which subsistence is become scarce, it behoves the state to watch over the public morals with increased solicitude; for nothing but the instinct of nature, under the restraint of chastity, will induce men to undertake the labour, or consent to the sacrifice of personal liberty and indulgence, which the support of a family, in such circumstances, requires.

Under this head, and from a view of these considerations, may be understood the true evil and proper danger of luxury.

culiarity arises, not probably from any civil advantages, any care or policy, any particular constitution or superior wisdom of government; but simply from hence, that the species of food to which custom hath reconciled the desires and inclinations of the inhabitants, is that which, of all others, is procured in the greatest abundance, with the most ease, and stands in need of the II. The second requisite which our proposition least preparation. The natives of Indostan being states as necessary to the success of population, is, confined, by the laws of their religion, to the use "the ease and certainty with which a provision of vegetable food, and requiring little except rice, can be procured for that mode of subsistence to which the country produces in plentiful crops; which each class of the community is accustomed." and food, in warm climates, composing the only It is not enough that men's natural wants be want of life; these countries are populous, under supplied; that a provision adequate to the real all the injuries of a despotic, and the agitations exigencies of human life be attainable; habitual of an unsettled government. If any revolution, superfluities become actual wants; opinion and or what would be called perhaps refinement of fashion convert articles of ornament and luxury manners, should generate in these people a taste into necessaries of life. And it must not be ex- for the flesh of animals, similar to what prevails pected from men in general, at least in the present amongst the Arabian hordes; should introduce relaxed state of morals and discipline, that they flocks and herds into grounds which are now cowill enter into marriages which degrade their con- vered with corn; should teach them to account a dition, reduce their mode of living, deprive them certain portion of this species of food amongst the of the accommodations to which they have been necessaries of life; the population, from this sinaccustomed, or even of those ornaments or ap-gle change, would suffer in a few years a great pendages of rank and station which they have diminution: and this diminution would follow, in been taught to regard as belonging to their birth, spite of every effort of the laws, or even of any or class, or profession, or place in society. The improvement that might take place in their civil same consideration, namely, a view to their ac- condition. In Ireland, the simplicity of living customed mode of life, which is so apparent in the alone, maintains a considerable degree of populasuperior order of the people, has no less influence tion, under great defects of police, industry, and upon those ranks which compose the mass of the commerce. community. The kind and quality of food and liquor, the species of habitation, furniture, and clothing, to which the common people of each country are habituated, must be attainable with LUXURY, as it supplies employment and proease and certainty, before marriages will be suf- motes industry, assists population. But, then ficiently early and general to carry the progress there is another consequence attending it, which of population to its just extent. It is in vain to counteracts and often overbalances these advanallege, that a more simple diet, ruder habitations, tages. When, by introducing more superfluities or coarser apparel, would be sufficient for the pur- into general reception, luxury has rendered the poses of life and health, or even of physical ease usual accommodations of life more expensive, arand pleasure. Men will not marry with this en- tificial, and elaborate, the difficulty of maintaining couragement. For instance: when the common a family conformably with the established mode people of a country are accustomed to eat a large of living, becomes greater, and what each man proportion of animal food, to drink wine, spirits, has to spare from his personal consumption proor beer, to wear shoes and stockings, to dwell in portionably less: the effect of which is, that marstone houses, they will not marry to live in clay riages grow less frequent, agreeably to the maxim cottages, upon roots and milk, with no other above laid down, and which must be remembered clothing than skins, or what is necessary to de- as the foundation of all our reasoning upon the fend the trunk of the body from the effects of subject, that men will not marry to sink their cold; although these last may be all that the sus-place or condition in society, or to forego those tentation of life and health requires, or that even indulgences which their own habits, or what contribute much to animal comfort and enjoy- observe amongst their equals, have rendered necessary to their satisfaction. This principle is ap plicable to every article of diet and dress, to houses, furniture, attendance; and this effect will be felt in every class of the community. For instance: the custom of wearing broad-cloth and fine linen, repays the shepherd and flax-grower, feeds the manufacturer, enriches the merchant, gives not only support but existence to multitudes of families: hitherto, therefore, the effects are beneficial; and were these the only effects, such elegancies, or, if you please to call them so, sach luxuries, could not be too universal. But here follows the mischief: when once fashion hath annexed the use of these articles of dress to any certain class, the middling ranks, for example, of the community, each individual of that rank finds them to be necessaries of life, that is, finds himself obliged to comply with the example of his equals,

ment.

