An artificer, for example, who, in the first six months 
 after harvest, executes ten pounds' worth of work, though he 
 should in the same time consume ten pounds' worth of corn and 
 other necessaries, yet really adds the value of ten pounds to the 
 annual produce of the land and labour of the society. While 
 he has been consuming a half-yearly revenue of ten pounds' 
 worth of corn and other necessaries, he has produced an equal 
 value of work capable of purchasing, either to himself or to 
 some other person, an equal half-yearly revenue. The value, 
 therefore, of what has been consumed and produced during 
 these six months is equal, not to ten, but to twenty pounds. 
 It is possible, indeed, that no more than ten pounds' worth of 
 this value may ever have existed at any one moment of time. 
 But if the ten pounds' worth of corn and other necessaries 
 which were consumed by the artificer, had been consumed by 
 a soldier or by a menial servant, the value of that part of the 
 annual produce which existed at the end of the six months, 
 would have been ten pounds less than it actually is, in conse- 
 quence of the labour of the artificer. Though the value of 
 what the artificer produces, therefore, should not at any one 
 moment of time be supposed greater than the value he con- 
 sumes, yet at every moment of time the actually existing value 
 
 * [Positions to be era-mined concerning National Wealth, 1769, 5 ; Works, by 
 Sparks, Vol. II. p. 374.J
 
 CHAP. I. OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. 263 
 
 of goods in the market is, in consequence of what he produces, 
 greater than it otherwise would be." * 
 
 If I understand completely the face of this argument, it 
 means only, that the values of what had been consumed are 
 equal to twenty pounds. But the question is, Whether the 
 nation has been benefited ? The ten pounds' value of corn 
 consumed cannot be again employed in any expense, and there- 
 fore cannot be said to constitute any addition to the revenue of 
 the nation, which is only another expression for the quantity of 
 expense which the nation is able to defray. Mr. Smith con- 
 tends farther, that the labour of artificers produces a value 
 equal to its expense, and continues the capital which employs 
 it, in this respect differing essentially from that of menial 
 servants, which produces no revenue. This, however, I cannot 
 help thinking is a fallacy to which this profound writer has 
 been led, by the use of money as a medium of exchange. The 
 artificer sells the produce of his labour, and, on a superficial view, 
 appears to replace his capital as effectually as the farmer by 
 reaping his crop ; and, in truth, they are perfectly similar, as 
 far as the individual is concerned ; but they are very different 
 in their relation to the community in general. The corn which 
 the farmer produces is the free gift of nature, and costs nothing 
 to the society ; the manufacturer only changes the form of his 
 commodity, converting what formerly was useless to purposes 
 of general accommodation. When he does so, however, he 
 derives the means of his subsistence from the general stock. 
 He is not supported immediately by the produce of his own 
 labour ; and if he were cut off from all communication with 
 others, he could do nothing to renew the capital by which he is 
 to be maintained. His work is of no absolute value to himself, 
 and is only the means of procuring subsistence from others, 
 who exchange their superfluities for the gratification of their 
 secondary wants. The capital of the artificer, therefore, is 
 replaced by some other person, who thereby spends some part of 
 his revenue. Suppose, for instance, I reap a crop of corn, of 
 which, after deducting all expenses, there remain twenty bushels, 
 
 * [Ibid. p. 23, seq. ]
 
 264 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 which I exchange for a quantity of lace. These twenty bushels 
 are very little more than equal to the consumption of the lace ma- 
 nufacturer while employed in the production of his article. His 
 subsistence, therefore, is supplied, not by his labour, but by the 
 produce I have drawn from the ground. He has lived during 
 that time at my expense, as much as if I had advanced to him 
 the wages of his labour. In fact, the capital which employs 
 him is not the lace which he has made, but the twenty bushels 
 of corn which I have paid him for it ; and, therefore, it does 
 not follow, that because his advances have been repaid, his 
 labour replaces the capital which has been employed. The 
 question is, Whether it replaces the capital I have employed, 
 and pays the expenses I have incurred in raising these twenty 
 bushels ? This it certainly does not do. The expense, indeed, 
 which I have laid out has procured me something, more or less 
 useful, which I consider as an equivalent. But if the lace be 
 an equivalent, so also is the labour of menial servants. The 
 lace wears as the servant perishes ; neither the one nor the 
 other leaves anything behind ; and if they differ somewhat in 
 the length of their duration, the difference is only in degree, 
 and not the consequence of any essential distinction between 
 them. Suppose, now, the same quantity of corn had been 
 applied to sow and reap a field ; in this case the corn expended 
 would not only be replaced, but there would be a clear addition 
 to the revenue not only of the individual, but also of the com- 
 munity. In both cases, the expense laid out is replaced ; but 
 in this instance, it reproduces a surplus in addition to its value. 
 The difference now stated between these two kinds of ex- 
 penses is essential and sufficiently great to authorize the dis- 
 tinction between them which has now been insisted on. This 
 distinction, it must always be carefully remembered, has no 
 reference whatever to the utility of the different employments 
 now mentioned. The labour of a soldier, for instance, is per- 
 fectly unproductive ; yet the defence of a State is an object of 
 no less importance than the encouragement of commerce and 
 manufactures ; and, like manufactures, the labour of the soldier 
 is useful, in some cases even necessary. But still there is an
 
 CHAP. 1. OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. 2GO 
 
 essential distinction between labour which is merely useful, and 
 that which is also productive. 
 
 According to Mr. Smith, the true characteristic of productive 
 labour is, that it fixes itself on some vendible commodity, the 
 sale of which replaces the capital employed in it ; whereas 
 unproductive labour consists in services which perish almost in 
 the time of performance. This distinction of Mr. Smith's 
 appears to rest on an accidental and very unimportant circum- 
 stance, according as the subsistence of the workman is advanced 
 by his employer, or is repaid through the medium of some third 
 person, who has advanced his wages. If his wages are advanced 
 by an employer, his labour necessarily consists in personal ser- 
 vices ; and it is a matter of indifference what these services are 
 if they equally accommodate his employer. If, on the other 
 hand, his wages are to be repaid by another, no person will be 
 induced to do so unless that expense is replaced by some com- 
 modity which may be useful. This circumstance, therefore, is 
 sufficient, in many cases, to determine whether labour, according 
 to Mr. Smith's doctrine, shall be held productive or unproductive. 
 A distinction resting on a circumstance so very slight, cannot 
 surely be of very great moment in a system of political economy. 
 
 From what has been already said, it appears, that the process 
 of manufactures can only be viewed in the light of a salary paid 
 by the proprietors of land to those who are willing to employ 
 their labour for their accommodation, and that the wages of 
 artificers are a mere transference of wealth. Here, then, say 
 the Economists, is the whole society divided, by a necessity 
 founded on the nature of things, into two classes, both of them 
 reciprocally useful to each other ; one of which, by its labour, 
 forms, or rather draws from the earth, riches continually new, 
 which supply the whole society with the means of subsistence, 
 and the materials for all their wants; while the other is 
 employed in giving to the rude materials such preparations and 
 forms as render them of a greater exchangeable value. He sells 
 his labour to the former, and receives in return his subsistence. 
 The first may be called productive, the second stipendiary. 
 
 We have hitherto proceeded on the supposition, that the
 
 266 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PABT I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 wages of the workman are merely sufficient for his subsistence, 
 a result which must hold in most cases, as the amount of wages 
 is necessarily limited by the number of those who work for a 
 livelihood. This supposition, however, I apprehend, is not 
 necessary for establishing the general conclusion. If, in conse- 
 quence of any particular circumstances, the labourer should 
 receive wages greater than his consumption, this would in no 
 respect add to the revenue of the society. If, for instance, one 
 half of the labourers of a country should be carried off by a 
 plague, the price of their labour would be doubled. But though, 
 in such a case, it may appear, on a superficial view, that the 
 manufacturer adds to the value of his work a greater quantity 
 than he consumes, yet it is plain, that nothing is added to the 
 productions of the earth, either in quantity or value, so as to 
 enable the society to supply a greater portion of subsistence to 
 its inhabitants. It is the exchangeable value of commodities 
 only that is increased. The difference is, that the proprietor of 
 land is obliged to consider the same quantity of subsistence as 
 an equivalent for a smaller quantity of labour. Labour gets a 
 greater share of the revenue ; but the revenue is in no way 
 altered. Any saving a manufacturer makes from his wages is 
 so much taken out of the hands of another person, and can no 
 more be said to increase the funds of the society, than the gains 
 made at a gaming table. 
 
 The same observations apply, with equal force, to the profits 
 of merchants and master manufacturers. It is easy to conceive 
 a State in which there should be no such persons, in which the 
 proprietors of the land should superintend the labourers 
 employed in manufactures, and transport the goods to the 
 market from the place where they are produced. The trouble 
 and waste which would attend such a mode of proceeding 
 induce them to give a higher price for the goods to those who 
 will undertake this branch of business, and make the ne- 
 cessary advances. This increase, evidently, is a salary, and 
 the gains of the merchant are but a transference, not a produc- 
 tion of riches. The same thing may be said of every species 
 of industry, the object of which is to modify the productions of
 
 CHAP. I. OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. 267 
 
 the earth, without increasing their quantity. They all agree 
 in this circumstance, that they make no increase to the general 
 revenue, though in the highest degree useful, and many of them 
 absolutely necessary. They effect the important purpose of 
 distributing the national riches ; but they are totally unpro- 
 ductive. They add nothing to the revenue, but, on the contrary, 
 draw the means of their support from those who are in possession 
 of the fruits of the earth. These fruits, therefore, according to 
 the Economists, are the only riches of a nation ; and the labour 
 which produces them is the only productive labour, and the 
 only source of revenue. 
 
 Among those writers, however, who dispute the doctrines of 
 the Economists, there are some who acknowledge the unproduc- 
 tive nature of manufacturing labour and expense, when con- 
 sidered in relation to the world in general ; while they deny 
 that the doctrine is applicable to the case of a particular 
 country pursuing a separate interest of its own. As the inha- 
 bitants of a town, by applying to manufactures, find means to 
 appropriate a part of the productions of the earth raised by the 
 cultivators of the ground, so may a nation procure a part of the 
 subsistence of other nations. Thus, manufactures and foreign 
 trade add all the fund of subsistence which is drawn from 
 abroad. In answer to these objections, the Economists state the 
 following reasonings, on which I shall have occasion afterwards 
 to offer some criticisms. If the trade of two nations consists in 
 the exchange of production for production, whether rude or 
 manufactured, it is evident that the exchanges must be equal, 
 each giving as much as it receives. The only species of com- 
 merce, say they, in which a nation can be said to add to the 
 national fund, is the exchange of productions on the one 
 side for labour on the other. In such a case, manufacturing 
 industry may be considered as productive to the nation which, 
 by its superior ingenuity, thus lays its neighbours under con- 
 tribution. If a landed nation supplies the rude materials and 
 the subsistence of the labourers, to a manufacturing country, and 
 brings back the manufactured article, these artificers certainly 
 carry on a trade which is productive, and the expense of the
 
 268 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 one country is an addition to the revenue of the other. The 
 artificers of the commercial nation are, in fact, those of the agri- 
 cultural country. They have the same relation to it as if they 
 had lived in it ; and the only difference is, that their place of 
 residence is at a distance from the market. The manufacturers 
 settled in the agricultural country itself, would be on a level in 
 the market with the commercial nation, even though they 
 should add to their profits a sum equal to the whole expense of 
 carriage. The necessary consequence is, that they would under- 
 sell the commercial nation ; and nothing could prevent such 
 manufactures from rising in the country itself, except the most 
 essential defects in their system of Political Economy ; and it is 
 owing to such defects alone, they tell us, that a merely manu- 
 facturing country can exist at all ; and the establishment of a 
 more liberal system would necessarily raise up a competition 
 which it could not withstand. In an age, therefore, add the 
 Economists, when the minds of men begin to be enlightened, 
 this is a most precarious resource ; and a nation which relies on 
 it entirely, sees in the improvement of its neighbours the pre- 
 sages of its own decline. Nor is this all It is but a very 
 few articles that can bear the expense of a long carriage ; and 
 these are not objects of a general consumption. This, therefore, 
 may support a very small state ; but it necessarily forms a very 
 trifling object to a great agricultural nation. We may there- 
 fore conclude, that the labour of the agriculturist is the only 
 productive labour, and that the rude produce of the soil is the 
 only revenue of a nation, the only fund out of which all its 
 expenses must be defrayed. 
 
 In entering on the discussions which I now have in view, 
 with respect to the Economical system, it seemed proper for 
 me to begin with a general outline of its fundamental prin- 
 ciples, delineated as faithfully as possible, after the ideas of its 
 original authors. Something of this kind seemed to be neces- 
 sary, in order to correct those misapprehensions of its nature 
 which have prevailed to a considerable degree, in consequence 
 of the account of it given by Mr. Smith. I now proceed to 
 consider, at some length, those points in which the doctrines
 
 CHAP. I. -OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. 2C9 
 
 of Quesnai and his followers appear to me to differ from those 
 stated by Mr. Smith in the Wealth of Nations, endeavouring, 
 as far as I can, to separate real diversities of opinion from mere 
 disputes about words, and to combine what appears to be 
 valuable in both, without adopting implicitly the opinions of 
 either. (End of Interpolation from Notes.) 
 
 [SECT. I. SPECIALLY ON THE SYSTEM OF THE ECONOMISTS.] 
 
 I made some observations at our last meeting, on the distinction 
 between productive and unproductive labour, according to the 
 doctrine of the Economists, with a view chiefly to a vindication 
 of their language on this subject, against the criticisms of Mr. 
 Smith. Of the particulars in which this part of his system differs 
 from theirs, some of those which appear at first view the most 
 striking, will be found to resolve ultimately into a question 
 concerning the propriety of certain technical modes of speaking 
 which they introduced ; and in so far, the dispute may be con- 
 sidered as amounting merely to a verbal controversy. It must, 
 however, be remembered, that in inquiries of so difficult a 
 nature, the choice of phrases is by no means a matter of indif- 
 ference ; particularly when a want of coincidence between their 
 technical and their ordinary acceptations may have a tendency 
 to mislead our reasonings. In the present instance, this is re- 
 markably the case ; for the epithets productive and unproduc- 
 tive, as they are commonly employed, being as precise and 
 significant as any which the language furnishes, can scarcely 
 fail to have some effect on the estimate we form of the com- 
 parative importance of the two kinds of labour to which we are 
 accustomed habitually to appropriate them. The truth is, that 
 the influence of these epithets may be distinctly traced in 
 various instances, on the conclusions of Quesnai, on the one 
 hand, and of Mr. Smith on the other ; I mean the influence of 
 the popular meaning of these epithets, as contradistinguished 
 from the technical acceptations in which they have thought 
 proper respectively to define them. The difference of opinion, 
 however, between Smith and Quesnai concerning productive 
 and unproductive labour, does not turn entirely on the mean-
 
 270 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 ing of words. It turns also in part on a fact which they have 
 apprehended very differently, and which it is of great conse- 
 quence to view in its proper light. I shall make no apology 
 therefore for offering here, (even at the risk of appearing some- 
 what prolix and tedious,) a few additional illustrations and 
 proofs of the remarks which I have already stated on this fun- 
 damental article of Political Economy. 
 
 It will contribute to render some of the following reasonings 
 more clear and satisfactory, if it is distinctly remembered, that 
 in the first part of the argument we abstract entirely from the 
 effects of foreign commerce, and confine our attention to those 
 which result from the operations of the different descriptions of 
 labour in a separate and independent society. The fact is, that 
 in a great agricultural country like Great Britain, and still 
 more in a territory like France, where the importation of neces- 
 saries cannot possibly bear any great proportion to the con- 
 sumption of the inhabitants, the conclusions I have in view 
 will hold, in every essential respect, even although the opera- 
 tions of foreign commerce be admitted into the supposition. 
 But it may obviate some difficulties and objections which might 
 otherwise present themselves, to begin with stating the argu- 
 ment in its simplest form. 
 
 That Mr. Smith's opinion with respect to the fact on which 
 the Economists lay the principal stress was the same with theirs, 
 appears (among various other acknowledgments in different 
 parts of his Wealth of Nations} from the following passage 
 in the fifth chapter of the Second Book, entitled, " Of the 
 different Employments of Capital." 
 
 " In agriculture, nature labours along with man ; and though 
 her labour cost no expense, its produce has its value, as well 
 as that of the most expensive workman. The most important 
 operations of agriculture seem intended, not so much to in- 
 crease, though they do that too, as to direct the fertility of 
 nature towards the production of the plants most profitable to 
 man. A field overgrown with briars may frequently produce 
 as great a quantity of vegetables as the best cultivated vine- 
 yard or corn-field. Planting and tillage frequently regulate
 
 CHAP. I. OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. 271 
 
 more than they animate the active fertility of nature ; and, 
 after all their labour, a great part of the work remains to be 
 done by her. The labourers, and labouring cattle, therefore, 
 employed in agriculture, not only occasion, like the workmen 
 in manufactures, the reproduction of a value equal to their own 
 consumption, or to the capital which employs them, together 
 with its owner's profits, but of a much greater value. Over and 
 above the capital of the farmer, and all its profits, they regu- 
 larly occasion the reproduction of the rent of the landlord. 
 This rent may be considered as the produce of those powers of 
 nature, the use of which the landlord lends to the farmer. . . . 
 It is the work of nature that remains after deducting or compen- 
 sating everything which can be regarded as the work of man."* 
 
 These observations, although by no means unexceptionable, 
 in so far as they relate to manufacturing industry, not only 
 coincide in the main with the opinions of the Economists, but 
 express in strong and explicit terms one of the fundamental 
 principles on which their system rests. It is a principle, in- 
 deed, so perfectly obvious and indisputable, that it is almost as 
 painful to peruse their prolix elucidations of it, as the reasonings 
 of those who have had the appearance of disputing its solidity : 
 I say the appearance of disputing its solidity ; for I know of no 
 writer who has directly called in question the principle itself, 
 whatever diversity of judgment may exist about the remoter 
 consequences to which it necessarily leads, or the form of words 
 in which it ought to be expressed. 
 
 In this last respect Mr. Smith's system differs widely ; and 
 accordingly, in the sentence which immediately follows the sen- 
 tence just quoted, he speaks of agricultural and manufacturing 
 labour as being both productive, though not in an equal degree. 
 " No equal quantity of productive labour employed in manu- 
 factures can ever occasion so great a reproduction as in 
 agriculture. In them nature does nothing, man does all ; and 
 the reproduction must always be in proportion to the strength 
 of the agents" that occasion it. The capital employed in agri- 
 culture, therefore, not only puts into motion a greater quantity 
 
 * [Vol. II. pp. 52, 53, tenth edition.]
 
 272 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 of productive labour than any equal quantity employed in 
 manufactures, but in proportion too to the quantity of produc- 
 tive labour which it employs, it adds a much greater value to 
 the annual produce of the land and labour of the country ; to 
 the wealth and revenue of its inhabitants. Of all the ways 
 in which a capital can be employed, it is by far the most 
 advantageous to the society."* 
 
 In Mr. Smith's account of the Economical system, he has 
 entered into a particular statement of the reasons which induce 
 him to reject, as improper and inaccurate, the application 
 which it makes of the epithet unproductive to manufacturing 
 industry. He regards this indeed as the capital error of its 
 authors. " Their capital error," he observes, " seems to be in 
 considering the class of artificers, manufacturers, and merchants, 
 as altogether unproductive and barren." In confirmation of 
 this remark he reasons as follows : 
 
 " It is acknowledged of this class, that it reproduces an- 
 nually the value of its own annual consumption, and continues, 
 at least, the existence of the stock or capital which maintains 
 and employs it. But upon this account alone the denomina- 
 tion of barren or unproductive should seem to be very impro- 
 perly applied to it. We should not call a marriage barren or 
 unproductive, though it produced only a son and a daughter to 
 replace the father and mother, and though it did not increase 
 the number of the human species, but only continued it as it 
 was before." 
 
 " Farmers and country labourers, indeed, over and above the 
 stock which maintains or employs them, reproduce annually a 
 neat produce, a free rent to the landlord. As a marriage which 
 affords three children is certainly more productive than one which 
 affords only two, so the labour of farmers and country labourers 
 is certainly more productive than that of merchants, artificers, 
 and manufacturers. The superior produce of the one class, 
 however, does not render the other barren or unproductive." f 
 
 According to this statement of Mr. Smith, his objection to 
 
 * [Ibid., p. 53.] 
 
 t [Ibid., Book IV. chap. ix. ; Vol. III. pp. 21, 22, tenth edition.]
 
 CHAP. I. OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. 273 
 
 the doctrine of the Economists turns entirely on a philological 
 question, Whether the epithets barren and unproductive could 
 in strict propriety be applied to anything which merely con- 
 tinues or replaces what existed before, without yielding any 
 increase; whether, for example, the labour of the husband- 
 man could be said to be barren, on the supposition that his 
 harvest was barely sufficient to restore to him the seed which he 
 sowed in the spring ? That his labour, in such a case, might be 
 said to be productive, in a particular sense of that word, cannot, 
 I apprehend, be disputed ; but surely not in the sense in which 
 it is commonly applied in the operations of agriculture. 
 
 The example of a marriage, referred to by Mr. Smith, is not 
 altogether a fair one, for when applied to this connexion, the 
 word barren has a specific and appropriate meaning, implying 
 a complete negation of the power to procreate. A marriage 
 which produces a single child, could no more be said to be 
 barren, than one which produced two ; and therefore, if we 
 were to argue from this case to that of manufacturing industry, 
 it would follow, that the latter might with propriety be called 
 productive, even although it did not reproduce annually the 
 value of its own annual consumption. 
 
 This, however, as I already said, is but a dispute about 
 words, although, even according to this statement, I must con- 
 fess, the advantage seems to me to be on the side of the Econo- 
 mists. It may at the same time be fairly questioned, whether 
 Mr. Smith has not gone too far, when he has stated it as a fact 
 acknowledged by all parties, that " the class of artificers, 
 manufacturers, and merchants, reproduces annually the value 
 of its own annual consumption, and continues the existence of 
 the stock or capital which maintains and employs it." For, so 
 far as I am able to perceive, this proposition applies only to the 
 wealth of the individual, but not in the least to that species of 
 wealth about which the present argument is alone concerned, 
 the wealth of the nation. This consideration, however, I shall 
 reserve for future discussion ; and in the meantime shall admit 
 as correct, the account which Mr. Smith has given of the 
 doctrine of his antagonists. 
 
 VOL. VIII. 8
 
 274 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 In the farther prosecution of the same subject, Mr. Smith 
 has attempted to convict these writers, not only of an abuse of 
 language, but of an inattention to a most important distinction 
 in point of fact, in the classification they have proposed of the 
 different kinds of labour. 
 
 " It seems," he observes, " to be altogether improper to con- 
 sider artificers, manufacturers, and merchants, in the same 
 light as menial servants : the labour of menial servants does 
 not continue the existence of the fund which maintains and 
 employs them. Their maintenance and employment is alto- 
 gether at the expense of their masters, and the work which 
 they perform is not of a nature to repay that expense. That 
 work consists in services which perish generally in the very 
 instant of their performance, and does not fix or realize itself 
 in any vendible commodity which can replace the value of their 
 wages and maintenance. The labour, on the contrary, of arti- 
 ficers, manufacturers, and merchants, naturally does fix and 
 realize itself in some such vendible commodity. It is upon this 
 account" Mr. Smith adds, " that I have classed artificers, 
 manufacturers, and merchants, among the productive la- 
 bourers, and menial servants among the barren and unpro- 
 ductive."* 
 
 Before I proceed to make any remarks on this passage, it is 
 necessary for me to observe, in justice to the Economists, that 
 although they rank artificers and manufacturers, as well as 
 menial servants, in the class of sterile labourers, they do not 
 confound these different descriptions of men together, or view 
 them in the same light. On the contrary, a particular illustra- 
 tion of the stations which they occupy respectively in the social 
 system, and of their comparative importance as members of it, 
 may be found in various works published by these writers; 
 among others, in a valuable book published by the Marquis de 
 Mirabeau in 1763, entitled Philosophic Rurale. The sterile 
 class is there divided into the Classe Sterile Industrieuse, the 
 Classe Sterile Soudoyee, and the Classe Oisive. The Classe 
 Sterile Soudoyee is farther subdivided into different orders of 
 
 [Ibid. pp. 22, 23.]
 
 CHAP. I. OP LABOUR PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. 275 
 
 men, the nature and effects of whose functions are illustrated 
 by the author with much ingenuity. P. 55. 
 
 In reply to the reasonings last quoted from Mr. Smith, in 
 proof of the essential distinction between the labour of artificers 
 and that of menial servants, the following observation is stated 
 by the anonymous author of a pamphlet printed a few years 
 ago, under the title of The Essential Principles of the Wealth 
 of Nations illustrated, in opposition to some False Doctrines of 
 Dr. Adam Smith and others." 1 
 
 " The labour of artificers and manufacturers differs from 
 that of menial servants in this, that the former yields an equi- 
 valent for expenditure, the latter no equivalent. Still, however, 
 they are both with the greatest propriety termed unproductive, 
 though the one be much more so than the other." To explain 
 this difference, the author has recourse to an illustration or 
 comparison : " It will be allowed," says he, " that a field 
 which returns only the seed sown into it is a barren field. But 
 some ground, such as the sea-beach, may possess no vegetative 
 power at all, and may not even return the seeds sown into it, 
 consequently, would be much more barren than the other. The 
 labour of menial servants is aptly compared to this completely 
 sterile ground. But will the greater sterility of one spot entitle 
 ground to be called productive, that actually only returns the 
 seed, but gives no increase. This difference is only a greater or 
 less degree of a minus, but will never give a plus" 2 
 
 This answer to Mr. Smith does not seem to me to be at all 
 satisfactory, nor even to proceed on an accurate conception of 
 the circumstances of the case. Perhaps the following consi- 
 derations may be of some use in removing the obscurity in 
 which the subject has been involved by these contradictory 
 statements. 
 
 In order to remove, as much as possible, in the examination 
 of this question, those biasses which the mind is apt to receive 
 from accidental associations founded on familiar phrases or 
 examples, it may not be improper to remark, that the labour of 
 
 1 Printed for Becket, 1797. [According to Watt, the author's name seems to 
 have been Grey.] 2 Pp. 11, 12.
 
 276 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 a menial servant is employed by Mr. Smith, as well as by the 
 Economists, to represent a great variety of other kinds of labour, 
 which he considers as equally unproductive, although he differs 
 from them in the principles on which his classification is made. 
 " The labour of some of the most respectable orders in the 
 society," he observes, " is, like that of menial servants, unpro- 
 ductive of any value, and does not fix or realize itself in any 
 permanent subject or vendible commodity, which endures after 
 that labour is past, and for which an equal quantity of labour 
 could afterwards be produced. The Sovereign, for example, 
 with all the officers both of justice and war who serve under 
 him, the whole army and navy, are unproductive labourers. 
 They are the servants of the public, and are maintained by a 
 part of the annual produce of the industry of the people. 
 Their service (how honourable, how useful, how necessary so 
 ever) produces nothing for which an equal quantity of service 
 can afterwards be procured. The protection, security, and de- 
 fence of the commonwealth, the effect of their labour this year, 
 will not purchase its protection, security, and defence for the 
 year to come. In the same class must be ranked some, both 
 of the gravest and most important, and some of the most fri- 
 volous professions, churchmen, lawyers, physicians, men of 
 letters of all kinds, players, buffoons, musicians, opera singers, 
 opera dancers, &c. The labour of the meanest of these has a 
 certain value, regulated by the very same principles which re- 
 gulate that of every other sort of labour, and that of the noblest 
 and most useful, produces nothing which could afterwards pur- 
 chase or procure an equal quantity of labour. Like the decla- 
 mation of the actor, the harangue of the orator, or the tune of 
 the musician, the work of all of them perishes in the very 
 instant of the production."* 
 
 I thought it of importance to state this fully, because in 
 consequence of the constant reference which is made to the 
 case of menial servants, the labour of artificers and manufac- 
 turers seems, on a superficial view, to be degraded in the econo- 
 mical system below its just level ; while, on the other hand, 
 
 * [Wealth of Nations, Book II. chap, iii.; Vol. IL p. 3, tenth edition.]
 
 CHAP. I. OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. 277 
 
 the mind more easily reconciles itself to the superiority ascribed 
 by Mr. Smith to manufacturing industry over menial services, 
 than it would do if the reader were always to recollect, that, ac- 
 cording to his arrangement, menial services are classed along with 
 the labours of the most useful and honourable orders in society. 
 
 Mr. Smith himself has, if I am not mistaken, been more 
 than once misled by this very circumstance ; as when he re- 
 marks, for example, in order to contrast the more strongly 
 what he calls productive with what he calls unproductive 
 labour, that " a man grows rich by employing a multitude of 
 manufacturers, but he grows poor by maintaining a multitude 
 of menial servants."* An inference by the way from which no 
 inference can be drawn applicable to Mr. Smith's purpose ; for 
 when a man ruins himself by the multitude of his menials, it 
 is not owing to the nature of the labour in which they are 
 employed, but to the excess of their number above the reason- 
 able demand which he has for their services ; and a master 
 manufacturer might ruin himself exactly in the same way, if 
 he were to engage more workmen than the extent of his trade 
 called for, or enabled him to support. 1 
 
 In another passage, too, he observes of the Economical system, 
 that " as men are naturally fond of 'paradoxes ', and of appear- 
 ing to understand what surpasses the comprehension of ordinary 
 men, the paradox it maintains concerning the unproductive 
 nature of manufacturing labour, has not perhaps contributed 
 a little to increase the number of its admirers/'f Now, I 
 confess, for my own part, that to affirm of manufacturing 
 labour, that the epithet productive cannot be applied to it 
 in the same sense in which it is applied to agriculture, so far 
 from having the air of a paradox, strikes me as bordering upon 
 a self-evident proposition ; nor can I easily conceive how this 
 most profound and ingenious writer could consider such a 
 proposition as more repugnant to the common apprehensions 
 of mankind, than a distinction which represents the productive 
 
 * [Ibid. p. 2.] dale On Public Wealth, by Brougham.] 
 
 1 See Edinburgh Review, Vol. IV. p. f [Book IV. chap. ix. ; VoL III. p. 
 
 355, [July, 1804. Review of Lauder- 28, tenth edition.]
 
 278 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 power of agriculture and of manufactures as differing only in 
 degree ; while it classifies the labour of the Sovereign, of the 
 officers of the army and navy, of churchmen, lawyers, and men 
 of letters, with those of musicians, opera singers, and buffoons. 
 To this last classification I do not in the least object ; although 
 I am much mistaken if it has not, at first view, somewhat of a 
 paradoxical appearance to persons unaccustomed to the tech- 
 nical arrangements of speculative politicians. I only differ 
 from Mr. Smith in this, that I think the labours of all the 
 various kinds of artificers, manufacturers, and merchants, 
 should have been included in his enumeration ; and I am not 
 without hopes, that the observations I have now quoted from 
 him may tend to reconcile the mind more easily to the doctrine 
 he combats ; inasmuch as it appears to be so clearly acknow- 
 ledged on both sides, that the question concerning the pro- 
 ductiveness or unproductiveness of any species of labour is 
 altogether unconnected with any consideration of its dignity, 
 or of its utility, or even of its necessity to the existence of the 
 social order. The Abbe Baudeau, in his Exposition of the 
 Economical Table, places this in a very strong light, when he 
 observes, that " even the plough-wright, although he makes the 
 instrument with which the husbandman carries on his opera- 
 tions, is no more to be considered (according to the definition 
 of that system) as a productive labourer, than a lace-maker 
 or an embroiderer." 1 
 
 In the reply formerly quoted [p. 275] to Mr. Smith's reason- 
 ings, the labours of artificers and manufacturers are compared 
 to what the labour of the husbandman would be, if he were only 
 to reap the same measure he had sown ; the labour of menial 
 servants is compared to that of a man who should sow his seed 
 on the sea-beach, or on a rock without any return whatever. 
 " The labour of artificers and manufacturers," it is said, " differs 
 from that of menial servants in this, that the former yields an 
 equivalent for expenditure, the latter yields no equivalent." This 
 view of the matter (as I formerly hinted) does not seem to me 
 to be just; and I think the author has been led into it, partly 
 
 1 P. 98.
 
 CHAP. I. OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. 279 
 
 by the representation which Mr. Smith has given of this doctrine 
 of the Economists ; and partly by the imperfect and indistinct 
 manner in which it is stated in their own writings. 
 
 " It is acknowledged," says Mr. Smith, " that the class of 
 artificers, manufacturers, and merchants, reproduces annually 
 the value of its own annual consumption, and continues, at 
 least, the existence of the stock or capital which maintains and 
 employs it ; differing in this respect essentially from that of 
 menial servants, who produce no value to repay the expense of 
 their maintenance."* 
 
 I observed, in my last Lecture, [p. 263,] that there seems to be 
 a fallacy in this distinction, and that its plausibility arises from 
 the use of money as a medium of exchange, which keeps the real 
 similarity of the two cases a little out of view. The artificer setts 
 the produce of his industry, and at first sight appears to replace 
 his capital as effectually as the former by reaping his crop. In 
 truth, the effects are the same in both instances, so far as the 
 individual is concerned ; but they are very different when con- 
 sidered in relation to the community. The corn which the 
 husbandman reaps is a free gift of nature, and costs nothing to 
 the rest of the society. The manufacturer changes the form of 
 his materials, converting, in many cases, what was formerly 
 useless, to purposes of general commerce and accommodation. 
 While he does so, however, he derives the means of his subsist- 
 ence from the general stock. He is not supported immediately 
 by the produce of his labour ; and if he were cut off from com- 
 munication with others, could do nothing to renew the capital 
 by which he is maintained. His work is of no absolute value 
 to himself; and it is only the means of procuring the subsist- 
 ence from others who exchange their superfluities for the grati- 
 fication of their secondary wants. The capital, therefore, which 
 the artificer has consumed, is replaced by some other person 
 who thereby spends part of his revenue. Hence it appears, 
 that if the labour of a menial servant may be aptly compared to 
 that of a man sowing grain on a rock, or on the sea-coast, the 
 very same comparison will apply to the labour of an artificer or 
 * [Book IV. chap. ix. ; Vol. III. p. 21, tenth edition.]
 
 280 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 manufacturer. The truth is, that in both cases the simile holds 
 in so far as the productiveness of labour is alone concerned ; 
 but that in both cases it fails upon the whole, and precisely 
 from the same reason, inasmuch as it has the appearance of 
 implying an analogy between an operation expressive of folly or 
 insanity, and two kinds of industry which, though equally barren, 
 are essentially subservient to the comfort of human life. 
 
 According to Mr. Smith, the true characteristic of productive 
 labour is, that it fixes itself in some vendible commodity, the 
 sale of which replaces its expense; whereas unproductive labour 
 consists in services which perish almost at the instant of per- 
 formance. 
 
 In this distinction of Mr. Smith's, there are two different 
 considerations involved. First, the vendibility, if I may be 
 allowed the word ; and, secondly, the durability of the fruits of 
 productive labour. Productive labour, he observes, fixes itself 
 in some vendible commodity, the sale of which replaces its ex- 
 pense ; whereas unproductive labour consists in services which 
 perish almost at the instant of performance. From the manner 
 in which the observation is stated, Mr. Smith seems to have 
 considered these two circumstances as coinciding ; or, in other 
 words, he seems to have considered the want of vendibility in 
 the fruits of unproductive labour, as a consequence of their 
 want of durability. If this was not his meaning, it is manifest 
 that the two clauses of the sentence are not accurately con- 
 trasted ; the perishable nature of menial services being stated 
 in direct opposition to the vendibility of the commodities fur- 
 nished by productive industry. 
 
 In order, however, to do all justice to the definition in ques- 
 tion, I shall consider separately the two circumstances which 
 have just been mentioned, as the distinguishing tests or char- 
 acteristics of productive and of unproductive labour. 
 
 With respect to the first, that " productive labour fixes itself 
 in some vendible commodity, the sale of which replaces its ex- 
 penses ;" it is obvious that it depends in many cases on the 
 accidental manner in which the subsistence of the workman is 
 advanced ; whether by the person who ultimately consumes or
 
 CHAP. I. OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. 281 
 
 enjoys the fruits of his labour, or by a third person, who is to 
 re-imburse himself by the sale of what the labourer has manu- 
 factured. If the wages are advanced by the person who is to 
 enjoy the fruit of the labourer's industry, the labour consists in 
 personal service, never fixing itself in a commodity which is to 
 become an object of commerce, or to repay its expense by a 
 sale. In this case I presume it will be readily granted to be a 
 matter of indifference what these services are, provided they 
 contribute equally to the accommodation of the employer. The 
 labour of a housemaid, for example, when employed (accord- 
 ing to the old practice of this country) in spinning flax for her 
 master's convenience, could not be supposed to differ essentially 
 in its nature from her services in making the beds, or in sweeping 
 the apartments. If her labour, in the former way, save him 
 from an expenditure which he must otherwise have incurred to 
 procure the same accommodation, her services in the latter way 
 have an effect precisely similar, by relieving him from the per- 
 sonal execution of a task which would otherwise have interfered 
 with more profitable or more agreeable engagements. 
 
 If, on the other hand, we suppose that the wages of the work- 
 man are to be repaid by the sale of the commodity he has 
 manufactured, the fact is in all essential respects the same. 
 The end is accomplished in a way more circuitous, and with a 
 different effect to the income of the person who thus replaces 
 his capital ; but that these circumstances cannot alter the 
 nature of the labourer's employment, when considered in rela- 
 tion to the community of which he is a member, might almost 
 be assumed as a self-evident proposition ; inasmuch as the 
 expense of his maintenance must, in some way or other, be 
 derived ultimately from the general fund or revenue. 
 
 In the second place, Mr. Smith observes of unproductive 
 labour, that " it consists in services which perish almost at the 
 instant of performance." If this characteristic of unproductive 
 labour be considered as coinciding with the other ; that is, if 
 the perishable nature of these services be supposed to render 
 them unproductive only by preventing their fruits from 
 ever becoming the objects of commerce, the same remarks
 
 282 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 which have been made on the former characteristic, are exactly 
 applicable to the latter : and that this was Mr. Smith's mean- 
 ing cannot, I apprehend, be reasonably doubted ; because, on 
 the supposition that the unproductiveness of menial, or any 
 other services, were a consequence of the perishable nature of 
 their effects, the absurd conclusion would follow, that the produc- 
 tiveness of labour is proportioned to the durability of the object it 
 fabricates ; and that it admits of all possible degrees according 
 to the quality of the materials upon which it is employed. 
 
 From what has been already said, it would appear that the 
 price of manufactures is to be considered in no other light than 
 as a salary paid by the proprietor of land to those who are 
 willing to employ their labour in his service. The wages of arti- 
 ficers are mere transferences of riches ; and the result of their 
 industry, not the production or the continuation of a part of 
 national stock, but the means of procuring a portion of the 
 produce of the soil. 
 
 The indistinct manner in which some of the economical 
 writers have explained this article of their system, has contri- 
 buted to occasion these misapprehensions with respect to the 
 nature of manufacturing industry. From the particular stress 
 they lay on the general principle, that "the consumption of 
 manufacturers and artificers is equal to the (exchangeable) value 
 of what they produce," it has been assumed by their opponents, 
 and among others by Mr. Smith, as an admitted truth, that 
 this class by reproducing annually the value of its own con- 
 sumption, continues the existence of the stock or capital which 
 maintains and employs it. And, indeed, this idea seems fre- 
 quently to be implied in their reasonings. It is, however, 
 obvious, with respect to this favourite principle of the Econo- 
 mists, concerning the exchangeable value added to commodities 
 by manufacturing industry, that although it is of great import- 
 ance in the argument, concerning the effects of manufactures 
 when combined with foreign commerce, it has no immediate 
 connexion with that part of their theory which asserts the un- 
 productive nature of this species of labour in an indepen- 
 dent and insulated society. To say that "the labour em-
 
 CHAP. I. OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. 283 
 
 ployed on land is productive, because (over and above com- 
 pletely paying the labourer and the farmer) the produce affords 
 a clear rent to the landlord ; and that the labour employed in a 
 piece of lace is unproductive, because it merely replaces the 
 provision that the workmen has consumed, is to rest this im- 
 portant distinction on a fact very different from that on which 
 it really hinges." 1 Supposing the value of the wrought lace to 
 be such, as that besides paying in the most complete manner 
 the workmen and his employer, it would afford a clear rent to 
 a third person, the reasonings which have been already stated 
 against the productive power of manufacturing industry would 
 still remain in full force. 
 
 This I endeavoured to shew as clearly as I was able at our 
 last meeting ; and I have now only to add, that the converse of 
 the proposition is no less certain ; that as a capital employed in 
 manufacturing speculations may often be highly productive to 
 the individual, while it must be ever unproductive to the com- 
 munity, so a capital employed in agriculture may be highly 
 productive to the community, while the individual accomplishes 
 his own ruin. 
 
 In considering the effects of manufactures as combined ivith 
 foreign commerce, the Economists have expressed themselves in 
 terms much more liable to objection, (as I shall endeavour 
 afterwards to shew,) although even on this head their reason- 
 ings may suggest conclusions of great practical importance to 
 the rulers of nations. As I must not, however, at present pro- 
 secute this subject any farther, I shall confine my attention to 
 the obvious fact, (which cannot be better stated than in the 
 words of Mr. Smith,) " that by means of trade and manufac- 
 tures, a greater quantity of subsistence can be annually im- 
 ported into a particular country, than what its own lands in the 
 actual state of cultivation could afford. The inhabitants of a 
 town, though they frequently possess no lands of their own, yet 
 draw to themselves by their industry such a quantity of the 
 rude produce of the lands of other people, as supplies them not 
 only with the materials for their work, but with the fund of 
 
 1 Essay on the Principle of Population, p. 430. [By Malthas, 1798.]
 
 284 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 their subsistence. What a town always is with regard to the 
 country in its neighbourhood, one independent state or country 
 may frequently be with regard to other independent states and 
 countries. It is thus that Holland draws a part of its subsist- 
 ence from other countries; live cattle from Holstein and Jutland, 
 and corn from almost all the different countries of Europe."* 
 
 With this observation of Mr. Smith I perfectly agree, and I 
 think it calls our attention to a principle too much overlooked 
 or slurred over by most of the Economists, in the statement of 
 their theory. On the other hand, I agree with the general 
 doctrines of this sect so far, as to feel it incumbent on me to 
 remark, that in a great agricultural country such as ours, too 
 much stress ought not to be laid on the passage which has now 
 been quoted, as a ground for abating the efforts of our statesmen, 
 to advance to the utmost possible extent our independent agri- 
 cultural resources. The example of Holland itself which Mr. 
 Smith has quoted, (the happiest undoubtedly for his purpose 
 which the world affords,) is the best illustration of this that can 
 be mentioned. It forms, in truth, one of those extreme cases 
 in human affairs, (cases from which it is always dangerous to 
 apply our inferences to the general condition of mankind,) of 
 which I formerly took notice, when contrasting the policy of 
 this singular district with that of the Empire of China. The 
 grain raised in Holland is said to be scarcely sufficient to 
 maintain the labourers employed on the dykes ; and yet it is 
 mentioned by St. Pierre as a subject of doubt, whether there is 
 not more Polish corn in its granaries, than that country retains 
 for the subsistence of its own inhabitants. f How totally inap- 
 
 * [ Wealth of Nations, Book IV. chap. Omnia lanitium Me lassat textrina Minerva, 
 
 is. ; Vol. III. pp. 26, 27, tenth edition.] I*nigero tamen hinc wimiui abesse greget 
 
 . rrm- -r, I-T v. Non capiunt operas fabriles oppida vestra. 
 
 t [This suggests an Epigram of Joseph NuUa Wg ^ ^ , igna miniBtrat 
 
 Scahger, wntten in Greek and Latin, humu 
 
 On the Marvel* of Holland, and ad- Horrea tritlceae rumpunt hie fmgis acerri. 
 dressed by the " Dictator " to the cele- Pascuus hie tamen est, non CerealU ager. 
 
 brated Janus Dousa, (1600.) The fol- nicnumeron,eri.ti P anturdoUacelli* 
 , , _ . Quse Tineta eclat nulla putator habet. 
 
 lowing is the Latin version : Hio nul]v ftut certe ^ egt rariwima ^ 
 
 " I '!: MIRANDIS BATAVLK. Linlfldl tamen est copia major ubi ? 
 
 " Ignorata tuae referam miracula terra:, Hie mediia habltatur aquis, quU credere posit ? 
 
 Dotua, peregrinU non babitura fidem. Et tamen hie nulla, Dousa, bibuntur aquae."]
 
 CHAP. I. OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. 285 
 
 plicable to the general state of the world must those specu- 
 lations be, which are founded on the policy of a people so 
 peculiarly circumstanced ! Of the absurdity of applying them 
 to our own country, no stronger proof can be adduced than 
 what I shall have occasion to state more particularly after- 
 wards, that, notwithstanding the advantages it derives from its 
 insular form, and the extent of its inland navigation, the 
 greatest importation of grain which ever took place in one 
 year, previous to the late years of scarcity, did not exceed a 
 thirtieth part of our annual consumption ; and that even in the 
 course of the year 1801, notwithstanding the enormous expense 
 of 15,000,000, it did not exceed an eighteenth part of that 
 quantity. 1 
 
 In a great agricultural territory, not enjoying the same easy 
 intercourse with other parts of the world, the comparison must 
 fail to a proportionally greater degree ; and, in general, as 
 different countries approach more nearly to this last descrip- 
 tion, Mr. Smith's remarks become inapplicable to the physical 
 condition of their inhabitants. 
 
 Still, however, it must be granted, that manufacturing in- 
 dustry (though invariably the same in its nature when con- 
 sidered in relation to the whole world) may be justly said to 
 be productive in its effects to the nation, which, by superior 
 ingenuity or industry, thus lays its neighbours under con- 
 tribution; however precarious and liable to interruption so 
 circuitous a channel of revenue must always be, when compared 
 with that resulting from the productive labour which depends 
 on ourselves. In justice, at the same time, to a former part of 
 my argument, I must take the liberty to add, that while I 
 grant that in the case which has been just stated, the epithet 
 productive may be justly applied to the industry of manufac- 
 turers and artificers, this affords no reason for distinguishing 
 them from those other classes of labourers who are considered 
 as unproductive in Mr. Smith's argument. A celebrated Uni- 
 versity which should attract a concourse of students from other 
 countries, the public spectacles of a great capital, where the 
 
 1 Bell, p. 454. [See above, p. 202.]
 
 286 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 " declamations of the actor, the tune of the musician, and the 
 grimace of the buffoon," contribute to swell the crowd of 
 opulent and prodigal foreigners; the exertions of those who 
 carry their talents and enterprise to the splendid markets which 
 ambition opens to them in every quarter of the globe, and who 
 afterwards return to enjoy their acquisitions in their native 
 land ; are all productive in the same sense with the manufac- 
 turers of a trading nation. They introduce into the country a 
 fund which would not otherwise have existed in it, and which 
 may be eventually productive, either by supplying the means 
 of importing rude produce from abroad, or by adding to the 
 number of productive labourers at home. 
 
 A still closer resemblance may be remarked between the labour 
 of manufacturers and that of authors, abstracting altogether 
 from the effect of foreign intercourse, and adopting Mr. Smith's 
 own definition of productive labour. What inestimable and 
 what extensive utility, not only to his own country, but to the 
 whole human race, did his genius and information communi- 
 cate to the blank paper, to which was intrusted the original 
 copy of the Wealth of Nations ! Or, laying aside all considera- 
 tions of this kind, and viewing merely in a commercial light 
 the exchangeable value of his labour, in what respects did the 
 productiveness of this labour to the author differ from that of 
 the workman' who spends a year in fabricating a pennyworth 
 of flax into a costly piece of lace ? In the one case as well as 
 in the other, is not labour fixed and realized in a vendible 
 commodity ? 
 
 In one particular respect, I do not think that Mr. Smith has 
 done complete justice to manufacturers and artists. " They 
 reproduce," he says, " annually the value of their own annual 
 consumption, continuing at least the existence of the stock or 
 capital which maintains them."* And that their labour has 
 this effect, in as far as they themselves, or the individual who 
 advances their wages are concerned, I have already acknow- 
 ledged. But, if this is to be considered as a test of pro- 
 ductiveness, the argument might be pushed much farther, by 
 
 [Wealth of Nations, Book IV. chap. iz. ; Vol. III. p. 21, tenth edition.]
 
 CHAP. I. OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. 287 
 
 examining the effects of experience and habit in rendering the 
 workman's skill and dexterity, no less than the articles lie 
 fabricates vendible commodities, which he may carry to a 
 profitable market In this case, the labour he employs, during 
 his years of apprenticeship, does a great deal more than replace 
 to the individual the expense of its maintenance. It even 
 affords him a nett produce, analogous, in some respects, to that 
 which the husbandman enjoys. 
 
