124 PRINCIPLES OF RURAL ECONOMICS 



the reduction of its numbers. New markets may be conquered 

 by wise diplomacy, by careful advertising, or by war. The first 

 two methods failing, few nations have had the grace to refrain 

 from war where they thought there was a chance of success in 

 winning wider markets. All three methods failing, the manufac- 

 turing population must be reduced by starvation or emigration. 

 In this situation we have the key to the understanding of the 

 commercial policies of the manufacturing and commercial nations. 

 For a growing agricultural population, however, there is a 

 real danger of underproduction. Unless the arts of agricul- 

 tural production improve with the increase of population, a 

 growing agricultural population in a given territory will even- 

 tually mean a smaller per capita production. Each worker will 

 eventually have so little land at his disposal as to cut down his 

 total product, even though he does get a somewhat larger prod- 

 uct per acre. Failure to offset the disadvantage of scarce land 

 by agricultural improvements means, for such a population, 

 continued underproduction, which forces upon it the necessity 

 of getting more land or of reducing its numbers. Getting more 

 land requires either wise diplomacy, as was practiced when land 

 was purchased or acquired by treaty from the American Indians, 

 or it requires a war of conquest. Reducing the numbers of an 

 agricultural population means migration to new lands or to the 

 cities, where it is transformed into a manufacturing, mining, 

 or commercial population, which in turn requires expanding 

 markets. To sum up, a growing agricultural population on a 

 given area of land must choose at least one of four things, 

 and there is no other choice. In the first place, it may im- 

 prove the arts of production by new discoveries in the science 

 of agriculture. In the second place, it may acquire new land 

 either peacefully or by war. In the third place, it may reduce 

 its population by migration either to new lands or to manu- 

 facturing, mining, or commercial centers. In the fourth place, 