The ease, then, and certainty, with which the means can be procured, not barely of subsistence, but of that mode of subsisting which custom hath in each country established, form the point upon which the state and progress of population chiefly depend. Now, there are three causes which evidently regulate this point: the mode itself of subsisting which prevails in the country; the quantity of provision suited to that mode of subsistence, which is either raised in the country or imported into it; and, lastly, the distribution of that provision. These three causes merit distinct consideration. I. The mode of living which actually obtains in a country. In China, where the inhabitants frequent the sea shore, or the banks of large rivers, and subsist in a great measure upon fish, the population is described to be excessive. This pe

they

from which it is raised being given, will depend greatly upon the kind. For instance: a piece of ground capable of supplying animal food sufticient for the subsistence of ten persons, would sustain, at least, the double of that number with grain, roots, and milk. The first resource of savage life is in the flesh of wild animals; hence the num bers amongst savage nations, compared with the tract of country which they occupy, are univer

and to maintain that appearance which the custom of society requires. This obligation creates such a demand upon his income, and adds so much to the cost and burden of a family, as to put it out of his power to marry, with the prospect of continuing his habits, or of maintaining his place and situation in the world. We see, in this description, the cause which induces men to waste their lives in a barren celibacy; and this cause, which impairs the very source of popula-sally small; because this species of provision is, tion, is justly placed to the account of luxury.

It appears, then, that luxury, considered with a view to population, acts by two opposite effects; and it seems probable that there exists a point in the scale, to which luxury may ascend, or to which the wants of mankind may be multiplied with advantage to the community, and beyond which the prejudicial consequences begin to preponderate. The determination of this point, though it as sume the form of an arithmetical problem, depends upon circumstances too numerous, intricate, and undefined, to admit of a precise solution. However, from what has been observed concerning the tendency of luxury to diminish marriages, in which tendency the evil of it resides, the following general conclusions may be established:

1st, That, of different kinds of luxury, those are the most innocent which afford employment to the greatest number of artists and manufacturers; or those, in other words, in which the price of the work bears the greatest proportion to that of the raw material.-Thus, luxury in dress or furniture, is universally preferable to luxury in eating, because the articles which constitute the one, are more the production of human art and industry, than those which supply the other.

of all others, supplied in the slenderest proportion. The next step was the invention of pasturage, or the rearing of flocks and herds of tame animals: this alteration added to the stock of provision much. But the last and principal improvement was to follow; namely, tillage, or the artificial production of corn, esculent plants, and roots. This discovery, whilst it changed the quality of human food, augmented the quantity in a vast proportion. So far as the state of population is governed and limited by the quantity of provision, perhaps there is no single cause that affects it so powerfully, as the kind and quality of food which chance or usage hath introduced into a country. In England, notwithstanding the produce of the soil has been, of late, 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; the reason of which appears to me to be, the more general consumption of animal food amongst us. Many ranks of people whose ordinary diet was, in the last century, prepared almost entirely from milk, roots, and vegetables, now require every day a considerable portion of the flesh of animals. Hence a great part of the richest lands of the country are conna-verted to pasturage. 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. 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 teaches us, that tillage, as an object of national care and encouragement, is universally preferable to pasturage, because the kind of provision which it yields, goes much farther in the sustentation of human life. Tillage is also recommended by this additional advantage, that it affords employment to a much more numerous peasantry. Indeed, pasturage seems to be the art of a nation, either imperfectly civilized, as are many of the tribes which cultivate it in the internal parts of Asia; or of a nation, like Spain, declining from its summit by luxury and inactivity.