 If this view of the subject be admitted, the parallel between 
 manufacturers and those who devote themselves to labour 
 purely intellectual, will be found still to hold without any 
 disadvantage to the latter. The harangue, indeed, of the 
 orator, the declamation of the actor, and the tune of the 
 musician, (to borrow Mr. Smith's own instances,) " may perish 
 in the very instant of the production."* The labour is co- 
 existent with the effects. But although this may be the case 
 with the particular exertions of all their labours, the observa- 
 tion will not apply to the labour directed to the acquisition of 
 the talents which are thus displayed ; and which by converting 
 these talents into a source of revenue to the possessors, has 
 fixed and realized itself into a vendible and durable com- 
 modity. When the labour is at all successful, the sale not only 
 replaces to the employer the expense incurred during the 
 tedious process of preparation, it generally does a great deal 
 more ; and in no case is it necessarily subjected to any such 
 limitation. I cannot help taking this opportunity to add, that 
 the labour which is employed in the cultivation of the under- 
 standing approaches more nearly, (in the harvest which it 
 yields,) than anything else which can be specified, to the labour 
 of the husbandman ; and the creative powers of human industry 
 are, in both instances, founded on the combination of its effects 
 with that bounty of nature, which, in the moral not less than 
 the material world, rewards in due season with its plentiful 
 increase the toils of the spring. 
 
 To this analogy, Lord Bacon had manifestly a reference 
 when, in his usual figurative style, he bestowed on education the 
 
 * [Ibid. Book II. chap. irt. ; Vol. II. p. 3, tenth edition.]
 
 288 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 significant title of " the Georgics of the Mind" 1 Intimating 
 to legislators this important truth, that of all the means they 
 have in their power to employ, to increase the sum of public 
 happiness, none can so amply and so infallibly reward their 
 benevolent exertions, as the encouragement which is afforded 
 to Agriculture, and the attention which is bestowed on the 
 Instruction of the people. In both instances the legislator 
 exerts a power which is literally productive or creative, com- 
 pelling, in the one case, the unprofitable desert to pour forth 
 its latent riches ; and, in the other, vivifying the dormant 
 seeds of genius and virtue, and redeeming from the neglected 
 waste of human intellect a new and unexpected accession to 
 the common inheritance of mankind. 
 
 A few additional observations on the fundamental principles 
 of the Economical System still remain, which I shall reserve 
 (with some critical remarks on the improprieties of its phrase- 
 ology, and on certain errors into which its authors appear to 
 have been led by mistaken views of philanthropy) to be the 
 subject of another lecture. 
 
 My two last Lectures were employed in examining Mr. 
 Smith's criticisms on the doctrine of the Economists, concerning 
 productive and unproductive labour. The subject, after all I 
 have stated, is, I am sensible, very far from being exhausted ; 
 and when I recollect the different lights in which it has been 
 viewed by so many eminent men, it is impossible for me not to 
 feel a certain degree of hesitation about the strictures which I 
 have occasionally hazarded on their conclusions. The truth is, 
 that on this, as on most other occasions, I should wish to be 
 understood as aiming rather to suggest matter for future con- 
 sideration, than to support any particular system ; and I am 
 never more anxious that this should be kept in view, than when 
 I happen to dissent from the deliberate and decided opinions 
 of Mr. Smith. On the other hand, if authority is to be allowed 
 any weight in such inquiries, it will be readily acknowledged 
 
 1 [Advancement of Learning; Of the nature of Good.] De Augment. Sclent. 
 Lib. VII. [cap. i.]
 
 CHAP. I. OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. 289 
 
 that the most careful examination is due to every part of a 
 theory recommended by such names as those of Quesnai, 
 Morellet, and Turgot ; and of which the fundamental principles 
 (at the distance of forty years from its original publication) 
 were adopted, after mature deliberation and long discussion, by 
 the late celebrated Lavoisier; a philosopher equally distin- 
 guished by the correctness of his judgment, and the extent and 
 accuracy of his political information. 
 
 That the writings of the authors by whom the system was first 
 explained ; those of Quesnai (in particular,) of Turgot, and of 
 the Marquis de Mirabeau, will amply repay the labour of a very 
 diligent perusal to all who turn their attention to these studies, 
 1 can venture to pronounce with confidence : and it is only 
 after examining the different parts of the system in their re- 
 lation to each other and to the whole, that a correct judgment 
 can be formed of their scope and of their importance. In this 
 view, I am somewhat afraid, that by dwelling so long on a 
 detached and preliminary article, I may have created a preju- 
 dice against a doctrine, about which I was anxious to excite 
 your curiosity, more especially as it is a doctrine to which the 
 following remark of Lord Bacon applies with peculiar force : 
 " Theoriarum vires in apta et se mutuo sustinente partium har- 
 monia, et quadam in orbem demonstratione consistunt ; ideoque 
 per partes traditse, infirmse sunt."* 
 
 I am sensible that this acknowledgment forms but an 
 awkward introduction to a farther prosecution of the same 
 subject ; but having already said so much, I am unwilling to 
 leave it without stating a few considerations, which appear to 
 myself to throw some light on the circumstances which have 
 produced this diversity of opinion on a question apparently of 
 so simple a nature. 
 
 Among the objections which naturally present themselves 
 against the Economical system, one of the most obvious is 
 founded on the restricted sense in which it employs the phrases 
 productive labour and national revenue. The latter of these 
 
 * [The " Demonxtratio in orbem " is to be here taken in a favourable meaning ; 
 cot as reasoning in a circle, but as an exhaustive proof.] 
 
 VOL. VIII. T
 
 290 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 Mr. Smith charges the Economists with supposing to consist 
 altogether in the quantity of subsistence which the industry of 
 the people can procure. This statement, however, is not accur- 
 ate. It would be nearer the truth to say, that they suppose it 
 to consist in the rude produce y 1 for although by far the greater 
 part of this is destined for the subsistence of man, it is not on 
 that account that the epithet productive is applied to the labour 
 employed in raising it ; but because this labour, in consequence 
 of being associated with the genial powers of nature, augments 
 the national stock, by an accession or creation which would not 
 otherwise have existed. According to this idea, the labour 
 which is employed in raising hemp or flax, is no less produc- 
 tive than that which brings wheat or barley to market ; and 
 the former articles, as well as the latter, are to be considered as 
 forming part of the national revenue. 
 
 In offering this explanation, I would not be understood to 
 vindicate the language employed by the Economists, but only 
 to shew, that there is a solid foundation for the distinction which 
 they have endeavoured to establish between the nature and 
 effects of agricultural and of manufacturing labour. That the 
 epithets productive and unproductive were not very happily 
 chosen to express this distinction, appears sufficiently from the 
 criticisms which have been made on them by different writers, 
 as being at variance with the common apprehensions and com- 
 mon modes of speaking among mankind. But if, on the one 
 hand, it be granted to be an abuse of words to bestow the 
 epithet unproductive, on any species of labour which contri- 
 butes essentially to the happiness of society, and to exclude 
 from the national revenue the result of those arts which mul- 
 tiply so wonderfully the accommodations of human life ; it 
 must, in my opinion, be admitted, on the other hand, that an 
 objection still stronger applies to the language introduced by 
 Mr. Smith, according to which we are led to rank the most 
 honourable and useful members of the community among its 
 unproductive labourers : " the sovereign, for example, with all 
 the officers both of justice and war who serve under him ; the 
 
 1 Maltbus, [Book III. chap, via.]
 
 CHAP. I. OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. 291 
 
 whole army and navy ; churchmen, lawyers, physicians, and 
 men of letters of every denomination ;"* while the national 
 revenue is measured exclusively by the exchangeable value of 
 those vendible commodities which compose the annual produce 
 of the land and labour of the country. Perhaps a mode of 
 expression on this subject might be devised, less exceptionable 
 than either of those which have been now under our review ; 
 marking, on the one hand, with precision the essential distinc- 
 tion which the Economists are so anxious to establish ; and 
 avoiding on the other, that paradoxical appearance which a pro- 
 position is apt to assume, when the meaning of the technical 
 terms in which it is stated does not coincide exactly with their 
 ordinary acceptations in popular discourse. The history of 
 modern chemistry affords a sufficient proof, how much the 
 progress of knowledge depends on the logical propriety of the 
 terms employed in our reasonings. The Economical system 
 seems to me to have been partly suggested by the same general 
 views which gave rise to the new nomenclature ; and in this 
 respect it reflects the highest credit on the ingenuity and 
 sagacity of its authors. Considered as a first attempt, it is 
 much more wonderful that it should have been carried so skil- 
 fully and plausibly into execution, as to divide the opinions of 
 the best judges in Europe to the present day, than that some 
 faults should have occurred in the details of so vast and com- 
 plicated an undertaking. A few of them, I suspect strongly, 
 will be found to vitiate that very part of it which I have been 
 attempting to illustrate ; and, if I do not deceive myself, they 
 might be completely corrected, by slight alterations in certain 
 technical terms which confound together things which ought to 
 be distinguished. From this confusion arises entirely whatever 
 obscurity appears at present to involve the subject ; and various 
 difficulties connected with the details of the system may be 
 traced to a similar cause. These imperfections it is certainly 
 of consequence to remove ; for in the same proportion in which 
 a technical vocabulary, founded on the principles of a sound 
 logic, facilitates the discovery of truth, it must have a tendency, 
 
 * [Wealth of Nations, Book II. chap. iii. ; Vol. II. p. 3, tenth edition.]
 
 292 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK. II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 wherever it violates these principles, to add to the difficulty of 
 detecting error, by the systematical form in which it is exhibited. 
 
 I cannot help taking this opportunity of adding, that a 
 scientific language appropriated to Political Economy (if suc- 
 cessfully executed) would be still more useful than in Che- 
 mistry ; because the subjects of our reasonings entering more 
 constantly and familiarly into popular discussion, give rise to 
 a far greater number of absurd associations to perplex the 
 ordinary vocabulary. The task, however, is proportionally 
 more arduous, inasmuch as it is necessary to unite, along with 
 precision, a certain deference for the usual modes of expression. 
 In chemistry, the novelty of the phenomena reconciles us to the 
 use of whatever technical terms our instructors find necessary 
 to employ ; but in Political Economy, which is, more or less, 
 a subject of daily speculation to all classes of men, an appro- 
 priate vocabulary is apt to convey the idea of pedantry or of 
 affected mystery ; and, in truth, this circumstance will be found, 
 more than anything else, to have revolted the public taste at 
 the speculations of Quesnai. How far it may be possible to 
 combine that precision of language which he had in view, with 
 a diction more simple and more familiar to the ear, is a 
 question upon which I cannot at present hazard an opinion. 
 
 In the view which has been given of the Economical system 
 concerning productive and unproductive labour, I have endea- 
 voured to vindicate it against Mr. Smith's very ingenious 
 criticisms ; not because I think it unexceptionable, but because 
 these criticisms, if I am not much mistaken, have betrayed that 
 profound writer into an indistinctness of language which has 
 obscured his reasonings in some instances, and misled his con- 
 clusions in others: and, indeed, one of my chief objects in 
 dwelling so long as I have done on a controversial discussion 
 of this kind, was to direct your attention to a careful and 
 scrupulous examination of those parts of the Wealth of 
 Nations where the phrases productive labour and productive 
 expenses appear to have any connexion with the argument. 
 
 For my own part, so far from considering it as the fault of 
 Quesnai' s phraseology, that it confines our attention too much
 
 CHAP. I. OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. 293 
 
 to the labour and expenses employed in producing the means 
 of subsistence, I think its chief indistinctness arises from the 
 tendency which its language has to confound, in our apprehen- 
 sions, that part of the rude produce which furnishes the means 
 of subsistence, and that part of it which is subservient to the 
 arts of accommodation. If the Economists had actually re- 
 stricted the phrase National Revenue (according to Mr. 
 Smith's supposition) to the means of subsistence alone, their 
 language, although liable to censure on account of its obvious 
 inconsistency with their fundamental and very important doc- 
 trine concerning the peculiar characteristics of agricultural 
 labour and expenses, would have possessed, in some respects, an 
 advantage over the mode of expression adopted in their theory. 
 I shall mention one instance of this which will both illustrate 
 the meaning of the remark, and confirm its truth. 
 
 Of the two different parts of rude produce which have now 
 been distinguished, it is manifest, that although they agree in 
 the circumstance of rewarding the labourer with a free gift 
 derived from the bounty of nature, they differ in one very 
 essential particular, that while the agricultural labour employed 
 in providing the means of subsistence, renders the cultivator 
 independent of all the other classes of the community, the 
 agricultural labour employed in ministering to the arts of 
 accommodation or of ornament, possesses only an exchangeable 
 value, agree in this respect with the labour employed in manu- 
 factures. The Economists were evidently led to confound 
 these together under the same epithet, by the application which 
 they were to make of this part of their theory, to their favourite 
 object of a territorial tax ; but it is of consequence to keep 
 the distinction steadily in view, in order to direct the attention 
 of the statesman to that species, of revenue which can alone 
 afford a solid basis for a useful population, and through the 
 medium of which the encouragement to population should, in a 
 great agricultural country, be exclusively directed. 
 
 Would it not obviate, in some degree, these different objec- 
 tions, (after stating in as unexceptionable language as could 
 be devised, the radical distinction which the Economists ex-
 
 294 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 press by the words productive and unproductive,) to subdivide 
 what they call productive labour into two kinds, that which 
 affords the means of subsistence, and that which supplies the 
 arts of accommodation ivith their rude materials, marking each 
 by some appropriate and convenient epithet ? Such a sub- 
 division, while attended with the practical advantage just 
 alluded to, would keep in view the principle on which the 
 radical distinction really hinges, and would prevent those mis- 
 apprehensions of its import which are apt to arise, partly from 
 the associations established by ordinary speech between the 
 ideas of productive and of useful, and partly from the bias 
 which we naturally have to consider the means of subsistence as 
 the only objects of agriculture. The illustrations of some of 
 the Economical writers are extremely apt to encourage those 
 misapprehensions, as they frequently blend with the argument 
 in proof of that peculiarity in agricultural labour which I have 
 been endeavouring to explain, a variety of other considerations 
 which have no connexion with this particular conclusion : such, 
 for example, as the independence of the husbandman, when 
 compared with that of the other members of the social system ; 
 or the impossibility, in a great agricultural country, of import- 
 ing to any considerable amount the necessaries of life. That 
 both of these considerations are of the highest importance, 
 when National Eevenue is considered in reference to Population, 
 I flatter myself I have sufficiently shewn when contrasting the 
 policy-of China with that of Holland, [p. 284.] And it was on 
 this account chiefly, that I was led to object to Mr. Smith's defini- 
 tion of productive labour and of national riches, as tending by 
 their latitude to keep out of view the peculiar characteristics of 
 that species of revenue, to the increase of which alone the atten- 
 tion of the statesman may be, at all times, with safety directed, 
 as necessarily implying a correspondent increase in the abun- 
 dance and comforts enjoyed by the people. In the Economical 
 system, on the other hand, the practical inconvenience of the 
 indistinctness in question, is comparatively trifling, as the 
 objects of agriculture and the means of subsistence are expres- 
 sions which, in an extensive territory, must always coincide
 
 CHAP. I. OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. 295 
 
 pretty nearly in their meaning. In studying, however, this 
 system, it will contribute greatly to the precision of our ideas, 
 to draw the line distinctly between these two different parts of 
 the rude produce, so as to keep constantly in our recollection 
 that the epithet productive or creative is not less applicable to 
 what is to furnish the manufacturer with the materials of his 
 web, than to that which is to furnish him with articles of the 
 first necessity. 
 
 The indistinctness which, in this instance, I have ventured to 
 ascribe to some of the Economical writers, may be perceived, if 
 I am not mistaken, even in M. Turgot's excellent Reflections 
 on the Formation and Distribution of Riches. It arose, indeed, 
 not unnaturally, from the two different objects which these 
 writers had principally in view. The first was the encourage- 
 ment of agriculture, as the source of national subsistence ; the 
 second, the establishment of a territorial tax to be levied on the 
 nett produce. As the arguments in favour of the latter apply 
 equally to all the operations of husbandry, it was of conse- 
 quence to establish, in the clearest manner, the distinction 
 between productive and unproductive labour, upon which this 
 speculation turns entirely. While engaged, however, in the 
 illustration of this point, they have often been led by their 
 agricultural enthusiasm, to embarrass their reasonings with a 
 statement of some of the other characteristics or advantages of 
 agricultural industry, altogether foreign to the purpose, and 
 thereby to confirm their readers still more in the apprehension, 
 that the word productive, as employed in the Economical system, 
 has somehow or other a reference to the utility, or necessity, or 
 independence of the occupation in which the husbandman is 
 employed. 
 
 Having mentioned the subject of the territorial tax, it may 
 be of some use to add, that, according to the principles of the 
 Economists, all taxes fall ultimately on that part of the annual 
 reproduction of the ground which remains after defraying all 
 the expenses incurred to obtain it. They further hold, that 
 the only just principle on which a tax can be imposed, is by 
 proportioning the burden to the surplus, which, in the Ian-
 
 296 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 guage of the Economists, is called the nett produce. In the 
 last place they assert, that the only possible way to carry this 
 principle into effect, is to levy the tax directly on that fund, 
 which, by its nature, is inevitably destined to pay it in the end. 
 
 " It is with taxes," says one of these writers, " as with the 
 operation of blood-letting on the human body. Puncture its 
 various members in a hundred different places, and you only 
 torment the patient, without obtaining the quantity which he 
 ought to lose. Fix on a single vein, and the slightest incision 
 will at once accomplish your purpose." The Economists flatter 
 themselves with being the first who discovered that vein in the 
 political body, by opening which the State may obtain what it 
 desires with the least possible inconvenience to its subjects. 
 This vein is the nett produce of the land, to which (according 
 to them) all the operations of the legislator, in the way of 
 taxation, should be directly and immediately applied. 
 
 The advantages which the Economists ascribe to such a tax, 
 are, 1st, its equality, (the only fund which pays taxes ulti- 
 mately being assessed with perfect exactness) ; 2d, its certainty, 
 (nothing being left to arbitrary imposition) ; 3d, the economy 
 with which it might be levied, (hardly anything being taken 
 out of the subject's pocket but what is to go into the public 
 treasury.) The circumstance, however, on which they dwell 
 chiefly, is the accurate scale it would afford for exhibiting the 
 proportion between public burdens and the national revenue ; 
 and for marking the limit beyond which they cannot be carried 
 without injury to cultivation, and a decline of national pros- 
 perity, points, which it is difficult, or rather impossible to ascer- 
 tain, amidst the infinite complications of the established system. 
 
 With a view to demonstrate their fundamental principle, 
 that all taxes fall ultimately on the nett produce, the Economists 
 have been led to analyze the complicated mechanism of civilized 
 society, and to examine in what manner the funds which the 
 rude produce of the soil supplies is distributed among the 
 different classes or order of the nations. The result of the 
 investigation is, that from the nature of the distribution, the 
 tax, in whatever manner imposed, must be paid, in the last
 
 CHAP. I. OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. 297 
 
 result, out of this fund ; and that it is beyond the power of 
 the financier to contrive a tax which shall ultimately fall on 
 any other. 
 
 It is with a view to the establishment of this important con- 
 clusion, that the Economists have been at so much pains to 
 mark the respective characteristics of productive and unpro- 
 ductive labour and expense; and hence the stress they have 
 been induced to lay on a distinction which must be acknow- 
 ledged to have at first sight, somewhat of the appearance of 
 idle and scholastic refinement. It was partly in order to 
 obviate this impression, that I was led to introduce the subject 
 of the territorial tax ; but my chief object in this short digres- 
 sion was to reflect some additional light on the distinction 
 which suggested it, by pointing out the result to which that 
 distinction is subservient. As I have very little doubt that the 
 Economists were, in this instance, conducted to their defini- 
 tions by an analytical process, directly the reverse of that 
 order which they have followed in their publications, I was 
 induced to think that a general conception of the conclusion 
 which they had in view might be of some use in ascertaining 
 the import of those technical expressions, in the interpretation 
 of which there might be any ground for hesitation or con- 
 troversy. 
 
 If this view of the question had occurred to Mr. Smith, it 
 could not have failed to suggest a correction of one of his 
 statements concerning the Economical system which I formerly 
 objected to, [p. 290] ; that it limits the epithet productive to 
 that labour alone which is directed to the increase of the means 
 of subsistence ; and that it considers these articles of first 
 necessity as the sole constituents of national revenue. 
 
 In what I have now said, I would not be understood to 
 insinuate any opinion with respect to the theory of the terri- 
 torial tax. The discussion belongs properly to the article of 
 Taxation, a branch of Political Economy of which (as I 
 hinted in my first lecture) I propose to delay the consideration 
 till some future occasion. In the meantime, it may gratify 
 the curiosity of such of my hearers as may wish to examine
 
 298 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART L BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 the theory of the territorial tax, to observe that, although it 
 was by Quesnai and his followers that the first attempt was 
 made to demonstrate it rigorously from first principles, to 
 unfold its manifold supposed advantages, and to suggest the 
 means of carrying it gradually into execution, the original 
 idea was borrowed from this island. I do not know if it 
 occurs in any writer prior to Locke ; but the following passage 
 from his Considerations on the Lowering of Interest and 
 Raising the Value of Money, (published in 1691,) is abun- 
 dantly explicit. 
 
 " When a nation is running into decay and ruin, the mer- 
 chant and monied man, do what you can, will be sure to starve 
 last. Observe it where you will, the decays that come upon 
 and bring to ruin any country, do constantly fall first upon the 
 land ; and though the country gentleman be not very forward 
 to think so, yet this is, nevertheless, an undoubted truth, that 
 he is more concerned in trade, and ought to take a greater care 
 that it be well managed than even the merchant himself. For 
 he will certainly find, when a decay of trade has carried away 
 one part of our money out of the kingdom, and the other is 
 kept in the merchants and tradesman's hands, that no laws he 
 can make, nor any little art of shifting property amongst our- 
 selves, will bring it back to him again ; but his rents will fall, 
 and his income every day lessen, till general industry and 
 frugality, joined to a well-ordered trade, shall restore to the 
 kingdom the riches it had formerly. This, by the way, if well 
 considered, might let us see that taxes, however contrived, and 
 out of whose hand soever immediately taken, do, in a country 
 when their great fund is in land, for the most part terminate 
 upon land. ... A tax laid upon land seems hard to the 
 landholder, because it is so much money going visibly out of his 
 pocket ; and, therefore, as an ease to himself, the landlord is 
 always forward to lay it upon commodities. But if he will 
 thoroughly consider it, and examine the effects, he will find he 
 buys this seeming ease at a very dear rate. And although he 
 pays not this tax immediately out of his own purse, yet his 
 purse will find it by a greater want of money there at the end
 
 CHAP. I. OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. 299 
 
 of the year than that comes to, with the lessening of his rents 
 to boot, which is a settled and lasting evil that will stick upon 
 him beyond the present payment." 
 
 After a long argument in support of this opinion, (for which 
 I must refer to the Essay already mentioned,) Mr. Locke con- 
 cludes thus : " It is in vain in a country whose great fund is 
 land, to hope to lay the public charge of the government on 
 anything else. There at last it will terminate. The merchant, 
 do what you can, will not bear it, the labourer cannot, and 
 therefore the landholders must. And, whether it were not 
 better for him to have it laid directly, where it will at last 
 settle, than to let it come to him by the sinking of his rents, 
 which when they are once fallen, every one knows are not easily 
 raised again, let him consider." 
 
 A still more elaborate argument in favour of the same pro- 
 jects, may be found in a pamphlet, published in 1734, by Jacob 
 Vanderlint,* an author whose merits have been in general 
 strangely overlooked by our modern writers on Political 
 Economy. For my own part, I was entirely unacquainted 
 with them till his Essay was put into my hands a few years 
 ago by Lord Lauderdale. Of Vanderlint's history, either as a 
 man or an author, I know nothing ; but he seems, from his own 
 account, not to have enjoyed the advantage of a liberal educa- 
 tion. " I am sorry," he observes in his preface, " that I am not 
 in all respects equal to this most important undertaking ; yet I 
 doubt not, that I have sufficiently made out what I have under- 
 taken, and though not with the accuracy of a scholar, yet with 
 that perspicuity and evidence which may be expected from an 
 ordinary tradesman." A few sentences, extracted from this 
 performance, will sufficiently shew its coincidence, both in 
 doctrine and in language, with the works of the Economists. 
 
 " If all taxes were taken off goods, and levied on lands and 
 houses only, the gentlemen would have more nett rent left out 
 of their estates than they have now, when the taxes are almost 
 wholly levied on goods." 
 
 * [Money answers all things, &c. in his Memoir of Adam Smith, as of 
 Mr. Stewart also speaks of Vanderlint Asgill, &c.]
 
 300 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 " That the land gives all we have, would be self-evident, if 
 we did not import many goods which are the produce of other 
 nations. But this makes no alteration in the case, since the 
 quantity of foreign goods which we import cannot continually 
 be of greater value than the goods we export ; because this in 
 the end must exhaust our cash, and so put an end to that 
 excess. Therefore, the goods we import stand only instead of 
 those we export ; and, consequently, the land gives not only 
 all we have of our own produce, but virtually all we receive 
 from other nations." 
 
 After these observations, which the author illustrates with 
 considerable ingenuity, he proceeds to shew, "that the land 
 must pay all taxes, in what manner soever they may be levied ; 
 a proposition," he remarks, " which might perhaps be assumed 
 as virtually implied in a self-evident truth, that what gives all 
 must pay all." For the satisfaction, however, of the reader, 
 Vanderlint here enters into a particular explanation of the 
 process by which he conceived the effect to be accomplished ; 
 and although some of his reasonings on this point are liable to 
 obvious objections, they must be allowed (more especially when 
 we consider at what period he wrote, and what disadvantages, 
 as an author, he laboured under) to bear the strongest marks 
 of originality and refinement of thought. The investigation is 
 much too long to admit of an abstract in this Lecture. 
 
 The same opinion with respect to the peculiar advantages of 
 a territorial tax, appears to have been held by a Mr. [John] 
 Asgill, who, about the end of the seventeenth, or the beginning 
 of the eighteenth century, published a Treatise entitled, Several 
 Assertions Proved, in order to create anotlier species of Money 
 than Gold or Silver, [1696.] 
 
 The object of the Treatise is to support the proposition of 
 Dr. Hugh Chamberlayne for a land bank, which he laid before 
 the English House of Commons in 1693, and before the Scotch 
 Parliament in 1703. 
 
 I have not had an opportunity of perusing this performance, 
 but the following very curious extract, which breathes the very 
 spirit of Quesnai's philosophy, has been communicated to me
 
 CHAP. I. OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. 301 
 
 by Lord Lauderdale, to whose researches and speculations con- 
 cerning the history and principles of the Economical system, 
 (more particularly concerning those parts of it which have 
 been derived from old English writers,) I am indebted for 
 much important information. 
 
 " What we call commodities is nothing but LAND SEVERED 
 FROM THE SOIL. The owners of the soil, in every country, have 
 the sale of all the commodities of the growth of that country, 
 and, consequently, have the power of giving credit in that 
 country ; and, therefore, whatever they will accept for their 
 commodities is money. MAN DEALS IN NOTHING BUT IN EARTH. 
 The merchants are the factors of the world, to exchange one 
 part of the earth for another. The king himself is fed by the 
 labours of the ox; and the clothing of the army, and the 
 victualling of the navy must all be paid for to the owner of the 
 soil as the ultimate receiver." 
 
 I shall only add further on this subject at present, that the 
 argument in support of the territorial tax may be found at 
 length in the works of the Marquis de Mirabeau, in the 
 Treatise of Le Trosne, On Provincial Administrations, and 
 in various memoirs, published by Dupont, in the collection 
 entitled, Eph&rnerides dun Citoyen. The principal writers on 
 the other side are Necker, Sir James Steuart, Pinto, Adam 
 Smith, the Marquis de Casaux, and the author of a Treatise 
 entitled, Essai Analytique sur la Bichesse et sur TImpot. 
 This last writer has entered into a more methodical and accu- 
 rate examination of the Economical system, in all its parts, 
 than any other I know; and ha& certainly displayed great 
 acuteness and ability in the course of his discussion. His pub- 
 lication is anonymous ; but it appears from a passage in the 
 Life of Turgot, compared with a passage in the Ephemerides, 
 &c.j to have been the work of M. Graslin, a gentleman who 
 held an important situation in the revenue department of 
 Nantes. 
 
 From this digression with respect to the territorial tax, I now 
 return to the elementary principles of the Economical System, 
 concerning the nature of National Wealth ; with a view to the
 
 302 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 illustration of which principles I was led to introduce, some- 
 what out of place, a faint outline of the practical conclusion to 
 which they are subservient. As the establishment of this con- 
 clusion was manifestly the primary object of the Economists, it 
 seemed reasonable to think, that the consideration of the prac- 
 tical result might assist us in entering into the train of thought 
 by which the preparatory parts of their system were suggested. 
 And, if I do not deceive myself, this analytical view of their 
 investigations has conducted us to a more precise conception of 
 some of their principles and definitions than is commonly en- 
 tertained. 
 
 To the criticisms which I have already offered on these 
 principles and definitions, I have yet to add another, which is 
 more general in its aim, and which leads to consequences 
 affecting still more deeply the justness of the Economical 
 system, as a theory practically applicable to the existing state 
 of society in this part of the world. 
 
 I have observed in the Philosophy of the Human Mind* 
 that the leading object of the earliest and most enlightened 
 patrons of the Economical system, seems to have been "to 
 delineate that state of political society to which the social order 
 may be expected to approach nearer and nearer as human 
 nature is gradually matured by reasoning and reflection. I 
 have observed, at the same time, that it is the height of enthu- 
 siasm and absurdity to suppose that the period is ever to arrive 
 when this state of things will be realized in its full extent ; yet 
 many of the most zealous advocates of the Economical system 
 have so completely lost sight of this consideration, that they 
 have formed many of their particular conclusions, on the sup- 
 position that it was already accomplished. 
 
 (Interpolation from Notes.) Of this remark various illus- 
 trations occur in the works of the Economists. Thus, for 
 example, they uniformly take it for granted, as an established 
 principle, that the revenue or fund employed in the support of 
 manufacturers, is always equal in its exchangeable value to the 
 commodities which they produce. That this is the ultimate 
 
 * [Supra, Workt, Vol. II. p. 236.]
 
 CHAP, i. OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. 303 
 
 tendency of things in all the employments of human industry, 
 is unquestionably true ; and it is no less certain, that it has 
 been already realized in various branches of trade. This, for 
 instance, is the case in all those arts which are so well under- 
 stood, that one class of workmen cannot be supposed to possess 
 any advantage over another. In the manufacture of lace, for 
 instance, of the workmen employed in which, it approaches 
 nearly to a mathematical truth to assert, that at no moment of 
 time do they add anything to the value of the whole annual 
 amount of the rude produce of the land, the portion of that 
 produce which they are continually consuming being always 
 equal to the value of what they have produced. Notwithstand- 
 ing, however, of this circumstance, it is certainly going a great 
 deal too far to assert, that it will ever afford any universal prin- 
 ciple with respect to that order of things which actually exists 
 in such countries as France or England. The high wages 
 which are occasionally given in some new arts, compared with 
 the poverty of those who are engaged in the manufacture of 
 lace, to borrow the instance of which the Economists are so 
 fond, affords a demonstrative proof that, whatever may be the 
 ultimate tendency of a general competition in all the various 
 branches of manufacturing industry, the fact is, at present, in 
 numberless instances, at variance with that result. To these 
 observations I beg leave to add, that the fact in question is 
 totally irreconcilable with the advantages which one manufac- 
 turer possesses over another, in consequence of the expedients 
 which his skill and capital enable him to employ for abridging 
 or superseding manual labour, and no less inconsistent with the 
 advantages derived from secret processes in manufactures or 
 the arts, which are sometimes transmitted as an inheritance in 
 the same family for a succession of generations. 
 
 A similar paralogism occurs in the reasonings of the Econo- 
 mists concerning the effects of manufacturing industry when 
 combined with foreign commerce. A detailed statement of their 
 opinion upon this point has been already given, [pp. 267, 268.] 
 We may therefore conclude, say the Economists, that that labour 
 alone is productive which adds to the rude produce of the
 
 304 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK IL NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 ground. With regard to this reasoning, I need hardly say, 
 that however important the lesson is which it conveys, with 
 respect to the independence and permanent stability of agri- 
 cultural wealth, when compared with that which arises from 
 commerce and manufactures, it leads to no just inference un- 
 favourable to the latter as long as they continue to flourish. 
 The following passage from one of Dr. Franklin's political 
 tracts, by pushing these doctrines of the Economists a little too 
 far, affords the best proof which I know of something radically 
 defective in the system from which his arguments are bor- 
 rowed. 
 
 " Where the labour and expense of producing commodities 
 are known to both parties, bargains will generally be fair and 
 equal. Where they are known to one party only, bargains 
 will often be unequal, knowledge taking its advantage of 
 ignorance. 
 
 " Thus, he that carries one thousand bushels of wheat abroad 
 to sell, may not probably obtain so great a profit thereon, as if 
 he had first turned the wheat into manufactures, by subsisting 
 therewith the workmen while producing those manufactures, 
 since there are many expediting and facilitating methods of 
 working, not generally known ; and strangers to the manufac- 
 tures, though they know pretty well the expense of raising 
 wheat, are unacquainted with those short methods of working, 
 and thence being apt to suppose more labour employed in the 
 manufactures than there really is, are more easily imposed on 
 in their value, and induced to allow more for them than they 
 are honestly worth. 
 
 " Thus the advantage of having manufactures in a country 
 does not consist, as is commonly supposed, in their highly 
 advancing the value of rough materials, of which they are 
 formed ; since, though sixpenny worth of flax may be worth 
 twenty shillings, when worked into lace, yet the very cause of 
 its being worth twenty shillings is, that, besides the flax, it has 
 cost nineteen shillings and sixpence in subsistence to the manu- 
 facturer. But the advantage of manufactures is, that under 
 their shape provisions may be more easily carried to a foreign
 
 CHAP. I. OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. 305 
 
 market, and, by their means, our traders may more easily cheat 
 strangers. Few, where it is not made, are judges of the value 
 of lace. The importer may demand forty, and perhaps get 
 thirty shillings, for that which cost him but twenty."* 
 
 The conclusions which are drawn from these reasonings are, 
 that there are only three ways of increasing the riches of a 
 state ; the first is by war : this is robbery ; the second is by 
 commerce : this is cheating ; and the third is by agriculture : 
 this is the only honest way. It seems abundantly evident, that 
 the tone of morality here assumed is much too elevated for the 
 actual condition of the human race. Indeed, it does not appear 
 to be very consistent with itself; for where is the injustice in 
 the advantage which the knowledge and skill of one set of per- 
 sons give them over the ignorance of others, if it be allowed to 
 be fair and equitable in industry to avail itself of its natural 
 superiority over idleness ? 
 
 But whatever opinion we may adopt on this abstract ques- 
 tion, there can be no doubt that such as I have now described 
 are the actual circumstances of mankind, producing every- 
 where, in a greater or less degree, a competition among nations, 
 in which each makes the most, not only of its natural advan- 
 tages, but of the superiority which it enjoys in consequence of 
 its industry, skill, and accumulated stock. Nor is it difficult to 
 trace in the operation of the latter, the provision for that com- 
 mercial fraternity among nations, the foundation of which is 
 laid in the diversity of the productions of different countries. 
 It is here, I apprehend, that the characteristical excellence of 
 Mr. Smith's work is to be found ; that abstracting entirely from 
 that ideal perfection to which it is possible that things may 
 have a tendency, he adapts his speculations to the present state 
 of this part of the world, and has demonstrated, with irresisti- 
 ble perspicuity, that even while this competition among nations 
 continues, honesty forms the best and surest policy ; and that 
 the general prosperity of the globe, as well as the individual 
 welfare of nations, is best consulted when each endeavours to 
 
 * [Positions to be examined concerning National Wealth, 9 It. Works, bj 
 Sparks, Vol. II. pp. 375, 376.] 
 
 VOL. VIIJ. U
 
 306 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 turn its own peculiar advantages to the best account, and leaves 
 the same liberty to others. In these particulars, the doctrines 
 of Mr. Smith coincide entirely with those of the economical 
 system, over which they certainly possess one important ad- 
 vantage, that they are deduced from a view of nations as they 
 actually exist, and that they are susceptible of an easy applica- 
 tion to their present circumstances. 
 
 The result of the parallel, then, which I have been so long 
 preparing to draw between these two great systems, is, that if, 
 on the one hand, the language of the Economists be more pre- 
 cise and definite, and the result of a more accurate metaphysical 
 analysis than that of Mr. Smith, and if some of the funda- 
 mental principles of the former are of a more scientific nature, 
 and more universal application, the doctrines inculcated in the 
 Wealth of Nations are, on the other hand, with a very few 
 exceptions, of greater practical utility to those who are to 
 engage in the general business of the world, especially to those 
 whose views have a more particular reference to the business of 
 political life. I speak at present of his doctrines with regard 
 to the freedom of commerce ; in which, indeed, both systems 
 agree, though I must be allowed to remark, that in one im- 
 portant point the Economical system is eminently deserving of 
 praise ; I mean in that part which, by explaining so fully and 
 so beautifully the peculiar productiveness and independence of 
 agricultural labour, cannot fail to have a powerful tendency to 
 prevent statesmen from ever mistaking the means for the end ; 
 or, as I have expressed the same idea in the Philosophy of the 
 Human Mind, " from ever being led astray by more limited 
 views of temporary expediency."* On this pre-eminence of 
 agriculture, Mr. Smith has certainly enlarged too little, nor is 
 his phraseology always sufficiently marked to keep it constantly 
 in the view of the student. This is the more remarkable, as 
 Mr. Smith seems to have been fully aware of the general tend- 
 ency of the doctrines of the Economists. Thus, in one remark- 
 able passage, after stating that the system of Quesnai forms a 
 nearer approximation to a just system of political economy than 
 
 * [Above, Work*, Vol. II. p. 240.]
 
 CHAP. I. OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. 307 
 
 any theory that had gone before it, he adds, " that it had a 
 sensible effect in influencing the measures of the French Govern- 
 ment in favour of agriculture. It has been in consequence of 
 their representations, accordingly, that the agriculture of 
 France has been delivered from several of the oppressions 
 which it before laboured under. The term during which such 
 a lease can be granted, aa will be valid against every future 
 purchaser or proprietor of the land, has been prolonged from 
 nine to twenty-seven years. The ancient provincial restraints 
 upon the transportation of corn from one province of the king- 
 dom to another, have been entirely taken away, and the liberty 
 of exporting it to all foreign countries, has been established as 
 the common law of the kingdom in all ordinary cases."* 
 
 There are few speculative systems which can boast of prac- 
 tical effects equally calculated to advance national prosperity ; 
 more especially when I add the tendency which, in this par- 
 ticular instance, the doctrines of the Economists had to bring 
 into disrepute the policy of Colbert on the subject of Population, 
 which had long been acted upon in France, in recommending to 
 statesmen to invert the order proposed by Colbert, and to en- 
 courage Population through the medium of Agriculture. It was 
 Quesnai who first unfolded this important and fundamental 
 truth ; and it is only to be regretted, that in applying the 
 maxim to the actual circumstances of the world, he has not 
 always stated this doctrine with the proper limitations, too often 
 overlooking altogether those circumstances so finely illustrated 
 by Mr. Smith, which in this part of the world have forced 
 into a retrograde order the natural course of things, and thus 
 rendered all deductions drawn from that course inapplicable to 
 the present state of things in the modern world. 
 
 Before leaving this subject, I think it proper to observe, that 
 wherever I have mentioned the system of the Economists in 
 terms of approbation, I would be understood to refer solely to 
 their doctrines on the subject of Political Economy proper. 
 " The Theory of Government which they inculcate," as I have 
 
 * f Wealth of Nations, Book IV. chap. ix. ; Vol. III. p. 28, seq., tenth edition.]
 
 308 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 observed in the Philosophy of the Human Mind, " is of the most 
 dangerous tendency, recommending in strong and unqualified 
 terms an unmixed despotism, and reprobating all constitutional 
 checks on the sovereign authority. Many English writers, in- 
 deed, with an almost incredible ignorance of the works which 
 they have presumed to censure, have spoken of them, as if 
 they encouraged political principles of a very different com- 
 plexion ; but the truth is, that the disciples of Quesnai (with- 
 out a single exception) carried their zeal for the power of the 
 monarch, and what they called the Unity of Legislation, to so 
 extravagant a length, as to treat with contempt those mixed 
 establishments which allow any share whatever of legislative 
 influence to the representatives of the people. On the one 
 hand, the evidence of this system appeared to its partisans 
 so complete and irresistible, that they flattered themselves 
 monarchs would soon see, with an intuitive conviction, the 
 identity of their own interests with those of the nations they 
 are called to govern ; and, on the other hand, they contended 
 that it is only under the strong and steady government of a 
 race of hereditary princes, undistracted by the prejudices and 
 local interests which warp the deliberations of popular assem- 
 blies, that a gradual and systematical approach can be m'ade to 
 the perfection of law and policy. The very first of Quesnai's 
 maxims states as a fundamental principle, that the sovereign 
 authority, unrestrained by any constitutional checks or balances, 
 should be lodged in the hands of a single person ; and the same 
 doctrine is maintained zealously by all his followers by none 
 of them more explicitly than by Herder de la Riviere, whose 
 treatise on The Natural and Essential Order of Political 
 Societies, might have been expected to attract some notice in 
 this country, from the praise which Mr. Smith has bestowed 
 on the perspicuity of his style, and the distinctness of his 
 arrangement."* 
 
 * [Above, Works, Vol. II. pp. 240, 241.J
 
 CHAP. I. OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. 309 
 
 [SECT. II. ON THE CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH RENDER LABOUR 
 MORE EFFECTIVE.] 
 
 I proceed now to illustrate the general principles on which 
 the effective powers of labour depend ; or, in other words, to 
 illustrate the circumstances which tend to economize the exer- 
 tions of human power in accomplishing the purposes to which 
 it is directed. The speculation, certainly, is one of the most 
 curious which the mechanism of a commercial society presents 
 to a philosopher ; and it leads to many consequences of a very 
 general and important application. From the observations 
 already made, it appears that man is forced, in every situation 
 in which he is to be found, by the necessities of his nature, to 
 employ some degree of art in order to obtain the means of sub- 
 sistence and safety. It appears farther, that it is to these neces- 
 sities he is indebted for the development and improvement of 
 those faculties by which he is distinguished from the brutes ; 
 and that, excepting in a few districts, where the preservation of 
 his animal existence occupies his whole attention, and leaves 
 him no leisure for the arts of accommodation, his intellectual 
 attainments are, in general, proportioned to the number of his 
 wants, and to the difficulties with which he has to struggle. 
 As Rousseau observes : " Chez toutes les nations du monde, 
 les progres de 1'esprit se sont precise'ment proportionnes aux 
 besoins que les peuples avaient regus de la nature, ou auxquels 
 les circonstances les avaient assujettis, et par consequent aux 
 passions qui les portaient & pourvoir a ces besoins. Je mon- 
 trerais en Egypte les arts naissants et s'etendants avec les 
 debordemens du Nil ; je suivrais leurs progres chez les Grecs, 
 ou Ton les vit germer, croitre, et s'elever jusqu'aux cieux 
 parmi les sables et les rochers de 1'Attique, sans pouvoir pren- 
 dre racine sur les bords fertiles de 1'Eurotas."* 
 
 As soon as the situation of an individual is rendered easy 
 
 * [Origine de PlnegalitS parmi les proverbial ; it may be traced higher 
 Jfommet, Partie I. But the " gait- than Hesiod, and far lower than Baptists 
 dent sudoribua artet" had been long Mantuanus.]
 
 310 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 and comfortable, with respect to the necessities of life, he begins 
 to feel wants of which he was not conscious before, and his 
 imagination creates new objects of pursuit to fill up his inter- 
 vals of leisure. It seems to be the intention of Providence, 
 that as soon as one class of our wants is supplied, another, 
 whether real or imaginary, makes its appearance ; and it is this, 
 that as no limit can be stated to our desires, so there seems 
 to be no limit to the improvement of the arts and the progress 
 of refinement. 
 
 In the rudest state of society, in which all the members of a 
 tribe are occupied in procuring subsistence, each individual will 
 appropriate to himself the various objects of pursuit by his own 
 personal exertions. He will form his own habitation, secure 
 his prey by his own strength or agility, and be the artificer of 
 those instruments which are employed in the simple arts which 
 minister to his safety or accommodation ; and thus his occupa- 
 tions, however limited in number, will be at least as various as 
 the arts which he exercises ; and the opportunities of intellec- 
 tual improvement, however scanty, will be nearly the same to 
 all the members of the community, 
 
 [SUBSECT. i. On the Division of Labour.] 
 
 As society advances, the different tastes and propensities of 
 individuals will give rise to a variety in their pursuits, and in 
 their habits and attainments. In such circumstances, a very 
 small degree of experience or reflection will satisfy them, that 
 it would be for the advantage of all if each should confine him- 
 self to his own favourite occupation, cultivating to the utmost 
 of his ability those mechanical habits which are connected with 
 its exercise, and exchanging the surplus produce of his industry 
 for what he may want of the commodities produced by the 
 labour of his neighbours. Thus trades and separate professions 
 will arise, which, in consequence of the operation of the same 
 causes, will continually multiply and be divided and sub- 
 divided as society advances in wealth and refinement. The 
 observation, that " A Jack of all trades is master of none," is one
 
 CHAP. I. OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. 311 
 
 of those maxims of common sense which the slightest survey of 
 human life forces on the most careless observer.* 
 
 It is on this separation of trades and professions, and on this 
 division and subdivision of labour, that the progress of the arts, 
 according to Mr. Smith, in a great measure, depends ; the effec- 
 tive powers of labour being, in general, proportioned to the 
 degree in which these are divided and distributed.f The same 
 idea had, before Mr. Smith's time, been adopted by various 
 modern writers; particularly by Mr. Harris in his Dialogue 
 concerning Happiness, 1741 ;| and by Dr. Ferguson in his 
 Essay on Civil Society. The fact, too, has been very strongly 
 stated by different writers of a much more early date ; parti- 
 cularly by Sir William Petty and Dr. Mandeville ; nor did it 
 escape the notice of the ancients, as appears among various 
 other documents, from a very curious passage in the Cyropcedia 
 of Xenophon, in which he compares the distribution of employ- 
 ments in Cyrus's kitchen to the division of trades in a populous 
 city. This passage states the doctrine so circumstantially, and 
 with a simplicity of detail so characteristical of this inimitable 
 writer, that I shall make no apology for quoting the passage at 
 length : 
 
 " For as other arts are wrought up in great cities to a greater 
 degree of perfection, in the same manner are the meats that 
 come from the king dressed in greater perfection. For in little 
 cities the same people make both the frame of a couch, a door, 
 a plough, and a table ; and frequently the same person is a 
 builder too, and very well satisfied he is, if he meet with cus- 
 tomers enough to maintain him. It is impossible, therefore, 
 for a man that makes a great many different things, to do 
 
 * [" Propre a tout, propre a ri&n." IlaXX' inriirrara ipy*, xet*Zs S' T<VTT 
 
 Indeed, all languages have a correspond- WT. 
 
 ing proverb. In Latin : " Cuncta ni- And to this line, certainly, Mr. 
 
 hilque sumus," " Nusquam est, qvi Stewart here makes reference.] 
 ubique est," "In omnibus aliquid, in 
 
 toto nihil," &c. In the Margites, a kind t [ Wealth of Nation, Book I. chap. i. ; 
 of Dunciad, attributed to Homer, it is VoL L P- 9 > tenth edltlon - ] 
 said of the hero in a line preserved in + [Part I. sect, xii.l 
 the Second Alcibiades, one of the spuri- 
 ous dialogues of Plato, [Part IV. sect, i.]
 
