CHAPTER V 



We will pass on and consider some of the matters just 

 discussed as they particularly affect the inhabitants 

 of the British Islands. 



Wages in the United Kingdom are set not by the state 

 of cultivation there but by its state on the mainland of 

 Europe. — The United Kingdom is not a self-sufficient 

 country as for the most part are the other nations of 

 Europe. On the mainland of Europe the country 

 feeds the town, and the town supplies the country with 

 its aids to agriculture and with its manufactures. The 

 common stock whence both draw is their own land ; and 

 the fortunes of each are regulated by the quality of land 

 that must be brought into cultivation to satisfy the 

 joint needs. In such cases the relation between town 

 and country is direct, and the dependence of both upon 

 the state of cultivation is plain. 



In the British Islands, however, while many of the 

 townsmen exchange with their own countryside they 

 are not dependent on it for a living ; ihey can draw 

 subsistence from other parts of the earth. The country 

 labour likewise is not limited to an exchange with the 

 towns, but can join the manufactures and draw its 

 sustenance from abroad. What, then, is the relation of 

 the countryman to the townsman in the United Kingdom 

 and how (if at all) does the descent of agriculture 

 affect their living ? For the factors which decide their 

 fate we must look abroad, as it is not settled at home 

 but in the markets of the world. 



The United Kingdom does not manufacture pro- 



