MARKETS. 159 



do ; but a tenth, fifth, or even the fourth of a population 

 is not enough to furnish a sufficient market, especially if 

 this population is not itself a producing one that is to 

 say, engaged in trade or manufactures. 



In this state of things, as there is no interchange, the 

 cultivator is obliged to produce those articles which are 

 most necessary for life that is to say, cereals : if the soil 

 yields little, so much the worse for him ; but he has no 

 choice he must produce corn or die of hunger. Now on 

 bad land there is no more expensive cultivation than this ; 

 even on good, if care is not taken, it soon becomes burthen- 

 some ; but under these conditions of farming no one 

 thinks of taking account of the expense. The labour 

 is not for profit, but for life : cost what it may, corn 

 must be had, or at all events rye. As long as the popu- 

 lation is scanty, the evil is not overwhelming, because 

 there is no want of land : long fallows enable the land 

 to produce something ; but as soon as the population 

 begins to increase, the soil ceases to be sufficient for 

 the purpose ; and a time soon arrives when the popula- 

 tion suffers severely for want of food. 



Let us now take the most populous and most indus- 

 trious part of France the north-west ; still we do not 

 find there a population quite analogous to that of the 

 English, two head only per five acres, in place of three. 

 It is double, however, that which we have anywhere else, 

 and one-half of this population give their attention to 

 commerce, manufactures, and the liberal professions. The 

 country, properly speaking, is not more thickly populated 

 than the centre and south of France ; but we there find, 

 in addition, numerous wealthy manufacturing towns 

 and among them is the largest and most opulent of all, 

 Paris. A large trade is there carried on in agricultural 

 commodities : corn, wine, cattle, wool, fowls, eggs, milk, &c., 