 312 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 them all well. But in great cities, because there are multitudes 
 that want every particular thing, one art alone is sufficient for 
 the maintenance of every one ; and frequently not an entire 
 one neither, but one man makes shoes for men, another for 
 women. Sometimes it happens, that one gets a maintenance 
 by sewing shoes together, another by cutting them out ; one by 
 cutting out cloths only, and another without doing any of these 
 things is maintained by fitting together the pieces so cut out. 
 He, therefore, that deals in a business that lies within a little 
 compass, must of necessity do it the best. The case is the 
 same with respect to the business of a table, for he that has 
 the same man to cover and adorn the frame of a couch, to set 
 out the table, to knead the dough, to dress the several different 
 meats, must necessarily, in my opinion, fare in each particular 
 as it happens. But where it is business enough for one man to 
 boil meat, for another to roast it ; for one to boil fish, and for 
 another to broil it ; where it is business enough for one man to 
 make bread, and that not of every sort neither, but that its 
 enough for him to furnish one sort good, each man, in my 
 opinion, must of necessity work up the things that are thus 
 made to a very great perfection."* 
 
 From this passage of Xenophon it is evident, that the effects 
 of the division of labour, in contributing to the improvement of 
 the arts, furnished a subject of speculation in ancient as well 
 as in modern times. It is very observable, however, in the 
 foregoing quotation, that what Xenophon lays the chief stress 
 on, is the effect of this division in improving the quality of the 
 articles produced, whereas the circumstance which has chiefly 
 attracted the attention of Mr. Smith and other modern writers, 
 is its astonishing effect in increasing their quantity. In proof 
 of this, Mr. Smith has entered into some very interesting details 
 with regard to the trade of the pin-makers, f 
 
 The effect of the division of labour in increasing its effective 
 powers, is chiefly owing, according to Mr. Smith, to the three 
 following circumstances : 
 
 * [In the original, Lib. VIII. cap. ii. \ 4. The translation is by the Honourable 
 Maurice Ashley.] f [Seo supra, p. 256,
 
 CHAP. I. OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVE AN.D UNPRODUCTIVE. 313 
 
 " First, The improvement of the dexterity of the workman 
 necessarily increases the quantity of the work he can perform ; 
 and the division of labour, by reducing every man's business to 
 some one simple operation, and by making this operation the 
 sole employment of his life, necessarily increases very much the 
 dexterity of the workman. . . . 
 
 " Secondly, The advantage which is gained by saving the time 
 commonly lost in passing from one sort of work to another, is 
 much greater than we should at first view be apt to imagine it 
 It is impossible to pass very quickly from one kind of work to 
 another, that is carried on in a different place, and with quite 
 different tools. ... A man commonly saunters a little in 
 turning his hand from one sort of employment to another. 
 When he first begins the new work he is seldom very keen and 
 hearty ; his mind, as they say, does not go to it, and for some 
 time he rather trifles than applies to good purpose. . . . 
 
 " Thirdly, and lastly, Everybody must be sensible how 
 much labour is facilitated and abridged by the application of 
 proper machinery. It is unnecessary to give any example. I 
 shall only observe, therefore, that the invention of all those 
 machines by which labour is so much facilitated and abridged, 
 seems to have been originally owing to the division of labour."* 
 
 " 1st, Greater skill and dexterity are acquired by each work- 
 man." Of the effects of practice in increasing the rapidity and 
 address of the hand in performing mechanical operations, no 
 proof more striking can be mentioned than the feats of leger- 
 demain exhibited by jugglers. Some of these, indeed, are so 
 astonishing, and evince a degree of dexterity so much before 
 anything else that we know, that they appear to deserve a much 
 more accurate investigation than philosophers have hitherto 
 bestowed on them. Other examples of the same kind will 
 readily occur to any person who has been accustomed to frequent 
 the workshops of manufacturers. The following facts are men- 
 tioned in the Wealth of Nations : " A common smith, who, 
 though accustomed to handle the hammer, has never been used 
 to make nails, if upon some particular occasion he is obliged to 
 
 * [Wealth of Nations, Book L chap, i.; Vol. I. pp. 12-14, tenth edition.]
 
 314 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 attempt it, will scarce, I am assured, be able to make above 
 two or three hundred nails in a day, and those too very bad 
 ones. A smith who has been accustomed to make nails, but 
 whose sole or principal business has not been that of a nailer, 
 can seldom with his utmost diligence make more than eight 
 hundred or a thousand nails in a day. I have seen several 
 boys under twenty years of age, who had never exercised any 
 other trade but that of making nails, and who, when they ex- 
 erted themselves, could make, each of them, upwards of two 
 thousand three hundred nails in a day."* 
 
 The conclusion which Mr. Smith deduces from these and 
 some similar statements is, that as the subdivision of labour 
 limits the attention of every different workman to a very simple 
 operation, it must proportionally increase the dexterity of all ; 
 and consequently, their joint labour will, in a given time, be 
 more effective, and their workmanship will be more perfect in 
 its kind, than if each singly had attempted to perform all the 
 different operations thus parcelled out. 
 
 In this view of the subject, there is unquestionably a great 
 deal of truth. But it may, I think, be reasonably doubted, 
 whether Mr. Smith has not laid too much stress on it, in 
 accounting for the advantages gained from that astonishing 
 division and subdivision of labour which takes place in some of 
 the arts. That the rapidity of the hand in executing a mecha- 
 nical operation, may be increased by practice to a very great 
 degree, is an acknowledged fact. But there is obviously a limit, 
 beyond which this rapidity cannot possibly be carried ; and I 
 am inclined to think, that in such very simple operations as 
 drawing out a wire, &c., it is not very long before this ultimatum 
 in point of rapidity is reached by the workman. Nor can I 
 bring myself to believe, that after it is attained, the dexterity 
 of the workman in performing this one operation would be at 
 all impaired, though he should also have acquired a few other 
 accomplishments of a similar nature : that the drawer of the 
 wire would be less fitted for his employment, if he changed 
 occupations for a day or two with the cutter or pointer of the 
 
 * [Book I. chap. i. ; Vol. I. p. 12, tenth edition.]
 
 CHAP. I. OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. 315 
 
 pin. Indeed, I know of few manufactures where great manual 
 dexterity is less required, than in that of pin-making. Even in 
 those establishments which employ the labour of the hand to 
 perform various operations, which in richer manufactures are 
 accomplished by means of machinery, a very considerable part 
 of the work is executed by children. Hence I am led to con- 
 clude, that though one of the advantages of the division of 
 labour be to increase the rapidity of manual work, yet this 
 advantage bears so very small a proportion to that which is 
 gained in the last result, that it is by no means entitled to 
 stand at the head of the enumeration ; and certainly goes a 
 very little length in accounting for that minute division and 
 subdivision of labour which has been introduced into some of 
 the most prosperous manufactures of this country. On this 
 head, therefore, I entirely agree with a remark of Lord Lau- 
 derdale in his Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Public 
 Wealth, where he observes, that even in the trade of the pin- 
 maker, without the use of machinery to supersede the work of 
 the hand, no great progress could have been made in the rapi- 
 dity with which pins are formed. 
 
 In the second place, says Mr. Smith, " when a man leaves 
 off one employment, and begins another, he is always disposed 
 to trifle for some time, &c. All this time is saved by the divi- 
 sion of labour." The observation seems to be perfectly just, so 
 far as it goes ; but the economy of time gained in this way, 
 must plainly bear a still more inconsiderable proportion than 
 the former, to the magnitude of the effect which it is brought 
 to explain. 
 
 It may perhaps be worth while to remark here in passing, 
 that something similar to this effect in mechanical operations 
 takes place with respect to the intellectual powers. When we 
 pass suddenly from one speculation, and still more from one 
 study to another, some time always elapses before the attention 
 is completely engaged, and before the new set of ideas and facts 
 is fully brought under our view. If I am not mistaken, this 
 consideration affords an unanswerable objection to a practice 
 which has been recommended by many authors, of making a
 
 316 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 regular distribution of the day into different portions, allotted 
 to the study of different branches of literature and science. 
 Where mere accomplishment is the object, this plan may con- 
 tribute to its attainment better than any other, but with those 
 who have in view the investigation of truth, and the acquisi- 
 tion of scientific knowledge, I am persuaded that much more 
 intellectual work (if I may use the expression) will be per- 
 formed, and much more successfully, in a given time, by pre- 
 serving the train of thought, so as to bring one speculation 
 completely to a close, before beginning another. Indeed, it 
 would not be difficult to shew that the observation applies far 
 more forcibly to intellectual exertion than to mechanical 
 labour. 
 
 [SUBSECT. n. On the Use of Machinery as a Substitute for 
 
 Labour.] 
 
 In the third place, the division of labour, according to Mr. 
 Smith, increases its effective powers by promoting the invention 
 of useful machines. In illustration of this remark, he reasons 
 as follows : 
 
 " Men are much more likely to discover easier and readier 
 methods of attaining any object, when the whole attention of 
 their minds is directed towards that single object, than when it 
 is dissipated among a great variety of things. But in conse- 
 quence of the division of labour, the whole of every man's 
 attention comes naturally to be directed towards some one very 
 simple object. It is naturally to be expected, therefore, that 
 some one or other of those who are employed in each particular 
 branch of labour, should soon find out easier and readier 
 methods of performing their own particular work, wherever the 
 nature of it admits of such improvements. A great part of 
 the machines made use of in those manufactures in which 
 labour is most subdivided, were originally the inventions of 
 common workmen, who, being each of them employed in some 
 very simple operation, naturally turned their thoughts towards 
 finding out easier and readier methods of performing it. Who- 
 ever has been much accustomed to visit such manufactures,
 
 CHAP. I. OF LABOUR PKODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. 317 
 
 must frequently have been shewn very pretty machines, which 
 were the inventions of such workmen, in order to facilitate and 
 quicken their own particular part of the work."* 
 
 Before I proceed to make any remarks on this reasoning of 
 Mr. Smith, I think it necessary to observe, that even if it were 
 perfectly just, it would not be at all applicable to the present 
 question. His professed object is to explain in what manner 
 the division of labour increases its effective powers. The two 
 first reasons are certainly legitimate and satisfactory, so far as 
 they go ; but in his third reason, Mr. Smith has plainly de- 
 parted from his usual logical accuracy. The tendency of the 
 division of labour to promote the invention of useful machines, 
 cannot with propriety be said to render that labour more effec- 
 tive, so long as it continues to be exerted ; for as soon as the 
 machine is invented, the labour is superseded altogether. The 
 effects, therefore, of the division of labour, and of the use 
 of machines, though they both derive their value from the 
 same circumstance, their tendency to enable one man to per- 
 form the work of many, are produced on principles essentially 
 different ; nor is it more correct to resolve the advantages of 
 machinery into the effects produced by the division of labour, 
 than it would be to resolve the latter into the former. Indeed, 
 in my opinion, the last theory might be easily rendered the 
 more plausible of the two. 
 
 But, passing from this objection to Mr. Smith's reasoning, 
 let us consider how far it is true, that workmen occupied from 
 morning to night in repeating the same simple operation, are 
 likely to be more fortunate than others in falling on mechanical 
 inventions. The only proof of this produced by Mr. Smith, is 
 the improvement of the steam-engine, said to be owing to the 
 ingenuity of a boy engaged in the work. This account of the 
 matter, I must own, has always appeared to me extremely un- 
 satisfactory. That in some accidental cases the distribution of 
 labour may have produced such effects, is possible. But it 
 surely is an event not to be expected in the ordinary case, in- 
 asmuch as the workman has no motive to exert his ingenuity 
 
 * [ Wealth of Nations, Book I. chap. i. ; Vol. i. p. 14, seq., tenth edition.]
 
 318 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 in multiplying machines, as in doing so, though he may accel- 
 erate the progress of the manufacture, yet he does not abridge 
 his own day's labour ; and indeed there is even a probability 
 that he may throw himself and his companions out of employ- 
 ment. Nor is this all ; the division of labour tends to confine 
 the attention, and of consequence the knowledge of the work- 
 man to the performance of one simple operation ; whereas the 
 perfection of manufacturing machinery consists in the com- 
 bination of the greatest possible variety of operations in one 
 machine. The habits of thinking, therefore, which the division 
 of labour tends to generate, are adverse to that comprehension 
 of mechanical contrivance on which the perfection of machinery 
 depends. In confirmation of this reasoning, it may be worth 
 while to remark, that among the many complicated machines 
 which the manufactures of this country exhibit, while many of 
 them may be traced to men who never entered the workshop, 
 but in order to gratify a mechanical curiosity, hardly one can 
 be mentioned which derives its origin from the living auto- 
 matons, who are employed in the details of the work. With 
 such fortunate inventors, the hope of reward operates in calling 
 forth all their faculties ; and as their studies embrace a general 
 view of the subject, instead of dwelling upon its detached parts, 
 their success, notwithstanding their total ignorance in many 
 cases, has been greater than could have resulted from the high- 
 est efforts of a more circumscribed ingenuity. 
 
 I am fur at the same time from denying, that the division of 
 labour has a powerful effect to promote the invention of 
 machines. But where it has this effect, it appears to operate, 
 not on the inventive powers of the workman, but on those of 
 his employer, or of the speculative observer. As to the former, 
 his inventive powers will be always on the stretch to economize 
 time and labour ; and it is only where such a stimulus exists, 
 that we can look with confidence to a perpetual succession of 
 progressive improvement In almost every instance the proverb 
 will be found to hold true, that " Necessity," or what amounts 
 to the same thing, some urgent motive leading to the accom- 
 plishment of some desirable object, " is the mother of invention."
 
 CHAP. I. OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. 319 
 
 As to the principle on which the division of labour tends to 
 multiply mechanical contrivances, this seems to me to be a good 
 deal more refined than Mr. Smith appears to have thought. 
 The obvious effect of the division of labour in any complicated 
 mechanical operation is, to analyze that operation into the 
 simplest steps which can be carried on separately. Of these 
 steps, there may probably be some which can only be performed 
 by the human hand, while others, either in whole or in part, 
 admit of the substitution of machines. Now, it is only by re- 
 solving an operation into its simplest elements, that this sepa- 
 ration can be made, so as to force on the attention of the 
 mechanist, in their simplest forms, those particular cases where 
 his ingenuity may be useful. It is thus, too, that the advan- 
 tages arising from the aid of machinery become so apparent 
 and palpable, as to excite the efforts of inventive genius ; a 
 machine which supplies the labour of the hand, superseding 
 of course a particular description of workmen, and thereby ex- 
 hibiting the utility of the invention on a scale proportioned to 
 the number of individuals whose labour it supersedes. While 
 thus it enables one man to perform the work of many, it pro- 
 duces also an economy of time, by separating the work into its 
 different branches, all of which may be carried into execution 
 at the same moment. While one man is employed in drawing 
 out the wire, from which a multitude of pins are to be simul- 
 taneously cut by some analogous expedient, another is em- 
 ployed in pointing them, &c. The obvious effect of this 
 arrangement is, in the first place, to enable one workman to 
 cut or point a multitude of pins as easily as he could have done 
 a single one ; and in the second place, by carrying on all the 
 different processes at once, which an individual must have 
 executed separately, to produce a multitude of pins completely 
 finished in the same time as a single pin might have been 
 either cut or pointed. As the division of labour on the one 
 hand, appears thus to be favourable to mechanical invention ; 
 so, on the other hand, it is probable that the general experience 
 of the utility of machines has led ingenious men to push, in 
 some cases, the division of labour to a far greater length than
 
 320 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 was useful. If I am not mistaken, a remarkable instance of 
 this occurs in that very trade, so often referred to, of the pin- 
 maker ; the very minute analysis of work there carried into 
 effect having originated, not in any views of increasing the 
 dexterity of the workmen, but in an attempt to make machinery 
 practicable in that manufacture. The foregoing remarks esta- 
 blish fully the truth of an assertion which was formerly made, 
 [p. 317,] that the effects of the division of labour, and of ma- 
 chinery in the manufacturing arts, are produced on principles 
 entirely different, though the objects of both are to accomplish 
 the same purpose the economy of labour and time ; and al- 
 though in doing so they are often so combined as to render it 
 difficult to draw the line between their respective functions. 
 
 It is not, however, by means of these two expedients alone, 
 that labour and time may be economized. The astonishing 
 effects produced, in consequence of a skilful application of 
 chemical principles, to shorten the tedious processes formerly 
 practised in various branches of the arts, are universally known. 
 The use of the oxy-muriatic acid in bleaching, is only one 
 instance out of many, of the beneficial effects thus produced. 
 Of the extent of the advantage to be gained by mere skill and 
 activity, when prompted by the hope of gain, and aided by 
 mechanical contrivance, no instance more curious can be men- 
 tioned than what is afforded by the history of the Scotch dis- 
 tilleries. In the year 1785, a proposal was made to collect the 
 duties on distillation by way of license, to be paid annually on 
 every still in proportion to its size, at a fixed rate per gallon, 
 in place of all other taxes. The London distillers, who agreed 
 to the proposal, declared themselves satisfied, from experience, 
 that the time of working stills to advantage was limited to an 
 extent perfectly well known, and that whoever exceeded this 
 limit, would infallibly lose on his materials, and in the quantity 
 of his goods, what he gained in point of time ; and in con- 
 formity to their opinion, the duty was settled on a supposition 
 that a still could be discharged about seven times in a week. 
 Two years after this, in a petition to Parliament, the same 
 men alleged, that the Scotch distillers had found means to dis-
 
 CHAP. I. OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. 321 
 
 charge their stills upwards of forty times a week ; and we since 
 know, from a report made to the Lords of the Treasury in the 
 year 1799, that a forty-three gallon still was brought to such 
 perfection, as to be discharged at the rate of once in two minutes 
 and three quarters. It appears also from this report, that the 
 operation of distilling is capable of being performed in a still 
 shorter time ; and that the quality of the spirit is in no ways 
 injured by the rapidity of the operation. On reflecting on the 
 history of these astonishing exertions of human ingenuity, it 
 cannot fail immediately to occur, that whatever advantages 
 have been gained by mechanical contrivances, have derived 
 their origin, not from the concentrated ingenuity of workmen 
 eager to accomplish their own ruin by the invention of 
 machinery, but from the comprehensive skill of the under- 
 taker, stimulated to economize time to the utmost limit, by 
 the pressure of the new difficulties with which he had to 
 struggle. 
 
 Various other illustrations to the same purpose may be 
 drawn from the improvements which have taken place in other 
 arts within the narrow compass of our own times. It is neces- 
 sary for me, however, to confine myself to the statement of 
 general principles, without making a farther reference to facts 
 than may be necessary to render these more intelligible and 
 impressive. To those who wish to prosecute the speculation, 
 it may be sufficient to mention the late improvements intro- 
 duced into the manufacture of iron and copper, and the still 
 more familiar improvements in spinning and weaving ; to 
 which we may add the prodigies effected in bleaching and 
 dying, by the application of chemical principles to those arts. 
 It may not, however, be superfluous to remark, before dismiss- 
 ing this subject, that the advantages derived by society from 
 the facilities afforded by roads, canals, bridges, the establish- 
 ment of regular posts, by safe and convenient harbours, and 
 everything which tends to improve the art of navigation, are 
 all illustrations of the same doctrine, evincing the powerful and 
 manifold influence of those expedients which economize labour 
 and time on the commercial interests of a country. 
 
 VOL. VIII. X
 
 322 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 The author of the Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of 
 Public Wealth, has chosen to express this general principle in 
 a different way. What I would ascribe to the division of 
 labour, he ascribes to the operation of capital ; qualifying his 
 statement by calling it the operation of capital in superseding 
 labour. I confess, I do not think that the consideration of 
 capital should enter at all into this general view of the sub- 
 ject ; for though almost all the expedients alluded to, do imply 
 the possession of capital, more especially those expedients which 
 consist in the use of machinery, yet that they do not imply it 
 necessarily, appears sufficiently from those compendious and 
 cheap processes which chemistry has suggested in various arts. 
 Nor is this all : Even in the most expensive machines, capital 
 forms only one of the conditions to their establishment. Capi- 
 tal, of itself, can do nothing, unless directed by skill. Why, 
 therefore, should this last circumstance be overlooked ? Are 
 not the advantages that have been derived from the improved 
 steam-engine, due as much to the genius of Watt as to the 
 capital of Boulton ? On the whole, therefore, I am inclined to 
 prefer the statement which I have now proposed, to either of 
 the others which have been under consideration. Of these 
 statements, that given by Mr. Smith is plainly defective, inas- 
 much as it embraces a very partial view of the subject ; while 
 the other is exceptionable, by clogging the correct state- 
 ment of the principle by which the effect is produced, with a 
 specification of the means by which it is accomplished, which 
 specification, certainly, does not include alt the possible ways 
 by which labour can be encouraged by human ingenuity. 
 
 In the course of Mr. Smith's illustrations on this article of 
 Political Economy, he takes occasion to remark, that " it is the 
 great multiplication of the productions of all the different arts, 
 in consequence of the division of labour, which occasions, in a 
 well-goverued society, that universal opulence which extends 
 itself to the lowest ranks of the people. Every workman has 
 a great quantity of his own work to dispose of beyond what he 
 himself has occasion for ; and every other workman being in 
 exactly the same situation, he is enabled to exchange a great
 
 CHAP. I. OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. 323 
 
 quantity of his own goods for a great quantity, or, what comes 
 to the same thing, for the price of a great quantity of theirs. 
 He supplies them abundantly with what they have occasion 
 for, and they accommodate him as amply with what he has 
 occasion for, and a general plenty diffuses itself through all 
 the different ranks of the society."* 
 
 The same observation, too, occurs in some other writers of 
 an earlier date. Thus Mandeville says : " What a bustle is 
 there to be made in several parts of the world before a fine 
 scarlet or crimson cloth can be produced, what multiplicity of 
 trades and artificers must be employed ! not only such as are 
 obvious, as wool-combers, spinners, the weaver, the cloth 
 worker, the scourer, the dyer, the setter, the drawer, and the 
 packer; but others that are more remote and might seem 
 foreign to it, as the mill-wright, the pewterer, and the chemist, 
 which yet all are necessary, as well as a great number of other 
 handicrafts to have the tools, utensils, and other implements 
 belonging to the trades already named. All these things are 
 done at home ; the most frightful prospect is left behind, when 
 we reflect on the toil and hazard that are to be undergone 
 abroad, the vast seas we are to go over, the different climates 
 we are to endure, and the several nations we must be obliged 
 to for their assistance." f 
 
 This quotation from Dr. Mandeville, appears to me to be 
 interesting, as it has plainly suggested to Mr. Smith the idea 
 of one of the finest passages in the Wealth of Nations : 
 
 " Observe the accommodation of the most common artificer 
 or day-labourer in a civilized and thriving country, and you 
 will perceive that the number of people of whose industry a 
 part, though but a small part, has been employed in procuring 
 him this accommodation, exceeds all computation. The wool- 
 len coat, for example, which covers the day-labourer, as coarse 
 and rough as it may appear, is the produce of the joint-labour 
 of a great multitude of workmen. The shepherd, the sorter of 
 
 * [ Wealth of Nations, B. I. chap. i. ; an Essay on Charity and Charity 
 Vol. I. p. 16, seq., tenth edition.] Schools, and a Search into the Nature 
 
 f [The Fable of the Bees, &c., with of Society. Lend. 1714, 1723, 1732.]
 
 324 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 the wool, the wool-comber or carder, the dyer, the scribbler, 
 the spinner, the weaver, the fuller, the dresser, with many 
 others, must all join their different arts in order to complete 
 even this homely production. How many merchants and 
 carriers, besides, must have been employed in transporting the 
 materials from some of those workmen to others who often live 
 in a very distant part of the country ; how much commerce 
 and navigation in particular, how many ship-builders, sailors, 
 sail-makers, rope-makers, must have been employed in order to 
 bring together the different drugs made use of by the dyer, 
 which often come from the remotest corners of the world 1 
 What a variety of labour too is necessary in order to produce 
 the tools of the meanest of those workmen. To say nothing 
 of such complicated machines as the ship of the sailor, the mill 
 of the fuller, or even the loom of the weaver, let us consider 
 only what a variety of labour is requisite in order to form that 
 very simple machine, the shears with which the shepherd clips 
 the wool. The miner, the builder of the furnace for smelting 
 the ore, the feller of the timber, the burner of the charcoal to 
 be made use of in the smelting-house, the brick-maker, the 
 brick-layer, the workman who attends the furnace, the mill- 
 wright, the forger, the smith, must all of them join their dif- 
 ferent arts in order to produce them. Were we to examine, 
 in the same manner, all the different parts of his dress and 
 household furniture, the coarse linen shirt which he wears next 
 his skin, the shoes which cover his feet, the bed which he lies 
 on, and all the different parts which compose it, the kitchen- 
 grate at which he prepares his victuals, the coals which he 
 makes use of for that purpose, dug from the bowels of the 
 earth, and brought to him perhaps by a long sea and a long 
 land carriage, all the other utensils of his kitchen, all the fur- 
 niture of his table, the knives and forks, the earthen or pewter 
 plates upon which he serves up and divides his victuals, the 
 different hands employed in preparing his bread and his beer, 
 the glass window which lets in the heat and the light, and 
 keeps out the wind and the rain, with all the knowledge and 
 art requisite for preparing that beautiful and happy invention,
 
 CHAP. I. OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. 325 
 
 without which these northern parts of the world could scarce 
 have afforded a very comfortable habitation, together with the 
 tools of all the different workmen employed in producing those 
 different conveniences ; if we examine, I say, all these things, 
 and consider what a variety of labour is employed about each 
 of them, we shall be sensible that without the assistance and 
 co-operation of many thousands, the very meanest person in a 
 civilized country could not be provided, even according to what 
 we very falsely imagine, the easy and simple manner in which 
 he is commonly accommodated. Compared, indeed, with the 
 more extravagant luxury of the great, his accommodation must 
 no doubt appear extremely simple and easy ; and yet it may 
 be true, perhaps, that the accommodation of a European prince 
 does not always so much exceed that of an industrious and 
 frugal peasant, as the accommodation of the latter exceeds that 
 of many an African king, the absolute master of the lives and 
 liberties of ten thousand naked savages/'* 
 
 These illustrations of Mr. Smith's are so happily and beauti- 
 fully expressed, that I thought I could not do them justice in 
 any other way than by transcribing them at length from his 
 work. From the view of the subject which has been given, 
 some of Mr. Smith's expressions will require correction ; and 
 his picture, if less pleasing in its colouring, might have been 
 brought nearer to an exact resemblance to the truth, had he 
 insisted less on his favourite topic, and enlarged more on the 
 prodigious effects produced by machinery. On this last head, 
 an anonymous author, who published a pamphlet soon after the 
 riots in Lancashire, occasioned by the introduction of Sir 
 Richard Arkwright's machinery, has made some very judicious 
 observations, which, though not expressed with all the eloquence 
 of Mr. Smith, may form no inappropriate supplement to the 
 quotations already made.f 
 
 Before dismissing the present subject, it is proper for me to 
 
 * [Book I. chap. i. ; Vol. I. pp. 17- shorten Labour, occasioned by the late 
 19, tenth edition.] Disturbances in Lancashire, &c., 1782 
 
 But this pamphlet I have never seen, 
 
 t [Probahly Letters on the Utility and the Notes do not supply Mr. 
 and Policy of employing Machines to Stewart's quotation.]
 
 326 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 mention, as an additional limitation of Mr. Smith's doctrines, 
 that in certain cases great advantages have been gained by a 
 judicious concentration of all the different employments con- 
 nected with a particular manufacture under the same general 
 superintendence and management ; advantages which Mr. Smith 
 represents as only attainable by pushing the subdivision of labour 
 to a greater extent. In proof of this remark, I shall read a 
 short quotation from an anonymous work which states some 
 facts well worthy of attention in the present argument. The 
 publication to which I allude is entitled, Observations founded 
 on Facts, on the Propriety or Impropriety of Exporting Cotton 
 Twist, published in the year 1803.* As an additional illus- 
 tration of the same thing, reference is made by the author to 
 Mr. Thorpe's manufactory at Leeds, where the same work is 
 said to be now performed by thirty-five persons, to execute 
 which in a far more imperfect manner, required, eighteen years 
 ago, 1634 persons. 
 
 In offering the criticisms with which I concluded my lecture 
 yesterday, on the favourite speculation of Mr. Smith with 
 respect to the division of labour, I must again remark, that I 
 do not censure his doctrines as erroneous, but only as partial 
 and incomplete. Of the importance of the division in promot- 
 ing the progress of the arts, and as a very striking feature in 
 the present state of society in England, I am abundantly aware. 
 I only mean to say, that it is not the sole cause of the progress 
 of the arts, or of the diffusion of wealth among the body of the 
 people ; that there are various other causes with which it is 
 altogether unconnected, and that even where its effects are the 
 greatest, it generally co-operates with other causes much more 
 powerful in their operation. 
 
 A farther limitation of Mr. Smith's doctrine with respect to 
 the connexion between the division of labour and national 
 wealth, is suggested by this consideration, that if it is just in 
 all its extent, it would necessarily follow, that in every country 
 where the division of labour is carried to a great extent, the 
 
 * [Perhaps 1805; sec Watt. Like from this pamphlet, of which I am 
 the former the Notes give no quotation equally ignorant.]
 
 CHAP. I. OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. 327 
 
 condition of the people must be actually easy and prosperous. 
 This conclusion surely would be very wide of the truth. Before 
 men can think of the accommodations of life, it is necessary 
 that they should be provided with the means of subsistence ; 
 and the abundance of these must always depend on the state 
 of Agriculture, an art, to the perfection of which the divi- 
 sion of labour contributes less than to that of any other art 
 whatsoever. Indeed, where this art is neglected, or does not 
 receive adequate encouragement, one of the greatest sources of 
 national distress may be found in the encroachment which the 
 poor man is led to make on the funds, which are destined for 
 procuring food, by those artificial wants which the arts of 
 accommodation provoke and multiply. 
 
 With respect to the limit to which the division of labour 
 may be carried, it is fixed, according to Mr. Smith, in all cases 
 by the extent of the market. Before a person dedicates him- 
 self entirely to one employment, says Mr. Smith, he must have 
 a reasonable ground of assurance, that he will be able to ex- 
 change the surplus produce of his labour for the commodities 
 which he may want of a different nature, and accordingly, in a 
 country which is thinly peopled, we find some individuals unit- 
 ing a variety of different employments ; while in those cases 
 where the market is extensive, and where large capitals are 
 employed in trade, the imagination can hardly fix any limits to 
 the progressive simplification of manufacturing art. It must 
 at the same time be remembered, that these circumstances, 
 though indispensable requisites, are not those alone on which 
 this progress depends, as sufficiently appears from the power- 
 ful stimulus which has been applied in this country by the 
 pressure of our public burdens, and also by the competition 
 of foreign nations. In the different parts of Great Britain, 
 illustrations may be collected of all the various gradations in 
 the simplification of manual operations, from that state of 
 society where the farmer is butcher, baker, and brewer to his 
 own family, to the prevalent and almost ludicrous extreme of 
 refinement which is exhibited in the manufacture of a pin. In 
 gome parts of the Highlands of Scotland, nofmany years ago,
 
 328 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 every peasant, according to the Statistical Accounts, made his 
 own shoes of leather tanned by himself. Many a shepherd 
 and cottar too, with his wife and children, appeared at church 
 in clothes which had been touched by no hands but their own, 
 since they were shorn from the sheep and sown in the flax 
 field. In the preparation of these, it is added, scarcely a single 
 article had been purchased, except the awl, needle, thimble, and 
 a very few parts of the iron-work employed in the weaving. 
 The dyes, too, were chiefly extracted by the women from trees, 
 shrubs, and herbs. 
 
 The remarks quoted from Mr. Smith at our last meeting, 
 naturally lead our attention to the effects of the separation of 
 professions in consolidating the social union, and in organizing 
 the political system, by multiplying the mutual connexions 
 and dependencies of the different members of a community. 
 There is nothing, indeed, in the history of human affairs more 
 striking than this obvious fact, that in proportion as the intel- 
 lectual and moral faculties of the species are unfolded and cul- 
 tivated, and in proportion as the joint wealth and power of the 
 community increase, individuals, considered apart, should be- 
 come more and more connected with one another, and man 
 should be rendered more necessary to man. I need hardly add, 
 that this separation of professions, which, by limiting some men 
 to the labour of the hands, and allowing others to cultivate 
 their intellectual powers, fits the one to govern, and the others 
 to be governed, and establishes in a state, that good order and 
 tranquillity which are incompatible with the habits of uncivil- 
 ized life. The Son of Sirach has described this state of things 
 with beautiful simplicity : " The wisdom of a learned man 
 cometh by opportunity of leisure : and he that hath little busi- 
 ness shall become wise. How can he get wisdom that holdeth 
 the plough, and that glorieth in the goad, that driveth oxen, 
 and is occupied in their labours, and whose talk is of bullocks ? 
 He giveth his mind to make furrows, and is diligent to give 
 the kine fodder. So every carpenter and work-master, that 
 laboureth night and day : and they that cut and grave seals, 
 and are diligent to make great variety, and give themselves to
 
 CHAP. I. OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. 329 
 
 counterfeit imagery, and watch to finish a work. The smith 
 also sitting by the anvil, and considering the iron work, the 
 vapour of the fire wasteth his flesh, and he fighteth with the 
 heat of the furnace : the noise of the hammer and the anvil is 
 ever in his ears, and his eyes look still upon the pattern of the 
 thing that he maketh ; he setteth his mind to finish his work, 
 and watcheth to polish it perfectly. So doth the potter sitting 
 at his work, and turning the wheel about with his feet, who is 
 alway carefully set at his work, and maketh all his work by 
 number ; he fashioneth the clay with his arm, and boweth down 
 his strength before his feet ; he applieth himself to lead it over ; 
 and he is diligent to make clean the furnace. All these trust 
 to their hands : and every one is wise in his work. Without 
 these cannot a city be inhabited: and they shall not dwell 
 where they will, nor go up and down: they shall not be 
 sought for in public counsel, nor sit high in the congregation : 
 they shall not sit on the judges' seat, nor understand the sen- 
 tence of judgment : they cannot declare justice and judgment ; 
 and they shall not be found where parables are spoken. But 
 they will maintain the state of the world, and all their desire 
 is in the work of their craft. But he that giveth his mind to 
 the law of the most High, and is occupied in the meditation 
 thereof, ... he shall serve among great men, and appear 
 before princes."* 
 
 There is, it must be confessed, at the same time, one view of 
 this subject which is not altogether so pleasing ; I mean the 
 effect which, in the more advanced stages of commercial and 
 manufacturing refinement, is produced by the subdivision of 
 labour on the intellectual and moral qualities of those who are 
 doomed to be the instruments of all those blessings to their 
 fellow-citizens. It is justly remarked by Dr. Ferguson in his 
 Essay on the History of Civil Society, " The artist finds 
 that the more he can confine his attention to a particular part 
 of any work, his productions are the more perfect, and grow 
 under his hands in greater quantities. Every undertaker and 
 manufacturer finds, that the more he can subdivide the tasks 
 
 * [Ecdesiasticus, xxxviii. 24 xxxix. 4.]
 
 330 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 of his workmen, and the more hands he can employ on sepa- 
 rate articles, the more are his expenses diminished and his 
 profits increased." ..." Every craft may engross the whole 
 of a man's attention, and has a mystery which must be studied 
 or learned hy a regular apprenticeship. Nations of tradesmen 
 come to consist of members, who, beside their own particular 
 trade, are ignorant of all human affairs, and who may contri- 
 bute to the preservation and enlargement of their common- 
 wealth, without making its interest an object of their regard or 
 attention." ..." Many mechanical arts, indeed, require no 
 capacity, they succeed best under a total suppression of senti- 
 ment and reason ; and ignorance is the mother of industry as 
 well as of superstition. Eeflection and fancy are subject to err, 
 but a habit of moving the hand or the foot is independent 
 of either. Manufactures accordingly prosper most where the 
 mind is least consulted, and where the workshop may, without 
 any great effort of imagination, be considered as an engine, the 
 parts of which are men."* 
 
 This view df the moral effects of the division of labour, which 
 is at least equally important with the former, is illustrated at 
 length by the author now quoted, with his usual ingenuity and 
 eloquence. To contrive some method of obviating or diminish- 
 ing this misfortune, which seems at first view to be inseparably 
 connected with the growth of commercial prosperity, is one 
 of the most important problems of legislation. The remedy 
 which at first suggests itself, is the establishment of a system 
 of national instruction, adapted peculiarly to the lower orders 
 of men. But the prosecution of this subject would lead me 
 into too extensive a field of speculation. I cannot, however, 
 quit this article without remarking, that the evil, though a real 
 one while it lasts, naturally leads the way to its own correction, 
 so as to render it probable that it is but a step in the progress 
 of human improvement. In confirmation of this remark, a 
 variety of proofs crowd on me ; but I shall confine my attention 
 to one consideration, which follows as an obvious corollary from 
 the foregoing principles. I have already endeavoured to ex- 
 
 * [Part IV. sect. i.J
 
 CHAP. I. OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. 331 
 
 plain, in what manner the division of labour leads to the inven- 
 tion of machines. When the simplification has been carried so 
 far as to convert, according to Dr. Ferguson's metaphor, a 
 workshop into an engine, the parts of which are men, the next 
 step is that which converts it into an engine, literally so called, 
 where the place of men is supplied by mechanical contrivances. 
 The ultimate tendency, therefore, of this process, is to substi- 
 tute mechanical contrivances for manufacturing work, and to 
 open a field for human genius in the nobler departments of 
 industry and talent. There are some other respects, besides, 
 in which the invention of machines counteracts the effects of 
 that division of labour by which it is facilitated. I have heard 
 it remarked, for example, as an advantage resulting from the 
 subdivision of labour, that it obstructs the transplantation of 
 manufactures from one country to another, tending thereby to 
 preserve to a nation which has once outstripped its neighbours, 
 the superiority which it has gained. The effect of mechanical 
 inventions, unquestionably, is to encourage and accelerate this 
 transplantation, rendering the progress of arts and manufactures 
 over the globe more and more an operation of capital. If the 
 former be advantageous in a national view, the latter acts with 
 a more extensive influence on the fortunes of the human race. 
 Indeed, its partial inconvenience, with respect to the stability of 
 some branches of foreign trade, is much more than counter- 
 balanced by its tendency to support manufactures over the 
 whole face of our own country, so as at once to distribute their 
 beneficial effects, and to prevent the evils with which they are 
 attended when carried to an undue excess in a particular dis- 
 trict. But I have already dwelt longer on this general topic 
 than perhaps was requisite ; and I hasten to other discussions 
 more circumscribed in their object, though intimately connected 
 with those in which we have been engaged. 
 
 The result of the reasonings which I have now stated, with 
 respect to the division of labour is, that however extensively 
 this principle may operate as one cause of the improvement of 
 the arts, and of the general diffusion of the accommodations of 
 life among the members of a commercial society, yet that a
 
 332 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 variety of other causes co-operate no less powerfully to the 
 same effect ; more particularly the invention of machinery, the 
 application of chemistry to the arts, and the facilities afforded 
 to commercial exchanges by roads, bridges, canals, harbours, 
 and the arts of navigation. In one common tendency, as I re- 
 marked in my lecture yesterday, all these different expedients 
 agree with the division of labour, and with each other ; I mean 
 their tendency to save or to supersede labour ; and therefore I 
 should be disposed to substitute, instead of the phrase " divi- 
 sion of labour," as employed by Mr. Smith, the more general 
 phrase, " economy of labour" a phrase which points out with 
 precision the common qualities from which the division of 
 labour, the invention of machinery, the facilities afforded to 
 commerce, and the application of chemistry, derive all their 
 value.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 [OF MONEY, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM.] 
 [SECT. I. OF THE ORIGIN AND USE OF MONEY.] 
 
 THE Division of Labour, wherever it has been carried to 
 any considerable extent, presupposes the establishment of some 
 common medium of exchange. Without this previous arrange- 
 ment it would be impossible for an individual to devote him- 
 self exclusively to a particular species of employment; divesting 
 himself of every care for the supply of his other wants, and trust- 
 ing to the fruits of his own labour for the power of command- 
 ing the produce of that of his neighbours ; and it is thus that 
 the use of money becomes a powerful, and indeed necessary 
 auxiliary to the other circumstances which lay the foundation 
 of the progressive improvement of the species. It would lead 
 me into a detail inconsistent with my present plan, to attempt 
 the slightest historical sketch with respect to the origin of this 
 invention, and to the successive forms which it assumes in pro- 
 portion as the operations of commerce become more extensive 
 and complicated. These different stages in this history, from 
 the first and simplest operations of barter, to the refinements of 
 paper credit, have been traced by various writers, particularly 
 by Mr. Harris in his Essay upon Money and Coins,* and by 
 Mr. Smith in the Wealth of Nations.^ 
 
 * [In two parts. The first was pub- the author is called William Harris, 
 
 lished in 1757, the second in 1758. D.D., which last is, I presume, an 
 
 The work is anonymous : hut by Mr. error. Mr. Stewart's reference will be 
 
 M'Culloch it is ascribed to Joseph Har- found in Part I. chap, ii.] 
 
 ris, Assaymaster of the Mint ; whereas f [Book I. chap. iv. ; Vol. I. p. 33, 
 
 by Watt and the Catalogues in general, seq., tenth edition.]
 
 334 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 In process of time, among all civilized nations, gold, silver, 
 and copper have supplanted all other commodities as the great 
 instruments of commerce. For this purpose, indeed, these 
 metals are so admirably adapted, that we may justly consider 
 them, particularly the two first, as destined for it by nature, in- 
 dependently of all convention or of all laws. 1 
 
 The circumstances which recommend silver and gold as the 
 fittest materials for money, are chiefly the following. First, 
 When pure, and unmixed with base metals, they have every- 
 where the same characteristics, and in all respects the same 
 qualities. Secondly, They are divisible into minute parts, 
 which are again susceptible of a complete re-union by fusion. 
 Thirdly, They are durable, portable, easily kept, and not liable 
 to injury from want of use. Fourthly, They are susceptible of 
 any form, and any impression. Fifthly, They are not too 
 common, nor to be obtained without a valuable consideration 
 in land and labour. To the provision which nature has thus 
 made for facilitating commerce, in the qualities which so re- 
 markably characterize these metals, it may be worth while to 
 add the advantages which we derive from the variety of metals 
 in which these qualities are to be found. In rich and commer- 
 cial countries, coins of gold and silver alone would by no means 
 answer all the purposes of exchange. Coins of gold and silver 
 are not well adapted for that retail trade in which, however, 
 the greatest number of subjects are principally concerned. 
 Coins of silver, again, are too bulky for larger payments. It is 
 necessary, therefore, that coins should be made of different 
 metals. Accordingly, in all such countries, this has taken 
 place sooner or later in the progress of commercial refinement. 
 With respect to the history of the coins in England, a great 
 deal of very curious information has been lately brought 
 together, and very perspicuously stated by Lord Liverpool, in 
 his Treatise on the Coins of the Realm, [1805.] 
 
 The enumeration which has been already given of the quali- 
 ties which so peculiarly fit the precious metals to perform the 
 
 1 See Turgot, [Sur la Formation et la Dittribution det Biche$se t sect. xlv. 
 (Euvres, Tome V. p. 48.]
 
 CHAP. II. OF MONEY, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 1.) 335 
 
 function of media of exchange, seems of itself fully sufficient 
 to account for the universal use made of them in commerce, 
 abstracting altogether from the useful purposes to which they 
 are applicable in the various arts. In stating this remark, it is 
 scarcely necessary for me to add, that I would by no means be 
 understood to d#ny the important uses of which gold and silver 
 are susceptible, or the intrinsic value which they derive from 
 their beauty and subserviency to the arts of decoration. On 
 this subject I am ready to admit all that has been urged by 
 Mr. Smith, in that part of his work where he attempts to shew 
 that, except iron, they are more useful than any other metal. 
 He says " The demand for those metals arises partly from 
 their utility and partly from their beauty. If you except iron, 
 they are more useful than perhaps any other metal. As they 
 are less liable to rust and impurity, they can more easily be 
 kept clean ; and the utensils either of the table or the kitchen 
 are often upon that account more agreeable when made of 
 them. A silver boiler is more cleanly than a lead, copper, or 
 tin one ; and the same quality would render a gold boiler still 
 better than a silver one. Their principal merit, however, 
 arises from their beauty, which renders them peculiarly fit for 
 the ornaments of dress and furniture. No paint or dye can 
 give so splendid a colour as gilding. The merit of their beauty 
 is greatly enhanced by their scarcity. . . . These qualities of 
 utility, beauty, and scarcity, are the original foundation of the 
 high price of those metals, or of the great quantity of other 
 goods for which they can everywhere be exchanged. This 
 value was antecedent to, and independent of, their being em- 
 ployed as coin, and was the quality which fitted them for that 
 employment. That employment, however, by occasioning a 
 new demand, and by diminishing the quantity which could be 
 employed in any other way, may have afterwards contributed to 
 keep up or increase their value."* 
 
 In the whole of this passage I certainly agree with Mr. 
 Smith, excepting where he says, that the intrinsic value of gold 
 and silver was the quality which fitted them for their employ- 
 
 * [Book I. chap. xi. ; Vol. I. p. 268, seq., tenth edition.]
 
 336 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 ment as coin. It appears to me, that this intrinsic value, 
 which I shall allow to gold and silver in its fullest extent, 
 ought to be regarded in the theory of money as merely acci- 
 dental circumstances, from which it is proper to abstract with 
 all possible care, as tending only to embarrass our conceptions ; 
 for the same reason, that in studying the theory of mechanics, 
 we abstract from the effects of friction, the rigidity of ropes, 
 and the weight of the materials of which machines are com- 
 posed. The considerations, undoubtedly, mentioned by Mr. 
 Smith, add to the exchangeable value of money, by increasing 
 the demand for the materials of which it is made, in the very 
 same manner as this value would be increased by a deficiency 
 to the same extent, in the ordinary supply coming from the 
 mines. But I cannot help thinking, that the quantity of gold 
 and silver employed in the arts, bears but a very trifling pro- 
 portion to that which circulates in the shape of money or 
 bullion over the commercial world, so trifling, indeed, as to 
 render it of little moment in the present argument, or at most 
 to place it on the same footing with those circumstances in 
 mechanics, from which, though it is necessary to attend to 
 them in practice, it is nevertheless convenient to abstract in 
 theory, in studying the principle on which any of the simple 
 mechanical powers produces its effect. At any rate, when gold 
 is converted into coin, its possessor never thinks of anything 
 but its exchangeable value, or supposes a coffer of guineas to 
 be more valuable, because they are capable of being transformed 
 into a service of plate for his own use ; whatever satisfaction 
 the possessor of a service of plate may derive from the consi- 
 deration that it may be converted into guineas. Why, then, 
 should we suppose, that if the intrinsic value of gold and silver 
 were annihilated completely, they might not still perform, as 
 well as now, all the functions of money, supposing them to re- 
 tain all those recommendations formerly stated, which give 
 them so decided a superiority over everything else which could 
 be employed for the same purpose. Supposing the supply of 
 the precious metals, at present afforded by the mines, to fail 
 entirely all over the world, there can be little doubt that all the
 
 CHAP. II. OF MONEY, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 1.) 337 
 
 plate now in existence would be gradually converted into 
 money, and gold and silver would soon cease to be employed in 
 the ornamental arts. In this case, a few years would obliterate 
 entirely all idea of the intrinsic value of these metals ; while 
 their value would be understood to arise from those character- 
 istical qualities which recommend them as media of exchange. 
 But so far from sinking in their exchangeable value, they 
 would every day become more valuable in the market than 
 before, in proportion as their quantity was diminished by the 
 slow waste occasioned by commercial circulation. Mr. Smith's 
 doctrine, at the same time, I must own, coincides with the 
 general opinion on this subject ; and Mr. Harris carries it so 
 far, as to propose it as a questionable point, whether coins 
 would have preserved their value and been continued as money, 
 if silver and gold had not been applicable to other purposes. 
 I confess I can see no good reason for this observation ; as, in- 
 dependently of the intrinsic value of these metals, their peculiar 
 adaptation to their different ends, as signs or measures of value, 
 could not have failed to have given them an exclusive title to 
 this employment. I am therefore disposed to think, that 
 Bishop Berkeley was not wide of the truth, (for I would not go 
 so far as to adopt his idea in its full extent,) when he proposed 
 the following doubts in his pamphlet, entitled The Querist, 
 "Whether money is to be considered as having an intrinsic 
 value, or as being a commodity, a standard, a measure, or a 
 pledge, as is variously suggested by writers ? And whether 
 the true idea of money, as such, be not altogether that of a 
 ticket or counter?"* The ingenious author certainly did not 
 mean, in this query, to deny that gold and silver have an 
 intrinsic value, but only to insinuate, that this is an accidental 
 or secondary consideration from which we ought to abstract 
 entirely in forming a precise idea of their function as money. 
 This is perfectly evident from the qualifying words " as such" 
 which he introduces into the Query. 
 
 The same functions might be performed by a variety of other 
 metals, but by none which unites so many advantages ; and 
 
 * [Query xxiii.] 
 VOL. VIII. Y
 
 338 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 hence the general consent of mankind in applying them to this 
 purpose ; in consequence of which they have come to be essen- 
 tially distinguished from those local media of exchange to 
 which accidental circumstances have given currency in parti- 
 cular nations. It is this general consent alone which distin- 
 guishes them, when employed as money, from anything else 
 which circulates in a country ; from the paper currency, for 
 instance, which circulates in Scotland and England. Were 
 this island insulated from the rest of the world, the former, as 
 a medium of exchange, would possess no advantage over the 
 latter, excepting in so far as it diminished the opportunities of 
 fraud ; nor would it make the smallest difference on the national 
 wealth, whether the circulating medium consisted of gold or 
 paper, or whether the materials were abundant or scanty. This 
 observation, self-evident as it may appear to some, may perhaps 
 to others require a little illustration. 
 
