120 PRINCIPLES OF RURAL ECONOMICS 



dwellings, there is no geographic limit to the quantity which a 

 country can manufacture. Given only raw materials, there is 

 never any question, therefore, of the nation's ability to manu- 

 facture everything it needs, no matter how populous it may 

 become. For every additional man to be supplied with manufac- 

 tured products there is always the same man who may be put 

 to work manufacturing them, provided he can get the raw ma- 

 terials. There is never in the nation at large any lack of room 

 for him to work. F^or every man who is to be supplied with 

 beef and bread there is also, it may be said, the same man who 

 may be put to work growing cattle and wheat. But this takes 

 room, ; land, superficial area, and if the country becomes 

 sufficiently populous, there may not be room enough for this 

 kind of work. Leaving raw materials out of account, almost any 

 conceivable population could manufacture clothing enough for 

 itself, but only a limited population can grow wool and cotton 

 enough within its own territory. This is for no other reason 

 than that manufactures require little land, and agriculture much 

 land, in proportion to the labor employed and the product 

 obtained. 



Dependence of manufacturers upon markets. This possibility 

 of producing indefinitely in the urban industries is what has 

 made a commercial and manufacturing policy so alluring to 

 statesmen in modern times. If raw materials can be obtained, 

 and if outside markets can be secured for the finished products, 

 there is no conceivable limit to the population which can be 

 supported by manufacturing, or to the wealth of that popu- 

 lation. A nation can manufacture not only enough for its own 

 use, but indefinitely more, provided it can buy raw materials 

 and sell its finished products. In other words, the only con- 

 ceivable limits to the population and wealth of a manufacturing 

 country are those fixed by the available supply of its raw ma- 

 terials and the outside markets for its manufactured products. 



