134 History of the English Landed Interest. 



and equally wholesome substitute could be found, then Great 

 Britain may be said to have been capable of subsisting on 

 her own products. We use here the past tense advisedly, 

 for circumstances alter with the times, a fact the importance 

 of which the political economists of this period strangely 

 neglected. 



But whether or not Great Britain was capable of becoming 

 self-supporting as regards the necessaries of life, it was, to say 

 the least of it, doubtful if she could produce a sufficient sur- 

 plus from her agriculture to utilise as sources of profit. The 

 national expenses and the interest on her Funded Debt 

 required more revenues than her husbandry and its dependent 

 manufactures could produce. The question then arose whether 

 any alteration in her present system of land tenure and hus- 

 bandry would enable her to become self-supporting, not only 

 as regarded her necessaries of life, but as regarded her State 

 expenditure. 



All that has been now said goes to prove that it was in no 

 sense an impertinence of the outside public to inquire into, 

 and even to interfere with, that economy which the landed 

 classes had for ages been building up on British soil. But, as 

 we shall show before we have finished, in the exercise of 

 such rights of interference the community might very soon 

 overstep the bounds of equity and justice and intrude upon 

 vested interests. 



The first problem which occurred to the mind of the 

 thoughtful economist was whether more produce were cap- 

 able of being extracted from the soil, and if so, how could 

 the demand for it be made to keep pace with its increased 

 supply? Smith had only just been demonstrating that produce 

 is not wealth until it has become a vendible commodity, and 

 that a glut of goods in the market did not increase a nation's 

 prosperity. 



Now a great authority had asserted that the Britain of this 

 period was capable of producing four times the corn necessary 

 for one year's food consumption of the then population.^ 



* Essays on Husbandry ^ p. 51. Canoa Harte. 



