- t ‘aT ~ 
Foreign Commerce. 49 
view of its merits. We shall now consider its 
influence on population. 
Population depends on the abundance of 
food, and the facility with which it is generally 
procured. The abundance of food must en- 
tirely depend on two circumstances, the state 
of agriculture, and the extent of the importa- 
tion of foreign articles of sustenance. The 
- state of agriculture includes not merely the 
degree of improvement in agricultural know- 
ledge, but also the kind of culture which the 
soil receives. Land employed in rearing ani- 
mal food, supports a much smaller number of 
individuals than land employed in raising 
corn: potatoe fields are much more productive 
than either. In order to understand this sub- 
ject, it is necessary to inquire into the radical 
causes which determine the mode in which the 
ground will be cultivated. This is wholly 
regulated by the pleasure of the proprietors of 
land. Landed property differs from property 
of other kinds im this leading circumstance, 
that it has the original command of the whole 
overplus of produce and of human labour, 
above that which is necessary for the sus- 
tenance of the proprietors themselves. If the 
chief amf¥ftion of landed proprietors is to 
possess extensive pleasure grounds, deer parks, 
‘ G 
ms ~ 
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