2lly, That it is the diffusion, rather than the degree of luxury, which is to be dreaded as a tional evil. The mischief of luxury consists, as we have seen, in the obstruction which it forms to marriage. Now it is only a small part of the people that the higher ranks in any country compose; for which reason, the facility or the difficulty of supporting the expense of their station, and the consequent increase or diminution of marriages among them, will influence the state of population but little. So long as the prevalency of luxury is confined to a few of elevated rank, much of the benefit is felt, and little of the inconveniency. But when the imitation of the same manner descends, as it always will do, into the mass of the people; when it advances the requisites of living, beyond what it adds to men's abilities to purchase them; then it is that luxury checks the formation of families, in a degree that ought to alarm the public fears.

3dly, That the condition most favourable to population is that of a laborious, frugal people, ministering to the demands of an opulent, luxurious nation; because this situation, whilst it leaves them every advantage of luxury, exempts them from the evils which naturally accompany its admission into any country.

The kind and quality of provision, together with the extent and capacity of the soil from which it is raised, being the same; the quantity procured will principally depend upon two circumstances,-the ability of the occupier, and the encouragement which he receives. The greatest misfortune of a country is an indigent tenantry. II. Next to the mode of living, we are to con- Whatever be the native advantages of the soil, or sider "the quantity of provision suited to that even the skill and industry of the occupier, the mode, which is either raised in the country, or want of a sufficient capital confines every plan, as imported into it" for this is the order in which well as cripples and weakens every operation of we assigned the causes of population, and under- husbandry. This evil is felt, where agriculture took to treat of them. Now, if we measure the is accounted a servile or mean employment; where quantity of provision by the number of human farms are extremely subdivided and badly furbodies it will support in due health and vigour,nished with habitations; where leases are unthis quantity, the extent and quality of the soil known, or are of short or precarious duration.

With respect to the encouragement of husbandry; however it may come in aid of another principle, in this, as in every other employment, the true re- however it may occasionally qualify the rigour, or ward of industry is in the price and sale of the supply the imperfection, of an established rule of produce. The exclusive right to the produce, is distribution, can never itself become that rule or the only incitement which acts constantly and principle; because men will not work to give the universally; the only spring which keeps hu- produce of their labour away-Moreover, the man labour in motion. All therefore that the only equivalents that can be offered in exchange laws can do, is to secure this right to the occupier for provision are power and labour. All property of the ground; that is, to constitute such a system is power. What we call property in land, is the of tenure, that the full and entire advantage of power to use it, and to exclude others from the every improvement go to the benefit of the im- use. Money is the representative of power, beprover; that every man work for himself, and not cause it is convertible into power: the value of for another; and that no one share in the profit it consists in its faculty of procuring power over who does not assist in the production. By the things and persons. But power which results occupier I here mean, not so much the person from civil conventions (and of this kind is what who performs the work, as him who procures the we call a man's fortune or estate,) is necessarily labour and directs the management: and I con- confined to a few, and is withal soon exhausted: sider the whole profit as received by the occupier, whereas the capacity of labour is every man's when the occupier is benefited by the whole natural possession, and composes a constant and value of what is produced, which is the case with renewing fund. The hire, therefore, or produce the tenant who pays a fixed rent for the use of of personal industry, is that which the bulk of land, no less than with the proprietor who holds every community must bring to market, in exit as his own. The one has the same interest in change for the means of subsistence; in other the produce, and in the advantage of every im- words, employment must, in every country, be the provement, as the other. Likewise the proprietor, medium of distribution, and the source of supply though he grant out his estate to farm, may be to individuals. But when we consider the proconsidered as the occupier, insomuch as he regu-duction and distribution of provision, as distinct lates the occupation by the choice, superintendency, and encouragement, of his tenants, by the disposition of his lands, by erecting buildings, providing accommodations, by prescribing conditions, or supplying implements and materials of improvement; and is entitled, by the rule of public expediency above mentioned, to receive, in the advance of his rent, a share of the benefit which arises from the increased produce of his estate. The violation of this fundamental maxim of agrarian policy constitutes the chief objection to the holding of lands by the state, by the king, by corporate bodies, by private persons in right of their offices or benefices. The inconveniency to the public arises not so much from the unalienable quality of lands thus holden in perpetuity, as from hence; that proprietors of this description seldom contribute much either of attention or expense to the cultivation of their estates, yet claim, by the rent, a share in the profit of every improvement that is made upon them. This complaint can only be obviated by "long leases at a fixed rent," which convey a large portion of the interest to those who actually conduct the cultivation. The same objection is applicable to the holding of lands by foreign proprietors, and in some degree to estates of too great extent being placed in the same hands.

