52 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



unlimited improvement but there are many preliminary con- 

 ditions to be fulfilled. Proper tools would soon be found a 

 necessity, if the land was not to become a mere nursery of 

 weeds ; and though at first the man might make his own tools, 

 the gain in efficiency would soon lead to a division of labour, 

 the making of tools falling to the carpenter and the blacksmith, 

 who would have to be paid by a percentage on the crops 

 or in some similar way, they themselves not practising 

 agriculture. In this way, probably, the first germ of division 

 of labour would appear and the first non-agricultural popu- 

 lation. 



As the country became settled and populous, means of 

 transport of goods would arise — at first perhaps by the aid of 

 water, or by carriage on the heads of coolies — and with it a 

 further differentiation of the population, men engaged in these 

 new occupations also appearing. At the same time, the 

 agricultural population itself would gradually realise that a 

 differentiation might with advantage come into its own ranks, 

 for when the produce could be carried elsewhere, it would 

 be more efficient for A and B to specialise a little more 

 in their cultivations, grow somewhat different things and ex- 

 change them. 



As transport facilities increased, local markets, where produce 

 might be exchanged or sold, would grow up. But it must be 

 clearly understood that so long as the market is simply local, 

 so long will there be liability to great fluctuations in demand, 

 supply and price, and consequently that to embark upon large 

 cultivations of one particular product will be taking very great 

 risks. The cultivators must continue to grow the bulk of what 

 they require, but may devote a small part of their available land 

 to the cultivation of products for sale or exchange. 



This is the state of affairs to which perhaps the most civilised 

 countries of the tropics, such as India or Ceylon, had attained 

 at the time of the first appearances of the trading nations in 

 their midst. At this stage they have in general remained to 

 this day, in spite of centuries of intercourse with Europeans, 

 though they have probably progressed a little in the specialisa- 

 tion that we have indicated, and some have taken to more 

 modern ways. The great bulk of the population, and this 

 the more conspicuously the nearer one comes to the equator, 

 live to-day, as their forefathers lived, by growing most of their 