 In a country which had no communication with others, it is 
 obvious and indisputable, that the precious metals, when formed 
 into money, would be useful only as a medium of exchange and 
 scale of valuation. On this supposition, the observation of 
 Anacharsis the Scythian, quoted by Mr. Hume in one of his 
 Political Discourses, seems to be perfectly just, that gold and 
 silver appeared to be of no use to the Greeks, but to assist them 
 in enumeration and arithmetic.* I shall afterwards, however, 
 endeavour to show, that Mr. Hume carried this principle 
 a great deal too far, when he concluded, that the prices of com- 
 modities are regulated entirely by the plenty or scarcity of the 
 coin in circulation, f 
 
 In a country which has commercial dealings with others, the 
 case is very different ; the precious metals being, by those 
 essential qualities formerly mentioned, so much distinguished 
 from the other media of exchange that have been occasionally 
 employed, that they are objects of universal request among 
 mankind ; influencing in a great variety of ways, by their local 
 plenty or scarcity, the relative condition of nations. 
 
 Among the other commodities which have been used for the 
 * [Essays, VoL I. Of Money.] t [Ibid.J
 
 CHAP. IL OF MONEY, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 1.) 339 
 
 same purpose, the small shells, called Cowries, which are em- 
 ployed in Africa and some parts of Asia, are perhaps the most 
 deserving of attention, when we consider, notwithstanding their 
 total inutility in every other respect, the value set upon them 
 as media of exchange over such extensive regions of the earth. 
 "I am informed from good authority," says Major Rennell, 
 " that about a hundred tons of Cowries are annually shipped 
 from England alone to Guinea. These are originally shipped 
 from the Maldive Islands to Bengal, and from Bengal to Eng- 
 land. In Bengal, twenty-four hundred more or less are equal 
 to a shilling, and, notwithstanding, some articles in the market 
 may be purchased for a single cowry. But in the inland parts 
 of Africa, they are about ten times as dear, varying from two 
 hundred and twenty to two hundred and eighty. M. Beaufoy 
 was told that in Kassina they were at the rate of about two 
 hundred and fifty ; and Mr. Park reports, that they are about 
 the same price at Sego, but cheaper at Timbuctoo, which is 
 about the centre of the cowry country ; dearer towards Mand- 
 ing, which is the western extremity of it. Hence they are 
 probably carried in the first instance to Timbuctoo, the gold 
 market, and thence distributed to the east and west." 1 
 
 It would be a curious speculation to examine the combina- 
 tions of circumstances which thus affect the value of an article 
 that derives its whole worth from its arbitrary application to 
 facilitate commercial operations. The facts which have been 
 stated are sufficient to show, that the minute subdivision of value 
 which these shells are fitted to express, has created a demand 
 for them even where the precious metals are in abundance ; and 
 this demand would manifestly be much greater if the precious 
 metals did not exist at all. These last, however, abstracting 
 entirely from their application in the useful arts, are incom- 
 parably better adapted for the purposes of exchange than 
 cowries, or any other substitute which has yet been thought of, 
 and therefore I have not the smallest doubt, that their employ- 
 ment as media of exchange would have been as universal as it 
 
 1 [Proceedings of the Association Interior Parts of Africa, &c., 1798.] 
 for promoting the Discovery of the Appendix, p. 86.
 
 340 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PAST I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 now is, though they had possessed no intrinsic utility or value 
 whatever. In consequence, indeed, of these qualities, the atten- 
 tion of men was directed to them at an earlier period than it 
 otherwise would have been ; and the estimation in which they 
 were held as articles of merchandise, may have suggested their 
 advantageous properties as media of exchange. But the only 
 utility which is essential to gold and silver as media of ex- 
 change, is their peculiar adaptation to that purpose ; and 
 though I would not take it upon me to say that their uses in 
 the arts detract from their value in this respect, yet these are so 
 far from being essential to their qualities as money, that they 
 are in some respects disadvantageous, by rendering the theory 
 of money more complicated than it otherwise would have been. 
 
 Having mentioned the extensive use of Cowries as a medium 
 of exchange, I cannot help taking notice here, though the sub- 
 ject is not immediately connected with our present inquiry, of 
 some particulars concerning the current prices of some com- 
 modities estimated in this way, extracted from the last com- 
 munication which was received in this country from Mr. 
 Mungo Park, and which is dated 16th November 1805. The 
 particulars which I have to state, are copied from a letter re- 
 ceived by me some tune ago from a friend in London, who had 
 an opportunity of perusing the original document. In this 
 letter Mr. Park states, that in Manding, a town containing 
 eleven thousand inhabitants, he opened a booth for the sale of 
 European commodities, of which he took down some of the 
 prices in cowries. Thus, a piece of gold worth in our currency 
 twelve shillings and sixpence, sold for three thousand cowries. 
 A dollar, sold by Mr. Park as a piece of European manufac- 
 ture, brought from six to twelve thousand cowries. Currency 
 for currency, a cowrie is stated to be worth the twentieth part of 
 our penny. A prime male slave brought forty thousand cowries; 
 a prime female slave ninety thousand ; one young female slave 
 brought forty thousand ; a horse, from two to ten prime male 
 slaves ; a fat cow, fifteen thousand cowries ; an ass, seventeen 
 thousand ; a sheep, from three to five thousand. 
 
 The doctrine which the foregoing observations tend to esta-
 
 CHAP. II. OF MONEY, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. (1.) 341 
 
 blish is, if I mistake not, agreeable to the opinion of Mr. Locke, 
 who observes, " that the general consent of nations has placed 
 an imaginary value on silver, because of the qualities fitting it 
 for the purposes of exchange."* This remark of Locke's has 
 been severely commented on by Mr. Law, in a small treatise 
 entitled Money and Trade Considered.^ " It is reasonable to 
 think," he says, " silver was bartered, as it was valued, for its 
 uses as a metal, and was given as money according to its value 
 in barter. The additional use of money to which silver was ap- 
 plied, would add to its value, because, as money, it remedied the 
 disadvantages and inconveniences of barter ; and consequently 
 the demand for silver increasing, it received an additional value 
 equal to the greater demand its use as money occasioned. 
 
 " And this additional value is no more imaginary than the 
 value silver had in barter, as a metal ; for such value was 
 because it served such uses, and was greater or less according 
 to the demand for silver as a metal, proportioned to its quan- 
 tity. The additional value silver received from being used as 
 money, was because of its qualities which fitted it for that use, 
 and that value was according to the additional demand its use 
 as money occasioned. 
 
 " If either of these values be imaginary, then all value is so ; 
 for no goods have any value, but from the uses they are applied 
 to, and according to the demand for them, in proportion to 
 their quantity.*J 
 
 I confess, it does not appear to me that Mr. Law's reasonings 
 are precise or conclusive. In as far as his criticism refers to 
 Mr. Locke's use of the word imaginary, I do not think it neces- 
 sary to enter into any argument concerning its justice, but I 
 own that the idea which Mr. Locke meant to express, appears 
 to me clear and unquestionable. That idea was, that the 
 general consent of men, by adopting silver as the medium of 
 exchange, bestows on it, in addition to the recommendations 
 which it derives from its subserviency to the arts, a value which 
 
 * [(First) Considerations on Interest \ [Chap. i. p. 15, seq., Glasgow edi- 
 emd Money.] tion, 1750.] 
 
 t [First published in 1705.]
 
 342 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 it did not intrinsically possess. This ideal value is precisely of 
 the same kind with that which the credit of a bank stamps on 
 paper currency, with this difference, that the latter is local, 
 while the former is universal Mr. Locke's remark farther in- 
 timates, that the general consent of men was not the effect of 
 caprice, but of certain peculiarities in the nature and qualities 
 of silver, which have eminently fitted it for the purposes of ex- 
 change ; a proportion which coincides exactly with an assertion 
 formerly quoted from Turgot, [p. 334,] that gold and silver 
 seem destined by nature to be the great instruments of com- 
 merce, independently of all law and of all convention. 
 
 In further prosecution of the same argument, Mr. Law adds, 
 " that he cannot conceive how different nations could agree to 
 put an imaginary value on anything, especially upon silver, by 
 which all other goods are valued ; or that any one country 
 would receive that as a value, which was not valuable equal to 
 what it was given for ; or how that imaginary value could have 
 been kept up."* The extensive use which is made of cowries in 
 Africa, and some parts of Asia, may serve as a sufficient answer 
 to these observations. Nor is the fact less applicable, though 
 we admit, that these shells, being used in countries where gold 
 and silver are also employed, are therefore to be considered 
 merely as tokens or representatives of the precious metals ; for 
 if articles possessing no intrinsic value, should possess a value 
 as representing the precious metals, why might not gold and 
 silver derive their value from the useful commodities which 
 they represent and enable us to purchase ? 
 
 " But," says Mr. Law, " for the same reasons a crown passing 
 in France for seventy-six sols, should pass in Scotland for 
 seventy-six pence, and in Holland for seventy-six stivers. But 
 on the contrary, even in France where the crown is raised, it is 
 worth no more than before when at sixty sols."f I must con- 
 fess that I do not understand the scope of this argument, nor 
 can I conceive how it applies to the question under discussion. 
 According to the literal interpretation of this passage, Mr. Law 
 is combating a phantom of his own imagination ; for, by whom 
 * [Ibid.]
 
 CHAP. II OF MONEY, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 1.) 343 
 
 was it ever supposed that one nation adopted the money of 
 another, ascribing to the precious metals an imaginary value 
 for no other reason than that others had done the same ? I 
 have before said, that the general use of the precious metals is 
 the obvious result of those circumstances which so peculiarly 
 adapt these metals for the purposes of money. This general 
 coincidence Mr. Locke expresses by the word consent. But it 
 is perfectly evident from the context, that he did not mean 
 consent arising from any stipulation or imitation among na- 
 tions ; but a consent analogous to that which Cicero ascribes 
 to the human race, in the fundamental principles of religion 
 and virtue. If this observation be just, it affords a sufficient 
 explanation of the fact, that a crown may pass in France for 
 seventy-six sous, while in Scotland it may not bring seventy-six 
 pence, nor in Holland seventy-six stivers. The properties 
 which universally belong to the precious metals, account com- 
 pletely for the universality of their use as media of exchange ; 
 but it would be surprising, indeed, if all nations had adjusted 
 their values agreeably to some common standard. The case of 
 the precious metals is similar to measures of longitudinal ex- 
 tension. In taking the standard of these from the human 
 body, there has been a pretty general consent among nations. 
 But it would not follow from this, that the Paris foot, and 
 London foot, &c., should be exactly of the same length. 
 Such a coincidence could have resulted only from an express 
 compact. The truth however is, that in consequence of the 
 commercial connexions of different nations, the relative values 
 of the coined metals have been pretty accurately adjusted in the 
 general market of the world ; and it is owing to this that all 
 arbitrary operations in the mints of particular States are unjust, 
 inexpedient, and in many respects ineffectual ; a consequence 
 which has not escaped the notice of Mr. Law himself.* 
 
 * [Mr. Stewart probably refers to the no nation practises it that has regard 
 
 following passage : " It is unjust to to justice, or understands the nature of 
 
 raise or allay money, because, then all trade and money." (Money, &c. Chap, 
 
 contracts are paid with a lesser value iv. p. 79, eq., Edit 1750.) And so on 
 
 than was contracted for ; and as it has throughout the chapter.] 
 bad effects on home or foreign trade, so
 
 344 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 It must not, therefore, be imagined, when I lay so great 
 stress on the properties of the precious metals, abstracting from 
 their intrinsical value, in studying the theory of money, that I 
 would mean to insinuate any apology for those arbitrary opera- 
 tions on the coinage, which have been so often practised by dif- 
 ferent princes. If gold and silver possessed no intrinsic value, 
 such operations might be no less iniquitous than they always 
 have been ; for their iniquity arises, not from the useful pur- 
 poses to which the precious metals are subservient in the arts, 
 but from the universality of their employment as media of ex- 
 change. And, indeed, one of my chief reasons for dwelling so 
 long on the present subject, was to prevent so very important 
 a truth as that which relates to the good faith that ought to be 
 maintained with regard to the coinage, from being placed on 
 what I conceive to be an unsound foundation. The pains 
 which Mr. Law has bestowed on this argument is the more 
 surprising, that the doctrine which he wishes to refute would 
 have accorded better with the general scope of his book than 
 that which he supports ; and indeed, in one passage, he seems 
 to give up completely the very point for which he had been so 
 long contending. " Money is not the value for which goods 
 are exchanged, but the value by which they are exchanged ; 
 the use of money is to buy goods, and silver, while money, is of 
 no other use."* An observation which coincides entirely with 
 that above quoted from Mr. Hume, [p. 338.] 
 
 From the function of the precious metals as media of ex- 
 change, they gradually and naturally came to form the common 
 scale of valuation. For this end, indeed, they are admirably 
 adapted, from the mathematical exactness with which metals, 
 in consequence of their divisibility and fusibility, are fitted to 
 express every conceivable variation of value ; a quality, indeed, 
 of so much importance in their use as money, that it probably 
 contributed more than anything else to establish their employ- 
 ment among commercial nations. The existence, too, of such 
 a standard, would necessarily render the ideas of relative value 
 much more precise and definite than they otherwise would have 
 
 * [Chap. vii. p. 188. Edit. 1750.]
 
 CHAP. II. OF MONET, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 1.) 345 
 
 been; by leading men to an arithmetical statement of rela- 
 tions, which probably, in the infancy of commerce, would have 
 been estimated in a very gross and inaccurate manner. 
 
 The two great functions, then, of the precious metals, when 
 employed for the purposes of Money, are to furnish, first, a 
 universal medium of exchange; and secondly, an accurate 
 scale of valuation. The truth is, that the second idea is, in 
 some measure, involved in the first ; and it is for this reason 
 that I have not included it in my definition ; for although in 
 rude nations articles have been used as media of exchange, 
 which are incapable of expressing all the different gradations of 
 value, such could not possibly have furnished the means of 
 carrying on the business of a great commercial country ; it is 
 therefore implied necessarily in the nature of money, that it 
 furnishes an accurate scale of valuation ; and consequently this 
 last function of money is to be considered as inseparably con- 
 nected with that universality of its use, to which I have directed 
 your attention as its leading and fundamental property. 
 
 To the conclusion which the foregoing reasonings tend to 
 establish, I know it has been objected, that it is obviously con- 
 tradicted by the perpetual variations that take place in the re- 
 lative values of money and of commodities. When we see that 
 silver, according to its plenty or scarcity, combined with other 
 circumstances, fluctuates in its exchangeable value compared 
 with that of corn, do we not ascribe an intrinsic value to the 
 one as well as the other ? and may not silver be considered as 
 the commodity, and corn the price, with as little impropriety 
 as the converse ? For my own part, I do not perceive the 
 force of this objection. That gold and silver may be considered 
 as commodities, I allow. But would not the case have been 
 the same although they had possessed no intrinsical qualities 
 whatever ? and would not their adaptation to the purposes of 
 commerce, and their employment as media of exchange, have 
 occasioned a considerable demand for them ? Indeed, may I 
 not venture to add, that these circumstances would have ren- 
 dered the demand for them as great as it is at present ? Of 
 what intrinsic utility, for instance, are cowries, which perform
 
 346 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 the functions of money over a great part of Africa and Asia ? 
 and does not even this local employment of them render them 
 an article of commerce and a commodity for sale in the hands 
 of those traders who, after bringing them from Bengal, ship 
 them again to Guinea ? 
 
 The same doctrine concerning the precious metals will be 
 found perfectly consistent with the principles which regulate 
 the Course of Exchange between different countries. Even 
 when they exist in the shape of Bullion, what constitutes their 
 exchangeable value is their convertibility into the current coins 
 of the country ; and any increased demand for these in a par- 
 ticular country may be regarded, not as a symptom of any new 
 call for them for the purposes of the arts, but as a symptom of 
 some accident in the course of trade which has drained the 
 country of its circulating specie. The truth of all this indeed 
 is virtually acknowledged in those countries where a paper cur- 
 rency forms the chief circulating medium ; and accordingly, 
 whatever objections may be made to bank notes, from their 
 supposed tendency to raise the prices of commodities, or from 
 their insecurity in case of a revolution, no one, abstracting from 
 these and similar circumstances, would at any time wish to see 
 silver and gold, when able to supply himself with paper. But 
 of this subject of Paper Currency, I shall afterwards have occa- 
 sion to treat fully. In the meantime, I shall only observe, that 
 its advantages are necessarily confined to countries which enjoy 
 the blessings of a free and settled government. Were such 
 governments generally established, paper would everywhere 
 supply more and more, except in the smaller operations, the 
 ordinary medium of circulation ; and the precious metals 
 would be limited in a great measure to the functions of liqui- 
 dating the debts of different nations, and regulating the quan- 
 tity of the circulating medium by restraining the paper currency 
 within its due limits. 
 
 The observations which I have hitherto made on the subject 
 of metallic money, apply equally to Silver and Gold ; both of 
 which are used, without any discrimination, in common mer- 
 cantile transactions. It is necessary, however, according to the
 
 CHAP. II. OF MONEY, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 1.) 347 
 
 opinion of all our latest and best writers on Political Economy, 
 that one of these metals should be considered as the standard 
 or level, or measure of value ; with respect to which, the other 
 is to be regarded as a mere commodity ; for silver and gold, in 
 their mutual relations, like other commodities, are variable in 
 their value, according as the quantity of either is increased or 
 diminished. Consequently, it is not possible that they should 
 both be the measure of value at the same place and time. This 
 doctrine is maintained by Sir William Petty, Mr. Locke, and 
 Mr. Harris, the last of whom speaks of silver as the measure of 
 value in this country. On the other hand, it is one great object 
 of Lord Liverpool's late publication on the Coinage, [1805,] to 
 demonstrate, that gold coin has now become in this country 
 the measure ; and that this is the idea not only of the people 
 of Great Britain, but of all the merchants of foreign countries 
 who have any intercourse with it, and even of those who deal 
 the most extensively in the precious metals. 
 
 " After full consideration of this subject," says his Lordship, 
 " I offer as the result of my opinion, First, That the coins of 
 this realm, which are to be the principal measure of property 
 and instrument of commerce, should be made of one metal 
 only. Secondly, That in this kingdom the gold coins only 
 have been for many years past, and are now in the practice 
 and opinion of the people, the principal measure of property 
 and instrument of commerce. In a country like Great Britain, 
 so distinguished for its affluence and for the extent of its com- 
 mercial connexions, the gold coins are best adapted to be the 
 principal measure of property ; in this kingdom, therefore, the 
 gold coin is now the principal measure of property and stan- 
 dard coin, or, as it were, the sovereign archetype by which the 
 weight and value of all other coins shall be regulated. It is 
 the measure of almost all contracts and bargains, and by it, as 
 a measure, the price of all commodities, bought and sold, is 
 adjusted and ascertained." 
 
 In answer to Mr. Locke, who had said " that gold is not the 
 money of the world and measure of commerce, nor fit to be so," 
 his Lordship observes, " It is difficult to determine what Mr.
 
 348 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 Locke means, when he asserts that gold is not fit to be the 
 money of the world. Gold, as a metal, is equally homogeneous, 
 equally divisible into exact portions or parts, and not more 
 consumable, or more subject to decay, than silver ; gold has 
 some of those qualities even in a higher degree than silver. 
 Mr. Locke must mean, therefore, that gold is, on account of its 
 value, not fit to be the money of the world, or the measure of 
 property and commerce. It cannot, I think be doubted, that 
 the metal of which this principal measure of property is made, 
 should correspond with the wealth and commerce of the 
 country for which it is intended. Coins should be made of 
 metals more or less valuable in proportion to the wealth and 
 commerce of the country in which they are to be the measure 
 of property. In very poor countries coins have been, and still 
 are, principally made of copper, and sometimes even of less 
 valuable materials. In countries advanced to a certain degree 
 of commerce and opulence, silver is the metal of which coins are 
 principally made. In very rich countries, and especially in 
 those where great and extensive commerce is carried on, gold is 
 the most proper metal, of which this principal measure of pro- 
 perty and this instrument of commerce should be made ; in such 
 countries gold will in practice become the principal measure of 
 property, and the instrument of commerce, with the general 
 consent of the people, not only without the support of law, but 
 in spite almost of any law that may be enacted to the contrary, 
 for the principal purchases and exchanges cannot then be made, 
 with any convenience in coins of less valuable metal." 
 
 I must own I do not fully see the force of his Lordship's 
 reasoning upon this subject ; but Lord Liverpool seems to have 
 reflected so much upon it, and enjoyed such opportunities of 
 being well informed in all things relating thereto, that I am 
 doubtful of my own opinion, wherever I am forced to differ 
 from him. Of the advantages, indeed, which he thus enjoyed, 
 his Lordship appears to have been fully sensible ; and in one 
 place of his book, appears to express an opinion pretty strongly 
 of the inability of speculative men, that is, men without his 
 practical knowledge, to oppose or criticise his opinions.
 
 CHAP. II. OF MONEY, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 2.) 349 
 
 Admonished by these hints, I shall not on this occasion 
 prosecute the discussion of this complicated subject any 
 farther. 
 
 I cannot, however, dismiss the subject altogether, without 
 taking notice of an idea which has been suggested by many 
 political writers, and which is well entitled to a careful con- 
 sideration, though I do not mean to offer any decided opinion 
 with regard to it ; that the stamp of the sovereign affixed to 
 the metals which compose the current coin, ought alone to de- 
 note the degree of purity, and that their value ought to depend 
 totally on their weight. The only inconvenience which would 
 attend this measure, would be the difficulty of breaking through 
 the present plan, and the trouble which would be occasioned by 
 the necessity of weighing. Of these, the last only is permanent 
 in its operation. The conveniences which would attend a gen- 
 eral adoption of this plan, would be great. It would put an 
 end to all clipping, washing, and paring of the coins, and to 
 all that jobbing which proceeds from a minute knowledge of 
 the state of the currency in different countries. In truth, such 
 a regulation, if everywhere adopted, would secure to the world 
 at large those advantages which Holland derived from the 
 Bank at Amsterdam. 
 
 [SECT. II. OF REAL AND NOMINAL PRICES.] 
 
 The remarks which I now proceed to offer, relate to a dis- 
 tinction intimately connected with the subject which has just 
 been under our consideration ; I mean that between the real 
 and nominal prices of commodities. In the practical conclu- 
 sion which Mr. Smith ultimately adopts on the question to 
 which this distinction applies, I do not differ from him very 
 widely ; though I think that it has been stated by him in too 
 general and unqualified terms. But as I deem the metaphy- 
 sical process by which he arrives at this conclusion is by no 
 means satisfactory, and as I have been often puzzled with it 
 myself, I shall offer no apology for making a few observations 
 on it, premising only, that I consider the question to which I
 
 350 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 am first to direct your attention, as chiefly an object of specu- 
 lative curiosity. 
 
 " Every man is rich or poor," says Mr. Smith, " according to 
 the degree in which he can afford to enjoy the necessaries, con- 
 veniences, and amusements of life. But after the division 
 of labour has once thoroughly taken place, it is but a very 
 small part of these with which a man's own labour can supply 
 him. The far greater part of them he must derive from the 
 labour of other people, and he must be rich or poor according 
 to the quantity of that labour which he can command, or 
 which he can afford to purchase/'* It appears to me that the 
 latter clause of this sentence is by no means a just inference 
 from the former ; and the only conclusion to which it properly 
 leads, is that every man is rich or poor according to the means 
 which he possesses of purchasing those necessaries, conveni- 
 ences, or amusements, which are supplied by the labour of 
 others. That the riches of an individual do not depend on the 
 quantity of labour which he can command, is obvious from 
 what Mr. Smith himself has so ingeniously shown with regard 
 to the effects of the division of labour in increasing its pro- 
 ductive powers. [See p. 312, seqJ] In a country, therefore, 
 where a separation of arts and professions has taken place, the 
 national riches depend much less on the quantity of labour, 
 than on the skill of the labourer, a proper division of work, and 
 the advantages which are derived from the use of machinery. 
 Consequently no estimate can be formed of the comparative 
 riches of individuals from merely knowing the quantities of 
 labour which they are able to command. 
 
 "The value of any commodity, therefore," continues Mr. 
 Smith, " to the person who possesses it, and who means not to 
 use or consume it himself, but to exchange it for other commo- 
 dities, is equal to the quantity of labour which it enables him 
 to purchase or command. Labour, therefore, is the real mea- 
 sure of the exchangeable value of all commodities." f I have 
 sometimes thought that part of the obscurity in which Mr. 
 
 * [Wealth of Nations, Book I. chap. v. ; Vol. I. pp. 43, 44, tenth edition.] 
 t [Ibid.]
 
 CHAP. II. OF MONEY, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. (2.) 351 
 
 Smith has involved this subject, arises from the vague use 
 which he makes of the phrase " measure of value." I need not 
 remark, that this expression is borrowed from the mathematical 
 sciences, in which important advantages are sometimes gained 
 by employing one species of quantity to measure another. 
 Thus angles are measured by the arc of a circle ; and velocities 
 and forces are measured by a reference to extended magnitudes. 
 This seems to be the idea which Mr. Smith has annexed to the 
 word throughout the greater part of the chapter in question. 
 But in this sense, the speculation cannot possibly admit of any 
 useful application ; as he confesses that it is difficult, or rather 
 impossible, to ascertain the proportion between different quan- 
 tities of labour. For he proceeds : 
 
 " Though labour be the real measure of the exchangeable 
 value of all commodities, it is not that by which their value is 
 commonly estimated. It is often difficult to ascertain the pro- 
 portion between two different quantities of labour. The time 
 spent in two different sorts of work, will not always alone de- 
 termine this proportion. There may be more labour in an 
 hour's hard work, than in two hours' easy business ; or in an 
 hour's application to a trade which it cost ten years' labour to 
 learn, than in a month's industry at an ordinary and obvious 
 employment. But it is not easy to find any accurate measure 
 either of hardship or ingenuity. In exchanging, indeed, the 
 different productions of different sorts of labour for one another, 
 some allowance is commonly made for both. It is adjusted, 
 however, not by any accurate measure, but by the higgling and 
 bargaining of the market, according to that sort of rough 
 equality which, though not exact, is sufficient for carrying on 
 the business of common life." 
 
 " Every commodity," he adds, however, " is more frequently 
 exchanged for, and thereby compared with other commodities, 
 than with labour. It is more natural, therefore, to estimate its 
 exchangeable value by the quantity of some other commodity, 
 than by that of the labour which it can purchase. The greater 
 part of people, too, understand better what is meant by a quan- 
 tity of a particular commodity, than by a quantity of labour.
 
 352 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 The one is a plain palpable object, the other an abstract notion, 
 which though it can be made sufficiently intelligible, is not 
 altogether so natural and obvious. 
 
 " When barter ceases, and money has become the common 
 instrument of commerce, every particular commodity is more 
 frequently exchanged for money than for any other commo- 
 dity. ... It is more natural and obvious, therefore, to estimate 
 the value of commodities by the quantity of money, the com- 
 modity for which they are immediately exchanged, than by 
 that of the commodity for which they are exchanged only by 
 the intervention of another commodity. Hence it comes to 
 pass, that the exchangeable value of every commodity is more 
 frequently estimated by the quantity of money, than by the 
 quantity either of labour or of any other commodity which can 
 be had in exchange for it."* 
 
 From this quotation, it appears manifestly that there is no 
 analogy between Mr. Smith's conclusion touching the mensura- 
 tion of value by labour, and the measures employed by mathe- 
 maticians. These last substitute quantities easily compared 
 for quantities that are compared with greater difficulty ; whereas 
 the measure of value proposed by Mr. Smith is acknowledged 
 to be founded on a mere abstract notion. The truth is, how- 
 ever, that what Mr. Smith was really in quest of in this chapter, 
 was not a measure of value, but a universal standard for the 
 measurement of value ; or, in other words, a unit fixed in the 
 unalterable principles of human nature, by a comparison with 
 which, the comparative values of money at different times 
 might be estimated. It is obvious that it gives us no idea of 
 the wealth of an individual to say, that in the time of Henry 
 VII. his income amounted to 5000, unless we also knew how 
 far a pound sterling would go in these days. 
 
 On what principle, then, shall the value of money at different 
 times be estimated, or how shall the real prices of commodities 
 and labour be computed? This I conceive to be the simple 
 statement of the question, which Mr. Smith undertakes to re- 
 solve; and in this, as in many others, a precise idea of its 
 [Ibid. pp. 45, 46-]
 
 CHAP. II. OF MONEY, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. (2.) 353 
 
 nature will be found to contribute much to the success of our 
 inquiries. 
 
 That labour is the real measure of the exchangeable value of 
 all commodities, Mr. Smith attempts to show in the second 
 paragraph of his fifth chapter, by a different process of reason- 
 ing, but, in my opinion, one not more satisfactory. 
 
 " The real price of everything," he observes, " what every- 
 thing really costs to the man who wants to acquire it, is the 
 toil and trouble of acquiring it. What everything is really 
 worth to the man who has acquired it, and who wants to 
 dispose of it, or change it for something else, is the toil and 
 trouble which it can save to himself, and which it can impose 
 upon other people. What is bought with money or with 
 goods, is purchased by labour, as much as what we acquire 
 by the toil of our own body. That money or those goods, in- 
 deed, save us this toil. They contain the value of a certain 
 quantity of labour, which we exchange for what is supposed, at 
 the time, to contain the value of an equal quantity. Labour 
 was the first price ; the original purchase-money that was paid 
 for all things. It was not by gold or by silver, but by labour 
 that all the wealth of the world was originally purchased ; and 
 its value to those who possess it, and who want to exchange it 
 for some new productions, is precisely equal to the quantity of 
 labour which it can enable them to purchase or command."* 
 
 The fallacy of the argument contained in this passage, con- 
 sists in the application to all the various stages of society, of a 
 description which applies only in fact to that rude period which 
 preceded the accumulation of stock, and, what may be regarded 
 as nearly coeval in point of time, the establishment of positive 
 institutions regulating the acquisition and protecting the en- 
 joyment of property. I have endeavoured to shew, in my 
 other course of lectures, that prior to the establishment of law, 
 the only foundation of an exclusive and permanent property is 
 labour ; and hence it seems to follow, as a necessary conse- 
 quence, that in this rude state of things, the only circumstance 
 which could regulate the exchangeable value of commodities, 
 
 * [Ibid. p. 44.] 
 VOL. VIII. Z
 
 354 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 was the quantity of labour which the preparation of them re- 
 quired ; some allowance being probably made for superior hard- 
 ship incurred, or skill exerted. This incontrovertible principle, 
 accordingly, Mr. Smith turns in various strong lights ; after 
 which, he makes an abrupt conclusion, with which it is not 
 easy to trace its connexion, that the value of a commodity to 
 those who possess it, and want to exchange it, is precisely 
 equal to the quantity of labour which it can enable them to 
 command. It is difficult to reconcile this passage, considered 
 at least in its application to the more advanced periods of 
 society, with the analysis which Mr. Smith has given in a dif- 
 ferent chapter, of the component parts of the price of commo- 
 dities : " As soon as stock has accumulated in the hands of 
 particular persons, some of them will naturally employ it in 
 setting to work industrious people, whom they will supply with 
 materials and subsistence, in order to make a profit by the sale 
 of their work, or by what their labour adds to the value of the 
 materials. In exchanging the complete manufacture either for 
 money, for labour, or for other goods, over and above what may 
 be sufficient to pay the price of the materials, and the wages of 
 the workmen, something must be given for the profits of the 
 undertaker of the work, who hazards his stock in this adventure. 
 The value which the workmen add to the materials, therefore, 
 resolves itself in this case into two parts, of which the one pays 
 their wages, the other the profits of their employer upon the 
 whole stock of materials and wages which he advanced."* 
 
 With these principles in his view, it is not a little curious 
 that Mr. Smith should have satisfied his mind with the reason- 
 ing just quoted from another part of his work. 
 
 Another metaphysical argument afterwards offered by Mr. 
 Smith in proof of the same proposition, is, that " as a measure 
 of quantity, such as the natural foot, &c., which is continually 
 varying in its own extent, never can be an accurate measure ; 
 so a commodity, like silver or gold, which is continually varying 
 in its own value, can never be an accurate measure of value. 
 But equal quantities of labour must at all times be of equal 
 
 * [Ibid. Book I. chap. vi. ; Vol. I. p. 72, tenth edition.]
 
 CHAP. II. OF MONET, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 2.) 355 
 
 value to the labourer ;"* and so on. The step of this reasoning 
 to which I would more particularly direct your attention, is that 
 in which it is said, that equal quantities of labour must at all 
 times be of equal value to the labourer. What idea are we 
 here to annex to the term value ? In the previous chapter, we 
 are told that this word has two different meanings ; sometimes 
 expressing the utility of a commodity, and sometimes the power 
 of purchasing other goods. The first of these is called value 
 in use, the other value in exchange. The distinction is illus- 
 trated by the examples of water and a diamond. The same dis- 
 tinction, illustrated by the very same examples, occurs in Mr. 
 Harris's work On Coins, and in the treatise by Mr. Law, entitled, 
 Money and Trade Considered. I have some doubts, however, 
 with respect to its accuracy ; for what is value in use, but a 
 circuitous expression for utility ; and what possible advantage 
 can arise from substituting the former phrase for the latter ? 
 On the other hand, is not the idea of value in exchange suffi- 
 ciently conveyed by the word value ; which in speculations of 
 this sort is seldom or never employed as synonymous with in- 
 trinsic utility, and which in itself seems to involve the very 
 nature of the comparison ? Both of these, and similar phrases, 
 have been employed in the present discussion. The principal 
 advantage of the common mode of speaking over that employed 
 by Mr. Smith, is, that the latter, after distinguishing the two 
 kinds of value, often makes use of the word without any limit- 
 ing epithet ; and thereby not only puzzles his readers, but im- 
 poses on himself. Thus, when it is said that a commodity 
 like silver, which is continually varying in its own value, can 
 never be an accurate measure, the word value plainly means 
 exchangeable value. But this word as plainly alters its mean- 
 ing in the next sentence, when it is remarked, that equal 
 quantities of labour are of equal value to the labourer. Here 
 the word value cannot mean exchangeable value, as it is ex- 
 pressly supposed that the exchangeable value varies. We 
 must, therefore, conclude, according to Mr. Smith's definition, 
 that it was value in use which he meant ; though I need hardly 
 
 * [Ibid. chap. v. ; Vol. I. p. 48, tenth edition.]
 
 356 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 observe, it is rather an awkward mode of expressing the simple 
 proposition, that equal quantities of labour always cost the same 
 exertion to the labourer, to say, that equal quantities of labour 
 will always be of equal value to the labourer. It is in this -last 
 sense however alone, that the proposition can be interpreted. 
 There is no difference, therefore, between labour and silver and 
 gold, which entitles the former to be established as a standard 
 of value, in preference to the latter. And where Mr. Smith 
 adds, that in those cases where the same quantities of labour 
 purchase different quantities of goods, it is the value of the 
 latter which varies, not of the former, the assertion amounts 
 merely to this, that the exchangeable value of labour varies, 
 while the labourer continues to make the same sacrifices of his 
 ease and happiness. But might not this proposition be con- 
 verted in many cases to the necessaries of life, &c., the ex- 
 changeable value of which varies, while their value in use 
 remains the same ? 
 
 Mr. Smith's doctrine on this subject has been plainly sug- 
 gested by that state of society which preceded the accumulation 
 of stock, when the labour of one man being universally ex- 
 changed against that of another, the exchangeable value of 
 commodities was thus rated according to the quantities of 
 labour which they could command. How wide a difference 
 there is between this state of things, and the circumstances of 
 a community like ours, where the labourer has to exchange his 
 labour, not only against the labour of his fellow-citizen, but 
 against value arising from the profits of stock and the rents of 
 land, and where commodities involving all the three consti- 
 tuents of price are continually exchanged against one another. 
 The sacrifices which the labourer makes, must, indeed, remain 
 always the same, and he will naturally be led to bestow the 
 epithets of cheapness or dearness, according to the extent of his 
 own exertions. But how does this afford a standard or fixed 
 value for comparing different values in different ages and 
 nations ? Is it not evident, that those who subsist by labour 
 form only one of the classes of society ; that the price of 
 labour enters as an element into that of most of the commodi-
 
 CHAP. II. OF MONET, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 2.) 357 
 
 ties which are purchased by the other classes ; and that the 
 same circumstances which are favourable to the one class, are 
 equally so to the other ? Why, therefore, should the standard 
 of value be taken from the labour of one class in preference to 
 the limited revenue of the other ? 
 
 A very important distinction, however, follows in the next 
 paragraph, though it has been introduced with a sort of apology 
 for the deviation from strict philosophical accuracy, for which 
 I must own I see no reason. " In this popular sense, therefore, 
 labour, like commodities, maybe said to have a real and a nominal 
 price. Its real price may be said to consist in the quantity of 
 the necessaries and conveniences of life which are given for 
 it, its nominal price in the quantity of money. The labourer is 
 rich or poor, is well or ill rewarded, in proportion to the real, 
 not to the nominal price of his labour."* It is somewhat sur- 
 prising that Mr. Smith should not have seen, after stating 
 those very just and accurate views, that they apply not only to 
 labour, but to commodities of every description. Mr. Smith 
 says, that the nominal value of a commodity is the quantity of 
 money, its real value the quantity of the conveniences and 
 necessaries of life which it will purchase. Is not this a more 
 precise, as well as a more obvious and intelligible mode of 
 speaking, than to measure the price of commodities by their 
 price in labour ; a thing which Mr. Smith himself tells us is 
 a mere abstract notion, and which must have its own real price 
 measured ultimately by this very standard ? 
 
 My last lecture was chiefly occupied with an examination of 
 Mr. Smith's doctrine, concerning the real and nominal price of 
 commodities, a doctrine which, as I have already hinted, seems 
 to me to be rather of a metaphysical than of a political nature. 
 Indeed, Mr. Smith himself acknowledges that it does not admit 
 of any practical application of which we can avail ourselves in 
 comparing together the prices of commodities at different 
 periods. It is not the wages of labour, it must always be re- 
 membered, either nominal or real, by which this ingenious 
 
 * [Ibid. Book I. chap. v. ; Vol. I. p. 49, tenth edition.]
 
 358 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 writer proposes to measure the price of commodities ; for he 
 tells us himself, in the same chapter, that the subsistence of the 
 labourer, or the real price of his labour, is very different iu 
 different circumstances, " more liberal in a society advancing 
 to opulence, than in one standing still," &c. It is the quantity 
 of labour employed by the labourer, which he holds out again 
 and again, not as affording an approximation to the truth, but 
 as a universal standard by which we may, with the greatest 
 accuracy, estimate the comparative values of different com- 
 modities, as well from century to century, as from year to 
 year. He acknowledges, at the same time, that it is a test to 
 which we cannot appeal in fact.* 
 
 From this passage, if I do not misunderstand it, it appears 
 to have been admitted by Mr. Smith, that his theory does not 
 afford a rule, of which we can avail ourselves for the purpose of 
 actually calculating the comparative value of prices at differ- 
 ent times and places. He seems, at the same time, to have 
 considered the theory as mathematically accurate in itself, but 
 as unsusceptible of a practical application. If the remarks 
 which I made yesterday be just, the theory, even considered 
 abstractly, proceeds on an erroneous principle. In some of 
 the practical rules which Mr. Smith afterwards suggests, I 
 agree with him very nearly, under proper limitations. But 
 I am unable to conceive their connexion with the premises 
 from which he deduces them. I shall, therefore, endeavour to 
 establish the justness of my own opinions on this point ; in 
 doing which, I may perhaps be able to point out some of the 
 circumstances which have misled the speculations of this very 
 profound writer. 
 
 In general, it will be remembered, that the precise object of 
 the present inquiry is, to find some standard by which we may 
 compare the exchangeable value of commodities at different 
 times and places, or something by which the varying price of 
 the precious metals, when considered as media of exchange, 
 may be estimated. In the observations which I am to make 
 on this subject, I shall retain Mr. Smith's language, in order 
 
 * [See the quotation given above, p. 351.]
 
 CHAP. II. OF MONEY, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 2.) 359 
 
 to point out more clearly in what respects I differ from his 
 opinions ; taking care, however, when I make use of the 
 word value, to add the terms intrinsic or exchangeable, accord- 
 ing to the sense in which I wish to be understood. The same 
 distinction, as I have already hinted, may perhaps be expressed 
 by the terms utility and value ; but, on the present occasion, I 
 flatter myself that by adopting Mr. Smith's phraseology, I shall 
 be able, with greater conciseness, to show in what the defects of 
 his reasoning consist. 
 
 The following general principles, which I shall state with all 
 brevity, are intended to facilitate some of our subsequent rea- 
 sonings. They may, perhaps, also be found to throw additional 
 light on some points which I have already noticed. 
 
 I. It was before observed, in quoting Mr. Smith's distinction 
 between Value in use, and Value in exchange, that a commodity 
 may possess the one species of value in the greatest possible 
 degree, while it possesses little or none of the other. As a 
 necessary limitation, however, of this remark, it may be proper 
 to add, that although value in use does not imply any value in 
 exchange, yet value in exchange necessarily implies some degree 
 at least of value in use. The truth of this is manifest ; for 
 value in exchange depending, as I shall afterwards have occa- 
 sion to show, on the proportion between the demand and the 
 supply, some intrinsic recommendation, either real or appre- 
 hended, must be supposed to account for the demand which 
 the object occasions. This recommendation may, indeed, be of 
 the most trifling nature ; arising, perhaps, merely from beauty, 
 fashion, or curiosity. But whether trifling or important, some 
 degree of it must either belong to the object, or be generally 
 ascribed to it, before it can become the subject of competition 
 to purchasers. 
 
 II. The degrees of utility are infinite in number, extending 
 from those slight and evanescent recommendations which 
 operate on the fancy or caprice of the opulent, to what is 
 necessary for the support of life. Articles of the last kind possess 
 the highest degree of utility, and are, I think, the only ones to 
 whose value in use it is possible to annex any definite meaning.
 
 360 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 III. However slight the intrinsic utility of a commodity 
 may he, a certain degree of scarcity, combined with a certain 
 degree of demand, may bestow on it any conceivable value in 
 exchange ; that is, the caprice of the opulent may incline them 
 to purchase it, by parting with any given quantity of the 
 superfluous articles of use or necessity which they may possess. 
 In this case, the greatness of its exchangeable value means 
 nothing more than the power which it conveys to the possessor 
 of purchasing a comparatively great quantity of other commo- 
 dities ; the exchangeable value of these things in the market 
 being to each other inversely as their quantities. 
 
 IV. As the terms, price and exchangeable value, necessarily 
 imply the relation of one thing to another, the common im- 
 pressions of high and low price, or great and small exchange- 
 able value, convey no definite ideas whatever, excepting to 
 those who have in view some standard of comparison. A diffi- 
 culty, therefore, occurs here precisely similar to that which has 
 so long puzzled mathematicians on the subject of a universal 
 standard of longitudinal extension. But fortunately, the spe- 
 culations of political economists do not require the same 
 mathematical accuracy in their solution, which is so desirable 
 in the other case. Whatever room for regret the astronomical 
 or natural philosopher may find in the looseness of the language 
 employed in different ages and nations with respect to longi- 
 tudinal measures, very little inconvenience is experienced by 
 those whose speculations come home immediately to the busi- 
 ness of common life. For all purposes of this kind, common 
 language, which has adopted the dimensions of the human body 
 as a standard, is sufficiently definite and precise ; for though 
 the Eoman foot, the Paris foot, &c., deviate considerably from 
 a mathematical equality, yet as we have reason to believe, that 
 in different ages the average stature of man has varied only 
 within very narrow limits, this measure of extension is, in most 
 instances, sufficient for the purposes of the historian, politician, 
 and philologist. In like manner, in Political Economy, the 
 great object of research is, to obtain some standard of price or 
 exchangeable value, not exhibiting to all mankind a mathema-
 
 CHAP. II. OF MONEY, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 2.) 361 
 
 tical sameness or stability, for that is impossible in the nature 
 of things, but bearing such a relation to the fixed circumstances 
 of the human race as may reduce the vagueness of ordinary 
 language within such limits as to enable one age or nation, to 
 avail itself of the political experience of another. Thus when 
 we look at a drawing, it is impossible to form an estimate of 
 the magnitude of the object which the painter meant to repre- 
 sent. But if a human figure is introduced into the landscape, 
 though the size of men is subject to some variation, it affords 
 us at least such a standard of comparison, as reduces the differ- 
 ence between the painter's conception and ours to a compara- 
 tive trifle. The application of this illustration to the present 
 subject is sufficiently obvious. 
 
 V. It seems farther evident, in the fifth place, that in order 
 to obtain such a standard as we are now in quest of, it is neces- 
 sary to fix on some commodity for which the demand shall at 
 all times bear, as nearly as possible, the same proportion. 
 Were the case otherwise, the exchangeable value of this com- 
 modity must be subject to occasional variations ; insomuch, 
 that, on the one hand, by a conceivable increase of the demand, 
 the supply continuing the same, the exchangeable value of the 
 commodity might rise to a monopoly price ; or, on the other 
 hand, by a conceivable increase of the supply, without a change 
 on the demand, its exchangeable value might be extinguished 
 altogether. This last supposition has been actually realized in 
 the case of water. 
 
 VI. In the sixth place, the uniformity of the demand for a 
 commodity, can arise only from its being a necessary of life ; as, 
 in every other case, fashion and accidental circumstances may 
 be supposed more or less to operate. 
 
 VII. In the seventh place, a regular adaptation of the supply 
 to the demand, can exist only in things which depend on human 
 industry, proportioning its exertions to the known extent of 
 the market. 
 
 Agreeably to these principles, corn, or whatever constitutes 
 the ordinary food of the people, seems more likely to furnish a 
 standard of valuation than anything else. First, The demand
 
 362 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 is less subject to variation, the commodity itself forming to the 
 great mass of the people a necessary of life ; and the consump- 
 tion of individuals among the labouring classes of mankind, 
 subsisting on the same species of food being found, in different 
 ages and nations, to approach wonderfully near to the same 
 standard. Secondly, The quantity of corn raised may be ex- 
 pected to adapt itself within narrow limits to the effectual 
 demand. The value in use, therefore, of this commodity, may 
 be considered as remaining always the same. 
 
 We have thus arrived at the very same conclusion which 
 Mr. Locke has deduced from a different view of the same sub- 
 ject ; and as the general scope of his reasoning seems to be just 
 in itself, and to afford some additional illustrations of the sub- 
 ject which I have been considering, I shall quote the substance 
 of his argument as stated by himself in his Considerations on 
 Lowering the Hate of Interest. 
 
 [ 15.] " That supposing wheat a standing measure, that 
 is, that there is constantly the same quantity of it, in propor- 
 tion to its vent, we shall find money to run the same variety of 
 changes in its value, as all other commodities do. Now that 
 wheat in England does not come nearest to a standing measure, 
 is evident by comparing wheat with other commodities, money, 
 and the yearly income of land, in Henry VII.'s time and 
 now ; for supposing that in the first of Henry VII., N let 100 
 acres of land to A for sixpence per annum per acre, rack-rent, 
 and to B another 100 acres of land, of the same soil and yearly 
 worth with the former, for a bushel of wheat per acre, rack- 
 rent, (a bushel of wheat about that time being probably sold 
 for about sixpence,) it was then an equal rent. If, therefore, 
 these leases were for years yet to come, it is certain that he 
 that paid but sixpence per acre, would pay now fifty shillings 
 per annum; and he that paid a bushel of wheat per acre, 
 would now pay about twenty-five pounds per annum, which 
 would be near about the yearly value of the land, were it to be 
 let now. The reason whereof is this : that there being ten times 
 as much silver now in the world (the discovery of the West 
 Indies having made the plenty) as there was then, it is nine-
 
 CHAP. II. OF MONEY, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 2.) 363 
 
 tenths less worth now, than it was at that time ; that is, it will 
 exchange for nine-tenths less of any commodity now, which 
 bears the same proportion to its vent, as it did two hundred 
 years since, which of all other commodities wheat is likeliest to 
 do. For in England, and this part of the world, wheat being 
 the constant and most general food, not altering with the 
 fashion, not growing by chance, but as the farmers sow more 
 or less of it, which they endeavour to proportion, as near as can 
 be guessed, to the consumption, abstracting the overplus of the 
 precedent year in their provision for the next, and vice versa, 
 it must needs fall out that it keeps the nearest proportion to its 
 consumption (which is more studied and designed in this than 
 other commodities) of any thing, if you take it for seven or 
 twenty years together ; though, perhaps, the plenty or scarcity 
 of one year, caused by the accidents of the season, may very 
 much vary it from the immediately precedent, or following. 
 Wheat, therefore, in this part of the world, (and that grain 
 which is the constant general food of any other country,) is the 
 fittest measure to judge of the altered value of things, in any 
 long tract of time ; and therefore, wheat here, rice in Turkey, 
 &c., is the fittest thing to reserve a rent in, which is designed 
 to be constantly the same for all future ages. But money is 
 the best measure of the altered value of things in a few years, 
 because its vent is the same, and its quantity alters slowly. 
 But wheat, or any other grain, cannot serve instead of money, 
 because of its bulkiness, and too quick change of its quantity. 
 For had I a bond to pay me one hundred bushels of wheat 
 next year, it might be a fourth part loss, or gain to me ; too 
 great an inequality and uncertainty to be ventured in trade, 
 besides the different goodness of several parcels of wheat in the 
 same year." 
 