from, and independent of, each other; when, supposing the same quantity to be produced, we inquire in what way, or according to what rule, it may be distributed; we are led to a conception of the subject not at all agreeable to truth and reality; for, in truth and reality, though provision must be produced before it be distributed, yet the production depends, in a great measure, upon the distribution. The quantity of provision raised out of the ground, so far as the raising of it requires human art or labour, will evidently be regulated by the demand: the demand, or, in other words, the price and sale, being that which alone rewards the care, or excites the diligence, of the husbandman. But the sale of provision depends upon the number, not of those who want, but of those who have something to offer in return for what they want; not of those who would consume, but of those who can buy; that is, upon the number of those who have the fruits of some other kind of industry to tender in exchange for what they stand in need of from the production of the soil.

We see, therefore, the connection between population and employment. Employment affects population "directly," as it affords the only medium of distribution by which individuals can obtain from the common stock a supply for the III. Beside the production of provision, there wants of their families: it affects population, "inremains to be considered the DISTRIBUTION.-It is directly," as it augments the stock itself of proviin vain that provisions abound in the country, sion, in the only way by which the production of unless I be able to obtain a share of them. This it can be effectually encouraged.-by furnishing reflection belongs to every individual. The plenty purchasers. No man can purchase without an of provision produced, the quantity of the public equivalent; and that equivalent, by the generality stock affords subsistence to individuals, and en- of the people, must in every country be derived couragement to the formation of families, only in from employment. And upon this basis is foundproportion as it is distributed, that is, in propor-ed the public benefit of trade, that is to say, its tion as these individuals are allowed to draw from it a supply of their own wants. The distribution, therefore, becomes of equal consequence to population with the production-Now there is but one principle of distribution that can ever become universal, namely, the principle of "exchange;" or, in other words, that every man have something to give in return for what he wants. Bounty,

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subserviency to population, in which its only real utility consists. Of that industry, and of those arts ar.d branches of trade, which are employed in the production, conveyance, and preparation, of any principal species of human food, as of the business of the husbandman, the butcher, baker, brewer, corn merchant, &c. we acknowledge the necessity: likewise of those manufactures which

of the community would overwhelm the whole with confusion and disorder. One only way presents itself of removing the difficulty which this question states, and which is simply this: that they, whose work is not wanted, nor can be employed, in the raising of provision out of the ground, convert their hands and ingenuity to the fabrication of articles which may gratify and requite those who are so employed, or who by the division of lands in the country, are entitled to the exclusive possession of certain parts of them. By this contrivance, all things proceed well. The occupier of the ground raises from it the utmost that he can procure, because he is repaid for what he can spare by something else which he wants, or with which he is pleased: the artist or manufac

soil, nor any concern in its cultivation, is regularly supplied with the produce, because he gives, in exchange for what he stands in need of, something upon which the receiver places an equal value: and the community is kept quiet, while both sides are engaged in their respective occupations.

furnish us with warm clothing, convenient habi- | remaining unemployed. The idleness of one half tations, domestic utensils, as of the weaver, tailor, smith, carpenter, &c. we perceive (in climates, however, like ours, removed at a distance from the sun,) the conduciveness to population, by their rendering human life more healthy, vigorous, and comfortable. But not one half the occupations which compose the trade of Europe, fall within either of these descriptions. Perhaps two-thirds of the manufacturers in England are employed upon articles of confessed luxury, ornament, or splendour; in the superfluous embellishment of some articles which are useful in their kind, or upon others which have no conceivable use or value but what is founded in caprice or fashion. What can be less necessary or less connected with the sustentation of human life, than the whole produce of the silk, lace, and plate manufacturer, though he have neither any property in the tory? yet what multitudes labour in the different branches of these arts! What can be imagined more capricious than the fondness for tobacco and snuff? yet how many various occupations, and how many thousands in each, are set at work in administering to this frivolous gratification! Concerning trades of this kind, (and this kind comprehends more than half the trades that are exercised,) it may fairly be asked, "How, since they add nothing to the stock of provision, do they tend to increase the number of the people?" We are taught to say of trade, “that it maintains multitudes;" but by what means does it maintain them, when it produces nothing upon which the support of human life depends -In like manner with respect to foreign commerce; of that mer-productive; the rest is instrumental;—both equalchandise which brings the necessaries of life into a country, which imports, for example, corn, or cattle, or cloth, or fuel, we allow the tendency to advance population, because it increases the stock of provision by which the people are subsisted. But this effect of foreign commerce is so little seen in our own country, that I believe, it may be affirmed of Great Britain, what Bishop Berkley said of a neighbouring island, that, if it were encompassed with a wall of brass fifty cubits high, the country might maintain the same number of inhabitants that find subsistence in it at present; and that every necessary, and even every real comfort and accommodation of human life, might be supplied in as great abundance as they now are. Here, therefore, as before, we may fairly ask, by what operation it is, that foreign commerce, which brings into the country no one article of human subsistence, promotes the multiplication of human life?

