XI 



THE REGULATION OF NUMBERS AMONG 

 HISTORICAL RACES 



1. At the beginning of the Ninth Chapter it was shown that 

 under any given conditions there is a certain density of population 

 which is the most desirable. What was there said applies 

 whenever men enjoy the benefits of co-operation. In the first 

 and second groups, most men are engaged in the production of 

 food, and, except in some races in the second group, the distinction 

 between rich and poor, the division of labour, and other complica- 

 tions of social life are not far advanced. Where such complica- 

 tions are much increased, as in the third group, it may seem that 

 so simple an idea as that of an optimum number is no longer 

 even in general valid. It must suffice here to state that such 

 complications do not destroy the general validity of this view. 

 In fact the quotation from Professor Cannan given in the Sixth 

 Chapter has direct reference to modern conditions, and the 

 principle there laid down was intended by him to apply to the 

 economic conditions of the present day, though it is, as he says, 

 also applicable to any society once co-operation has arisen. 



Among the complications of social life to which we may refer 

 are those connected with property, the division of labour, and 

 the division into classes. The latest development connected 

 with property — the introduction of the capitalist system and 

 the appearance of a large class of wage-earners — does not change 

 the general position. One remarkable modern development of 

 the division of labour results in one country devoting itself 

 largely to manufacture while another may devote itself to the 

 production of food. Of all such complications there is only one 

 which so modifies the idea of an optimum number as to require 

 mention in a broad survey. That complication is the division 

 into classes. Where there is a more or less well-marked division 

 into classes performing more or less well-defined kinds of labour, 

 there is nevertheless generally such an ebb and flow between them 

 that there can hardly be any question, broadly speaking, of over- 