 It appears from these very judicious observations of Mr. 
 Locke, as well as from what I had occasion to state formerly, 
 that the accuracy of wheat, considered as a standard of valua- 
 tion, proceeds on the supposition, that the quantity constantly 
 bears the same proportion to the demand. But though this 
 may be expected to be the case on the average of a number of
 
 364 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 years, the proportion must necessarily vary much, as Mr. Locke 
 has suggested, from year to year, in consequence of the acci- 
 dents of the seasons. 
 
 Hence, I apprehend, arises the true principle of the rule for 
 measuring prices by the wages of labour, as these do not vary 
 from year to year with the money price of corn, but in general 
 are regulated by its average price. It is not, therefore, in con- 
 sequence of any metaphysical theory concerning labour con- 
 sidered abstractly, that I would appeal to the wages of labour 
 as a measure of value ; I merely consider them, when accu- 
 rately ascertained, and when due allowances are made for 
 collateral circumstances, as an evidence of the average price of 
 corn and the necessaries of life, at any particular period. Mr. 
 Smith's reasoning, you will observe, reverses this order, and 
 deduces the rule founded on the money price of corn from a 
 metaphysical speculation concerning the fixed and unalterable 
 value of labour. 
 
 The oldest writer by whom I have found the wages of 
 labour suggested as a criterion for ascertaining the real price of 
 commodities, [in 1765,] is Mr. Bice Vaughan, who, after a 
 variety of preliminary observations extremely deserving of 
 attention, expresses himself thus : 
 
 " But there is only one thing from whence we may certainly 
 track out the prices, and which carries with it a constant re- 
 sultance of the prices of all other things which are necessary 
 for a man's life ; and that is the price of labourers' or servants' 
 wages, especially those of the meaner sort. And as there is to 
 be found no other certain and constant cause of the raising of 
 the prices of all things, but two. viz., the one, the raising of 
 the values of monies ; the other, the great abundance of gold 
 and silver coming into these parts, in this latter age, out of the 
 Indies ; although the hire of labourers did continually rise, yet 
 it did rise so much and no more, as the value was raised. But 
 after the discovery of the Indies, you shall find the price of the 
 labourers' wages raised in proportion, far exceeding the raising 
 of monies; and therefore, for my part, I am certainly per- 
 suaded, that as long as the values of monies are raised, and the
 
 CHAP. IL OF MONEY, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 2.) 365 
 
 Indies do yield that abundance of gold and silver which they 
 do, that both the hire of labourers, and generally the price of 
 all things, especially of those things necessary for life, will rise ; 
 however, for a year, two or three, through uncertain accidents, 
 sundry particulars may stand at a stay, or abate, but that the 
 hire of labourers and servants carrieth with it a resultance of 
 the prices of all things generally necessary for a man's life ; 
 besides, that reason doth convince that there must be a con- 
 venient proportion between their wages and their food and 
 raiment, the wisdom of the statute doth confirm it, which doth 
 always direct the rate of labourers and servants to be made 
 with a regard of prices of victuals, apparel, and other things 
 necessary to their use."* 
 
 The same criterion of price or value is repeatedly referred to 
 by Mr. Harris in his Essay on Coins, [1757.] But he does not 
 appear to me to have been so successful as Mr. Bice Yaughan, 
 in fixing on the real grounds on which the opinion rests. The 
 following are the principal passages in his book relative to this 
 subject : 
 
 " The values of land and labour do, as it were of themselves, 
 mutually settle or adjust one another; and as all things or 
 commodities are the products of those two, so their several 
 values are naturally adjusted by them. But as in most pro- 
 ductions labour hath the greatest share ; the value of labour is 
 to be reckoned the chief standard that regulates the values of 
 all commodities, and more especially as the value of land is, as 
 it were, already allowed for in the value of labour itself." f 
 
 " It may be reasonably allowed, that a labouring man ought 
 to earn, at least, twice as much as will maintain himself in 
 ordinary food and clothing, that he may be enabled to breed 
 up children, pay rent for a small dwelling, find himself in ne- 
 cessary utensils, &c. ; so much, at least, the labourer must be 
 allowed, that the community may be perpetuated. And as the 
 world goes, there is no likelihood that the lowest kind of 
 labourers will be allowed more than a bare subsistence ; if they 
 
 * [-4 Treatise of Money, &c., chap. xi. p. 105, seq.] 
 f [Fart I. chap. i.7.]
 
 366 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 will not be content with that, there will be others ready to step 
 into their places ; and less, as above observed, cannot be given 
 them. And hence the quantity of land that goes to maintain 
 a labourer becomes his hire ; and this hire again becomes the 
 value of the land, the expenses of manuring and tilling it being 
 also included."* 
 
 In another passage he observes, " Though we reckon by 
 money, yet labour and skill are the main standards by which 
 the values of all or most things are ultimately ascertained, and 
 there will require a greater or less bulk of money, to purchase 
 the very same thing, according as there is a greater or less 
 quantity of money in circulation; that is, according as the 
 material of money is cheaper or dearer, or in greater or lesser 
 plenty."f 
 
 In these extracts, notwithstanding the general indistinctness 
 which runs through the passages now quoted, there are some 
 hints not undeserving of attention : for although the author has 
 not touched on what appears to me to be the fundamental 
 principle, yet he has suggested some collateral advantages 
 which we derive from the wages of labour considered as a test 
 of the exchangeable value of gold and silver at different 
 periods. 
 
 Of these, the two following seem to be the most important : 
 First, As the wages of common or unskilled labour may be 
 presumed to be nearly the minimum at which an individual 
 with a family can be subsisted, the knowledge of this minimum 
 affords the lowest points of the scale on which the comparative 
 riches of individuals are to be graduated. In proportion as 
 their daily income rises above this point, they are removed 
 from the lowest class of independent citizens, and rank higher 
 or lower, among the superior orders of the community. In the 
 second place, a tolerable estimate may be formed of the power 
 and influence of an individual, from the number of labourers to 
 whom he can furnish employment ; and as far as the value of 
 labour regulates the price of commodities, a knowledge of its 
 
 * [Ibid. 8.] t L^id. chap. ii. 22.]
 
 CHAP. II. OF MONEY, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 2.) 367 
 
 current price will enable us to form an estimate of the effective 
 power of money, at any particular time, in commanding a 
 supply of the conveniences and accommodations of life. 
 
 From the foregoing reasonings, it sufficiently appears that if 
 the current price of labour could be accurately ascertained in 
 different times and places, it would furnish to the political 
 economist important lights for comparing the actual circum- 
 stances of mankind in different states of society. It is, how- 
 ever, but very rarely that this accuracy can be obtained. The 
 price of corn, on the other hand, though it has been but in few 
 cases regularly recorded, is yet in general better known, and 
 has been more frequently taken notice of by historians and poli- 
 tical writers. To these, accordingly, we are forced to appeal in 
 inquiries of this nature. In doing so, however, it is necessary 
 always to remember, that the standard of comparison must be 
 taken, not from the accidental prices of particular years, but 
 from the average prices of a considerable period. 
 
 It appears farther from what has been stated, that neither 
 the current wages of labour, nor the average price of corn, im- 
 portant as they are in the light of political data, can furnish 
 anything like a mathematical standard for judging of the effec- 
 tive power of money, or the exchangeable value of commodi- 
 ties in different countries. A great variety of other circum- 
 stances must be taken into account, in order to form a reasonable 
 estimate. After all, we can only hope to obtain such an im- 
 perfect help to our conceptions, as the average height of the 
 human figure affords, when it is the only scale introduced into 
 a landscape. 
 
 To what degree the wages of labour are liable to be affected 
 by accidental circumstances, particularly by the advancing, 
 stationary, or declining state of the society, has been shown 
 very fully and ably by Mr. Smith himself, in the eighth chapter 
 of his first book Beside, however, the considerations there 
 suggested, many others must be combined, in order to obtain 
 the necessary corrections of the conclusions to which we are 
 led by the standard of value now recommended. But the 
 statement of these will be less tedious, when introduced in the
 
 368 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 course of the practical applications of this doctrine which will 
 afterwards occur. 
 
 There is one consideration, however, so obvious and im- 
 portant, that I think it proper to mention it in this place ; I 
 mean the necessity of paying due attention to the general 
 habits of the people in the article of food, before we build any 
 reasonings on the prices of what are now considered as neces- 
 saries of life. This remark I take the earliest opportunity of 
 stating, because it leads to the correction of a very fertile 
 source of error in political speculations ; and in no instance, 
 perhaps, is it more likely to mislead us, than in the conclusions 
 which we form with respect to the condition of the labouring 
 classes, and the value of money, at different periods, from the 
 comparative prices of wheat alone, forgetting that this was not 
 the common food of the people till very lately, and that even at 
 present it is only one of their various articles of subsistence. 
 
 From the household book of Sir Edward Coke, it appears 
 that in the year 1596, rye-bread and oatmeal formed a very 
 considerable proportion of the diet of servants, even in the 
 greatest families. In 1626, barley-bread is stated in the grant 
 of a monopoly by King Charles to be the usual food of the lower 
 classes. Of the relative proportion of wheat consumed in 
 England and Wales about the era of the Kevolution, some idea 
 may be formed from an estimate of the produce of the arable 
 land by Gregory King, whose schemes, according to Dr. Daven- 
 ant, are all so accurate as not to be controverted. In the 
 supplement to the Corn Tracts, there is an estimate of the pro- 
 portional consumption of the different kinds of grain about thirty 
 years ago, which deserves attention on account of the esteem in 
 which the author of that work [Ch. Smith] has always and most 
 deservedly been held by the best judges, for the extent and 
 accuracy of his information. After remarking that bread made 
 of wheat has become much more generally the food of the 
 common people since the year 1689, than before, he adds, that 
 "it is still very far from being the food of the people in 
 general," &c., estimating the bread consumers in 1764 at not 
 more than one-half of the population. Mr. Benjamin Bell, in
 
 CHAP. II. OF MONEY, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 2.) 369 
 
 a volume of Essays published some years ago, and which con- 
 tain some important views concerning the agricultural interests 
 of this country, which he has illustrated by a large collection 
 of facts, ascertained with uncommon care, states the proportion 
 of the whole inhabitants of Great Britain, who are fed on oats 
 and barley, at a fourth of the whole population, giving it at 
 the same time, as his opinion, that the estimate probably falls 
 short of the truth. Indeed, I apprehend there can be little 
 doubt that it does so very considerably. 
 
 I have entered into these details, in order to show with how 
 great latitude it is necessary to receive all those estimates of 
 the efficiency, or exchangeable value of money, at different times 
 and places, which are founded on a comparison of the prices of 
 wheat. A similar remark may be made with respect to those 
 inferences which have been so often drawn from the same data, 
 in proof of the misery of the lower orders, occasioned by the 
 astonishing fluctuations of the prices of necessaries during the 
 earlier periods of our history. That these inferences are just, 
 when confined within certain limits, I do not mean to deny. 
 But it is certainly pushing them too far, when we assume the 
 wide ranges in the price of this article at particular times, as a 
 scale for measuring the abundance or scarcity of necessaries at 
 these periods. Thus, for example, when Stowe informs us, 
 that in the year 1317, the harvest in England was all got in 
 before the 1st September, and that wheat from 4 a quarter 
 fell to 6s. 8d., this is a fact sufficient of itself to demonstrate 
 by how small a proportion of the people wheat was then re- 
 garded as an indispensable necessary. The variation in the 
 price of oats, as stated on the same authority, is no less aston- 
 ishing, being from 3, 4s., to 5s. 4d. But it is very observable, 
 that no mention is made of the price of barley, which appears 
 then to have formed the ordinary food of by far the greater 
 proportion of the people ; an omission which affords a pre- 
 sumption, that its fluctuations were confined within much nar- 
 rower limits. In the year 1270, the price of wheat fell to 6s. 8d. 
 per quarter, while the rate of wages was Id. a-day in harvest, 
 and ^d. out of harvest. In such circumstances, it is quite 
 
 VOL. VIII. 2 A
 
 370 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 superfluous to remark, that the average price of wheat had no 
 relation whatever to the price of labour. 
 
 I shall take this opportunity of remarking, though the obser- 
 vation has not any immediate connexion with the present argu- 
 ment, that in accounting for the different prices of butchers' 
 meat at different periods, some allowance ought to be made for 
 the changes in the national habits with respect to food, which 
 arose naturally from the Protestant Reformation. It is ob- 
 served by Dr. Campbell, in his Political Survey of Great 
 Britain, that before the Reformation the people may be sup- 
 posed to have lived one-third of the year on fish. I presume 
 he meant to say, that during one-third of the year fish served 
 as a substitute for flesh : and I am inclined to think that this 
 estimate is rather below than above the truth, as a paper, pre- 
 served among the Harleian Manuscripts, affords a proof, that 
 even in the time of Queen Elizabeth, the number of fish-days 
 appointed for the royal household was one hundred and forty- 
 five. Dr. Campbell elsewhere remarks, that in consequence of 
 the regard paid to Lent, the rising stock was preserved ; and 
 that it was with a view to this circumstance that so many pro- 
 clamations were issued for keeping Lent long after the reformed 
 religion was established. It appears, too, that while this 
 demand continued, the sea was ransacked for many articles 
 which would now be rejected by the meanest persons, but 
 which were then presented at the best tables. Thus, in the 
 Appendix to the tenth volume of Dr. Henry's History of Great 
 Britain, a bill of fare is given, which contains porpoises and 
 seals, as " part of the goodly provisions collected for the installa- 
 tion of an Archbishop of York." (1466.) 
 
 The observations already made on the difference in the re- 
 lative importance of wheat as an article of request in national 
 diet at different periods, will explain sufficiently the circum- 
 stances which give to the wages of common labour, wherever 
 they are accurately ascertained, an advantage over the average 
 price of wheat as a standard for estimating the exchangeable 
 value of money. " They carry with them," to use the words of 
 Rice Vaughan, " a constant resultance of the prices of all other
 
 CHAP. II. OP MONEY, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 3.) 371 
 
 things necessary for a man's life." The political regulations, 
 however, it must be confessed, which in almost every country 
 prevent the wages of labour from finding their proper level, 
 together with the varying effects of villanage, from the first 
 decline of that institution till its final abolition, render even 
 facts of this description less accurate tests of the exchangeable 
 value of money, than we should be apt to conclude from a 
 theoretical view of the subject. But notwithstanding this ob- 
 jection, these undoubtedly form the most important data to which 
 we can appeal in comparing together the effective powers of 
 money in different periods of society. 
 
 Were it possible to ascertain with accuracy the rates of 
 wages in different times, and to combine them with the prices, 
 not only of the necessaries, but of the conveniences and luxuries 
 of life, it would throw more light on that most interesting 
 branch of history, the condition and manners of the people, 
 than is to be collected from all the narratives which record the 
 political and military transactions of our ancestors. It is much 
 to be regretted that our earlier writers were so little aware of 
 this truth, and that among modern authors a false idea of 
 historical dignity should prevent a due attention to the scattered 
 details which may still be gleaned from a careful and indus- 
 trious examination of our ancient monuments. To the univer- 
 sality, indeed, of this remark, Mr. Hume's history forms a 
 striking exception ; and it is to the sanction of his name that 
 we are probably indebted, in a great measure, for those re- 
 searches which have rendered the work of Dr. Henry so 
 valuable an accession to the stock of British literature. 
 
 [SECT. III. ON THE EFFECTS OF PLENTY OR SCARCITY OF THE 
 PRECIOUS METALS UPON PRICES.] 
 
 I now proceed to offer some remarks on the principles by 
 which the relative values of money and commodities are 
 adjusted in commercial transactions. It is a subject of ex- 
 treme difficulty, and I am much afraid that what I have to 
 state will tend more to invalidate the reasonings of others, than 
 to establish any satisfactory conclusions of my own.
 
 372 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 I begin with examining a speculation of Montesquieu, 
 which has contributed greatly to mislead those of his succes- 
 sors. This I shall state in Montesquieu's own words, after 
 which I shall consider particularly the different steps of his 
 argument. 
 
 " Money is the price of merchandise or manufactures. But 
 how will this price be fixed ? that is to say, by what price of 
 money will each thing be represented ? 
 
 " If we compare the mass of gold and silver in the whole 
 world, with the quantity of merchandise therein contained, it is 
 certain that every commodity or merchandise in particular, 
 may be compared to a certain portion of the entire mass of 
 gold and silver. As the total of the one is to the total of the 
 other, so part of the one will be to part of the other. Let us 
 suppose that there is only one commodity or merchandise in 
 the world, or only one to be purchased, and that this is divisi- 
 ble like money, a part of this merchandise will answer to a 
 part of the mass of gold and silver, the half of the total of 
 the one to the half of the total of the other ; the tenth, the 
 hundredth, the thousandth part of the one, to the tenth, the 
 hundredth, the thousandth part of the other. But as that 
 which constitutes property amongst mankind is not all at once 
 in trade ; and as the metals or money which are the signs of 
 property, are not all in trade at the same time, the price is 
 fixed in the compound ratio of the total of things, with the 
 total of signs, and that of the total of things in trade, with the 
 total of signs in trade also. And as the signs which are not in 
 trade to-day, may be in trade to-morrow ; and the signs not now 
 in trade may enter into trade at the same time, the establish- 
 ment of the price of things always fundamentally depends on 
 the proportion of the total of things to the total of signs." . . . 
 " If since the discovery of the Indies, gold and silver have in- 
 creased in Europe in the proportion of one to twenty, the price 
 of provisions and goods must have been increased in the 
 proportion of one to twenty. But if, on the other hand, the 
 number of articles of merchandise has increased as one to two, 
 it necessarily follows that the price of these articles and provi-
 
 CHAP. II. OF MONEY, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 3.) 373 
 
 eions has risen in the proportion of -one to twenty, and fallen in 
 proportion of one to two, it necessarily follows, I say, that the 
 proportion is only as one to ten." 1 
 
 It is observed by Sir James Steuart,* that this theory of 
 Montesquieu is of an older date than his writings, being alluded 
 to in one of the papers of the Spectator, and very explicitly 
 stated by Mr. Locke. The ideas of this last writer are strongly 
 expressed in a passage which has been already quoted during 
 this Lecture, from his considerations on lowering the rate of 
 interesif 
 
 It is, however, from Montesquieu and Mr. Hume, that this 
 theory has chiefly derived its authority, and it is surprising to 
 what a degree it has influenced the opinions of commercial 
 politicians since their time, although neither of these eminent 
 writers have attempted any explanation whatever of the prin- 
 ciple on which it proceeds. In the passage above quoted from 
 the Spirit ofLaivs, it is said to be certain; and it is repre- 
 sented by Mr. Hume as next to a self-evident proposition, 
 " That the prices of everything depend on the proportion be- 
 tween commodities and money, and that any considerable 
 alteration on either has the same effect, either of heightening 
 or lowering the price. Increase the commodities, they become 
 cheaper ; increase the money, they rise in their value. As, on 
 the other hand, a diminution of the former, and that of the 
 latter, have contrary tendencies. 
 
 " It is also evident, that the prices do not so much depend on 
 the absolute quantity of commodities and that of money which 
 are in a nation, as on that of the commodities which come or 
 may come to market, and of the money which circulates." J 
 
 The same doctrine has been repeated by numberless writers 
 'of a later date ; and among others, by Dr. Wallace, in a small 
 book entitled Characteristics of the present Political State of 
 Great Britain ; a coincidence the more remarkable that it is 
 the great object of the latter to oppose some consequences that 
 
 1 Spirit of Laws, B. XXII. c. vii., viii. f [Above, p. 362.] 
 * [Political (Economy, Book II. chap, 
 xxviii. ; Works, Vol. II. p. 84.] J f Essays, VoL I. Of Money.]
 
 374 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 have been deduced by Mr. Hume, and I apprehend, very logi- 
 cally, from the theory. 
 
 " Let us suppose," says Dr. Wallace, " that there is a certain 
 quantity of money and of commodities in any country. The 
 quantity of money may be said to represent the commodities, 
 and to determine the prices of them. The prices of particular 
 commodities may vary in different circumstances ; but if the 
 sums of the money and of the commodities continue much the 
 same, the prices, on the whole, cannot much alter. In such a 
 case, if no more money comes into the country, unless the dis- 
 positions of the people are remarkably changed by some extra- 
 ordinary accident or revolution, it will be very difficult to carry 
 on a great deal of more work on a sudden, as speedily to 
 increase the sum of the commodities. 
 
 " But, if a great sum of money should be brought into the 
 nation at once, and be distributed in any way whatever, pro- 
 vided the labouring and industrious part of the nation do not 
 get such sums as will keep them idle ; though some part of it 
 would undoubtedly be hoarded up, and would thereby be ren- 
 dered useless, yet the greatest part of it would be employed and 
 become useful. . . . Every one would be enabled to spend a 
 little more, and to carry on his business better. By these 
 means there would be everywhere more labour. Of course, 
 the commodities, or real riches, which are quite different from 
 money, would be greatly increased. 
 
 " Again : If the stock of money should be increased by this 
 industry ; or, if another sum of money should be introduced by 
 other means, and be distributed as before, this would again in- 
 crease the stock of commodities. And so on continually, or to 
 a certain limit."* 
 
 The general conclusion in which these authors agree, has 
 been adopted with great zeal by Mr. Arthur Young, who has 
 produced various arguments in defence of his opinion, which I 
 do not think it necessary to quote. 
 
 Among the consequences inferred by Mr. Hume from this 
 doctrine, the two following are the most important : The first 
 
 [Part I. pp. 21-23.]
 
 CHAP. II. OF MONEY, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 3.) 375 
 
 is the advantage of hoarding large sums in public treasuries, so 
 as to prevent completely their circulation. The second conse- 
 quence deduced from this principle is, that banks, funds, and 
 paper credit of every kind are injurious to the commerce and 
 wealth of a nation. The contrariety of these conclusions of 
 Mr. Hume to the prevailing opinions among our best political 
 writers, together with their alarming aspect when considered 
 in relation to the policy of this country, excited the attention 
 of Dr. Wallace, the learned and ingenious author of the 
 Dissertation on the Numbers of Mankind ; and gave rise to 
 the publication just quoted, in which he opposes the appli- 
 cations which Mr. Hume makes of Montesquieu's principle, 
 without, however, expressing any doubts concerning the prin- 
 ciple itself. 
 
 The most elaborate refutation that I know of these specula- 
 tions of Montesquieu and Mr. Hume, is in Sir James Steuart's 
 Political (Economy; and I shall, accordingly, avail myself freely 
 of his ideas wherever I find them to my purpose ; attempting, 
 as far as I am able, to avoid that profusion of vague and in- 
 definite words with which this very ingenious and well-informed 
 writer is so apt to obscure his meaning. Much additional light 
 has been thrown on this subject by several foreign authors, par- 
 ticularly by Mr. Pinto, in his celebrated Essay on Circulation 
 and Credit. I need scarcely add, with respect to Mr. Smith, 
 that in treating of this important article of Political Economy, 
 as far as it was connected with his great plan, he has displayed 
 his usual superiority over all other writers ; establishing, in the 
 most satisfactory manner, some general principles which con- 
 clude decisively against the theory in question. But I shall 
 avoid his view of the subject, as it is more generally known, 
 and as he has passed over some topics more slightly than he 
 probably would have done, if Mr. Hume had not given the sanc- 
 tion of his name to Montesquieu's errors. [?] 
 
 In order to avoid circumlocution, I shall distinguish this 
 doctrine by ascribing it to Montesquieu ; although, from what 
 has been already said, it appears to have been current in this
 
 376 POLITICAL ECONOMT. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 country at a much earlier period. I shall direct my remarks, 
 too, more particularly against his statement of the doctrine 
 than against Mr. Hume's, as he has been at more pains to ex- 
 plain the sense in which he wishes it to be understood. Indeed, 
 in his attempt to unfold the nature of his doctrine, it is sur- 
 prising that he did not discover the vagueness of the ideas 
 which he annexes to the words which he employs. 
 
 " Let us suppose," says Montesquieu, " that there is but one 
 commodity to be bought and sold," &c. [above, p. 372.] In this 
 passage, he uses the French word repondre, by which he 
 would seem to intimate, that the tenth or hundredth part of 
 the commodities is equal in exchangeable value to the tenth or 
 hundredth part of the money. But whether this was Montes- 
 quieu's idea or not, it is of little consequence, as it follows 
 necessarily from his fundamental principle, that the whole 
 money in circulation is either equal in value to the whole com- 
 modities, or that it is equal to some determinate part, such as a 
 half, &c., and that this proportion never varies. Unless we 
 admit this conclusion, we must reject the general principle, that 
 the price of commodities varies proportionally with the quantity 
 of money. The truth is, that it is not an easy matter to put 
 any precise or intelligible interpretation on the language which 
 has been employed by Montesquieu, and those who have fol- 
 lowed him on this subject. They tell us that the money re- 
 presents a commodity ; that it is the sign of the commodity ; 
 that it answers to the commodity. These are expressions 
 which, if they have any determinate meaning, seem to imply, 
 that the whole of the money is equal to the whole of the com- 
 modity, the half to the half, and so on in proportion. If this 
 be not the meaning of these expressions, when introduced in 
 order to prove or illustrate the principle, that prices must bear 
 relation to the quantity of money, what other interpretation 
 can be put upon them ? 
 
 " Were a statesman," says Sir James Steuart, " to perform 
 the operation of circulation and commerce, by calling in, from 
 time to time, all the proprietors of specie in one body, and all 
 those of alienable commodities, workmen, &c., in another ; and
 
 CHAP. II. OF MONEY, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 3.) 377 
 
 were he, after informing himself of the respective quantities of 
 each, to establish a general tariff of prices, according to our 
 author's [Hume's] rule ; this idea of representation might easily 
 be admitted, because the particles of manufactures would then 
 seem to be adapted to the pieces of the specie, as the rations of 
 forage for the horses of an army are made larger or smaller, 
 according as the magazines are well or ill provided at the time ; 
 but has this any resemblance to the operations of commerce ?"* 
 
 It is indeed wonderful how much this subject has been per- 
 plexed by the use of words that are indefinite or equivocal in 
 their meaning. Coin has been called a representation ; and 
 because it is a representation, it must bear an exact proportion 
 to the thing represented. And since in some particular examples 
 this representation has been found to hold, the rule has been 
 made general. If, for instance, a merchant has 1000 worth 
 of grain, the thousandth part of the commodity is said to be 
 equivalent to the thousandth part of the sum, because both are 
 determinate in their quantity. But the parcels of this corn, 
 though exactly proportioned to the quantities of money, do not 
 draw their value from this proportion, but from the total value 
 of the whole mass ; a value which is determined, not by the 
 amount of the specie in the country, but by the complicated 
 operations of competition. To call coin a representation of 
 commodities and labour, because the possession of the one com- 
 mands the enjoyment of the other, is plainly an abuse of lan- 
 guage. Coin, indeed, by being the established medium of ex- 
 change, may be regarded as a universal equivalent. But it is 
 not the only equivalent for things alienable ; for although it 
 were banished altogether, alienations and exchanges would still 
 continue, though in a more inconvenient form. And even at 
 present this takes place in many instances, as where a peasant 
 receives meat and clothes as an equivalent for personal service. 
 
 Why, then, should coin be considered as the representation 
 of all the manufactures and industry of a country more than 
 any other equivalent ? If it did represent or answer to them, 
 in the only sense in which the proposition seems intelligible, it 
 
 * [Political (Economy, Book II. chap, xxviii. ; Works, Vol. II. p. 100.]
 
 378 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 would follow that " every commodity of a country," as Sir 
 James Steuart observes, " should be sold, like the parcel of 
 grain in the foregoing example, by the rule of three."* If the 
 proposition, indeed, be supposed to imply no more than this, 
 that the value of every commodity is reckoned in pounds, 
 shillings, and pence, the word representation is not inaptly 
 employed. But in this sense the proposition is nugatory, and 
 altogether foreign to the present question. 
 
 It is not, however, in considering coin as the only equivalent 
 for things vendible, that the principal fault of this theory con- 
 sists. When stripped of equivocal language, it will be found 
 necessarily to involve the following supposition: that as in 
 every bargain of buying and selling, the price paid is equivalent 
 to the thing bought, therefore, for everything bought, there must 
 exist a sum of money of equal value ; a proposition of which 
 the fallacy is obvious, as it overlooks completely that virtual 
 multiplication of the quantity of money which arises from its cir- 
 culation. It takes for granted that money has been employed 
 which was never given in payment before, and never will be 
 given again ; a supposition which is contrary to one of the most 
 familiar and indisputable facts 3 that a guinea will pass through 
 many hands in a day, and in the course of a year may pay for 
 a hundred times its value in commodities. It may be proper 
 to illustrate this idea a little more fully, because, familiar as 
 the fact is, it leads to consequences which have not always 
 been attended to, in discussing the question now under consi- 
 deration. 
 
 In Mr. Pinto's Treatise on Circulation and Credit, it has 
 been shewn with much ingenuity, how a quick circulation 
 makes money go far in exchanges. And the following anecdote 
 is mentioned by this very well-informed writer as an illustra- 
 tion : " Pendant le siege de Tournay en 1745, et quelque 
 temps auparavant, la communication etant coupee, on etait 
 embarrasse, faute d'argent, de payer le pret a la Garuison. On 
 b'avisa d'emprunter des Cantines la somme de 7000 florins. 
 C'etait tout ce qu'il y avoit. Au bout de la semaine les 7000 
 * [Ibid. p. 102. ]
 
 CHAP. II. OF MONEY, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 3.) 379 
 
 florins etaient revenus aux Cantines, ou la meme somme flit 
 emprunte*e encore une fois. Cela fut repete ensuite jusqu'a la 
 reddition pendant sept semaines, de sorte que les memes 7000 
 florins firent 1'eS'et de 49,000 florins."* It was, therefore, with 
 very good reason, that Bishop Berkeley long ago proposed the 
 following query, " Whether less money swiftly circulating be not 
 in fact equivalent to more money slowly circulating ?"f 
 
 From these observations it seems evident, that the quantity 
 of money and notes in circulation, must bear but a small pro- 
 portion to the value of goods to be bought and sold, and that 
 this proportion must vary according to the quickness with 
 which the money circulates or shifts from one hand to another. 
 According to Mr. Pinto, there is not in the whole world half 
 the silver coin which would pay all the expenses of Paris for a 
 single year, if the same piece were never to change its possessor 
 but once. 
 
 In order to illustrate this subject a little farther, I shall sup- 
 pose that a labouring man gains ten shillings a week, which he 
 receives always on Saturday, and that he spends proportionally 
 through the week these ten shillings on his family, so as to 
 have no money in his pocket next Saturday. This man may 
 be said, on a medium, to be possessed of five shillings ; and a 
 hundred men in this situation may be said to be in possession 
 of 25. This is all they have used, though they have each of 
 them spent ten shillings a week. 
 
 I make a second supposition, that each of these men lives on 
 credit ; that his ten shillings are spent by the time they are 
 earned ; and that every man pays his debt when he receives his 
 weekly wages. In this case, the money may never have been 
 a single hour in their hands ; and it is a chance of a hundred 
 to one, if they are masters of twenty shillings amongst them ; 
 and yet each of them, as before, spends ten shillings a week. 
 
 I have only another supposition to make, that each of these 
 hundred labourers will live at the same rate as formerly ; that 
 they ask no credit ; and that they are paid their wages once 
 a year. They will thus receive at once 26 ; which, having no 
 
 * [Partie I. p. 34, Note, orig. edit] t [Querist, Q. xrii.]
 
 380 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. :BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 other use for their money, they will gradually spend on their 
 families in the course of a year, at the rate of ten shillings 
 a week. It is evident, that these men will at a medium be 
 possessed of 13 a piece, and that their whole money will be 
 equal to 1300 ; though their wages and consumption are the 
 same as those of a hundred men who could not produce twenty 
 shillings among them. 
 
 The obvious inferences from these suppositions are, firstly, 
 that 25 with a quick circulation, will go as far as 1300 
 with a slow circulation ; secondly, that even where the circula- 
 tion is equally quick, 1 with credit will purchase as much as 
 25 without credit ; and, thirdly, that as both tlie circulation 
 and quantity of money may vary in consequence of a variety of 
 causes, both natural and moral, it is extremely improbable that 
 the money in circulation should always bear a fixed and in- 
 variable proportion to the value of all the commodities used in 
 commerce. Yet it is demonstrable, that if the price of commo- 
 dities bears a constant proportion to their total amount, as Mr. 
 Hume and Montesquieu have both maintained, the whole 
 amount of the commodities must either be equal to the whole 
 money, or bear some fixed and invariable proportion to it. 
 
 As a farther proof of the fallaciousness of the reasonings 
 formerly quoted from Montesquieu, it may be worth while to 
 take notice of some remarkable facts which have been pre- 
 served with respect to prices among the ancients. These facts 
 will exhibit a striking contrast to the state of modern Europe, 
 and will, I hope, throw some additional light on the subject 
 under discussion, the simple structure of society in the ancient 
 world enabling us to trace whatever relation subsists between 
 the quantity of money and its exchangeable value, more easily 
 than when it is affected by such a complication of circum- 
 stances, as operate so powerfully on that order of things which 
 falls under our observation. The same facts will afford an 
 additional illustration of what I have already so often re- 
 marked concerning the essential changes which, in modern 
 Europe, trade, and industry, and the freedom of the lower 
 orders, have produced on the circumstances of mankind.
 
 CHAP. II. OF MONEY, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 3.) 381 
 
 " It is a question with me," says Sir James Steuart, " whether 
 the mines of Potosi and Brazil have produced more riches to 
 Spain and Portugal than the treasures heaped up in Asia, 
 Greece, and Egypt, after the death of Alexander furnished to 
 the Komans, during the two hundred years which followed the 
 defeat of Perseus and the conquest of Macedonia."* Soon after 
 this inundation of wealth, the Roman republic went to destruc- 
 tion ; and a succession of the most prodigal princes ever known 
 in history succeeded each other for two hundred years ; giving 
 all the circulation to these treasures which was compatible with 
 the actual state of commerce at the time. It is, however, ex- 
 tremely remarkable, that while in consequence of the extra- 
 vagance of the Romans, the prices of superfluities rose to an 
 excessive height, those of necessaries kept astonishingly low. 
 Of this the most satisfactory evidence is produced by Dr. 
 Wallace, in his Dissertation on the Numbers of Mankind ; 
 and by Dr. Arbuthnot in his Tables of Ancient Coins. 
 
 In times somewhat earlier, before this great influx of money, 
 the cheapness of the necessaries of life was much greater. Ac- 
 cording to Polybius, the Sicilian medimnus of wheat was even in 
 his time sold commonly in some parts of Italy at four oboli, 
 and the same quantity of barley for two : at which rate, if we 
 admit Dr. Wallace's computation, the English quarter of wheat 
 would have sold at a price equivalent to about fifteen pence. 
 Polybius informs us farther, that there was such plenty of 
 provisions in the north of Italy at that time, that a traveller 
 was well entertained at an inn with all necessaries, and seldom 
 paid more than a quarter of an obolus, equal to a third of a 
 penny. Long before this period, however, immense prices had 
 been paid for things merely ornamental; and the plenty of 
 money could not fail to be great. 
 
 But afterwards, the contrast between the extravagance of the 
 rich, and the simple manners of the people in general, became 
 far more conspicuous under Augustus. In illustration of this, 
 I shall point out a few facts, taken at random from Dr. 
 Arbuthnot's work on Ancient Coins, Weights, and Measures. 
 
 * [Political (Economy, Book II. chap. xxx. ; Works, Vol. II. p. 135, seq.]
 
 382 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 Before proceeding to these, I shall just mention that the debts 
 of Julius Caesar, before he had been in any public office at 
 Rome, amounted to 1300 talents, a sum which Dr. Arbuthnot 
 estimates at 221,875 sterling. According to a Latin transla- 
 tion of Appian, the debts of the same person, before he held 
 any foreign command, amounted to 2,000,000 sterling. A 
 Greek manuscript has a different reading, and states them at 
 half this sum. But, on either supposition, the fact is sufficient 
 to convey an idea of the quantity of the precious metals which 
 then existed in Rome ; for as great debts are the effect of great 
 credit, so they are an indication of great riches. JSsopus the 
 player, as noticed by Arbuthnot, spent a sum equal to 4000 
 sterling on a single dish ; Vitellius the Emperor consumed upon 
 one supper a sum equal to 87,000 sterling, and in the course of 
 seven months that he continued Emperor, spent upon eating and 
 drinking a sum amounting to upwards of 4,000,000 sterling. 
 
 I have mentioned these facts, chiefly to have an opportunity 
 of introducing a most extraordinary circumstance, that nearly 
 about the same time when the debts of Julius Caesar amounted 
 to the enormous sum stated above, Pomponius Atticus, who 
 lived with great hospitality, and even with some degree of 
 simple elegance, associating with all the first characters in 
 Rome, did not spend more than 9, 13s. 9d. a month, or in the 
 whole year 116, 5s. On this point we have the decisive 
 evidence of Cornelius Nepos, in the following remarkable pas- 
 sage : " Nee hoc prseteribo, (quanquam nonnullis leve visum 
 iri putem,) cum imprimis lautus esset Eques Romanus, et non 
 parum liberaliter domum suam omnium ordinum homines in- 
 vitaret ; scimus non amplius, quam terna millia aeris, peraeque 
 in singulos menses, ex Ephemeride eum expensum sumtui ferre 
 solitum. Atque hoc non auditum sed cognitum praedicamus. 
 Saepe enim propter familiaritatem. domesticis rebus inter- 
 fuimus."* 
 
 These facts appear to me to illustrate strongly the essential 
 difference between the state of society in ancient and modern 
 times. In truth, the circulation of money among the Romans 
 
 * [Excellentium Imperatorum Vitce, Atticus.]
 
 CHAP. II. OF MONEY, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 3.) 383 
 
 had little or no resemblance to what is now called circulation 
 in our systems of Political Economy. Fortunes were then 
 made by corruption, fraud, and plunder, instead of trade and 
 regular industry. The consequence was, that there was no 
 relation whatever between the prices of articles ministering to 
 the desires of the great, and of articles subservient to the 
 necessities of the poor. It is to be observed, too, that in the 
 curious examples collected by Dr. Arbuthnot, of such articles as 
 brought the most extravagant prices, we only find those which 
 could not be multiplied in proportion to the demand. These 
 prices, therefore, arose not from the abundance of money, but 
 from the impossibility of suiting the supply to the market. 
 The cheapness of necessaries did not proceed from their plenty, 
 but from the small number of individuals who were led by 
 their situation to purchase them. As none who were fed by 
 the labour of slaves, or on grain distributed gratuitously, had 
 any occasion to go to market, the competition must have been 
 confined to a comparatively inconsiderable portion of the com- 
 munity. The manner, too, in which the market was then pro- 
 vided, must be taken into account. It was supplied partly by the 
 surplus corn produced on the lands of great men, laboured by 
 slaves, who, being fed on the lands, the surplus cost a mere 
 trifle ; and as the number of buyers was very small, this sur- 
 plus must necessarily have been sold very cheap. Besides, the 
 grain distributed among the people must have kept down the 
 market, as a part of it must have sometimes been superfluous 
 to those who received, and consequently must have come to be 
 sold in competition with that which was raised at private 
 expense. 
 
 In judging of the very low prices of grain in our own 
 country some centuries ago, similar considerations must be 
 taken into account. A very large proportion of the inhabitants 
 then drew their subsistence directly from the soil, and conse- 
 quently, the demand for grain in the markets must have been 
 comparatively inconsiderable. In such a state of society, the 
 demand must have been proportioned, not to the consumers, 
 but to the buyers.
 
 384 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 Shall we, therefore, say, that the quantity of money in a 
 State has no effect whatever on price ? That it does not vary 
 with it proportionally, and that in estimating its effects on the 
 commercial system, the rate of circulation must always be com- 
 bined with the amount of the circulating mass, is a proposition 
 abundantly evident. Much, too, must depend on the manner 
 in which the money is distributed, among the different classes 
 of the community, and in various other circumstances con- 
 nected with the condition and habits of the people, of which it 
 is easy to perceive the general influence, but which it is impos- 
 sible to subject to calculation in accounting for particular 
 phenomena. It does not, however, follow from this as a con- 
 sequence, that the relative proportion of money and commodi- 
 ties, though not the only cause which regulates prices, may 
 not, in certain circumstances, operate on them very powerfully, 
 how difficult soever it may be from the extreme complacency 
 of the subject, to trace the extent of its influence. 
 
 A distinction of Mr. Smith's relative to this question is ex- 
 tremely worthy of attention, though it may be doubted whether 
 it authorizes all the important consequences which he supposes 
 it to involve. 
 
 " The quantity of the precious metals may increase in any 
 country from two different causes : either, first, from the in- 
 creased abundance of the mines which supply it ; or secondly, 
 from the increased wealth of the people from the increased pro- 
 duce of their annual labour. The first of these causes is no 
 doubt necessarily connected with the diminution of the value of 
 the precious metals ; but the second is not. 
 
 "When more abundant mines are discovered, a greater quantity 
 of the precious metals is brought to market, and the quantity 
 of the necessaries and conveniences of life for which they must 
 be exchanged being the same as before, equal quantities of the 
 metals must be exchanged for smaller quantities of commodi- 
 ties. So far, therefore, as the increase of the quantity of the 
 precious metals in any country arises from an increased abun- 
 dance of the mines, it is necessarily connected with some dimi- 
 nution of their value.
 
 CHAP. H. OF MONEY, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 3.) 385 
 
 "When, on the contrary, the wealth of any country increases, 
 when the annual produce of its labour becomes gradually 
 greater and greater, a larger quantity of coin becomes neces- 
 sary in order to circulate a greater quantity of commodities ; 
 and the people, as they can afford it, as they have more com- 
 modities to give for it, will naturally purchase a greater and a 
 greater quantity of plate. The quantity of their coin will in- 
 crease from necessity, the quantity of their plate from vanity 
 and ostentation, or from the same reason that the quantity of 
 fine statues, pictures, and of every other luxury and curiosity, 
 is likely to increase among them. But as statuaries and 
 painters are not likely to be worse rewarded in times of wealth 
 and prosperity, than in times of poverty and depression, so 
 gold and silver are not likely to be worse paid for."* After 
 illustrating at some length this remark, Mr. Smith states, that 
 " From about 1570 to about 1640, during a period of about 
 seventy years, the variation in the proportion between the value 
 of silver and that of corn held a quite opposite course. Silver 
 sunk in its real value, or would exchange for a smaller quantity 
 of labour than before ; and corn rose in its nominal price, and 
 instead of being commonly sold for about two ounces of silver 
 the quarter, or about ten shillings of our present money, came 
 to be sold for six and eight ounces of silver the quarter, or 
 about thirty or forty shillings of our present money." f 
 
 On this distinction Mr. Smith founds his reply to Mr. Hume's 
 celebrated argument against banks and paper credit. " These," 
 says Mr. Hume, " render paper equivalent to money, circulate 
 it throughout the whole state, make it supply the place of gold 
 and silver, raise proportionably the price of labour and com- 
 modities, and by that means either banish a great part of those 
 precious metals, or prevent their farther increase. What can 
 be more short-sighted than our reasonings on this head ? We 
 fancy, because an individual would be much richer, were his 
 stock of money doubled, that the same good effect would follow 
 were the money of every one increased ; not considering that 
 
 * [ Wealth of Nations, Book I. chap. xi. ; Vol. I. p. 294, seq., tenth edition.] 
 
 t [Ibid. p. 299, seq.] 
 
 VOL. VIII. 2 B
 
 386 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 this would raise as much the price of every commodity, and re- 
 duce every man in time to the same condition as before. It is 
 only in our public negotiations and transactions with foreigners, 
 that a greater stock of money is advantageous ; and as our 
 paper is there absolutely insignificant, we feel, by its means, all 
 the ill effects arising from a great abundance of money, without 
 reaping any of the advantages. 
 
 " Suppose that there are twelve millions of paper which cir- 
 culate in the kingdom as money, (for we are not to imagine 
 that all our enormous funds are employed in that shape,) and 
 suppose the real cash of the kingdom to be eighteen millions : 
 Here is a State which is found by experience to be able to hold 
 a stock of thirty millions. I say, if it be able to hold it, it 
 must of necessity have acquired it in gold and silver, had we 
 not obstructed the entrance of these metals by this new inven- 
 tion of paper. Whence would it have acquired that sum? 
 From all the kingdoms of the world. But why ? Because, if 
 you remove these twelve millions, money in this State is below 
 its level, compared with our neighbours ; and we must imme- 
 diately draw from all of them, till we be full and saturate, so to 
 speak, and can hold no more. By our present politics we are 
 as careful to stuff the nation with this fine commodity of bank- 
 bills and chequer-notes, as if we were afraid of being over- 
 burthened with the precious metals. 
 
 " It is not to be doubted, but the great plenty of bullion in 
 France, is in a great measure owing to the want of paper-credit. 
 The French have no banks : merchants' bills do not there cir- 
 culate as with us : usury or lending on interest is not directly 
 permitted ; so that many have large sums in their coffers : 
 great quantities of plate are used in private houses ; and all the 
 churches are full of it. By this means, provisions and labour 
 still remain cheaper among them, than in nations that are not 
 half so rich in gold and silver. The advantages of this situa- 
 tion, in point of trade, as well as in great public emergencies, 
 are too evident to be disputed."* 
 
 In opposition to this doctrine, Mr. Smith labours to prove, 
 
 * [Estayt, Vol. I. On the Balance of Trade.]
 
 CHAP. II. OF MONET, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 3.) 387 
 
 that " the whole paper money of every kind which can easily 
 circulate in any country, never can exceed the value of the 
 gold and silver of which it supplies the place, or which, the 
 commerce being supposed the same, would circulate there if 
 there had been no paper money."* A few pages after Mr. 
 Smith proceeds to an examination of Mr. Hume's doctrine in 
 the following words : 
 
 " The increase of paper money, it has been said, by aug- 
 menting the quantity, and consequently diminishing the value 
 of the whole currency, necessarily augments the money price of 
 commodities. But as the quantity of gold and silver, which is 
 taken from the currency, is always equal to the quantity of 
 paper which is added to it, paper money does not necessarily 
 increase the quantity of the whole currency. From the be- 
 ginning of the last century to the present time, provisions never 
 were cheaper in Scotland than in 1759, though, from the cir- 
 culation of ten and five shilling bank-notes, there was then 
 more paper money in the country than at present. The pro- 
 portion between the price of provisions in Scotland and that in 
 England, is the same now as before the great multiplication of 
 banking companies in Scotland. Corn is, upon most occasions, 
 fully as cheap in England as in France ; though there is a 
 great deal of paper money in England, and scarce any in 
 France. In 1751 and in 1752, when Mr. Hume published his 
 Political Discourses, and soon after the great multiplication of 
 paper money in Scotland, there was a very sensible rise in the 
 price of provisions, owing, probably, to the badness of the 
 seasons, and not to the multiplication of paper money. 
 
 " It would be otherwise, indeed, with a paper money consist- 
 ing in promissory notes, of which the immediate payment de- 
 pended, in any respect, either upon the good-will of those who 
 issued them, or upon a condition which the holder of the notes 
 might not always have it in his power to fulfil, or of which the 
 payment was not exigible till after a certain number of years, 
 and which in the meantime bore no interest. Such a paper 
 money would, no doubt, fall more or less below the value of gold 
 
 * f Wealth of Nations, Book II. chap. ii. ; Vol. I. p. 448, tenth edition.]
 
 388 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 and silver, according as the difficulty or uncertainty of. obtain- 
 ing immediate payment was supposed to be greater or less ; or 
 according to the greater or less distance of tune at which pay- 
 ment was exigible."* 
 
 That this reasoning of Mr. Smith involves some very sound 
 and important principles, cannot be disputed. At the same 
 time, I believe, it is now very generally admitted, that it also 
 involves some material mistakes and oversights. The assertion, 
 in particular, that the whole paper money of every kind that 
 can easily circulate in any country, never can exceed the value 
 of the gold and silver of which it supplies the place, is an as- 
 sumption completely refuted by our actual experience since 
 Mr. Smith's time. Indeed, if we had had no such experience, 
 it would have been easily susceptible of refutation from a 
 theoretical view of the subject. On this point, however, I shall 
 not now enlarge, as it will again come under our consideration 
 before the completion of these lectures. 
 