The answer of this inquiry, will be contained in the discussion of another, viz:

Since the soil will maintain many more than it can employ, what must be done, supposing the country to be full, with the remainder of the inhabitants? They who, by the rules of partition, (and some such must be established in every country,) are entitled to the land; and they who, by their labour upon the soil, acquire a right in its produce, will not part with their property for nothing; or, rather, they will no longer raise from the soil what they can neither use themselves, nor exchange for what they want. Or, lastly, if these were willing to distribute what they could spare of the provision which the ground yielded, to others who had no share or concern in the property or cultivation of it, yet still the most enormous mischiefs would ensue, from great numbers

It appears, then, that the business of one half of mankind is, to set the other half at work; that is, to provide articles which, by tempting the desires, may stimulate the industry, and call forth the activity, of those upon the exertion of whose industry, and the application of whose faculties, the production of human provision depends. A certain portion only of human labour is, or can be

ly necessary, though the one have no other object than to excite the other. It appears also, that it signifies nothing, as to the main purpose of trade, how superfluous the articles which it furnishes are; whether the want of them be real or imaginary; whether it be founded in nature, or in opinion, in fashion, habit, or emulation: it is enough that they be actually desired and sought after. Flourishing cities are raised and supported by trading in tobacco; populous towns subsist by the manufac tory of ribands. A watch may be a very unnecessary appendage to the dress of a peasant; yet if the peasant will till the ground in order to obtain a watch, the true design of trade is answered: and the watchmaker, while he polishes the case, or files the wheels of his machine, is contributing to the production of corn as effectually, though not so directly, as if he handled the spade or held the plough. The use of tobacco has been mentioned already, not only as an acknowledged superfluity, but as affording a remarkable example of the caprice of human appetite: yet if the fisherman will ply his nets, or the mariner fetch rice from foreign countries, in order to procure to himself this indulgence, the market is supplied with two important articles of provision, by the instrumentality of a merchandise which has no other apparent use than the gratification of a vitiated palate.

But it may come to pass that the husbandman, land-owner, or whoever he be that is entiled to the produce of the soil, will no longer exchange it for what the manufacturer has to offer. He is already supplied to the extent of his desires. For instance, he wants no more cloth; he will no longer therefore give the weaver corn in return for the produce of his looms: but he would readily give it for tea, or for wine. When the weaver

finds this to be the case, he has nothing to do but | ed with one kind of manufacture, it renews the to send his cloth abroad, in exchange for tea or demand by converting it into another: but it is infor wine, which he may barter for that provision ferior to the former, as it promotes this end by one which the offer of his cloth will no longer procure. side only of the bargain,-by what it carries out. The circulation is thus revived: and the benefit -The last, the lowest, and most disadvantageous of the discovery is, that, whereas the number of species of commerce, is the exportation of raw weavers, who could find subsistence from their materials in return for wrought goods: as when employment, was before limited by the consump-wool is sent abroad to purchase velvets; hides or tion of cloth in the country, that number is now augmented, in proportion to the demand for tea and wine. This is the principle of foreign commerce. In the magnitude and complexity of the machine, the principle of motion is sometimes lost or unobserved; but it is always simple and the same, to whatever extent it may be diversified and enlarged in its operation.