 Another oversight of still greater consequence, is almost 
 equally manifest, I mean the inattention manifested by Mr. 
 Smith to that remarkable depreciation in the value of money 
 which has taken place during the last century, and more espe- 
 cially during the present reign. To what causes this deprecia- 
 tion is to be ascribed, whether to the substitution of factitious 
 instead of real money, or to the weight of our public burdens, 
 or to both of these circumstances combined, is a different ques- 
 tion, on which I shall afterwards hazard some remarks. But 
 the fact is too obvious to the most careless observer to admit 
 of a moment's controversy. The truth seems to be, that Mr. 
 Smith has been led to his general conclusion, by too partial 
 attention to the price of corn as a standard of the value of 
 money. He did not sufficiently reflect on the effects of an 
 extended and improved agriculture in preventing an increase of 
 the price of grain, in comparison with that of other commodi- 
 ties. He was farther confirmed in his opinion by the partial 
 view which he took of the nature of paper-credit, already 
 noticed. Proceeding on the supposition that factitious money 
 
 * [Ibid., pp. 490-492.]
 
 CHAP. II. OF MONEY, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 3.) 389 
 
 conld only supply the place of that quantity of gold and silver 
 which would otherwise have circulated in its stead, he could 
 perceive no possible way in which it could have any tendency 
 to depreciate the value of money ; and as the best information 
 which he could obtain, satisfied him, that the annual supply 
 of bullion from America did not materially exceed the annual 
 consumption, it appeared to him, as a necessary consequence, 
 that the common complaints of a depreciation in the value of 
 money were altogether founded in ignorance and prejudice. 
 
 During the eventful interval which has elapsed since the 
 publication of the Wealth of Nations, the question concerning 
 the effects of paper currency on prices has assumed completely 
 a new aspect, inasmuch, that granting all Mr. Smith's prin- 
 ciples in their fullest extent, no fair inference whatever could 
 be drawn from them at all applicable to the present condition 
 of the commercial world ; as his whole reasoning on this sub- 
 ject proceeds on the supposition, that the issues of bank-notes are 
 limited by the obligation of paying them in specie on demand. 
 But the problem still remains concerning the effects on prices of 
 a paper currency that is not convertible at pleasure into gold and 
 silver. On this point, however, I shall not at present enlarge. 
 
 Having been led to allude to the depreciation of money, I 
 shall avail myself of the opportunity which the subject affords, 
 to mention a circumstance which escaped me yesterday, in 
 treating of the real and nominal prices of commodities. 
 
 In the passage which I then quoted, [above, p. 362,] from Mr. 
 Locke, that profound writer observes, that " wheat in this part of 
 the world, (and that grain which constitutes the general food of 
 any other country,) is the fittest measure to judge of the altered 
 value of things in any long tract of time. Therefore, wheat here, 
 rice in Turkey, &c., is the fittest thing to reserve a rent in," &c. 
 
 That this principle of Mr. Locke, although stated by him in 
 terms much too strong and unqualified, contains a great deal 
 of truth and good sense, I formerly remarked ; and the utility 
 of the practical rule which it recommends, has been sufficiently 
 confirmed by the experience of those who have had the prudence
 
 390 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 to adopt it. It is remarked by Mr. Smith, in his Wealth of 
 Nations, that " the rents in England which have been reserved 
 in corn, have preserved their value much better than those 
 which have been reserved in money." I have introduced this 
 passage from Mr. Smith, merely to do justice to the uncommon 
 foresight of the great man, by whose advice the memorable 
 statute, mentioned by Mr. Smith, was passed, which first intro- 
 duced a provision of this sort into college leases. This person 
 was Sir Thomas Smith, principal Secretary of State to Edward 
 VI. and Queen Elizabeth ; whose merits in this respect cannot 
 fail to rise in our estimation, when we consider how very near 
 he lived to the period when the depreciation of the precious 
 metals first furnished a subject of political discussion. One of 
 his biographers gives an articulate account of this provision. 
 
 SECT. IV. OF MONEY AS THE STANDARD OF VALUE. 
 
 From the reasonings which I have been for some time past 
 engaged in stating, in opposition to Montesquieu and Hume, 
 we were led to conclude, that the prices of goods, more parti- 
 cularly of articles of the first necessity, have much less con- 
 nexion with the quantity of the precious metals at the time, 
 than these two writers seem to have supposed. For a complete 
 discussion of the subject, I shall refer to the second book of Sir 
 James Steuart's Political (Economy, and to the digression con- 
 cerning the variations in the value of silver and gold, in the 
 eleventh Chapter of the first Book of Mr. Smith's Inquiry. 
 
 The remaining observations which I think it necessary to 
 state, on the money price of commodities, I shall despatch 
 in a very few words; referring to Mr. Smith's Inquiry for 
 his doctrine concerning the component parts of price in what 
 he calls the natural price of commodities, as distinguished 
 from that which they actually bring in the market. It is 
 sufficient for my purpose to mention one or two of his most 
 important principles. 
 
 From an analysis of the price of different articles, Mr. Smith 
 was led to infer, that in every society the price of any commo-
 
 CHAP. II. OF MONEY, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 4.) 391 
 
 dity resolves itself into one or other, or all of these three fol- 
 lowing parts : the price of labour, the rent of land, and the 
 pro/its of stock and wages ; and in proportion as a commodity 
 is more manufactured, that part of the price which resolves 
 itself into profit and wages, becomes greater in proportion to 
 the other two, &c. 
 
 He further observes, that " There is in every society or neigh- 
 bourhood an ordinary or average rate both of wages and profit 
 in every different employment of labour and stock. This rate 
 is naturally regulated, as I shall show hereafter, partly by 
 the general circumstances of the society, their riches or poverty, 
 their advancing, stationary, or declining condition ; and partly 
 by the particular nature of each employment. 
 
 " There is likewise in every society or neighbourhood an 
 ordinary or average rate of rent, which is regulated too, as 1 
 shall show hereafter, partly by the general circumstances of the 
 society or neighbourhood in which the land is situated, and 
 partly by the natural or improved fertility of the land. 
 
 " These ordinary or average rates may be called the natural 
 rates of wages, profit, and rent, at the time and place in which 
 they commonly prevail."* 
 
 Mr. Smith afterwards states, that " The natural price, there- 
 fore, is, as it were, the central price, to which the prices of all 
 commodities are continually gravitating. Different accidents 
 may sometimes keep them suspended a good deal above it, 
 and sometimes force them down even somewhat below it. But 
 whatever may be the obstacles which hinder them from settling 
 in this centre of repose or continuance, they are constantly 
 tending towards it." .... 
 
 " But though the market price of every particular commodity 
 is in this manner continually gravitating, if one may say so, 
 towards the natural price, yet sometimes particular accidents, 
 sometimes natural causes, and sometimes particular regulations 
 of police, may, in many commodities, keep up the market price, 
 for a long time together, a good deal above the natural price." f 
 
 Abstracting even from these circumstances, there are other 
 
 * [Ibid. Book I. chap. vii. ; Vol. I. p. 82, tenth edition.] f P^id. pp. 87, 90.]
 
 392 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 causes which may produce the same effect. These Mr. Smith 
 refers to three heads: First, Particular accidents giving one 
 society of men an advantage over others; secondly, Local 
 peculiarities of soil and climate ; and thirdly, Particular regu- 
 lations of police. An illustration of these circumstances would 
 lead me into details inconsistent with my general plan. 
 
 With respect to the relative market prices of different com- 
 modities, the general principle, I may add, is subject to various 
 important limitations, but they rise or fall according to the 
 scarcity, compared with the demand. In applying this rule, 
 proper allowances must be made for various accidental circum- 
 stances. Thus, if there is more grain in a country than sup- 
 plies the demand, the price will fall because grain is a perish- 
 able commodity. In broad cloth, again, if there be more than 
 sufficient for the demand, the price will be less liable to be 
 affected, because it can be longer kept than grain, and at a 
 smaller expense. The truth of the maxim, too, it must be 
 remembered, depends on the supposition that the demand and 
 the quantity destined for the supply are both limited. 
 
 Another general principle, which I have already in some 
 measure hinted at, it may not be improper again to notice, as I 
 shall probably refer to it more than once in the course of our 
 future inquiries. Abstracting from legislative interference, 
 and all aids to the indigent, whether legal or voluntary, it 
 seems evident that in a free country, where the lower orders 
 have nothing to depend upon but the fruits of their own in- 
 dustry, a limit is necessarily fixed on the price of articles of the 
 first necessity, by the wages of labour. Mr. Smith has shown, 
 with much ingenuity, that the money-price of labour has a 
 tendency to adjust itself not to the temporary or occasional, 
 but to the average or ordinary price of the necessaries of life, 
 and that the average price of corn is regulated by the value of 
 silver, that is, by the richness or barrenness of the mines which 
 supply the market with that metal. On the other hand, it ap- 
 pears to be, at least, equally clear, that however much the 
 price of corn may vary from year to year, the wages of labour 
 fix a limit beyond which it cannot rise, abstracting from the
 
 CHAP. II. OF MONET, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 4.) 393 
 
 circumstances already mentioned. On this point. Sir James 
 Steuart reasons thus : 
 
 " The number of the buyers of subsistence, nearly determines 
 the quantity to be sold ; because it is a necessary article, and 
 must be provided in a determinate proportion for every one, 
 and the more the sale is frequent, the more the price is deter- 
 minate. Next, as to the standard; this, I apprehend, must 
 depend upon the faculties of the buyers, and these again must 
 be determined by the extent of those of the greatest number of 
 them ; that is to say, by the extent of the faculties of the lower 
 classes of the people. This is the reason why bread, in the 
 greatest famine, never can rise above a certain price ; for did 
 it exceed the faculties of the great classes of a people, their 
 demand would be withdrawn, which would leave the market 
 overstocked for the consumption of the rich; consequently, 
 those persons who in times of scarcity are forced to starve, can 
 be such only whose faculties fall, unfortunately, below the 
 standard of those of the great class ; consequently, in countries 
 of industry, the price of subsistence never can rise beyond the 
 powers to purchase of that numerous class, who enjoy nothing 
 beyond their physical-necessary ; consequently, never to such 
 an immoderate height as to starve considerable numbers of the 
 people, a thing which very commonly happens in countries 
 where industry is little known, where multitudes depend merely 
 upon the charity of others, and who have no resource left so 
 soon as this comes to fail them. 
 
 " The faculties, therefore, of those who labour for a physical- 
 necessary, must, in industrious nations, determine the standard 
 value of subsistence, and the value in money which they receive 
 for their work, will determine the standard of their faculties, 
 which must rise or fall according to the proportion of the de- 
 mand for their labour."* 
 
 I have quoted this passage in Sir James Steuart's words, 
 because, though somewhat obscurely expressed, it suggests a 
 principle, sound and important; and because it seems, on a 
 superficial view, to be contradicted by facts, which a few years 
 
 * [Political (Economy, Book II. chap, ixviii. ; Works, vol. H pp. 82, 83.]
 
 394 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 ago fell under our observation. In reality, however, the fact 
 and theory are perfectly consistent, inasmuch as the latter, pro- 
 ceeding on the supposition that the poor have no resources but 
 their own industry, is plainly inapplicable to a state of things 
 where the poor are secured in a legal provision, and where a 
 general spirit of humanity prompts to such exertions as this 
 country never fails to exhibit during the pressure of a scarcity. 
 It must be remembered, too, that the ordinary principles which 
 regulate the prices of necessaries, were, during the late years of 
 dearth, deranged completely by the sudden emission of an 
 immense quantity of paper occasioned by the stoppage of issues 
 of specie at the Bank of England, a circumstance of which I 
 shall have occasion to take particular notice afterwards, and 
 which, therefore, I shall content myself at present with merely 
 mentioning. 
 
 On this question, I know, very opposite opinions have been 
 entertained by some writers of high reputation for commercial 
 knowledge. One writer, Mr. Boyd,* overlooking almost entirely 
 the effects of the scarcity occasioned by the bad harvest in 
 1799, a scarcity demonstrated beyond the possibility of a doubt, 
 and relieved very imperfectly by importations, amounting in 
 twelve months to seven or eight millions sterling ; has ascribed 
 in a pamphlet, which for some time gained a large share of the 
 public attention, the high price of necessaries during the fol- 
 lowing winter, chiefly to the rapid addition which had been 
 made to the circulating medium. That the augmentation of 
 the quantity of money, or of paper performing the functions of 
 money, has a tendency to depreciate that money or paper, he 
 states, as a principle universally recognised, and as no less in- 
 variable in its operation than the law of gravitation. 
 
 In opposition to this reasoning, an author of the highest per- 
 sonal respectability, Sir Francis Baring,f and of unquestionable 
 eminence as a commercial politician, has stated it confidently 
 as a first principle, though without offering the slightest proof 
 
 * [A Letter, etc., on the Stoppage f [Observations on the Publication of 
 of Issues in Specie at the Bank of Walter Boyd, Esq., M.P., &c. 1801.] 
 England, &c. 1800.]
 
 CHAP. II. OF MONEY, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 4.) 395 
 
 of it, that bank-notes circulating at par cannot contribute to 
 raise prices by any possible means. Into the discussion of 
 these questions I cannot enter at present ; although I must 
 own that the subject does not appear to me to have been 
 exhausted in either of these publications. 
 
 One consideration only which I shall endeavour to illustrate 
 very fully in another part of the course, I shall suggest very 
 briefly ; that abstracting altogether from the point in dispute 
 between these two writers, the sudden addition made to the 
 circulating medium of this country, about the very period when 
 the scarcity took place, may have operated very powerfully on 
 prices, by a process of which neither of them has taken any 
 notice. In consequence of this addition an increased facility 
 was given to all who possessed credit, to add to the fund of 
 their expenditure, and such as felt their limited incomes inade- 
 quate to meet the increasing exigencies of the times, were 
 enabled, by encroaching silently on their capitals, or by antici- 
 pating their future resources, to relieve themselves from the 
 pressure of the present moment, and to maintain their former 
 rank in society. Their consumption accordingly, was not 
 diminished to the same extent as it must otherwise have been 
 from absolute necessity, and that economy, which is the natural 
 and most effectual palliative for the evils of scarcity, was thus 
 counteracted in its operation. 
 
 This inconvenience, however great as it is, was certainly 
 accompanied with a consequence, on which it is impossible to 
 reflect without satisfaction, although it probably contributed 
 more than any other single cause to enhance the price of neces- 
 saries. The circumstance to which I allude is the increased 
 facility which the higher and middling classes thus acquired of 
 enlarging the funds of their charity. That the amount of vol- 
 untary contributions was in this manner greatly augmented, 
 cannot, I think, be reasonably denied ; and that these, added 
 to the legal provisions for poor, rendered the price of provisions 
 much higher than it otherwise would have been, seems equally 
 indisputable. The competition was thus kept up much beyond 
 what the unassisted means of the poor could have produced ; and
 
 396 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 the operation of those circumstances was prevented which would 
 have limited prices long before they approached that height 
 which they actually reached. Numbers must have been left 
 to perish from want of food ; and a melancholy remedy would 
 have been provided against the evils of dearth, by a diminution 
 of the numbers of competitors. But on this subject I shall 
 again have an opportunity of treating before the conclusion of 
 these Lectures. (End of Interpolation from Notes.) 
 
 [SECT. v. OF INTEREST.] 
 
 Having finished the very slight view which our time per- 
 mitted me to take of money considered as a medium of exchange, 
 and of the principles which regulate its value in relation to 
 that of commodities, I proceeded (at our last meeting) to 
 consider the tendency which this important invention has, to 
 facilitate the accumulation of stock or capital, which Turgot 
 and Mr. Smith have shown to be so intimately connected with 
 the increase of National Wealth ; in this respect its effects 
 in promoting the progress of society are no less striking than 
 those which it produces, (as I had occasion formerly to remark,) 
 by facilitating the separation of professions, and the distribution 
 of labour among the different orders of the community. 
 
 Before the introduction of gold and silver in trade, under- 
 takings oi every kind, but especially those of manufactures and 
 of commerce, must evidently have been extremely confined, on 
 account of the perishable nature of every other species of pro- 
 perty which could be employed as a medium of exchange, and the 
 trouble attending the preservation of them. " A great number 
 of those arts," as M. Turgot observes, " which are indispen- 
 sable for the use of the most indigent members of society, 
 require that the same materials should pass through many 
 different hands, and undergo, during a considerable space of 
 time, difficult and various operations. Such, for example, is 
 the art of preparing leather for the purposes of the shoemaker. 
 Whoever has seen the work-house of a tanner, must imme- 
 diately perceive the impossibility of one, or even several
 
 CHAP. II. OF MONEY, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 5.) 397 
 
 indigent persons providing themselves with leather, tan, utensils, 
 &c., causing the requisite buildings to be erected, and procuring 
 the means of their subsistence till such time as their leather 
 can be sold. In this art, and many others, must not those that 
 work have learned the craft in some degree before they begin 
 to exercise it on materials which are not to be obtained without 
 expense ? In what manner are the materials to be collected 
 for the manufactory ; the ingredients and the necessary tools 
 for their preparation ? How shall this multitude of workmen 
 subsist till the commodity comes to market; a multitude of 
 whom none individually could earn his subsistence by the pre- 
 paration and sale of a single hide ? Who shall defray the 
 expenses for the instruction of the apprentices, and maintain 
 them till their labour can be useful ? All this, it is manifest, 
 requires the aid of a proprietor of capital, who shall supply the 
 advances necessary for the purchase and preparation of materials, 
 and for the wages of the workmen employed in preparing them. 
 This capitalist, on the other hand, will naturally expect that 
 the sale of the commodity will not only return to him his 
 advances, but will afford an emolument sufficient to indemnify 
 him for what his money would have procured him, if he had 
 turned it towards the acquisition of land; and, moreover, a 
 salary due to his trouble, and attention, and risk. In propor- 
 tion as the capital returns to him by the sale of his works, he 
 employs it in new purchases for supporting his family, or 
 maintaining his manufactory. By this continual circulation he 
 lives on his profits ; accumulating what he can save to increase 
 his stock, and thereby to enlarge his enterprises still farther."* 
 
 Similar observations might be made to illustrate the neces- 
 sity of advances for lucrative enterprises in commerce, and also 
 in agriculture, wherever the cultivation of land is carried on to 
 a considerable extent. 
 
 All such enterprises, therefore, must necessarily have been 
 confined within very narrow limits, till the accumulation of 
 stock was facilitated by the introduction of money ; an inven- 
 
 * [Reflations sur la Formation et la Distribution dfs Sichesses, \ hu. ; (Euvres, 
 Tome V. pp. 65-67.]
 
 398 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 tion which thus appears to be not only subservient to the 
 prompt circulation of wealth, but to be essentially connected 
 with its production. 
 
 Since capitals then are indispensably necessary to all lucrative 
 enterprises, a certain command of stock may be said, in the 
 ordinary course of things, to be implied in every reasonable pro- 
 ject for the augmentation of personal property. And it is thus, 
 that according to the common proverb, " Money has the power 
 of begetting money," [" Money breeds money."] Hence those in- 
 dustrious individuals who have not adequate funds of their own, 
 will be willing to share the profits of their enterprises with such 
 owners of capital as may agree to trust them with the employ- 
 ment of their stock. On this principle is founded in reason and 
 equity the practice of lending upon interest ; or, in other words, 
 the commerce of money. The lender selling the use of his stock, 
 and the borrower buying it, in a manner perfectly analogous to 
 that in which the proprietor of an estate sells, and the farmer 
 who rents it buys or hires the temporary use of the land. 
 
 Of this subject I propose to treat at greater length than of 
 some other articles that may appear at first view, of still more 
 fundamental and general importance. My principal reason for 
 doing so is, that it leads to some interesting discussions which 
 continue to divide the opinions of very eminent writers ; and 
 which have been less exhausted than most of the questions 
 connected with this part of the course, by the profound and 
 comprehensive speculations of Mr. Smith. 
 
 One of the first authors who in this country investigated 
 with success the principles that regulate the rate of interest, 
 was Mr. Hume, in his Political Discourses, published in 1752. 
 Long indeed before his time, political writers had admitted the 
 general maxim, that a low rate of interest was the most certain 
 of all signs of national prosperity ; but they seem very generally 
 to have misapprehended the manner in which these two effects 
 are connected. The lowness of interest was ascribed by Locke, 
 Law, and Montesquieu, to the abundance of money, in proof 
 of which they appealed to the fall of interest, through the 
 greater part of Europe, since the discovery of the Spanish West
 
 CHAP. II. OF MONEY, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 5.) 399 
 
 Indies. But this doctrine, as Mr. Hume observes, is contradicted 
 by the most obvious facts. " Interest in Batavia and Jamaica 
 is at ten per cent., in Portugal at six, though these places, as 
 we may learn from the prices of everything, abound much 
 more in gold and silver than either London or Amsterdam."* 
 The fact is unquestionably as Mr. Hume states it, although the 
 test to which he appeals, in the difference of prices, is not 
 perhaps so conclusive as he appears to have imagined. 
 
 As a further presumption against the same doctrine, Mr. 
 Hume remarks, that " Prices have risen about four times since 
 the discovery of the Indies, and gold and silver have probably 
 multiplied much more ; but interest has not fallen much above 
 half. The rate of interest, therefore, is not derived from the 
 quantity of the precious metals."f 
 
 The same conclusion to which Mr. Hume is thus led by an 
 induction from facts, is very clearly and concisely deduced by 
 Mr. Smith from a theoretical view of the subject. 
 
 " Before the discovery of the Spanish West Indies, ten per 
 cent, seems to have been the common rate of interest through 
 the greater part of Europe. It has since that time in different 
 countries sunk to six, five, four, and three per cent. Let us 
 suppose that in every particular country, the value of silver has 
 sunk precisely in the same proportion as the rate of interest, 
 and that in those countries, for example, where interest has 
 been reduced from ten to five per cent., the same quantity can 
 now purchase just half the quantity of goods which it could 
 have purchased before. This supposition," continues Mr. Smith, 
 " will not probably be found anywhere agreeable to the truth ; 
 but it is the most favourable to the opinion we are going to 
 examine ; and even upon this supposition it is utterly impossible 
 that the lowering of the value of silver could have the smallest 
 tendency to lower the rate of interest. If a hundred pounds 
 are in those countries now of no more value than fifty pounds 
 were then, ten pounds must now be of no more value than five 
 pounds were then ; whatever were the causes that lowered the 
 value of the capital, the same must necessarily have lowered 
 
 * [Estays, Vol. I. Of Interest.] t [Ibid.]
 
 400 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 that of the interest, and exactly in the same proportion. The 
 proportion between the value of the capital and that of the 
 interest must have remained the same, though the rate had 
 never been altered. By altering the rate, on the contrary, the 
 proportion between these two values is necessarily altered. If 
 a hundred pounds now are worth no more than fifty were then, 
 five pounds now can be worth no more than two pounds ten 
 shillings were then. By reducing the rate of interest, there- 
 fore, from ten to five per cent., we give for the use of a capital 
 which is supposed to be equal to one half of its former value, 
 an interest which is equal to one-fourth only of the value of 
 the former interest."* 
 
 " High interest," according to Mr. Hume, " arises from three 
 circumstances ; a great demand for borrowing, little riches 
 to supply that demand, and great profits arising from com- 
 merce ; and these circumstances are a clear proof of the small 
 advance of commerce and industry, not of the scarcity of gold 
 and silver. Low interest, on the other hand, proceeds from 
 the three opposite circumstances : a small demand for borrow- 
 ing, great riches to supply that demand, and small profits 
 arising from commerce, circumstances which are all connected 
 together, and proceed from the increase of industry and com- 
 merce, not of gold and silver."f This analysis of Mr. Hume's 
 seems to be accurate and satisfactory ; and I shall accordingly, 
 in the further prosecution of the subject, follow the arrange- 
 ment which he has adopted, beginning, in the first place, with 
 the causes and effects of a great or small demand for borrowing. 
 
 "When a people," says Mr. Hume, " have emerged ever so little 
 from a savage state, and their numbers have increased beyond the 
 original multitude, there must immediately arise an inequality 
 of property ; and while some possess large tracts of land, others 
 are confined within narrow limits, and some are entirely without 
 any landed property. Those who possess more land than they 
 can labour, employ those who possess none, and agree to receive 
 
 * [Wealth of Nations, Book II. chap. iv. ; Vol. II. p. 39, aeq., tenth edition.] 
 t [Essays, VoL I. Of Interest.]
 
 CHAP. II. OF MONEY, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 5.) 401 
 
 a determined part of the produce. In this manner the society 
 comes to consist of two orders of men, proprietors and culti- 
 vators ; and a landed interest arises with privileges, and views, 
 and habits, strikingly discriminated from those which belong 
 to the other members of the community. As the spending of 
 a settled revenue is a way of life entirely without occupation, 
 men have so much need of somewhat to fix and engage them, 
 that pleasures, such as they are, will be the pursuit of the 
 greater part of the landholders, and the prodigals among them 
 will always be more numerous than the misers. In a state, 
 therefore, where there is nothing but a landed interest, as 
 there is little frugality, the borrowers must be very numerous, 
 and the rate of interest must bear a proportion to it. The 
 difference depends not on the quantity of money, but on the 
 habits and manners which prevail"* 
 
 This reasoning of Mr. Hume is perfectly just in the main ; 
 but the conclusion is perhaps expressed in too unqualified a 
 manner. In a state where there is nothing but a landed inter- 
 est, it is manifest that whatever the waste and profusion of the 
 proprietors may be, it is scarcely possible that their expense 
 should in general exceed their income, because there are, by 
 the supposition, no articles of luxury in commerce to form an 
 object for their expenditure. Mr. Hume's reasoning, therefore, 
 seems rather to apply to a country where commerce has made 
 a certain progress, although not a considerable one ; such a 
 progress as to excite in the landed interest a taste for the 
 luxuries and vanities of life, without having established a 
 nionied interest of sufficient opulence to supply the increased 
 demand for borrowing. And, if I am not mistaken, this view of 
 the subject receives confirmation from a fact mentioned by Mr. 
 Hume himself, in the first edition of his Political Discourses, 
 that about four centuries ago, money in Scotland, and probably 
 in other parts of Europe, was only at five per cent., and after- 
 wards rose to ten before the discovery of the West Indies. 
 
 This fact Mr. Hume states, on the authority of an eminent 
 lawyer, who had verified it by an examination of ancient papers 
 
 * [Ibid.] 
 
 VOL. VIII. 2 C
 
 402 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 and records ; and it certainly forms an exception to Mr. Hume's 
 general proposition, inasmuch as the monied interest in Scot- 
 land was still more inconsiderable four centuries ago than 
 towards the end of the fifteenth century. Of its state at the 
 former period, an idea may be formed from the account of 
 Froissart, (who was at Dalkeith in the year 1360,) and who 
 tells us, that "even in the Doulce Escoche, or lowlands, a 
 complete ignorance prevailed of the commonest arts of life. 
 The meanest articles of manufacture, horse-shoes, harness, 
 saddles, bridles, were all imported, ready made from Flanders." 
 The same author estimates the houses in Edinburgh, then the 
 capital, at four thousand, and tells us that they were small 
 wooden cottages covered with straw. In the reign of Kobert 
 II., (about the year 1380,) the inhabitants of the capital are 
 supposed to have hardly exceeded sixteen thousand. 1 
 
 Before the end of the following century, commerce and luxury 
 had made considerable progress. In a poem, written during the 
 reign of James III., and entitled Tales of the Priests of Peebles, 
 " taverns and dice are reprobated ; and a merchant's cupboard 
 of plate is estimated at three thousand Scottish pounds, or 
 about seven thousand five hundred of modern sterling cur- 
 rency." 2 The same poem complains of the degeneracy of the 
 Peers from the wisdom, virtue, and valour of their ancestors, 
 and that in consequence of their frequent poverty, they endea- 
 voured to replenish their coffers by unworthy marriages with 
 the opulent bastard daughters of priests, or heiresses of mer- 
 chants, or by selling the right of marriage of their sons to rich 
 commoners. 3 
 
 In such a state of society it is certainly not surprising that 
 the rate of interest should have risen greatly beyond what it 
 was in times of comparative simplicity ; and yet, if Mr. Hume's 
 conclusion were admitted without any limitation, the case 
 should have been reversed. He seems indeed to have been 
 sensible of this himself; for he remarks, (after stating the 
 fact now under consideration,) that the lowness of the rate of 
 
 1 See Pinkerton, [History of Scotland. Ibid. p. 433. 
 
 1797, Vol. I. p. 148, and p. 25.] Ibid. pp. 435, 436.
 
 CHAP. II. OF MONEY, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 5.) 403 
 
 interest in Scotland four centuries ago, was owing to this, that 
 though the lenders were then few, the borrowers were still 
 fewer. This concession, however, is plainly in direct opposition 
 to his general principle ; and confirms the necessity of that 
 limitation with which I already said it ought to be adopted. 
 
 From what has been now observed, it appears, both a priori, 
 and from the fact, that the rise of interest in Scotland before 
 the discovery of the West Indies, resulted from the first opera- 
 tion of an infant commerce on the manners of a people among 
 whom the national wealth was accumulated chiefly, but not 
 exclusively in the hands of the landed proprietors; whatever 
 opinion, however, we may form on this point, it is equally 
 clear that the demand for borrowing depends on the general 
 state of manners and habits, and not on the quantity of the 
 precious metals. 
 
 The case is precisely similar with regard to the second 
 circumstance mentioned in Mr. Hume's enumeration, the 
 quantity of stock which exists to supply the demand of the 
 borrowers. This effect also depends on the habits and way 
 of living of the people, not on the quantity of gold and 
 silver. In order to have, in any state, a greater number of 
 lenders, it is not sufficient, nor requisite, that there be great 
 abundance of the precious metals. It is only requisite that 
 the property, or command of that quantity which is in the 
 state, whether great or small, should be collected in particular 
 hands, so as to form considerable sums, or compose a great 
 monied interest. This begets a number of lenders, and sinks 
 the rate at which money may be borrowed ; and it evidently 
 depends, not on the quantity of specie, but on particular 
 manners and customs which accumulate a superfluity of specie 
 in the hands of a certain description of individuals. 
 
 This description of individuals, too, naturally arises, in the 
 farther progress of society, from the physical circumstances of 
 our condition, combined with our moral constitution. The 
 rude materials of all those objects which minister to our wants, 
 are derived ultimately from the ground ; but they are seldom 
 furnished by nature in that form in which they can be applied
 
 404 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 to immediate use. There must, therefore, beside the culti- 
 vators and proprietors of land, be another order of men, who, 
 receiving from the former the rude materials, work them into 
 their proper form, and retain part for their own use and sub- 
 sistence. In the infancy of society, these contracts betwixt 
 the artisans and the peasants, and betwixt one species of artisan 
 and another, are commonly entered into immediately by the 
 persons themselves, who, being neighbours, are readily ac- 
 quainted with each other's necessities, and can lend their mutual 
 assistance to supply them. But when men's industry increases, 
 and their views enlarge, it is found that the most remote parts 
 of the state can assist each other as well as the more con- 
 tiguous ; and that this intercourse of good offices may connect 
 together in a thousand ways the most different orders of indi- 
 viduals in the most extensive and populous community. Hence 
 the origin of merchants, who serve as agents betwixt those 
 parts of the state that are wholly unacquainted, and are 
 ignorant of each other's necessities. It is manifest, too, that 
 as the people increase in numbers and industry, the difficulties 
 of their mutual intercourse must increase ; and of consequence 
 the business of the agency or merchandise will become so com- 
 plicated as naturally to divide and subdivide itself into various 
 branches, from the same causes which give rise to the division 
 of labour in the mechanical arts, and to the separation of trades 
 and professions. In all these commercial transactions, it is 
 necessary and reasonable, that a certain part of the commodities 
 should remain with the merchant, to whose industry and skill 
 in facilitating their exchanges, the existence of a great propor- 
 tion of them is entirely owing ; and thus gradually arises and 
 multiplies that order of men, called the Commercial Interest, 
 who have exerted so powerful an influence over the policy and 
 manners of Modern Europe. 
 
 I have already illustrated the effects of Manufactures and 
 Commerce in exciting a spirit of Agricultural industry, by lead- 
 ing the husbandman to increase his surplus produce, in order 
 to have something to give in exchange for the articles that 
 minister to his comfort or vanity. Commerce, at the same
 
 CHAP. II. OF MONEY, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 5.) 405 
 
 time, turns to account every particle of the produce of this 
 industry, and instead of allowing it to perish on the spot where 
 it is obtained, circulates it through the state, so as to render 
 it at once an addition to the national stock, and a stimulus to 
 the industry of others. Of this circulation merchants are the 
 great agents and instruments; and as they take a more en- 
 larged and comprehensive survey of the different interests of 
 the community than any other description of men, they acquire 
 a far greater command of the circulating stock. The habits of 
 frugality, too, naturally connected with their education and 
 profession, and that love of money, which is the never-failing 
 consequence of commercial pursuits, render their expenditure 
 less in proportion to their revenue than that of landed pro- 
 prietors, or even than those of men who follow the more liberal 
 walks of lucrative industry. In this manner, while they open 
 channels for the free circulation of wealth, and thereby increase 
 its quantity, they become themselves basins or reservoirs in 
 which this wealth is locally accumulated. It is on this accumu- 
 lation of wealth in particular hands, more than on the general 
 wealth of the community, that the supply of stock to satisfy the 
 demand for borrowing depends ; and it appears from what has 
 been said, how much both the existence of the stock and its 
 partial accumulations are the consequences of commerce. 
 
 It may be said, indeed, that the increase of commerce, if it 
 adds to the number of lenders, adds also to the number of 
 borrowers, or rather that it creates a new order of borrowers, 
 who contract debts, not from necessity, but to increase their 
 capital and enlarge their trade. The observation is just, un- 
 doubtedly ; but the two circumstances do by no means com- 
 pensate each other : for, in a great commercial country, there 
 will be always a large proportion of individuals, \vho, after 
 having acquired a competency by their industry, will be de- 
 sirous to indulge in ease and indolence ; and a still larger pro- 
 portion of their descendants who, inheriting affluence from 
 their forefathers, will be unwilling to burden themselves with 
 the cares of a laborious profession. Such individuals constitute 
 what is properly called the Monied Interest, in contradistinc-
 
 406 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 tion not only to the landed interest, but to the trading and 
 manufacturing interests in which the owners themselves employ 
 their own capitals. The growth of this monied interest, or, in 
 other words, the quantity of stock to supply the demand of 
 borrowers, will evidently keep pace with the general increase 
 of capital, that is, with the increase of national stock. 1 
 
 The stock belonging to the monied interest, it is farther 
 manifest, is not at all regulated by the value of the money, 
 whether paper or coin, which serves as the instrument of the 
 loans. The capitals are, indeed, commonly lent out and paid 
 back in money; and hence the lenders are distinguished by 
 the name of the Monied Interest ; but the truth is, (as Mr. 
 Smith remarks,*) that the money is merely the deed of assign- 
 ment, (as it were,) which conveys from one hand to another 
 those capitals which the owners do not care to employ them- 
 selves. Those capitals may be greater in any proportion than 
 the amount of the money which serves as the instrument of 
 their conveyance ; the same pieces of money successively serving 
 for many different loans, as well as for many different pur- 
 chases. The truth of this observation is sufficiently obvious 
 from what was formerly stated on the subject of Circulation. 
 [P. 378, seq.] 
 
 While the progress of commerce thus creates a monied 
 interest, it undoubtedly adds to the number of borrowers ; but, 
 by doing so, it does not necessarily raise the rate of interest. 
 To understand the reason of this, it is of importance to attend 
 to the different effects produced by a demand for money to be 
 spent in consumption, and a demand for money to be employed 
 in trade. The former has, undoubtedly, a tendency to raise the 
 rate of interest ; and there is no fixed limit which it may not 
 be conceived to pass, as there is no fixed limit to the extrava- 
 gance and improvidence of the prodigal. But the case is very 
 different with respect to the latter ; for the rate of interest paid 
 by merchants will be always limited by the profits of trade ; 
 and the same circumstances which produce an increase in their 
 
 1 Smith, Vol. II. p. 120, Irish Edition. iv. ; Vol. IL p. 35, ieq., tenth edition.] 
 f Wealth of Nations, Book II. chap. * [Ibid.]
 
 CHAP. II. OF MONEY, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 5.) 407 
 
 demand for borrowed money, must necessarily sink these profits, 
 by bringing a greater number of mercantile stocks into com- 
 petition with each other. It is evident that when the stocks 
 of many rich merchants are turned into the same trade, their 
 mutual competition must tend to lower its profits; and, in 
 like manner, when there is an increase of stock in all the 
 different trades carried on in the same society, the same com- 
 petition must produce the same effect in them all. It is farther 
 evident, that the prcemium given by a merchant for the use of 
 money, will be proportioned to the profit he expects to make 
 by his commercial speculations. And, accordingly, this is the 
 third circumstance mentioned by Hume as a cause of low 
 interest; low profits arising from commerce}- 
 
 As low profits arising from commerce necessarily produce a 
 low rate of interest, so a low rate of interest has a tendency, in 
 its turn, to reduce still more the profits of trade, by inducing 
 many to continue their stock in commerce, in order to derive 
 from it all the advantages which the capitalist has a right to 
 expect when he superintends the employment of his own 
 money. It is owing to this circumstance, that in Holland 
 almost every man is a man of business ; for the interest of 
 money is so low, that none but the very wealthiest people are 
 able to live on the revenue which their capital affords. The 
 Dutch carry on trade upon lower profits than any people in 
 Europe; but low as these profits are, they are sufficient to 
 render trade the general and fashionable pursuit in a country, 
 where people of good credit are accustomed to borrow at three 
 per cent., and where Government was able to borrow at two. 
 These two causes, therefore, low profits and low interest, 
 mutually act and react on each other ; and they are both of 
 them necessary consequences of an extensive and flourishing 
 
 1 If the foregoing observations be in a country where the mercantile in- 
 well founded, they lead to a limitation terest bears but a small proportion to 
 or correction of the terms in which the rest of the community. I would 
 Hume states the First cause he assigns propose, therefore, to add to his words ; 
 for the low interest of money, a small a small demand for borrowing among 
 demand for borrowing; for this cause those classes who live by their revenue. 
 operates in the way he mentions, only
 
 408 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 commerce. We may add, that, as low profits arise from the 
 increase of commerce and industry, they serve in their turn to 
 the farther increase of commerce, by rendering the commodities 
 cheaper, increasing their consumption, and heightening the 
 industry. 
 
 "In this manner," says Mr. Hume, "if we consider the 
 whole connexion of causes and effects, interest is the true 
 barometer of the state, and its lowness is a sign almost infal- 
 lible of the flourishing condition of a people. It proves the 
 increase of industry, and its prompt circulation through the 
 whole state, little inferior to a demonstration. And though, 
 perhaps, it may not be impossible but a sudden and a great 
 check to commerce may have a momentary effect of the same 
 kind by throwing so many stocks out of trade, it must be 
 attended with such misery and want of employment to the 
 poor, that, besides its short duration, it will not be possible to 
 mistake the one case for the other."* 
 
 From the reasonings which have been already stated, and 
 which, I must not at present attempt to recapitulate, we were 
 led to conclude with Mr. Hume, (in opposition to the opinions 
 of Locke, Law, and Montesquieu,) that the rate of interest has 
 no necessary connexion with the plenty or scarcity of the pre- 
 cious metals, depending entirely on the habits and manners of 
 a people, more particularly on the state of their commerce and 
 industry. The result of the whole was, that the lowness of 
 interest may be regarded as an almost infallible sign of a 
 flourishing commerce, evincing at once an active spirit of 
 national industry, and a prompt circulation of wealth through 
 all those channels in which it can be employed with ad- 
 vantage. 
 
 I shall only take notice farther before leaving this part of 
 the subject, (and the remark may probably appear superfluous, 
 after what has been already stated,) of the two different senses 
 in which the value of money is to be understood in commercial 
 disquisitions. On some occasions this phrase expresses the 
 quantity of the precious metals we give in exchange for com- 
 
 * [Essayi, Vol. I. Of Interest.]
 
 CHAP. II. OF MONEY, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 5.) 409 
 
 modifies: on other occasions, it expresses the proportion 
 between a sum of money, and the interest it bears in the 
 market. 
 
 These two different modes of valuing money have, in truth, 
 very little connexion with each other, inasmuch as its ex- 
 changeable value in relation to the different articles of trade 
 may be loiv, while the rate of interest is high, and vice versa. 
 One obvious reason of this (although not the only one) is, that 
 the money brought into the market for the purchase of com- 
 modities, is that which is circulated to procure the necessaries 
 and accommodations of life : that which is lent on interest, is 
 what is actually drawn out of circulation to be accumulated 
 into a capital. 
 
 I should hardly have thought it necessary to mention this 
 ambiguity in the word value, when applied to money, if it had 
 not escaped the attention of some respectable writers. 
 
 In a late publication (for example) on the Corn Trade* 
 there are some tables for converting the ancient money of Eng- 
 land and of Scotland, into the present sterling money, which 
 tables, we are told, proceed on the two following principles : 
 
 1. In England and in Scotland, at the time of the Conquest, 
 there were twenty shillings in the coinage pound of silver, 
 which continued with very little variation in England, till the 
 year 1347, and in Scotland till 1306 ; but now, there are siocty- 
 two shillings in the coinage pound of silver in both kingdoms, 
 so that 100 at that time, were equal to 310 of the present 
 money, in point of sale or denomination. 
 
 2. Prior to the sixteenth century, the interest or yearly 
 value of money, in both England and Scotland, was about six- 
 teen per cent. ; whereas it is now reduced to five per cent. 
 
 " Money therefore," says this author, " being raised or 
 reduced in value according to its yearly legal produce, 100 
 bearing interest at ten per cent, is equal in value to 200, 
 bearing only five per cent. ; and so of other sums in pro- 
 portion. So that 100 of ancient money, being equal in value 
 to 310 in point of denomination, and money being now 
 
 1 Dirom's Inquiry, &c. [Lend. 1796.]
 
 410 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 worth only five per cent, yearly, therefore the 310, with the 
 interest at sixteen per cent., were equal to 992 of the present 
 money." 
 
 On these principles, accordingly, a laborious table has been 
 constructed, exhibiting the prices of wheat in England from 
 1223 to 1784 ; first, in the money of the times ; and 
 secondly, in what is supposed to be an equivalent money price 
 at present 
 
 It is sufficiently obvious, that in the observations now 
 quoted, the two meanings of the phrase value of money, which 
 have just been distinguished, are confounded together. 
 
 It would be easy to confirm and illustrate the foregoing rea- 
 sonings by an appeal to facts, as well as to reconcile to them 
 some apparent exceptions which occur in the history of com- 
 mercial nations. I must, however, at present, confine myself 
 to a few particulars, which seem to me more peculiarly interest- 
 ing from their connexion with the history of this country, and 
 to one or two anomalous cases which may be supposed, at first 
 view, to contradict our general conclusions. 
 
 The first English Act of Parliament in which we find any 
 rate of interest mentioned, is the 37th of Henry VIII., enacted 
 in 1546. This Act prohibits, under severe penalties, all in- 
 terest above ten per cent., and consequently proves, that before 
 that period, a higher rate of interest had sometimes been taken. 
 In the earlier ages of the English history, all loans of money 
 for interest were regarded as usurious; a prejudice which 
 prevailed also all over the rest of Europe, and which (as will 
 afterwards appear) is not altogether of modern origin. In the 
 very preamble to this law of Henry VIII., the practice of taking 
 interest is stigmatized as immoral and criminal ; and although 
 it authorized it, from political considerations, yet the prejudice 
 continued so strong, that in the following reign (of Edward 
 VI.) the Statute of Henry was repealed, and all interest prohi- 
 bited. By the 13th of Elizabeth, the Statute of Henry VIII. 
 was revived with additional clauses, still prohibiting the taking 
 of interest above ten per cent. It appears from D'Ewes's 
 Journal of Queen Elizabeth's Parliaments, that while this Act
 
 CHAP. II. OF MONEY, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 5.) 411 
 
 was depending in the House of Commons, it occasioned warm 
 debates, and drew from many of the members violent invectives 
 against usury or interest of every kind, as unchristian, detesta- 
 ble, and damnable. It was said to be, " prseter naturam," 
 " idem ac hominem occidere," " proxima homicidio," &c. &C. 1 
 
 Mr. Hume (in the Third Appendix to his History of Eng- 
 land) remarks, that " by a lucky accident in language, which 
 has a great effect on men's ideas, the invidious word usury, 
 which formerly meant the taking of any interest for money, 
 came at this period to express only the taking of exorbitant 
 and illegal interest." The Act of Queen Elizabeth violently 
 condemns all usury, but permits ten per cent, interest to be 
 paid. 
 
 I shall have occasion afterwards to consider the origin of 
 these prejudices against usury, and also to examine the policy 
 of those restrictions which our legislators have thought proper 
 to continue on money loans to the present day. In this inquiry 
 I have referred to the English laws, only as affording a docu- 
 ment of the different rates at which money appears to have 
 been actually lent at different periods ; for although the legal 
 rate of interest does not with precision determine the market 
 rate, (as it merely fixes the limit which it cannot exceed,) yet 
 as the object of our lawgivers has plainly been to adapt the 
 changes in the legal rate, to that market-rate which would 
 naturally have arisen from the varying circumstances of 
 society, and as the market-rate has been, on the whole, below 
 the legal rate, the progress of our laws affords us sufficient data 
 for comparing the actual rates of interest in England, with the 
 general principles formerly stated. 
 
 The Law of Elizabeth authorizing interest under ten per 
 cent., continued in force till the 21st of James I. (1623,) when 
 it was made penal to take above eight per cent. Soon after the 
 Restoration, it was reduced to six per cent., at which rate, by 
 the way, it had been fixed nine years before under the usurpa- 
 tion of Cromwell ; and by the 12th of Queen Anne it was 
 farther reduced to five per cent., at which rate it still continues. 
 
 1 Postlethwayt, [Dictionary, &c., Art Interest]
 
 412 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 It appears, therefore, that since the reign of Henry VIII., a 
 gradual abatement in the rate of interest has accompanied the 
 growing commercial prosperity of the country. The demand 
 for money at that epoch must have been great in consequence 
 of the general spirit of improvement which was rising over the 
 kingdom, and at the same time the ready money accumulated 
 in the coffers of individuals comparatively inconsiderable. The 
 kings of England, both before and after this period, borrowed 
 large sums in Genoa and the Netherlands, and so low was their 
 credit, that beside the exorbitant interest of ten or twelve per 
 cent., they were obliged to make the city of London join in the 
 security. 1 It is somewhat curious, that the Act which, in 1623, 
 reduced the interest of money to eight per cent, states in its 
 preamble the declining circumstances of the nation, although 
 it affords itself the most unequivocal of all documents of its 
 advancing wealth; for (as Mr. Chalmers justly remarks) 
 " such laws can never be safely enacted till all parties, the 
 lenders as well as the borrowers, are properly prepared to receive 
 them." Accordingly, Stowe tells us (speaking of the reign of 
 James VI.) " that it would in time be incredible, were there not 
 due mention made of it, what great increase there is, within 
 these few years, of commerce and wealth throughout the king- 
 dom ; of the great building of royal and mercantile ships ; of 
 the repeopling of cities, towns, and villages ; beside the sudden 
 augmentation of fair and costly buildings." Nor will this ac- 
 count be suspected of any exaggeration, when we reflect, that 
 during the reign of James the nation enjoyed a longer interval 
 of peace than it has ever done since, no less than twenty-two 
 years of almost uninterrupted tranquillity ; a fact which has 
 been alluded to by some historians, as involving a reproach on 
 his glory as a sovereign, although, in truth, it is more than 
 sufficient to expiate all the follies and absurdities which debased 
 his character. 
 
 The picture given by Lord Clarendon of the state of Eng- 
 land during the first part of the reign of Charles I., is no less 
 flattering. Nor was the progress of the country, although 
 
 1 Guthrie, [History, &c.] ; Chalmers's Estimate, p. 29.
 
 CHAP. IL OF MONET, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. (5.) 413 
 
 interrupted for a time by the civil wars, retarded on the 
 whole by that event. On the contrary, Mr. Chalmers has 
 remarked, that " these wars, unhappy as they were while 
 they continued, both to king and people, produced in the end 
 the most salutary influences, by bringing the higher and 
 lower ranks closer together, and by continuing in all a vigour 
 of design and activity of practice, that in prior ages had no 
 example." 1 
 
 One of the first consequences of real hostilities, was the esta- 
 blishment of taxes, to which the people had seldom contributed, 
 and which produced before their final conclusion, the sum of 
 95,512,025. In this estimate, indeed, are included the sales 
 of confiscated lands, compositions for estates, and such other 
 more oppressive modes of raising money j but the wealth of the 
 country may be judged of from this, that there were collected 
 by excises only 10,200,000, and by tonnage and poundage 
 5,700,000. The opulence which industry had been collect- 
 ing for ages, was thus brought into circulation by means of the 
 tax-gatherer ; and the evils resulting from the dormant hoards 
 of country gentlemen, and other descriptions of individuals, 
 remedied, in a great measure, by the liberality with which they 
 contributed to the wants of the sovereign. 
 
 In consequence of these and other causes, the legal rate of 
 interest was reduced in 1651 to six per cent. And the same 
 rate was continued by a law of Charles II., passed soon after 
 the Kestoration. 
 
 The activity and ardour which the civil commotions of the 
 country had excited, began now to be turned to the arts of 
 peace. The several manufactures and new productions of 
 husbandry that were introduced from abroad, before the Re- 
 volution, not only formed a new epoch, but evince a vigorous 
 application to the useful arts, in the intermediate period. The 
 common highways were repaired and enlarged, and rivers were 
 deepened for the purposes of water conveyance, while foreign 
 trade was increased by opening new markets, and by withdraw- 
 
 'Eden, [State cf the Poor,] Vol. I. p. 146; Chalmers's Estimate, p. 37, 
 second edition.
 
 414 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 ing the alien duties, which had always obstructed the vent of 
 native manufactures. 
 
 But above all, says Mr. Chalmers, the change of manners, 
 and the intermixture of the higher and middle ranks by mar- 
 riages, induced the gentry, and even the younger branches of 
 the nobility, to bind their sons apprentices to merchants, and 
 thereby to ennoble a profession that was before only gainful, to 
 invigorate traffic by their greater capitals, and to extend its 
 operation by their superior knowledge. And accordingly, Child, 
 Petty, and Davenant, agree in asserting that the commerce and 
 riches of England did never, in any former age, increase so fast 
 as in the busy period from the Restoration to the Ee volution. 
 From an authentic account of the customs, (referred to by Mr. 
 Chalmers,) it appears that they were more than doubled during 
 this short interval ; and we are told by Dr. Davenant, that the 
 tonnage of the merchant ships was, in the year 1688, double of 
 what it had been in 1666 ; and the tonnage of the Royal Navy, 
 which in 1660 was only 62,594 tons, was in 1688 increased to 
 101,032 tons. 1 
 
 Towards the end of King William's reign, the interest of 
 money began to fall ; and it continued so low, even amid the 
 pressures of the subsequent war, that Parliament enacted in 
 1713, that the legal interest should not rise higher than five 
 per cent, after September 1714. This law continues in force in 
 the present times; and since the period it was enacted, the 
 market rate seems to have been, on the whole, below the legal 
 rate, notwithstanding the effects of the funding system, and of 
 some other accidental circumstances in keeping up the rate of 
 interest. About seven years ago, the Bank of England was in 
 the practice of discounting bills at four per cent. And in the 
 reign of George I., the natural rate of interest fell to three per 
 cent., while the Government seldom borrowed at more than 
 four. 2 
 
 The effects produced on the market rate of interest by public 
 loans, and more particularly by those high gratuities which, in 
 times of difficulty, Government is under the necessity of giving, 
 
 1 Guthrie, [History, &c.] p. 311. * Chalmers's Estimate, &c., p. 98.
 
 CHAP. II. OF MONET, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 5.) 415 
 
 are sufficiently evident. But on this subject I shall not enlarge 
 at present ; although it is of great importance, not only in con- 
 sequence of its connexion with the variations of interest in this 
 country, but with those general principles which influence the 
 progress of national improvement. 
 
 During the whole period which has been now under our 
 review, from the reign of Henry VIII. till the present century, 
 while the interest of money has been gradually diminishing, 
 the wages of labour (which may be expected always to increase 
 with the increase of national stock) have been continually 
 rising. 
 
 Agreeably to the same general principles, we find a small 
 difference in the market rate of interest in the two United 
 Kingdoms, corresponding to their unequal measures of national 
 prosperity. The market rate of interest in Scotland is rather 
 higher than in England, although the legal rate of interest be 
 the same in both. In the latter country, the competition of great 
 and numerous stocks in every branch of trade, must necessarily 
 diminish the profits of the trader ; and the diminution is still 
 farther aggravated by that increase in the wages of labour which 
 a superabundance of stock produces. In Scotland, the compa- 
 rative poverty of the country is accompanied with consequences 
 precisely opposite. 
 
 In Ireland the legal rate of interest is six per cent. An 
 attempt was made a few years ago to lower it to five, but with- 
 out success. I am not acquainted with the arguments which 
 were employed on the opposite sides of the question ; but the con- 
 sideration which appears to have had the chief weight was, that 
 a considerable portion of the stock and capital of the kingdom 
 was English ; that the only temptation the proprietors had to 
 lay it out in Ireland was the additional interest paid there, and 
 that if this were reduced the greater part of it would be with- 
 drawn. 1 
 
 In France, the legal rate of interest has not been always 
 regulated by the market rate, during the course of the present 
 
 1 Crumpe's Essay, &c., [1796,] p. about the Register of Mortgages in Ire- 
 340. (In pencil. Mem. To inquire land and in England. Lord Mansfield.)
 
 416 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK IT. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 century, but has been, in several instances, violently altered by 
 Government for political purposes. In 1720, it was reduced 
 from five to two per cent. In 1724, it was raised to three and 
 one-third per cent. In 1725, it was again raised to five per 
 cent. In 1766, during the administration of M. Laverdi, it 
 was reduced to four per cent. The Abbe Terray raised it 
 afterwards to the old rate of five per cent. Although, however, 
 the legal rate of interest in France has frequently been lower 
 than in England, the market rate has generally been higher, 
 the ingenuity of borrowers and lenders being employed there 
 as in other countries, to evade the law, where it did not happen 
 to be accommodated to the commercial circumstances of the 
 nation. From this statement of the comparative market rates 
 of interest in France and in England, it would appear that the 
 profits of trade were higher in the former country than in the 
 latter ; a conclusion which is strongly corroborated by another 
 well-known fact, that many British subjects have chosen to 
 employ their capitals rather there than at home, notwithstand- 
 ing the low degree of importance which was attached in France 
 to mercantile opulence. If the foregoing principles concerning 
 interest be just, we must also conclude from these facts, that 
 the accumulation of stock in France was less than in England, 
 or at least, that the national prosperity was not so rapidly 
 advancing ; and, accordingly, we find, that the wages of labour 
 were lower, and the condition of the common people greatly 
 inferior, in respect of the comforts and accommodations of 
 life. 
 
 In earlier times the case was different. About the period 
 when Elizabeth fixed the rate of interest at ten per cent., 
 Henry IV. of France reduced it from eight and one-third per 
 per cent, (at which it was fixed by Francis L, anno 1522 *) to 
 six and one-half per cent ; a fact which Mr. Hume refers to in 
 his History, as evincing the great advance of France above 
 England in commerce about the middle of the sixteenth century. 
 In the Appendix to the twenty-fifth volume of the Monthly 
 
 1 Sir James Steuart's Political (Economy, [Book IV. chap. iv. ; Works, VoL III. 
 p. 156.J
 
 CHAP. IL OP MONET, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 5.) 417 
 
 Review, a writer who professes to speak from good information 
 concerning the present state of that kingdom, (1798,) assures 
 us, that the interest of money is from six to seven per cent., 
 all restraints upon usury being now taken away. The same 
 writer tells us, that the wages of labour have in general risen 
 greatly of late, and that in some places the wages of rustic 
 labour have been nearly doubled. These facts, supposing them 
 to be accurately stated, afford no exception to our general prin- 
 ciples ; for the interest of money appears to have risen in a 
 very inconsiderable proportion when compared with the wages 
 of labour, more particularly when it is considered that, even 
 under the old Government, the market rate of interest was 
 higher than in England. Indeed, there can be little doubt 
 that in our own country, the market rate of interest would be 
 at present six or seven per cent, if the legal restraints were 
 abolished. 
 
 If we extend our view to our West Indian colonies, we find 
 the same general principles apply, although the results are 
 somewhat different, in consequence of particular combina- 
 tions of circumstances. As a new colony must always for 
 some time be more understocked in proportion to the extent 
 of its territory, than the greater part of other countries, the 
 stock which exists, as Mr. Smith has remarked,* is applied to 
 the cultivation only of what is most fertile and most favourably 
 situated, the lands near the sea-shore, and along the banks of 
 navigable rivers lands, too, which are frequently purchased at 
 a price below the value even of their natural produce. Stock 
 employed in the purchase and improvement of such lands must 
 yield a very large profit, and consequently afford to pay a very 
 large interest. As the colony increases, the profits of stock 
 gradually diminish. When the most fertile and best situated 
 lands have been all occupied, less profit can be made by the 
 cultivation of what is inferior both in soil and situation, and 
 less interest can be afforded for the stock which is employed. 
 In the greater part of our colonies, accordingly, both the legal 
 
 * [Wealth of Nation*, Book I. chap, ix.; Vol. I. p. 140, seq., tenth edition.] 
 VOL. VIII. 2 D
 
 418 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART L BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 and the market rate of interest have been considerably reduced 
 during the course of the present century. As riches, improve- 
 ment, and cultivation have increased, interest has sunk ; so 
 that, although still higher than in this part of the world, it is 
 low when compared with what it was at a more early period. 
 It runs in general from six to eight per cent. 
 
 But although the rate of interest in these colonies is plainly 
 regulated by the general principles formerly explained, it must 
 be confessed, that it does not appear, on a superficial view, to 
 bear the same relation to the wages of labour which it does in 
 Europe. The truth is, (as Mr. Smith has further observed,*) 
 that new colonies are not only understocked, in proportion to 
 the extent of their territory, but underpeopled in proportion to 
 the extent of their stock. The rapid accumulation of their 
 stock, at the same time, enables the planters to increase the 
 number of their hands faster than they can find them in a new 
 settlement, and, of consequence, those whom they do find are 
 very liberally rewarded. This combination of high wages of 
 labour and of high profits of stock, is seldom to be found but 
 in the peculiar circumstances of new colonies. And even in 
 these, as improvement goes on, their mutual relation comes to 
 approach more and more to the general theory. Thus, in the 
 West Indies, while the profits of stock have gradually dimi- 
 nished during the last hundred years, the wages of labour con- 
 tinue unabated. The reason, according to Mr. Smith, is obvious, 
 for " the demand for labour increases with the increase of stock, 
 whatever be its profits ; and after these are diminished, stock 
 may not only continue to increase, but to increase much faster 
 than before."t The connexion between the increase of stock, 
 and that for the demand for useful labour, is fully explained by 
 Mr. Smith in that part of his work where he treats of the 
 accumulation of stock. J The further illustration of it has no 
 connexion with our present subject. 
 
 Another case is mentioned by the same ingenious and pro- 
 
 * [Ibid.] (In pencil. Memorandum. f [Ibid.] 
 Consult Bryan Edwards.) J [Ibid. Book II., passim.]
 
 CHAP. II. OF MONEY, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 5.) 419 
 
 found writer, as affording an apparent exception to the fore- 
 going doctrine ; I mean the case of a country whose state has 
 been suddenly altered by the acquisition of new territory, or of 
 new branches of trade. Here " the profits of stock, and with 
 them the interest of money, may rise, even although the country 
 is fast advancing in the acquisitioSi of riches. The stock of the 
 country not being sufficient for the whole accession of business, 
 which such acquisitions present to the different people among 
 whom it is divided, is applied to those particular branches only 
 which afford the greatest profit. Part of what before had been 
 employed in other trades, is of course withdrawn from them, 
 and turned into some of the new and more profitable ones. In 
 all those old trades, therefore, the competition comes to be less 
 than before ; and as the market is less fully supplied with the 
 different sorts of goods, their price rises more or less, and yields 
 a greater profit to those who deal in them, and who can there- 
 fore afford to borrow at a higher interest. . . . This accession 
 of business, to be carried on by the old stock, must diminish 
 the quantity employed in a great number of particular branches 
 in which the competition being less, the profits must be 
 greater."* So that, through all the different branches of 
 trade, both old and new, the demand for borrowed money must 
 necessarily yield a higher interest to the lenders. 
 
 In Bengal, and the other British settlements in the East 
 Indies, the wages of labour are very low, while the profits of 
 stock and the interest of money are very high. The truth is, 
 that the same cause which lowers the wages of labour, viz., the 
 diminution of the capital stock of the society, or of the funds 
 destined for the maintenance of industry, raises the profits of 
 stock. By the wages of labour being lowered, the owners of 
 what stock remains in the society can bring their goods cheaper 
 to market than before, and at the same time they can sell them 
 dearer, as the market is not so well supplied. These unnatural 
 profits, arising from the ruined state of these countries, afford of 
 consequence a proportionally exorbitant interest. " In Bengal," 
 
 * [Ibid. Book I. chap. ix. ; Vol. I. p. 142, tenth edition.]
 
 420 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART L BOOK IL NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 according to Mr. Smith, "money is frequently lent to the 
 farmers at forty, fifty, and sixty per cent., and the succeeding 
 crop is mortgaged for the payment. As the profits which cap 
 afford such an interest must consume almost the whole rent of 
 the landlord, so such enormous usury must in its turn eat up 
 the greater part of these profits."* And hence, on the one 
 hand, the rapid accumulation of wealth by our countrymen in 
 that part of the world ; and on the other, the oppressed and 
 impoverished condition of the natives. 
 
 In a country which had obtained that complete measure of 
 opulence and of population of which its physical advantages 
 admitted, and which at the same time was not on the decline, 
 both the wages of labour and the profits of stock would pro- 
 bably be very low. The country being, by the supposition, 
 fully peopled, the competition for employment would reduce the 
 wages of labour to that minimum which was just sufficient to 
 prevent the race of labourers from diminishing ; and the stock 
 being fully adequate to all the business that could be transacted, 
 the competition would be as great, and consequently the rate of 
 profit as low as possible. 
 
 It may be doubted, however, whether this hypothetical case 
 was ever realized in its full extent in the history of mankind. 
 At first view, perhaps, China may appear to approach to the 
 description ; and undoubtedly it seems to have continued longer 
 in a stationary condition, than any other country with which 
 we are acquainted. It is, however, very well remarked by Mr. 
 Smith, that although China may have acquired that full com- 
 plement of riches which is consistent with the nature of its laws 
 and institutions, there is the greatest reason to believe that this 
 complement is far short of what its physical advantages might 
 admit under a different system of policy. Of this a judgment 
 may be formed from the contempt in which foreign commerce 
 is held; from the exclusion of foreign vessels from all the 
 ports, one or two excepted ; and above all, from the oppressive 
 extortions to which men of small capital are liable from the 
 inferior mandarins. This last circumstance of itself, added to 
 
 * [Ibid. p. 143.]
 
 CHAP. IL OF MONEY, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 5.) 421 
 
 the comparative security of the rich, must establish a monopoly 
 in favour of the latter, and increase greatly the profits of trade. 
 Accordingly twelve per cent, is said to be the common interest 
 of money in China. 1 The wages of labour are no higher than 
 what is sufficient for the most scanty subsistence of the labourer, 
 the population being incomparably beyond what the stock en- 
 gaged in business is able to employ. 
 
 In what has now been said, we have considered the riches or 
 poverty of a country as the only causes which influence the rate 
 of interest It is possible, however, that other adventitious cir- 
 cumstances may operate to the same effect. When the law, 
 for example, does not enforce the performance of contracts, the 
 precariousness of repayment places all debtors in the same 
 situation with persons of doubtful credit, and subjects them to 
 the same usurious conditions. In accounting for the high rate 
 of interest during the earlier periods of the modern history of 
 Europe, this cause ought not to be overlooked. 
 
 The same effect takes place in a still greater degree where 
 the law absolutely prohibits interest. Necessity must frequently 
 produce evasions of the law ; and in such cases a premium will 
 be expected, not only in proportion to the profits to be made by 
 the use of the money, but to the danger to which the lender is 
 exposed in the event of a discovery. 
 
 From the general principles which we have now been endea- 
 vouring to illustrate, it is easy to conceive in what manner the 
 prices of commodities may sometimes continue stationary while 
 the wages of labour are progressive ; for the same cause which 
 raises the wages of labour, (viz., the increase of national stock,) 
 has a tendency to lower the profits of the merchant, and, con- 
 sequently, the variations in these two elements of price may so 
 balance each other, as to bring the commodity to the market 
 at the same rate as before. 
 
 Before leaving this part of our subject, it may be worth 
 while to add, that the ordinary market price of land is re- 
 gulated, in every commercial country, by the ordinary market 
 
 1 (In pencil) Postlethwayt states per cent. See Dictionary, Article, 
 the rate of interest in China at thirty Interest. Consult Sir G. Staunton.
 
 422 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 rate of interest If the return to be expected from vesting a 
 capital in land, were equal to what could be obtained by lend- 
 ing the same sum upon interest, the superior security, together 
 with the other advantages connected with landed property, 
 would induce every person who wished to derive an income 
 from his money without superintending the employment of it 
 himself, to prefer the former species of income to the latter. 
 The truth is, that these advantages are such, as to compensate 
 a certain difference in the pecuniary return, and accordingly 
 the market rent of land may be always expected to fall short of 
 the market interest of money. What the difference between 
 them is, in particular cases, will no doubt depend somewhat on 
 the judgment or fancy of the individual; but it is evident 
 that there are certain limits within which it must be confined. 
 If the pecuniary difference was very great, the market would 
 be glutted with land, its ordinary price would fall, and the 
 balance would be restored. On the other hand, if the advan- 
 tages of landed property were more than sufficient to compen- 
 sate the pecuniary difference, everybody would buy land, and 
 the rise in its price would restore the natural proportion be- 
 tween the rent of a capital so employed and the market rate of 
 interest. When interest was at ten per cent., land was com- 
 monly sold for ten and twelve years' purchase. As interest 
 sunk to six, five, and four per cent., the price of land rose to 
 twenty, five-and-twenty, and thirty years' purchase ; so that, in 
 general, the price of land may be expected to vary inversely 
 with the value of money. 
 
 In farther illustration of this subject, I may observe, that 
 land, when let on lease, may be considered as so much capital 
 let out by landlords to the farmers ; and consequently, a very 
 close analogy must exist between the condition of the capitalist, 
 or landed interest, and that of the properties of disengaged 
 capital, or monied interest. A pecuniary augmentation of rent, 
 however, is not an augmentation of the rent of the capital alone, 
 but of the capital itself, being immediately convertible into 
 property, by a rate determined by the number of years' pur- 
 chase which land may be worth in the market. In this respect,
 
 CHAP. II. OF MONET, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 5.) 423 
 
 too, the same general principles apply to the rent of land, and 
 to the interest of money, any additional annual dividend de- 
 clared by our chartered companies instantly resolving itself 
 into capital. 
 
 This doctrine, at the same time, it is necessary to remark, 
 although just and unquestionable in the main, must be under- 
 stood with certain limitations. Landed property has many 
 circumstances peculiar to itself, which, by stamping upon it a 
 value independent of the pecuniary returns it affords, prevents 
 its price from being regulated by the same general principles 
 which apply to other articles of commercial speculation. Local 
 causes, for example, may, in particular districts, alter the general 
 proportion of buyers to sellers, and may thus occasion a local 
 rise or fall in the price of land, while the market rate of in- 
 terest is nearly the same over the whole kingdom. 1 In places 
 where thriving manufactures have been established, land has 
 been observed to sell more briskly, and for more years' pur- 
 chase than in other districts, for there the number of buyers 
 may be expected to exceed the number of sellers. In such 
 manufacturing districts, the riches of one set of men not arising 
 from the extravagance and waste of another, as it does in other 
 places^where men live idly on the produce of their land, the 
 industrious part of the community brings an increase of wealth 
 from a distance, without injuring the interests of their neigh- 
 bours. And when the thriving tradesman has got more than 
 he can well employ in trade, his next thoughts are to look out 
 for a purchase in the vicinity, where the estate may be under 
 his eye, and may remove neither himself nor his children from 
 the business to which they have been accustomed. The extra- 
 ordinary demand for land, therefore, in such situations, must 
 occasion an extraordinary enhancement of its price. 
 
 In regulating the proportion, too, between the price of land 
 and the value of money, a good deal, it is evident, will depend 
 on the habits of the landed gentry in point of frugality or of 
 dissipation. Where it is fashionable for them to live beyond 
 
 1 See Locke, Vol. II p. 20. [(First) Considerations on Interest and Money.]
 
 424 POLITICAL ECONOMY. PART I. BOOK II. NAT. WEALTH. 
 
 their income, debts will increase and multiply, and lay them 
 under a necessity, first of encumbering and then of selling their 
 estates. This is generally the cause why men part with their 
 land, for it happens rarely that a clear and unencumbered 
 estate is exposed to sale merely for a pecuniary profit. Mr. 
 Locke remarks, that " there is scarce one in a hundred that 
 thinks of selling his patrimony, till mortgages have pretty well 
 eat into the freehold, and the weight of growing debts force the 
 
 proprietor, whether he will or no, out of his possessions 
 
 It is seldom," he adds, " that a thriving man turns his land 
 into money, to make the greater advantage ; the examples of 
 it are so rare, that they are scarce of any consideration in the 
 number of sellers." 
 
 " This I think may be the reason," continues the same writer, 
 " why, in Queen Elizabeth's days, (sobriety, frugality, and in- 
 dustry, bringing in daily increase to the growing wealth of the 
 kingdom,) land kept up its price, and sold for more years' pur- 
 chase than corresponded to the interest of money, then busily 
 employed in a thriving trade, which made the natural interest 
 much higher than it is now, as well as the legal rate fixed by 
 Parliament." 1 
 
 In these observations of Mr. Locke there is much truth and 
 good sense, but I apprehend that they are by no means so 
 strictly applicable to the present state of our country as they 
 were at the time when he wrote. The attachment to landed 
 property is now greatly diminished. The personal considera- 
 tion arising from it has sunk in the public estimation, in conse- 
 quence of the progress of commerce and of luxury, and the 
 rank of an individual is measured chiefly by the extent of his 
 expenditure. The extravagance and dissipation of the metro- 
 polis, are preferred to the simple and frugal enjoyments of the 
 country ; and land, like any other article of property, is valued 
 chiefly in proportion to the revenue it affords. Although, there- 
 fore, it still possesses, and must necessarily possess, certain 
 advantages over every other species of property, these advan- 
 tages are not so great now as they formerly were, and conse- 
 
 1 Vol. II. p. 26. [Ibid.]
 
 CHAP. II. OF MONEY, THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. ( 5.) 425 
 
 quently the price of land may be expected to be more accurately 
 regulated by the interest of money, than when the feudal ideas 
 were more prevalent, and the commerce of England compara- 
 tively in its infancy 
 
 The question concerning the expediency of subjecting the 
 commerce of money to the regulation of law is to be considered 
 in another part of the course. 
 
 In the observations which I have hitherto made on National 
 Wealth, my principal object has been, to illustrate some of the 
 most important elementary principles connected with that 
 article of Political Economy, with a view chiefly to facilitate 
 and assist your studies in the perusal and examination of Mr. 
 Smith's Inquiry. The greater part of these disquisitions have 
 been entirely of a speculative nature, aiming merely to analyze 
 and explain the actual mechanism of society, without pointing 
 out any of the conclusions, susceptible of a practical applica- 
 tion, to which they may lead. A few disquisitions of this last 
 description may, indeed, have insensibly blended themselves 
 with our analytical inquiries ; but in these instances I have 
 departed from my general plan, and my only apology is, that 
 the limits of my course left me little prospect of being able to 
 resume, in a systematical order, the consideration of the ques- 
 tions which gave occasion to these digressions.* 
 
 * [Boos II. is concluded in the ensuing Volume.]
 
 APPENDICES 
 
 TO BOOKS FIRST AND SECOND.
 
 APPENDICES. 
 
 APPENDIX I. To B. I. CH. n. 3. 
 Quotation on Population from Pinto. 
 
 fix has been thought proper to adduce fully the following passage, alluded to by 
 Mr. Stewart in p. 203 ; and a reference to this Appendix ought to have been there 
 subjoined. Ed. 
 
 " Pour faire sentir qu'il y a un maximum et dans la population et dans I'agri- 
 culture, je prie le lecteur de promener son imagination sur les observations suiv- 
 antes. Supposons d'abord toute 1'Europe aussi peuplee qu'elle est susceptible de 
 1'etre ; elle contiendra par estimation quatre ou cinq fois autant d'habitans qu'il 
 y en a actuellement d'etablis. Dans ce cas la, il faudroit de toute necessite que 
 tout son sol nit exactement cultive pour nourrir tant de monde. Nous voulons 
 encore accorder, que par une legislation et par une administration auperieures, tous 
 les gradins des classes fussent bien distribues, enun mot qu'il y cut une proportion, 
 et une harmonic exacte dans toutes les parties des divers Etats et Gouvernemens. 
 
 " L'Europe parvenue a ce point de population et de culture, qu'en arriveroit-il ? 
 Arreteroit-on le progre's ulterieur de la population ? Comment 1'arreteroit-on ? 
 On seroit force d'envoyer des Colonies en Amerique et ailleurs. Mais cette 
 ressource ne suffiroit pas ; il est a craindre qu'on ne fut contraint de susciter de 
 cruelles et funestes guerres en attendant la peste et la famine. Ce dernier fleau 
 ne tarderoit pas a faire des ravages ; il seroit amene naturellement par cette grande 
 et universelle population qu'on suppose etablie. Les fruits annuels de la terre 
 seroient sans contredit annuellement consumes par les habitans respcctifs de chaque 
 Pays. Or il est certain que, selon le cours de la Nature, les recoltes manquent 
 dans tous les pays apres un certain nombre d'annees. Toutes les contrees seroient 
 done forcement reduites tour a tour a mourir de faim ; chaque pays, ayant besoin 
 de ses propres productions pour nourrir ses propres habitans, ne pourroit pas pour- 
 voir ses voisins. Poussons plus loin nos observations. 
 
 " II y a des Naturalistes qui pretendent que notre globe terrestre n'a qu'nne 
 croute vegetale, qui s'epuise par la culture, et devient en fin aride et sterile. On 
 pretend que les deserts de 1'Arabie ont autrefois etc des contrees fertiles, et les pre- 
 mieres habitations du genre humain. 
 
 " Sans approfondir cette question, tout le monde sait que la terre rajeunit par le
 
 430 APPENDIX I. TO B. I. CH. II. 3. PINTO ON POPULATION. 
 
 rcpos ; il lui est souvent necessaire pour conserver sa fecondite. Personne n'ignore 
 1'irapatiente vegetation dont une terre neuve se presse de recompenser les premiers 
 soins du laboureur. II faut done des alternatives de repos et de culture ; il faut 
 des vivres de reserve, des terres incultes, des pays inhabites, poiir 1'ordre, 1'har- 
 inonie et la conservation du tout. II paroit probable qu'il n'entre point dans le 
 dessein de la Providence, que le globe quo nous habitons soit partout egalement 
 cultive et peuple. Get etat momentaire de perfection d'opulence, s'il pouvoit 
 exister, ameneroit done les plus grands malheurs. Nous ne connoissons pas le 
 souverain bien ; les imperfections apparentes conspirent souvent a la conservation 
 du tout. Nous ne voyons qu'une partie du tableau ; de faux jours nous eblouissent ; 
 la perfection n'est pas 1'apanage d'une seule partie, mais le resultat du tout. 
 
 " La population excessive a toujours enfante la guerre, qui, en se tournant 
 centre sa cause, la diminue et la detruit. 
 
 " Multiplier leshommes, dit M. de Mirabeau, [the elder,] sans multiplier les sub- 
 sistances, c'est les vouer au supplice de la faim. Ce phenomene est rare, et ne pent 
 arriver que par un vice d'administration et de police ; mais, d'un autre cote, multiplier 
 les subsistances sans multiplier les consommateurs, c'est une chimere destructive, 
 et qui ne peut jamais exister au delii d'une annee. Les bornes physiques de la 
 population d'un pays ne sont pas invinciblement assujetties aux productions de 
 son territoire, quand le commerce et la navigation, secondes du credit, de la cir- 
 culation, et des biens fictifs, sont en bon etat : temoin la Hollande. C'est plutot 
 la culture qui est invinciblement assujettie a la consommation interieure, ou a 
 1'exportation precaire Nationale. Quand la population excede les richesses, le 
 vice est inherent au corps de 1'Etat. C'est que toute la machine politique est 
 detraquee. II faut pour-lors porter ses regards partout, et remedier a tout a la 
 fois. II faut pcurlors, comme My lord Bolingbroke dit a un autre sujet, imiter 
 les grandes operations de la nature, et non celles de I 1 art, toujours lentes, foibles 
 et imparfaites. Nous ne devons pas proceder comme fait un statuaire en formant 
 une statue, dont il travaille tantot la tete, tantot une autre partie ; mais nous 
 devons nous conduire comme la nature agit en formant un animal, ou toute autre 
 de ses productions ; Rudimenta partium omnium simid parit et producit ; ellejette 
 a la fois le plan de chaque etre et les principes de toutes ses parties. Tous les 
 vegetaux et les animaux croissent en volume, et augmentent en forces ; mais ils 
 sont les memes des le commencement. II faut une puissance coercive, qui con- 
 tinue les ordres de 1'Etat, comme la clef d'une voute contient le corps du bailment. 
 Dans un grand Royaume, 1'agriculture, le commerce, les manufactures, la circulation, 
 le credit public, la police interieure, la finance, 1'etat de guerre, les colonies, la navi- 
 gation, la marine, le luxe modere, tout doit marcher dans une proportion reciproque, 
 pour conserver 1'harmonie de 1'Etat, le bon ordre et la prosperite d'une Nation. 
 
 " L'etendue des frontieres ne fait pas seule la puissance d'un Etat ; mais c'est 
 un grand avantage, qui comporte un plus grand nombre de sujets qui peuvent 
 tronver leur subsistence. Le grand nombre seul avec une subsistance physique, 
 n'est pas encore le tout ; il faut que 1'aisance s'y trouve ; et cette aisance, dans le 
 grand nombre, exige plusieurs classes, et ne sauroit etre confinee aux seuls travaux 
 de 1'agriculture. Si la population en France etoit a son comble, le debouche ex 
 ti'rieur, ou 1'exportation des grains, seroit presque inutile. Elle doit etre regardce 
 comme un supplement ou comme un remede au manque de population pour 1'article
 
 APPENDIX II. TO B. IF. CH. II. BULLION REPORT. 431 
 
 de la culture, et comme un vehicule de commerce pour soutenir 1'agriculture, et 
 favoriser la population. Mais ce n'est pas I'accroissement de la population, qui est 
 le vrai secret de 1'Administration ; c'est 1'harmonie de toutes lea parties, et 
 1'equilibre de toutes les classes."*] 
 
 II To B. II. CH. 11. 
 
 Notes on the [Parliamentary] Bullion Report. 
 (Sent by Mr. Stewart to Lord Lauderdale, in February, March, and April, 1811.) 
 
 NOTE I. 
 
 (Feb. 26,) Bullion Report, p. 7. " The same rise of the market price of gold above 
 its mint price will take place, if the local currency of this particular country, being 
 no longer convertible into gold, should at any time be issued to excess. That excess 
 cannot be exported to other countries, and not being convertible into specie, it is 
 not necessarily returned upon those who issued it ; it remains in the channel of 
 circulation, and is gradually absorbed by increasing the prices of att commodities. 
 An increase in the quantity of the local currency of a particular country, will raise 
 prices in that country, exactly in the same manner as an increase in the general 
 supply of precious metals raises prices all over the world." 
 
 This reasoning is qualified and restricted in another part of the Report, by some 
 just observations upon the effects of a quick or slow circulation, in augmenting or 
 diminishing the powers of money as a medium of exchange, (see page 26 ;) but 
 very little use is made, in the general argument, of these important and indeed 
 essential limitations ; and they seem to have been still less attended to in some of 
 the best pamphlets which have lately appeared on the same subject. " If the 
 currency of a country," says Mr. Blake, " is increased, while the commodities to be 
 circulated by it remain the same, the currency will be diminished in value with 
 respect to the commodities, and it will require a larger proportion of the former to 
 purchase a given quantity of the latter ; or, in other words, prices will rise. If we 
 were in the habit of considering money as purchased by commodities, instead of 
 commodities being purchased by money, the diminution in the value of money 
 from its abundance would be immediately apparent." " Mr. Thornton admits, in 
 the most explicit manner, that if the quantity of circulating medium is permanently 
 augmented, without a corresponding augmentation of internal trade, a rise will 
 invariably take place in the price of exchangeable articles. Indeed, this is a 
 principle upon which all the writers on Commerce, both practical and speculative, 
 are agreed ; they have thought it so undeniable as to require no particular illustra- 
 tion, and have rather assumed it as an obvious truth than as a proposition that 
 depended on inference. Upon this idea is founded Mr. Hume's well-known argu- 
 ment against Banks, and it is equally implied in Dr. Smith's confutation of that 
 objection ; it forms the foundation of those presumptions from which Mr. Boyd has 
 * [PiBio, TraiU de la Circulation et du Credit, Amt. 1771. Partie iv. p. 221, ttq.'}
 
 432 APPENDIX IL TO B. II. CH. II. BULLION REPORT. 
 
 lately inferred an improper increase of Bank of England paper ; and it is implicitly 
 admitted likewise by Mr. Thornton, one great object of whose book is to persuade 
 the public that there has been no such increase." 1 " Without entering, therefore," 
 continues Mr. Blake, " into an unnecessary argument, I shall, for the present, 
 assume as admitted, that the increase of currency, while the commodities to be 
 circulated remain the same, will be attended with an increase of nominal prices, 
 and a correspondent depreciation in the value of money." 8 
 
 That there is a great deal of truth in this doctrine, when properly explained and 
 modified, I do not deny ; but it is surely not entitled to be assumed as a political 
 axiom ; nor is it even correctly true in the form in which it is here stated. It is, 
 in fact, the very same doctrine with respect to prices, which was advanced by 
 Locke, Montesquieu, and Hume ; and which Sir James Steuart has, I think, refuted 
 by very satisfactory (though very ill expressed) arguments, in his Political (Economy. 
 (Book II. chap, xxviii.) The only difference is, that whereas Locke and Montes- 
 quieu assert that the prices of commodities are always proportioned to the plenty 
 of money in a country, the authors referred to in the foregoing extract, (with the 
 exception of Mr. Hume,) content themselves with saying, that " the increase of 
 currency, while the commodities to be circulated remain the same, will be attended 
 with an increase of nominal prices." 
 
 That the principle, even when thus corrected, does not appear altogether self- 
 evident, is shewn sufficiently from what was already hinted concerning the effects 
 which may be produced by a change in the rale of circulation. Bishop Berkeley 
 long ago proposed it as a Query, " Whether less money swiftly circulating be not, 
 in effect, equivalent to more money slowly circulating ; and whether, if the circu- 
 lation be reciprocally as the quantity of coin, the nation can be a loser ?' * It is, 
 at least, a possible case then, m theory, that, on the one hand, an increase in the 
 quantity of money may be so counterbalanced by a decrease in the rate of circula- 
 tion, as to leave the relation between money and commodities the same as before ; 
 and that, on the other hand, the quantity of money may remain unaltered, (nay, 
 may suffer a great diminution,) while in consequence of an accelerated circulation, 
 its influence upon prices, and upon everything else, may be increased in any given 
 ratio. In general, before we draw any inferences from the mere increase of cur- 
 rency, it is as necessary to ascertain the fact, whether its circulation be likely to be, 
 on the whole, accelerated or retarded, as it is, in computing the momentum of a 
 moving body, to combine the velocity of its motion with the quantity of its 
 matter. 
 
 1 Edinburgh Review, VoL L p. 178. " If the circulation of any country were per- 
 formed exclusively by gold, and the supply of 
 
 * Blake's Observation*, &c., p. 44. To the that metal were, from any imaginable cause 
 
 tame purpose it is observed by Mr. Huskisson, doubled, whilst the quantity of gold and the 
 
 that " although a general increase of prices in demand for it should continue the same in all 
 
 all the ordinary commodities of any country is ordinary part* of the world, the price of gold 
 
 not, in itself, an Indication of the depreciation of in such a country would be diminished. This 
 
 its currency, (it being always possible that such diminution of the price of gold would appear in 
 
 an effect may arise from other causes;) yet this the proportionate rise of all commodities." 
 
 general increase of prices could not fail to be [/tirf.] pp. 26, 27. 
 
 produced by an increase of the precious metals." * \Queritt, No. 22. Vide tvpra, pp. 378, 
 
 [Question on the Currency, 4c.,] pp. 24, 25. 378.]
 
 APPENDIX II. TO B. II. CH. II. BULLION EXPORT. 433 
 
 An examination of the circumstances by which the circulation of money is liable 
 to be affected, appears to me to be still a desideratum in the theory of commerce. 
 Mr. Thornton has touched slightly on the subject in his book on Paper Credit ; but 
 his reasoning is not at all convincing to my mind. " The causes," he observes, 
 " which lead to a variation in the rapidity of the circulation of bank-notes may be 
 several. In general, it may be observed, that a high state of confidence serves to 
 quicken their circulation; and this happens upon a principle which shall be fully 
 explained. It must be premised that, by the phrase, a more or less quick circula- 
 tion of notes, will be meant a more or less quick circulation of the whole of them 
 on an average. Whatever increases that reserve, for instance, of Bank of England 
 notes which remains in the drawer of the London banker, as his provision against 
 contingencies, contributes to what will here be termed the less quick circulation 
 of the whole. Now a high state of confidence contributes to make men provide less 
 amply against contingencies. At such a time, they trust, that if a demand upon 
 them for a payment, which is now doubtful and contingent, should actually be 
 made, they will be able to provide for it at the moment ; and they are loath to be 
 at the expense of selling an article, or of getting a bill discounted, in order to make 
 the provision much before the period at which it shall be wanted. When, on the 
 contrary, a season of distrust arises, prudence suggests that the loss of interest 
 arising from a detention of notes for a few additional days should not be 
 regarded." * 
 
 Agreeably to the same view of the subject, it is observed in the Bullion Beport, 
 as a proof, that " the effective currency of the country depends upon the quickness 
 of circulation, as well as upon its numerical amount," that "a much smaller amount 
 is required in a high state of public credit, than when alarms make individuals 
 call in their advances, and provide against accidents by hoarding ; and in a period 
 of commercial security and private confidence, than when mutual distrust dis- 
 courages pecuniary arrrangements for any distant time." (P. 26.) 
 
 In both of these passages, there appears to me to be an indistinctness of thought 
 as well as of expression. In ihe first place, I have great doubts of the correctness 
 of the assertion, " that a high state of confidence seems to quicken the circulation 
 of bank notes." A rapid circulation of money, it must be observed, is by no means 
 implied in that briskness and activity of commerce which is measured by the 
 number of commercial exchanges, and which is sometimes, but very inaccurately, 
 called the circulation of commodities. The manufacturer may supply the merchant, 
 the merchant the shopkeeper, and the shopkeeper his customers, without the inter- 
 vention of any money, till it come out of the pockets of the consumers ; the place 
 of money being supplied, during the previous process, by the mutual credit of the 
 parties : and it is evident, that in proportion to the quickness of the process, and 
 to the high state of confidence at the time, the employment of money will be the 
 less necessary. If the rapidity of circulation be, at such a period, increased on the 
 whole, it is not because the money passes more rapidly than before through the 
 same number of hands, but because the multiplication of hands which have now 
 acquired by their industry the means of partaking in the national opulence, has 
 enlarged the circle in which its movements are performed. 
 
 But, secondly, admitting Mr. Thornton's general assertion to be true, I do not 
 
 1 Inquiry into the Nature and fffictt of the Paper Credit of Great Britain, Chap. iii. p. 47, teq. 
 VOL. VIII. 2 E
 
 434 APPENDIX II. TO B. II. CH. II. BULLION REPORT. 
 
 see that the reasoning either in his Book or the Report, affords any explanation of 
 the fact. The notes which, during a period of alarm, are kept in the drawers of 
 bankers and others, as a provision against contingencies, cannot surely be said 
 with propriety to have their circulation retarded. They are abstracted from circu- 
 lation altogether ; and if the same demand for a circulating medium continues as 
 formerly, the notes which remain to supply this demand cannot fail, in proportion 
 to the reduction in their amount, to pass with an accelerated rapidity from one 
 hand to another. The truth is, if I do not deceive myself, that in both the passages 
 last quoted, two very different things are confounded together : 1. The effect of 
 credit and confidence in superseding the necessity of ready money payments, by a 
 settlement of accounts at distant periods of time; and, 2. The effect of a quick 
 circulation in rendering a given quantity of currency equivalent to a larger one 
 with a slow circulation. Both of them have a tendency to economize the nume- 
 rical amount of currency ; but they depend on very different causes, and are by no 
 means necessarily combined in their operation. 
 
 It is justly remarked in a passage which you have quoted from Quesnai in your 
 pamphlet on the Irish Bank, that " the money of a poor nation must be propor- 
 tionally more considerable than that of a rich one ; for no more can remain with 
 either, than the sum of which they have need for their sales and for their purchases. 
 Now, among poor nations the intervention of money becomes indispensably neces- 
 sary in the operations of commerce. Everything must there be paid for in ready 
 cash ; because no one can there rely on the good faith of another." The same 
 observation is applicable to a rich commercial country, in times of distrust and 
 alarm ; and explains sufficiently the increased demand which arises for a circu- 
 lating medium at such a crisis. A circulation of money or paper tlien takes place, 
 in numberless cases, where its intervention was before superseded by general confi- 
 dence and credit. As to the rapidity of circulation, I cannot help thinking, that a 
 general want of confidence must tend powerfully to increase it, by adding to the 
 number of ready money payments; and, in so far as this takes place, it must 
 necessarily (by the virtual multiplication of the currency) counteract the pressure 
 of the existing evil. From the Statement of the Committee, they seem to consider 
 the increased demand for notes in a time of distrust, as a consequence of the cir- 
 culation being slower than usual. 
 
 The aim of the reasoning quoted above from Mr. Thornton's book, was probably 
 to suggest, as an indirect apology for the increased issue of notes from the Bank, 
 that the effect of this increased issue is partly to correct the inconveniences of that 
 retarded circulation which he supposed to exist. If the foregoing remarks have 
 any foundation, the effect of this increased issue upon prices, must, in fact, exceed 
 that of its numerical amount, in the same proportion in which the rate of circulation 
 has been quickened by the peculiar circumstances of the times. 
 
 It is to be observed, besides, that the most considerable part of the increase of 
 Bank of England notes since 1798, has been in the article of small notes, (Report, 
 p. 25 ;) and there cannot be a doubt that the case has been the same in a far 
 greater degree with the issues of country banks, although no estimate is given by 
 the Committee of the increased circulation of their notes, not exceeding two pounds 
 two shillings. (P. 29 ; see also p. 149.) Now, it is chiefly in the case of small note* 
 that circulation operates in producing a virtual multiplication of pnper currency
 
 APPENDIX II. TO B. II. CH. II. BULLION REPORT. 435 
 
 for the same reason that " a shilling," according to an observation of Mr. Smith, 
 " changes masters more frequently than a guinea, and a halfpenny more frequently 
 than a shilling."* In reply to a question addressed by the Committee to Mr. 
 Francis Baring (" Do you not believe that the amount of small notes should be 
 left out of the account in comparing the present amount of notes in circulation 
 with that existing before the restriction ?") I find the following answer stated in 
 the Report: "instead of being left out in a comparative view, I fear the small 
 notes rather tend to increase the difficulty beyond tJieir due proportion; because 
 they cannot be withdrawn, without an issue of specie to an equal amount, and 
 stand therefore in the front of the battle." I am inclined to think he might also 
 have added, that they tend to increase the difficulty beyond their due proportion, 
 inasmuch as their commercial momentum (if I may be allowed the expression) is 
 increased in an incomparably greater degree than that of the larger notes, by the 
 rapidity of circulation. 
 
 In farther illustration of the proposition, " that the mere numerical return of the 
 amount of bank-notes out in circulation, cannot be considered as at all deciding the 
 question, whether such paper is or is not excessive," it is stated in the Report, as 
 a circumstance which above all deserves attention, that " the same amount of cur- 
 rency will be more or less adequate, in proportion to the skill which the great 
 money-dealers possess in managing and economizing the use of the circulating 
 medium. Your Committee (it is added) are of opinion, that the improvements 
 which have taken place of late years in this country, and particularly in the dis- 
 trict of London, with regard to the use and economy of money among bankers, and 
 in the mode of adjusting commercial payments, must have had a much greater 
 effect than is commonly ascribed to them, in rendering the same sum adequate to 
 a much greater amount of trade and payments than formerly." (P. 26 ; see also 
 p. 147.) 
 
 Upon the supposition that the issues of the bank had been diminished precisely 
 to the extent of this economy, it seems evident, that the circulation of the country, 
 so far as it can be supposed to have any influence upon prices, could not have been 
 at all affected by these late improvements. The bank-notes formerly employed in 
 conducting this business, were found, it would appear, to be a clumsy and expensive 
 instrument for accomplishing an end that could be attained as effectually without 
 its assistance ; and this being the case, the new arrangements were unquestionably 
 improvements in point of economy to the London bankers. With respect to the 
 general circulation of the country, the effect in both cases must have been exactly 
 the same. 
 
 On the other hand, as, in point of fact, the issues of the bank have increased 
 immensely since these economical arrangements have taken place, the amount of 
 the notes thus economized must either be added to the mass of circulating medium 
 winch is employed in carrying on the exchanges of the London district, or must 
 serve to enlarge the basis on which the circulation of the country banks is to be 
 reared. The effect must be similar to those other improvements which (according to 
 the Report) " have taken place in this country, with regard to the use and economy 
 of money among bankers, and in the mode of adjusting commercial payments." 
 [Wealth qfXatiotu, Book II. chap, ii ; VoL I. p. 486. tenth edition.]
 
 436 APPENDIX II. TO B. II. CH. II. BULLION REPORT. 
 
 It is also worth j of observation, that this economy is confined to the larger notes, 
 and that, in the same proportion, the means are acquired of increasing the issues 
 of the small ones. 
 
 In what I have hitherto said, I have proceeded on the general principle assumed 
 in the Report, " That every change in the effective currency of the country, (includ- 
 ing under this phrase the quickness of its circulation, as well as its numerical 
 amount,) must occasion a corresponding change in the price of commodities ;" and 
 the result of the whole is, that the operation of the cause must, upon this supposi- 
 tion, have been incomparably greater than the mere numerical amount would lead 
 us to apprehend. I must, however, confess, that I can see no evidence whatever 
 for the truth of this doctrine ; and if you think it worth your while to read my 
 observations on the subject, I shall state in another letter the grounds of my doubts. 
 In the meantime, I shall only add, that I am perfectly satisfied with the conclusion 
 of the Committee, that the increased issues of bank-notes have occasioned a de- 
 preciation of our currency, or, in other words, a general rise of prices. I differ 
 from them only in the manner in which I conceive this depreciation to have 
 been brought about. According to their view of the subject, the effect is repre- 
 sented as resulting from the cause, no less immediately and obviously than a 
 fall in the exchangeable value of wheat after an abundant harvest ; or, if any 
 explanation is hinted at, it is by means of some metaphorical phrase, which only 
 serves to throw the difficulty a little more into the shade. " The issues of the 
 bank," we are told, " cannot be exported to other countries, and not being con- 
 vertible into specie, it is not necessarily returned upon those who issued it ; it 
 remains in the channel of circulation, and is gradually absorbed by increasing the 
 prices of all commodities. 1 ' * To me it appears, that without attending particularly 
 to the various modes in which the additional currency enters into circulation, 
 (whether issued by the Bank of England in advances to Government, and in dis- 
 counts to merchants, or by country banks in discounts to traders, to farmers, and to 
 other classes of the community,) and following it out through the various steps of 
 its progress, till it finds its way into the pockets of those who are to employ it in 
 consumption, it is neither possible to form a precise idea of the nature of the disorder, 
 nor to speculate safely concerning the means by which it may be alleviated. 
 
 The omission of this preliminary discussion strikes me as the most important 
 defect in the Report. Something approaching to it is attempted by Mr. Blake in 
 his pamphlet, and the outline which he has sketched is very distinct and satisfac- 
 tory, as far as it goes. 2 It is only surprising that a writer, to whom this view of 
 the subject had presented itself, did not assume, as the foundation of his general 
 argument, this explanation of the process by which the over- issues of the bank tend 
 to augment the prices of commodities, instead of having recourse to the very 
 vague and incorrect principle, " that it is impossible such an increase should have 
 taken place in the quantity of any commodity that is given in exchange for othern, 
 whose quantity is not augmented in the same proportion without affecting their 
 comparative value." * This misapplication of the word commodity to bank-notes, 
 is not pecuh'ar to Mr. Blake,* and it is extremely apt to mislead a careless reader. 
 
 > Report, p. 7. * Ibid p. 44. 
 
 " It U generally admitted, that the value of 
 * \Obicri-ativni, ic.] pp. 78-83. a commodity depend* greatly on i s scarcity or
 
 APPENDIX II. TO B. II. CH. II. BULLION REPORT. 437 
 
 It is not even, in my opinion, accurately applied to gold and silver while in the 
 thape of coins, were it for no other reason than this, (and I apprehend there are 
 neveral others no less conclusive,) that commodities cannot, like coins, be virtually 
 multiplied by circulation. The essential difference between such coins and paper 
 currency is, that the former are at all times convertible into a commodity, by being 
 put into a crucible, serving, in their new form of bullion, to liquidate the accounts 
 of different nations, and to furnish a link for connecting together the commercial 
 transactions of mankind in every quarter of the globe. 
 
 NOTE II. 
 
 [March.] In my former paper, I took notice of the general principle which 
 seems to me to be assumed in the Bullion Report, " That every change, &c. 
 (Supra, p. 436.) I intended to have stated, at some length, my doubts about the 
 correctness of this proposition, but shall confine myself at present to one or two of 
 the most obvious objections to which it is liable. 
 
 1. It may, I think, be now assumed as a first principle, that the mere increase 
 of gold and silver in a country does not necessarily raise prices. The reasonings 
 of Sir James Steuart on this head appear quite decisive, and could not have failed 
 to have made a greater impression on the public mind, if they had been expressed 
 with the clearness and precision of Mr. Hume or Mr. Smith. Now, if this prin- 
 ciple be once granted, it necessarily follows, that prices are not regulated solely by 
 the amount of currency, even when combined with the rate of its circulation. In 
 proof of this, it is sufficient to observe, that an accelerated circulation operates en- 
 tirely by the virtual multiplication of the currency ; and therefore, whatever effect 
 may result from this acceleration, might have been produced by a real multiplica- 
 tion of the currency, the rate of circulation remaining the same as before. 
 
 In speculating concerning prices, the quickness of circulation deserves our 
 attention, only in so far as it may be supposed to afford a proof of the general 
 diffusion of the currency through the great mass of consumers. But of this last 
 fact, a quick circulation, considered singly, by no means furnishes unequivocal 
 evidence, as the money may, in consequence of various causes, pass more rapidly 
 from hand to hand, while it still moves in the same circle as before ; and even 
 where the two circumstances, of an accelerated and of an extended circulation, 
 happen to coincide, the effects on price are evidently to be ascribed, not to the quick 
 circulation, but to the multiplication and competition of purchasers. The quick 
 circulation is itself, in this case, only a collateral effect of that general diffusion of 
 wealth upon which, much more than on the quantity of currency in the country, 
 the prices of commodities will be found to depend. Indeed, neither the one nor 
 the other (nor any other cause whatsoever,) can possibly raise the price of any 
 article, but by first increasing the competition of purchasers in a greater proportion 
 than the quantity of goods which the market supplies. 
 
 2. Another proof that " the momentum of the circulating medium does not of 
 
 plenty. Now, there has been, within these amount of bank-notet," &c. Mushet, Inquiry 
 twelve years, a remarkable increase in our into the Effictt on Currency, tc.] p. 20.
 
 438 APPENDS: n. TO B. n. CH. n. BULLION REPORT. 
 
 itself regulate prices," may be collected from the effects of CREDIT in supplying to 
 those individuals who possess it, for all essential purposes, the place of ready 
 money. A man whose credit is good, or, in other words, who is known to possess 
 valuable property at his own disposal, may command, at all times, what commodi- 
 ties he pleases, though he should happen, at the moment, to have neither a guinea 
 nor a bank-note in his pocket. The only inconvenience he will suffer from his 
 want of ready money is, that he will be obliged to pay a proportionally higher 
 price for what he purchases ; and, consequently, where there is a competition of 
 such purchasers, a scarcity of circulating medium, instead of lowering prices, will 
 infallibly tend to increase them. 
 
 From these principles it follows, that no fixed proportion can exist between the 
 quantity of currency in a country and the amount of commercial exchanges to which 
 it is subservient, inasmuch as this proportion must vary, not only with the rate of 
 circulation, but with the degree of credit and confidence generally prevalent, and 
 with the skill of bankers and merchants in economizing the use of money in their 
 mutual dealings. Nor would the problem be of much use if it could be solved ; 
 for none of these circumstances has any direct connexion with the high or low 
 prices of commodities. Indeed, credit, under whatever form it may appear, must 
 always tend to raise prices, at least as high, as the money would have done, whose 
 place it supplies. 1 
 
 In illustration of this, I shall avail myself of a passage in Pinto's Traite" de la 
 Circulation et du Credit, which I shall transcribe at length, as you are not likely 
 to have the book at hand : " La circulation reelle de la monnoie est prodigieuse 
 dans la depense ournalie're et domestique qu'on appelle negoce ; le meme ecu peut 
 cascader en 24 heures, par cinquante mains differentes, et aura represente cinquante 
 choses par la circulation qu'il a essuyee ; si done ces cinquante personnes s'assem- 
 bloient la nuit, elles trouveroient avoir depense et paye 50 ecus, et il n'y en a 
 eu cependant qu'un d'effectif, qui par la circulation en represente cinquante. On 
 n'a qu'a observer, qu'il n'y a pas dans tout 1'univers la moitie de 1'argent a quoi se 
 monte la depense qu'on fait en un an dans la seule ville de Paris, si 1'on comptoit 
 tout 1'etat de depense qu'on fait, et qui se paie en argent, depuis le 1 Janvier 
 jusqu'au dernier Decembre, dans tous les ordres de 1'etat, depuis la maison du roi, 
 jusqu'aux mendians qui consomment un sol de pain par jour. 
 
 " Cette circulation est immense par la multiplicite des operations simultanees et 
 repetees partout et a chaque moment ; mais il y a une autre circulation en gros, 
 qu'on fait a la faveur du credit, et du papier, qui represente 1'argent, comme 
 1'argent represente les choses. L'exemple de 1'ecu fait voir qu'un negotiant parti- 
 culier, qui a du credit, peut, independamment des termes qu'on lui accorde pour 
 les paiemens de ses achats, faire circuler son papier et se prevaloir de celui des 
 aiitres, et multiplier par-la les ressorts de son commerce, en facilitant la circulation. 
 Une lettre de change a souvent dix endossemens, et represente souvent la meme 
 
 1 The effect of credit in supplying the place appear to me to have been aware, that what- 
 
 ff a circulating medium, and that of mercantile erer effects are produced by a circulating 
 
 nkill In economizing the use of it, iwbich last medium on prices, must be equally produced 
 
 is, at bottom, nothing more than a more in- by erery possible expedient which can be de- 
 
 genions and refined extension of the Fame sub- Tiled to keep accounts between debtor and 
 
 rtitute.) have been remarked by Thornton, and creditor, without iU intervention! 
 various other late writers ; but none of them
 
 APPENDIX II. TO B. II. CH. II. BULLION REPORT. 439 
 
 valeur & dix pcrsonnes diffcrentcs. Voilrl dcs choses importantes ; quoiqu'asi-e* 
 connues, ellcs ne meritent pas le nom de triviales." * 
 
 In a note to this passage, the following anecdote is mentioned by the author: 
 " Pendant le Siege de Tournay en 1745," &c.f 
 
 This fact, which is adduced by Pinto merely to shew that a small sum with a 
 quick circulation may be virtually equivalent to a large sum with a slow circula- 
 tion, leads to some other consequences no less important, by placing in a strong 
 light the effects of credit in facilitating the operations of commerce, where there is 
 an apparent deficiency in the circulating medium. The paymaster, by borrowing 
 7000 florins seven times over from the sutlers, borrowed, during the course of the 
 siege, to the amount of 49,000 florins. Supposing that there had been no specie to 
 be had in the garrison, it is evident that the same transactions might have been 
 carried on by means of paper money issued by the paymaster, and accepted in 
 payment by the sutlers ; and therefore the only use of these weekly loans was to 
 keep the garrison in good humour, by the regular handling of their pay in that 
 currency to which they were accustomed. Or, supposing the sutlers to have given 
 credit to every soldier to the extent of his pay, and that accurate accounts had 
 been kept of all their mutual dealings, might not the whole business have been 
 managed (without any inconvenience whatever but the trouble arising from the 
 petty details of book-keeping) without any circulating medium at all ? In such a 
 peculiar combination of circumstances as this, the only essential advantage derived 
 from a circulating medium (whether we suppose it to consist of specie or of paper) 
 would seem to resolve into its effect in superseding the task of recording the 
 mutual bargains of individuals ; or (as Anacharsis concluded somewhat too pre- 
 cipitately with respect to the use of gold and silver among the Greeks) a circulat- 
 ing medium would seem to answer no purpose whatever, but that " of assisting the 
 memory in numeration and arithmetic." Mr. Hume, when he wrote his Essay on 
 Money, seems to have thought that the case would be the same with a nation cut 
 off from all commercial connexion with foreigners ; overlooking a variety of im- 
 portant considerations, which I shall pass over here, as they have no immediate con- 
 nexion with the present argument. Whatever opinion we may form on this point, 
 one thing seems indisputable, that in the example of the garrison as described by 
 Pinto, the amount of circulating medium could have no effect whatever on prices ; 
 that there would have been exactly the same with a circulation of 7000 florins as 
 with one of 49,000 and that (supposing credit to be completely established among 
 all parties) they would not have fallen, although no circulating medium had been 
 employed as an instrument of commerce. 
 
 I have thus arrived at the same conclusion which you state in your last letter, 
 when you express your doubts whether " a mere excess of circulating medium, if it 
 confined itself to those duties which a circulating medium properly performs, could 
 produce a rise of prices." For my own part, 1 am disposed to go a step farther, 
 and to entertain some doubts,, whether a general rise of prices would be necessarily 
 produced by this superabundant currency, even on the supposition that it consisted 
 wholly of gold and silver, so as to form (according to Mr. Smith) a real addition to 
 the national capital. Mr. Hume, in his Essay upon Interest, states an imaginary 
 case, that " by miracle, every man in Great Britain should have five pounds 
 * [Partie L p. 33, teq., orig. edit] t [Quoted above, p. 378 J
 
 440 APPENDIX IL TO B. II. CH. II. BULLION REPOP.T. 
 
 slipt into his pocket in one night, in which case," he adds, " the whole money that 
 is at present in the kingdom would be much more than doubled :"' and he observes 
 very justly, that in these circumstances "there would not next day, nor for some 
 time, be any more lenders, nor any variation in the interest." The next sentence 
 is not so unexceptionable. " Were there nothing but landlords and peasants in 
 the state, this money, however abundant, could never gather into sums ; and would 
 only serve to increase the prices of everything, without any farther consequence." 
 In what proportion it would serve to increase prices, Mr. Hume has not said ex- 
 plicitly ; but it is evident, that upon the principle which he has assumed in his 
 Essay on Money, (and which is unfolded still more fully by Locke and Montes- 
 quieu,) it ought to do much more than double the prices of all the commodities in 
 the kingdom. The palpable absurdity of the conclusion, in this instance, affords a 
 sufficient refutation of the premises from which it is deduced. The real fact would 
 manifestly amount to this, and to nothing more, that every man would be enabled 
 to add five pounds to his capital or to his expenditure. What possible effect could 
 this have on the prices of any commodities, but those which are in request among 
 the lowest order of the people ? Nor is it easy to conceive, that even on these 
 prices, the permanent effect would be very considerable. How different would be 
 the influence of the same addition to the capital (either real or fictitious) of the 
 country, if it were all to issue from the shops of bankers in the form of advances to 
 Government, or of discounts to merchants, manufacturers, farmers, and landed 
 proprietors ! 
 
 It would appear, therefore, that it is not the quantity of money added, at uny 
 time, to the capital of a country, which can, of itself, produce a general rise of 
 prices ; unless this accession of capital is determined by political or commercial 
 arrangements, to flow in those channels which may alter the former relation be- 
 tween the demand and supply of the market. According to Montesquieu's doc- 
 trine, the prices of all commodities should not only rise, but att of them should rise 
 in the very same proportion ; in contradiction to the evidence of our daily experi- 
 ence, that while the prices of certain articles are rising, those of others are falling, 
 in consequence of causes which have no connexion whatever either with the quan- 
 tity of money, or with the quantity of commodities. 
 
 What you afterwards remark on the indirect connexion between high prices and 
 ten increased circulating medium, is precisely the proposition I had" in my mind 
 when I said formerly, that the extraordinary issues of paper currency since the 
 stoppage of cash payments, had affected prices chiefly by the manner in which 
 these notes have entered into circulation. Nothing, in my opinion, can be more 
 satisfactory on this head than the simple statement you have given of the fact. 
 " By the same act with which a bank increases the circulating medium of a country, 
 it issues into the community a mass of fictitious capital, which serves not only as 
 circulating medium, but creates an additional quantity of capital to be employed in 
 every mode in which capital can be employed." The explanation you have given 
 of the process by which this affects the prices of commodities, coincides so exactly 
 with all my own ideas, that it would be quite superfluous for me to follow out the 
 speculation any farther. 
 
 The radical evil, in short, seems to be, not the mere over issue of notes, considered 
 as an addition to our currency, but the anomalous and unchecked extension of
 
 APPENDIX II. TO B. 11. CH. II. BULLION REPOBT. 441 
 
 credit, and its inevitable effect in producing a sudden augmentation of prices by a 
 Midden augmentation of demand. The enlarged issues deserve attention, chiefly 
 as affording a scale for measuring how far this extension has been carried. The 
 same degree of credit, if it could have been given without the intervention of paper 
 currency, would have operated exactly in the same way upon prices, and upon every- 
 thing else. 
 
 Mr. Thornton's opinion is plainly in direct opposition to this conclusion, and 
 can, I think, be accounted for only by the credit which he has unconsciously lent, 
 on various occasions, to the specious but fallacious theory of Montesquieu and 
 Hume. " It is by the amount," he observes, " not of the loans of the Bank of 
 England, but of its paper ; or, if of its loans, of these merely as indicating the 
 quantity of its paper, that we are to estimate the influence on the cost of commo- 
 dities. The same remark," he adds, "may be applied to the subject of the loans 
 and paper of country banks." * The converse of these propositions would, in njy 
 apprehension, be much nearer to the truth. 
 
 An idea similar to that which Mr. Thornton has here expressed, seems plainly to 
 be implied in the explanation given by the Bullion Committee, of the difference 
 between " the effects of an advance of capital to merchants, and an additional sup- 
 ply of currency to the general mass of circulating medium. " If the advance 
 of capital only be considered, as made to those who are ready to employ it in 
 judicious and productive undertakings, it is evident there need be no other limit to 
 the total amount of advances than what the means of the lender, and his prudence 
 in the selection of borrowers, may impose. But, in the present situation of the 
 bank, intrusted as it is with the function of supplying the public with that paper 
 currency which forms the basis of our circulation, and at the same time not sub- 
 jected to the liability of converting the paper into specie, every advance which it 
 makes of capital to the merchants in the shape, of discount, becomes an addition 
 also to the mass of circulating medium. In the first instance, when the advance is 
 made by notes paid in discount by a bill, it is undoubtedly so much capital, so 
 much power of making purchases, placed in the hands of the merchant who re- 
 ceives the notes ; and if those hands are safe, the operation is so far, and in this its 
 first step, useful and productive to the public. But as soon as the portion of cir- 
 culating medium in which the advance was thus made, performs in the hands of 
 him to whom it was advanced this its first operation as capital, as soon as the notes 
 are exchanged by him for some other article which is capital, they fall into the 
 channel of circulation as so much circulating medium, and form an addition to the 
 mass of currency. The necessary effect of every such addition to the mass is to 
 diminish the relative value of any given portion of that mass in exchange for com- 
 modities."* 
 
 The very same doctrine occurs in a different form in the following passage of 
 Mr. Huskisson's pamphlet : " The state of our currency, in regard to its dimin- 
 ished value, is no other than it would be if our present circulation, being retained 
 to the same amount, were, by some sudden spell, all changed to gold, and, by 
 
 1 The illustration which Mr. Thornton has It is difficult to reconcile the above passage 
 
 pivcn of this remark, affords a most satisfactory with the very judicious observations which Mr. 
 
 refutation of the opinion which it is employed T. has made in pp. 258-260 of the same book. 
 U> establish. (Pp. 313, 311.) * [Report, p. 23.]
 
 442 APPENDIX II. TO B. II. CH. II. BULLION REPORT. 
 
 another spell, not less surprising, such part of that gold, as by its excess created a 
 proportionate diminution in its value here, with reference to its value in other 
 countries, would not by exportation, or otherwise, find its way out of our separate 
 circulation. 1 ' 1 The simile is quite correct, so far as it goes ; but in order to render 
 the parallel complete, Mr. Huskisson should have added, as a third spell, not less 
 indispensably necessary than the two others : That all the issues of gold should be 
 confined to the shops of our bankers, to be put in circulation by them in the shape 
 of advances to Government, or of mercantile discounts ; and that our bankers 
 should have the same profits in issuing gold, as they have at present in the issues 
 of their own paper. If the gold were all to emanate from the same sources as the 
 paper, and to flow afterwards in the same channels, the results in both cases could 
 not fail to be precisely the same. 
 
 NOTE III. 
 
 The general result of the reasonings which I have hitherto stated is, that the in- 
 creased issues of paper currency since the year 1797, have operated on the prices 
 of commodities chiefly by means of that sudden extension of credit which they 
 necessarily suppose ; and of the communication of this credit to those classes of in- 
 dividuals whose capitals have the greatest influence on the state of the market. 
 Had the increased issues been divided into equal shares, according to the popula- 
 tion of Great Britain, and had every inhabitant of the island received his trifling 
 (junta at one and the same instant, how comparatively insignificant would the 
 effects have been ! 
 
 This conclusion agrees, I think, perfectly in substance with that which you 
 have formed, when you observe, in your last letter, that " by the same act with 
 which a bank increases the circulating medium of a country, it issues into the com- 
 munity a mass of fictitious capital, which serves not only as circulating medium, 
 but creates an additional quantity of capital to be employed in every mode in which 
 capital can be employed.'' My own statement, however, appears to me to have 
 this advantage, that it comprehends not only those mercantile discounts which 
 have a remote effect on the market by being employed as capital, but those dis- 
 counts which affect the market immediately, by furnishing the means of an en- 
 larged expenditure. It is worthy of attention too, that even mercantile discounts 
 operate on the market in the latter way as well as in the former ; it being pre- 
 sumable, that every merchant (and more particularly, every speculative merchant) 
 will raise his style of living in proportion to the magnitude of his commercial trans- 
 actions. The same luxury and vanity extend themselves downwards through all 
 the inferior orders of traders and men of business ; the peculiar circumstances of 
 the times having been so long unfavourable to habits of sober economy, and having 
 BO strong a tendency to encourage a general spirit of extravagance and improvi- 
 dence, by facilitating the means of its indulgence. Hence, to those persons who 
 live on fixed incomes, an additional sort of depreciation in the value of money, (a 
 depreciation quite distinct from the effects either of taxation or of high prices ;) I 
 
 1 TV Quettion Concerning the Depreciation of our Currency Stated and Examined, p. 107
 
 APPENDIX II. TO B. II. CH. II. BULLION REPORT. 443 
 
 mean that which arises from new ideas of competency, and of the scale of expendi- 
 ture necessary to support the condition of a gentleman. 
 
 I have dwelt the longer on this particular view of the subject, considered in con- 
 trast with that adopted by Mr. Thornton, (and apparently sanctioned in the last 
 passage quoted from the Bullion Report,) because the two opinions lead obviously 
 to two very different conclusions concerning the nature of the remedy suited to the 
 disorder. The one opinion suggests the propriety of limiting credit through the 
 medium of a restricted currency ; the other of limiting the currency through the 
 medium of a well-regulated and discriminating credit. If the radical evil were 
 merely an excess of circulating medium, operating as such without the combination 
 of any other cause, it would follow, that a reduction of this quantity, by whatsoever 
 means it were to be brought about, and however violent the effects which it might 
 threaten, would be the only measure competent to the attainment of the end. But 
 if, on the other hand, this excess be only symptomatic of another malady, with 
 which, from particular circumstances, it happens to be co-existent, (of an extension 
 of credit, to wit, calculated to derange the pre-existing relations of demand and 
 supply ;) in that case, the restriction and regulation of this credit ought to be re- 
 garded as the primary object, and the reduction of our circulating medium attended 
 to solely as an indication that the cure is progressive. 
 
 Of the most expedient means to be employed for this purpose, I am not qualified 
 to form a judgment. But I cannot help observing, that if a repeal or a relaxation 
 of the anti-usurious laws were a thing not quite impracticable, it would go to the 
 root of the mischief by a process more effectual, and at the same time more gentle 
 and manageable in its operation, than any other that I can imagine. It is observed 
 in the Bullion Report, that " the law which in this country limits the rate of in- 
 terest, and of course the rate at which the bank can legally discount, exposes the 
 bank to still more extensive demands for commercial discounts. While the rate of 
 commercial profit is very considerably higher than five per cent., as it has lately 
 been in many branches of our foreign trade, there is in fact no limit to the demands 
 which merchants of perfectly good capital, and of the most prudent spirit of enter- 
 prise, may be tempted to make upon the bank for accommodation and facilities by 
 discount." * 
 
 To the same purpose, Mr. Thornton long ago remarked, that " in order to ascer- 
 tain how far the desire of obtaining loans at the bank may be expected at any time 
 to be carried, we must inquire into the subject of the quantum of profit likely to be 
 derived from borrowing there under the existing circumstances. This is to be 
 judged of by considering two points : the amount, first, of interest to be paid on 
 the sum borrowed ; and, secondly, of the mercantile or other gain to be obtained by 
 the employment of the borrowed capital. The gain which can be acquired by the 
 means of commerce, is commonly the highest which can be had ; and it also re- 
 gulates in a great measure, the rate in all other cases. We may, therefore, con- 
 sider this question as turning principally on a comparison of the rate of interest 
 taken at the bank with the current rate of mercantile profit. 
 
 " The bank is prohibited, by the state of the law, from demanding, even in time 
 of war, an interest of more than five per cent., which is the same rate at which it 
 discounts in a period of profound peace. It might, undoubtedly, at all seasons, 
 
 P. 23.
 
 444 APPENDIX II. TO B. II. CH. II. BULLION REPORT. 
 
 sufficiently limit its paper by means of the price at which it lends, if the legislators 
 did not interpose an obstacle to the constant adoption of this principle of re- 
 striction. 
 
 " Any supposition that it would be safe to permit the bank paper to limit itself, 
 because this would be to take the more natural course, is, therefore, altogether 
 erroneous. It implies that there is no occasion to advert to the rate of interest in 
 consideration of which the bank paper is furnished, or to change that rate accord- 
 ing to the varying circumstances of the country. 
 
 " At some seasons an interest, perhaps, of six per cent, per annum, at others of 
 five, or even of four per cent., may afford that degree of advantage to borrowers 
 which shall be about sufficient to limit, in the due measure, the demand upon the 
 bank for discounts. Experience in some measure proves the justice of this obser- 
 vation ; for, in time of peace, the bank has found it easy to confine its paper, by 
 demanding five per cent, for interest ; whereas, in war, the directors have been 
 subject, as I apprehend, to very earnest solicitations for discount, their notes, never- 
 theless, not being particularly diminished. It is, therefore, unreasonable to pre- 
 sume that there will always be a disposition in the borrowers at the bank to pre- 
 scribe to themselves exactly those bounds which a regard to the safety of the bank 
 would suggest- The interest of the two parties is not the same in this respect. 
 The borrowers, in consequence of that artificial state of things which is produced 
 by the law against usury, obtain their loans too cheap. That which they obtain 
 too cheap, they demand in too great quantity." * 
 
 I had written thus far, when the Edinburgh Review for February was put into 
 my hands. It contains a pretty long article on the Depreciation of Paper Cur- 
 rency, including remarks on the chief pamphlets which have lately appeared on 
 the subject. I have only had time, as yet, to read four or five of the first para- 
 graphs, in one of which there is a passage which surprised me a good deal by the 
 looseness of the statement, both in point of thought and of expression. " Mr. 
 Ricardo is in our opinion particularly entitled to praise for the manner in which he 
 has laid down two most important doctrines, long known, indeed, and acknow- 
 ledged by those who have maturely considered these subjects, but not unfrequently 
 overlooked by others. 
 
 " The first is the grand doctrine, which may be said to be the main hinge on 
 which the principles of circulation, whether consisting of a paper currency, or of 
 the precious metals, must necessarily turn ; the doctrine, that every kind of cir- 
 culating medium, as well as every other kind of commodity, is necessarily depre- 
 ciated by excess, and raised in value by deficiency, compared with the demand, 
 without reference either to confidence or intrinsic use. This doctrine follows im- 
 mediately from the general principles of supply and demand, which are unques- 
 tionably the foundation on which the whole superstructure of political economy is 
 built."* 
 
 In justice to some propositions which I have already hazarded, I cannot pass 
 over these magisterial remarks without examining the legitimacy of the inference 
 mentioned in the last sentence. This will give me an opportunity of adding a few 
 
 1 Inquiry into Iht Nature and Kffeett of the Paper Credit of Great Britain, Chap. x. pp. 
 267, 268. No. XXXIV. p. 341.
 
 APPENDIX II. TO B. II. CH. II. BULLION REPORT. 445 
 
 illustrations which escaped me formerly in the hurry of writing. But I find I 
 must delay proceeding farther till another post. 
 
 NOTE IV. 
 
 I was afraid, that in the foregoing papers, I had dwelt much longer than was 
 necessary on the refutation of acknowledged prejudices; but some remarks in the 
 last Edinburgh Review convince me, that either my own ideas are completely un- 
 founded, or that something is still wanting to place the question at issue in the 
 proper point of view. The following is the passage which appears to me to be 
 
 more particularly exceptionable. " Mr. Ricardo is built." (Same as 
 
 quoted in last page.) 
 
 I before objected to the application of the word commodity to paper currency, or 
 even to the precious metals while in the shape of coin; for this obvious reason, that 
 there is nothing in the commercial transferences of commodities which bears the 
 most distant analogy to the virtual multiplication of a bank-note, or of a guinea, by 
 means of a quick process of circulation. If there were any such analogy, the sut- 
 lers mentioned in the anecdote quoted above from Pinto, might, without the aid of 
 a miracle, have multiplied at pleasure the number of loaves and fishes in their can- 
 teens, according to the wants of the garrison. 
 
 It is not unusual, indeed, among writers on Political Economy, to speak of the 
 circulation of commodities or of goods t as well as of the circulation of money ; but 
 the expression is extremely vague and inaccurate, inasmuch as the word circula- 
 tion must, in these two cases, be used in very different acceptations. In the fol- 
 lowing instance, Mr. Thornton appears to have departed very widely from his cus- 
 tomary precision of language. " Montesquieu alludes, in a manner so imperfect, 
 as to be scarcely intelligible, to those effects of the different degrees of rapidity, in 
 the circulation both of money and of goods, which it has been one object of this 
 work to explain. It is on the degree of rapidity of the circulation of each, com- 
 bined with the consideration of quantity, and not on the quantity alone, that the 
 value of the circulating medium of any country depends." 1 To this last sentence, 
 I must own, I cannot annex any clear idea. Mr. Thornton has, indeed, explained 
 more distinctly than any other English author I know, the effects of a quick cir- 
 culation of money; but as to a quick circulation of goods, (if the word circulation 
 be, in both instances, used in the same sense,) I am unable to form any conjecture 
 concerning the meaning which he annexes to the phrase. 
 
 Nothing, I think, but this common misapplication of the word commodity to a 
 circulating medium could have suggested the observation which occurs in the next 
 sentence of the Edinburgh Review. " This doctrine follows immediately from the 
 general principles of supply and demand, which are unquestionably the foundation 
 on which the whole superstructure of Political Economy is built." Upon this sen- 
 tence, accordingly, I must take the liberty of offering a few remarks ; for, surely, 
 if these principles have so weighty a fabric to support, we cannot be at too much 
 pains to ascertain correctly, in what sense we ought to understand them. 
 
 And here I must observe, in tlie first place, that there are few, if any, political 
 maxims, which admit, like the axioms in mathematics, of a literal and unqualified 
 
 1 Inquiry into the Nature and Effictt of the Paper Credit qf Great Britain, Chap. xi. p. 307.
 
 446 APPENDIX II. TO B. IL CH. IL BULLION REPORT. 
 
 application in all imaginable combinations of circumstances. They are, in genera], 
 abbreviated, and consequently loose statements of important conclusions, adopted by 
 their conciseness to serve as aids to the memory ; but requiring, when thay are 
 assumed as principles of reasoning, the exercise of our own common sense, in 
 supplying those indispensable conditions and exceptions, which are to be collected 
 from their spirit rather than from their letter. That this observation applies 
 forcibly to the maxim now before us, a few very slight hints will be sufficient to 
 show. 
 
 Prior to the present discussions about paper currency, the Corn Trade had been, 
 for a good many years, the favourite subject of speculation to Political Economists ; 
 and in this particular speculation, the general principles of supply and demand 
 may, with great truth, be said to be the foundation on which all our reasonings 
 must be built. The demand is here constant, universal, and imperious ; and the 
 supply, at the same time, such as must necessarily be brought to the market, 
 within a period of no great extent, from the perishable nature of the commodity and 
 the expense which it involves in the keeping. It is not, therefore, surprising, that 
 the habitual use of the words demand and supply, in speaking of the Corn Trade, 
 should have facilitated to hasty reasoners the extension of a similar conclusion to 
 other branches of trade of a very different nature ; and to which that conclusion 
 cannot be fairly applied, without many modifications and restrictions. An obvious 
 example of this occurs in the article of wine, which being kept at no expense, while 
 it increases in value with its age, may, notwithstanding a moderate demand and 
 an abundant supply, keep up its price for years, in defiance of the general maxim. 
 Upon the whole, however, due allowance being made for obvious exceptions of this 
 sort, the truth of the maxim may be safely admitted ; provided always the demand, 
 and the quantity destined for supplying it, be of such a nature as to be confined in 
 their variations within that range which experience teaches us to allow for the 
 possible fluctuations of the market. If the supply be inexhaustible, (as in the 
 instance of water in this country,) the principle becomes altogether unmeaning ; 
 the commodity possessing, on that supposition, no exchangeable value what- 
 ever. Nor does it become less nugatory, if we suppose, on the other hand, the 
 demand to be unlimited, as I apprehend, happens very remarkably with respect to 
 money, considered as a subject of property. The demand for it (or, at least, for 
 something convertible into it) is unbounded, and frequently increases in proportion 
 to the abundance in which it is possessed. Political arithmeticians have employed 
 themselves in attempting to ascertain the quantity of bread and of butcher's meat 
 that individuals may be supposed to consume at an average ; but who has ever 
 thought of fixing a limit to the auri sacra fames'? In this respect, at least, if we 
 choose still to call money a commodity, we must allow it to be a commodity sui 
 generis; and, therefore, not to be rashly subjected to those sweeping maxims 
 which regulate the prices of wheat or of broad cloth. 
 
 " Crescit amor nummi, quantum ipsa pccunia crescit; 
 Et minus bane optat, qui non babet." \Juvenalit, V. xiv. 140.] 
 
 Another circumstance, which has given rise to this mistaken view of the subject, 
 is a want of attention to the distinction between the use of money and the property 
 of money. No man certainly would choose to borrow money beyond what he really
 
 APPENDIX II. TO B. II. CH. II. BULLION REPORT. 447 
 
 wants, or what he can turn to profit ; and, in proportion to the urgency of the 
 demand, or the prospect of greater profit by the employment of it, he will be willing 
 to give a higher interest. The natural and equitable rate of interest will be 
 determined by the demand there is for borrowing, and the plenty there is to supply 
 that demand ; and hence it is, that in a country situated as Great Britain now is, 
 (a country where a maximum for the rate of interest is fixed by law, and where 
 the prospect of commercial profit is tempting to adventurers,) it is altogether 
 absurd to suppose, as some respectable persons have done, that " the bank ought 
 to regulate their issues by the public demand ;" " a principle," says Sir F. 
 Baring, " which I consider as dangerous in the extreme, because I know by 
 experience that the demand for speculation can only be limited by the want of 
 means." (Report, p. 133.) The inevitable consequence of this is, a general rise of 
 prices, (or what amounts to the same thing,) a depreciation in the value of our 
 circulating medium ; a depreciation, however, I must again repeat, which is not 
 (like the fall in the price of wheat after a plentiful crop) the immediate or necessary 
 consequence of mere superabundance, otherwise the same effect might have been 
 produced (which it manifestly could not) by slipping a twenty shilling note into 
 the pocket of every inhabitant of the kingdom. The primary cause of the depre- 
 ciation is the artificial cheapness in the rate at which, in consequence of the laws 
 against usury, the use of money may be obtained, combined with the security 
 which the Bank enjoys, in yielding to the public demand, in consequence of the 
 stoppage of cash payments. But these considerations do not belong to this part of 
 my argument. 
 
 The authority of Mr. Smith's name (although he has expressed himself on this 
 topic in very general terms) has probably contributed not a little to induce many 
 persons to adopt, without a due examination, the doctrine which I have been 
 endeavouring to refute. " The quantity," he observes, " of the precious metals 
 may increase in any country from two different causes ; either, first, from the 
 increased abundance of the mines which supply it ; or, secondly, from the increased 
 wealth of the people, from the increased produce of their annual labour. The first 
 of these causes is, no doubt, necessarily connected with the diminution of the value 
 of the precious metals ; but the second is not."* 
 
 On both these points, 1 must acknowledge, I am disposed to differ very consi- 
 derably from Mr. Smith, (at least in the unqualified form in which he has here 
 expressed his opinion,) but I shall confine myself at present to the first clause of 
 Lis proposition. I shall send yon afterwards, if you desire me to do so, the grounds 
 of my doubts with respect to the second. 
 
 " It is a question with me," says Sir James Steuart, " whether the mines of 
 Potosi and Brazil have produced more riches to Spain and Portugal within these 
 two hundred years, than the treasures heaped up in Asia, Greece, and Egypt, after 
 the death of Alexander, furnished to the Eomans during the two hundred years 
 which followed the defeat of Perseus and the conquest of Macedonia ? From the 
 treasures mentioned by all the historians who have written of the conquest of these 
 kingdoms by the Eomans, I do not think I am far from truth when I compare the 
 treasures of the frugal Greeks to the mines of the New World." f 
 
 * [ Wealth of tfatiow, Book I. chap. xL ; VoL t [.Political (Economy, Book II. cbap xxx. ; 
 
 1 p. 2M, tenth edition.] Work*, VoL II. p. 135, *q ]
 
 448 APPENDIX II. TO B. IL CH. II. BULLION REPORT. 
 
 Mr. Home himself has said, that " money, after the conquest of Egypt, seems to 
 have been nearly in as great plenty at Rome, as it is at present in the richest 
 European kingdoms.' 1 * 
 
 It is, however, a fact, equally striking and indisputable, that while, in conse- 
 quence of the later Romans, the prices of superfluities rose to an excessive height, 
 those of necessaries kept astonishingly low. Of this, the most satisfactory evidence 
 may be found in Arbuthnot's Tables of Ancient Coins, and in Wallace's Disser- 
 tation on the Numbers of Mankind.^ 
 
 It will be said, that no inference whatever can be justly founded on any parallel 
 between the statistical details of ancient and of modern times ; and that the low 
 prices of the necessaries of life in Rome, notwithstanding the plenty of money, may 
 be explained in the most satisfactory manner from the cultivation of the land by 
 slaves, and from a variety of other causes which have no existence among us. 
 Now, this is the very point for which I am contending ; that the plenty of the pre- 
 cious metals does not necessarily raise prices, and that these are influenced by many 
 other circumstances of a perfectly different nature. The effects of wealth obtained 
 by war and rapine, I consider as perfectly analogous to those of gold and silver 
 obtained by the discovery of a new mine ; and, therefore, I take for granted, that 
 had the money in Rome been drawn immediately from the bowels of the earth, the 
 prices of necessaries would not have been affected in a greater degree, the poli- 
 tical condition of the people and the state of manners remaining the same. 
 
 The trifling wages of labour in India afford another illustration of the same 
 thing. 
 
 Mr. Smith afterwards remarks, that the discovery of the abundant mines of 
 America seems to have been the sole cause of this diminution in the value of silver 
 in proportion to that of corn. It is accounted for accordingly in the same manner 
 by everybody ; and there never has been any dispute either about the fact, or 
 about the cause of it." J But surely, during this period, a variety of other causes 
 of the most powerful efficacy were operating on the condition of mankind in this 
 part of the world ; and without the co-operation of som of these, the discovery of 
 the American mines would no more hsve raised the price of corn in modern Europe, 
 than the sudden influx of wealth from the conquered provinces did in ancient 
 Rome. On the other hand, I have no doubt that those causes would have raised 
 prices, (I do not say to the same degree,) although the mines had not been dis- 
 covered. Nay, it is far from being improbable, that this discovery retarded, instead 
 of accelerating the progress of mercantile ingenuity in introducing the later im- 
 provements of banks and of paper currency, by means of which (while they con- 
 tinued to be regulated by principles founded on good sense and good faith) such a 
 source of real wealth and prosperity was opened to this country. 
 
 NOTE V. 
 
 If I had looked over the whole of the article in the Edinburgh Review which I 
 referred to in my last, I would not have troubled you with so large a packet. 
 After reading more than twenty pages farther, I was agreeably surprised with the 
 following passage : 
 
 * [Euayi, Vol. L Not* P.] t f Wealth of Kationt, Book I. chap. xi. ; Vol 
 
 f [See abore, p. 381, teq.] I p 300, tenth edition.]
 
 APPENDIX II. TO B. II. CH. II. BULLION REPORT. 449 
 
 " Whenever, in the actual state of things, a fresh issue of notes comes into the 
 hands of those who mean to employ them in the prosecution and extension of a 
 profitable business, a difference in the distribution of the circulating medium takes 
 place, similar in kind to that which has been last supposed ; and produces similar, 
 though of course comparatively inconsiderable effects, in altering the proportion 
 between capital and revenue, in favour of the former. The new notes go into the 
 market as so much additional capital, to purchase what is necessary for the conduct 
 of the concern. But before the produce of the country has been increased, it is 
 impossible for one person to have more of it, without diminishing the shares of 
 some others. This diminution is effected by the rise of prices, occasioned by the 
 competition of the new notes, which puts it out of the power of those who are only 
 buyers, and not sellers, to purchase as much of the annual produce as before. 
 While all the industrious classes, all those that sell as well as buy, are, during 
 the progressive rise of prices, making unusual profits, and, even when this pro- 
 gression stops, are left with the command of a greater portion of the annual produce 
 than they possessed previous to the new issues. 
 
 " It must always be recollected, that it is not the quantity of the circulating 
 medium which produces the effect here described, but the different distribution of 
 it. If a thousand millions of notes were added to the circulation, and distributed 
 to the various classes of society exactly in the same proportions as before, neither 
 the capital of the country, nor the facility of borrowing, would be in the slightest 
 degree increased. But, on every fresh issue of notes, not only is the quantity of 
 the circulating medium increased, but the distribution of the whole mass is altered. 
 A larger proportion falls into the hands of those who consume and produce, and a 
 smaller proportion into the hands of those who only consume." 1 
 
 Now, the substance of all this seems to me to be perfectly sound and satisfactory, 
 (although I think it might have been more unexceptionably expressed;) but I 
 confess I am at a loss how to reconcile it with the " GRAND DOCTRINE, that every 
 kind of circulating medium, as well as every other kind of commodity, is necessarily 
 depreciated by excess, and raised in value by deficiency, compared with the 
 demand." Or, supposing for a moment that the two passages may be so explained 
 as to be not inconsistent with each other, it must still be acknowledged that the 
 conclusion in which the foregoing reasoning terminates, does not " follow imme- 
 diately from the general principles of supply and demand," as applied to the 
 circulating medium. 
 
 NOTE VI. 
 
 [April 12.] Your solution of the difficulty with respect to the rapid rise of silver 
 since the increased issues of the Bank, by means of purchases of Exchequer Bills, 
 appears to me to be sound and satisfactory. Whether the additional notes be, in the 
 first instance, issued to Government or to the merchants, the ultimate effect will, I 
 conceive, be exactly the same. In both cases, they must pass very soon into the 
 hands of the bankers, who will employ them again in discounts ; and who, in propor- 
 tion to the increased amount of the notes, will have the means of their accommo- 
 dation enlarged. Indeed, I cannot imagine how it is possible, by any creation of 
 
 i No. XXXI Y. p. 364. 
 VOL. VIII. 2 F
 
 450 APPENDIX II. TO B. II. CH. II. BULLION REPORT. 
 
 circulating medium on the part of the batik, to raise the prices of- commodities, 
 unless it either adds to the capital of merchants so as to increase the demand, 
 while the supply in the market continues the same ; or augments, by an increased 
 facility of borrowing, the funds of those classes who fall under the description of 
 consumers. 
 
 The more I reflect on the figurative language commonly employed on this sub- 
 ject, I am the more at a loss how to comprehend its meaning. When it is said, 
 for example, in the Bullion Report, " that the excess of the present currency of 
 this country not being exportable to other countries, nor convertible into specie, 
 remains in the channel of circulation, and is gradually absorbed by increasing the 
 prices of all commodities," I find it utterly impossible for me to annex any precise 
 idea to the proposition. By what sort of gradual process are the superabundant 
 issues absorbed in the prices of commodities ; and to what sort of elective attraction 
 is it owing that this gradual absorption is so much greater in the case of some 
 commodities than of others ? This metaphorical view of the subject is the more to 
 be regretted, that, by placing on a wrong foundation the very important conclusion 
 with respect to the depreciation of our present currency which it is employed to 
 support, it has furnished to different writers the means of involving the conclusion 
 itself in some degree of obscurity. Mr. Coutts Trotter, for instance, in a pamphlet 
 which has just reached me, (and which, however erroneous and superficial in its 
 views, may be regarded as a fair specimen of the prevailing misconceptions among 
 men of business,) proceeds all along on the supposition, that, in order to shew there 
 has been no excess in the bank issues, it is sufficient to remark, that no man 
 carries about with him in his pocket, or locks up in his drawer, a greater number 
 of bank-notes than he finds necessary for his immediate expenditure. Hence he 
 seems disposed to infer, that as the additional issues do not stagnate in the channel 
 of circulation so as to overflow its banks, any more than the limited issues did 
 prior to the restriction, there exists no superfluity of currency to be absorbed in the 
 prices of commodities. The truth is, that it is not a superfluity of currency in the 
 hands of consumers that is the cause of the advanced prices ; but, on the contrary, 
 it is the advanced prices which render an amount of currency, that would otherwise 
 have been superfluous, absolutely necessary for the daily expenditure of the con- 
 .sumer. 1 In other words, it is the rise of prices produced by the extension of credit 
 and the creation of fictitious capital implied in the enlarged issues, that gives full 
 employment to the same issues considered in their capacity of circulating medium. 
 Indeed, it might be easily shewn, that the rise of prices must occasion a scarcity 
 rather than a superfluity of circulating medium : for a great deal of what Davenant 
 and others have stated with respect to the disproportion between the cause and the 
 effect, in the rise of price produced by a deficient supply of corn or of other neces- 
 sary commodities, will be found to hold equally with respect to the rise of price 
 produced by an increased demand operating on a limited supply. The amount of 
 increased issues, therefore, considered in their capacity of circulating medium, can- 
 not possibly keep exact pace with the advanced prices which they have previously 
 
 1 1 speak here of the economical consumer, their Increased consumption operates on the 
 or as to those who enlarge their scale of living market in the same way as the Increased de- 
 In [in portion to the facility of obtaining credit, mand occasioned by mercantile discounts.
 
 APPENDIX II. TO B. II. CH. II. BULLION REPORT. 451 
 
 occasioned by increasing demand, in their double capacity of mercantile capital and 
 of funds for expenditure. 
 
 Having mentioned Mr. Trotter's pamphlet, I cannot help taking notice here of 
 some remarks which he has made in reply to that account of the rise of prices 
 which seems to me the only satisfactory one, and on which I think the whole argu- 
 ment, on that point ought to be rested. " It is maintained," he says, " that the 
 facility with which bank-notes are procured from the bank, by the mode of discount 
 peculiar to commercial men, calls into existence an increase of purchasers in our 
 markets, whose competition heightens the price of every article." On this sen- 
 tence, (which Mr. Trbtter seems to consider as a first-rate absurdity from the two 
 points of admiration which he has placed at the end of it,) he proceeds to remark 
 as follows : " This will not be urged by any person acquainted with the subject 
 of production; an increase of capital (which this is to the small degree in which 
 it exists) never raises the price of commodities, but has exactly the opposite effect ; 
 an increase of consumers, in any given state of supply, will raise the price of 
 every article which is the object of their wants, and the enhanced price will con- 
 tinue until the stimulus of the increased demand has created a proportionably 
 increased production ; but a competition of consumers is regulated by principles 
 quite distinct from a competition of merchants, who buy to sell again : these must 
 always have in view the price which the article they are in treaty for will obtain at 
 its ultimate market ; and, whether there be ten such competitors or a hundred, 
 whether each has carried to the place of competition one hundred pounds of bank- 
 notes, or one thousand, he must still be limited, in the offer he can afford to make, 
 by the price which he expects to obtain in selling again. So far, indeed, from this 
 increased capital being the occasion of high prices, it is one of the principal means 
 of keeping them down ; a competition of capitalists, like a competition of manu- 
 facturers, restricts their respective profits." l In answer to this reasoning it may 
 be observed : 1. That merchants and consumers are here stated in contrast to 
 each other, as if they were two classes of persons completely distinct, whereas, in 
 fact, every merchant is also to be considered as a consumer ; and, (in a commercial 
 country like Great Britain,) a very great proportion of the consumers may, without 
 any improper latitude in the use of the word, be considered as merchants. The 
 enlarged accommodation, therefore, that a merchant receives, in the form of com- 
 mercial discounts, while it enables him to increase his speculations as a trader, 
 enables him also to defray the enlarged expenditure which he incurs as a consumer, 
 and even encourages him to add to the scale of his consumption. 2. The imme- 
 diate or proximate effect of a competition of capitals, is here confounded with its 
 ultimate tendency. That prices are always reduced in the long run by an increase 
 of demand, where it is possible by human industry to increase the supply in pro- 
 portion, is a maxim admitted by all writers on Political Economy ; but that the 
 first effect of the increased demand is to raise prices, is another maxim no less in- 
 disputable than the former. It is under this first or proximate effect that we are 
 now suffering, and under this effect we must (while things continue on their pre- 
 sent footing) every day suffer more and more, unless by some miracle the supply 
 of commodities should be rendered as easy and as instantaneous as the extension 
 of credit and the creation of capital. That " a competition of capitalists, like a 
 
 1 Principles of Currency and Exchanges applied to the Report of the Bullion Committee, p. 37.
 
 452 APPENDIX II. TO B. II. CH. II. BULLION REPORT. 
 
 competition of manufacturers, restricts their respective profits," is indeed true ; and 
 it is reasonable and fortunate that it should be so, where all their capitals are 
 equally the fruits of regular and useful industry. The melancholy fact in this 
 country at present is, that the profits of men of real capital are restricted by the 
 competition of those who have none, and that the prudent and steady trader feels 
 himself jostled out of his way by the bolder adventurer. It is no less hard, that 
 the expenditure of the former, in his capacity of consumer, should, at the same 
 time, be augmented by the competition of the latter. 
 
 I forgot to take notice, in my last letter, of your remarks on the inconveniences 
 that might be expected to result, under the present state of our paper currency, 
 from the repeal of the Anti-Usurious Laws. With these remarks I perfectly agree, 
 but I always proceeded on the supposition, that the Bank was to be obliged, within 
 a limited time, to resume its cash payments; a supposition, which, I think may be 
 assumed as an indisputable postulatum, whatever other subsidiary measures may 
 be thought useful for accomplishing the proposed end. It still appears to me, that, 
 while the Bank is previously preparing for this resumption by narrowing its dis- 
 counts, a relaxation of these laws would contribute more than anything else to 
 smooth the way towards this great object, by furnishing the means of such a pru- 
 dent solution in the distribution of credit, as might moderate the violence of the 
 shock, which both the commercial and agricultural interests of the country must 
 inevitably sustain before things are brought round again to their ancient and 
 natural course. 
 
 I must now relieve you, for the present, from this voluminous correspondence, 
 but I have still floating in my head a variety of crude ideas about some other parts 
 of the Report, which I shall put in writing during the summer, and submit to 
 your consideration, when I shall have the pleasure of seeing you at D unbar. 
 I have little doubt that my objections to some of these arise from my want of 
 K u flic Sent information. 
 
 If I have stumbled upon anything that you think worth shewing to Homer, I 
 can have no objection to your communicating my papers, either in whole or in part, 
 to one in whom I have so entire a confidence, provided only you mention to him 
 my anxiety that nobody whatever shall hear of such a communication. I meant 
 to have written to himself on the subject, but as the Report was already before the 
 public, and as the most popular objections to it have been confined to those points 
 which seemed to me the least vulnerable, I thought it better to delay proposing 
 my doubts till both of us should have a little more leisure. I have sometimes 
 wished that I had seen the Report before it was printed, as nothing would have 
 given me greater pleasure than to have contributed anything, however trifling, 
 towards its improvement. But this I regret the less, as I take for granted, that 
 nothing of any consequence is to be expected at the present moment, and that 
 there will still be ample time for discussion before the business can be brought 
 forward with any prospect of success.
 
 
 
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 Library Bureau Cat. No. 1137