peltry, to procure shoes, hats, or linen cloth. This trade is unfavourable to population, because it leaves no room or demand for employment, either in what it takes out of the country, or in what it brings into it. Its operation on both sides is noxious. By its exports, it diminishes the very subject upon which the industry of the inhabitants ought to be exercised; by its imports, it lesThe effect of trade upon agriculture, the process sens the encouragement of that industry, in the of which we have been endeavouring to describe, same proportion that it supplies the consumption is visible in the neighbourhood of trading towns, of the country with the produce of foreign labour. and in those districts which carry on a communi- Of different branches of manufactory, those are, cation with the markets of trading towns. The in their nature, the most beneficial, in which the husbandmen are busy and skilful; the peasantry price of the wrought article exceeds in the highest laborious; the land is managed to the best advan- proportion that of the raw material: for this excess tage; and double the quantity of corn or herbage measures the quantity of employment, or, in other (articles which are ultimately converted into hu- words, the number of manufacturers, which each man provision) raised from it, of what the same branch sustains. The produce of the ground is soil yields in remoter and more neglected parts of never the most advantageous article of foreign the country. Wherever a thriving manufactory commerce. Under a perfect state of public econfinds means to establish itself, a new vegetation omy, the soil of the country should be applied springs up around it. I believe it is true that agri- solely to the raising of provisions for the inhabitculture never arrives at any considerable, much ants, and its trade be supplied by their industry. less at its highest, degree of perfection, where it is A nation will never reach its proper extent of not connected with trade; that is, where the de- population, so long as its principal commerce conmand for the produce is not increased by the con- sists in the exportation of corn or cattle, or even sumption of tracing cities. of wine, oil, tobacco, madder, indigo, timber; because these last articles take up that surface which ought to be covered with the materials of human subsistence.

Let it be remembered then, that agriculture is the immediate source of human provision; that trade conduces to the production of provision only as it promotes agriculture; that the whole system of commerce, vast and various as it is, hath no other public importance than its subserviency to this end.

It must be here however noticed, that we have all along considered the inhabitants of a country as maintained by the produce of the country; and that what we have said is applicable with strictness to this supposition alone. . The reasoning, nevertheless, may easily be adapted to a different case : for when provision is not produced, but imported, what has been affirmed concerning provision, will be, in a great measure, true of that article, whether it be money, produce, or labour, which is exchanged for provision. Thus, when the Dutch raise madder, and exchange it for corn; or when the people of America plant tobacco, and send it to Europe for cloth; the cultivation of madder and tobacco becomes as necessary to the subsistence of the inhabitants, and by consequence will affect the state of population in these countries as sensibly, as the actual production of food, or the manufactory of raiment. In like manner, when the same inhabitants of Holland earn money by the carriage of the produce of one country to another, and with that money purchase the provision from abroad, which their own land is not extensive enough to supply, the increase of decline of this carrying trade will influence the numbers of the people no less than similar changes would do in the cultivation of the soil.

We return to the proposition we laid down, that employment universally promotes population." From this proposition it follows, that the comparative utility of different branches of national commerce is measured by the number which each branch employs. Upon which principle a scale may easily be constructed, which shall assign to the several kinds and divisions of foreign trade, their respective degrees of public importance. In this scale, the first place belongs to the exchange of wrought goods for raw materials, as of broad cloth for raw silk; cutlery for wool; clocks or watches for iron, flax, or furs; because this traffic provides a market for the labour that has already been expended, at the same time that it supplies materials for new industry. Population always flourishes where this species of commerce obtains to any considerable degree. It is the cause of employment, or the certain indication. As it takes off the manufactures of the country, it promotes employment; as it brings in raw materials, it supposes the existence of manufactories in the country, and a demand for the article when manufactured. The second place is due to that commerce, which barters one species of wrought goods for another, as stuffs for calicoes, fustians for cambrics, leather for paper, or wrought goods for articles which require no farther preparation, as 1. EMIGRATION.-Emigration may be either for wine, oil, tea, sugar, &c. This also assists the overflowing of a country, or the desertion, employment; because, when the country is stock-As the increase of the species is indefinite; and

The few principles already established, will enable us to describe the effects upon population which may be expected from the following important articles of national conduct and economy: