IV CAPITAL— THE MOTHER OF LABOUR. 163 



that, if the number of men to be fed increases in- 

 definitely, a time must come when some will have 

 to starve. That is the essence of the so-called 

 Malthusian doctrine; and it is a truth which, to 

 my mind, is as plain as the general proposition 

 that a quantity which constantly increases will, 

 some time or other, exceed any greater quantity 

 the amount of which is fixed. 



The foregoing considerations leave no doubt 

 about the fundamental condition of the existence 

 of any polity, or organized society of men, either in 

 a purely pastoral or purely agricultural state, or 

 in any mixture of both states. It must possess a 

 store of vital capital to start with, and the means 

 of repairing the consumption of that capital which 

 takes place as a consequence of the work of the 

 members of the society. And, if the polity occu- 

 pies a completely isolated area of the earth's sur- 

 face, the numerical strength of that polity can 

 never exceed the quotient of the maximum quan- 

 tity of food-stuffs producible by the green plants 

 on that area, in each year, divided by the quan- 

 tity necessary for the maintenance of each person 

 during the year. But, there is a third mode of 

 existence possible to a polity; it may, conceivably, 

 be neither purely pastoral nor purely agricultural, 

 but purely manufacturing. Let us suppose three 

 islands, like Gran Canaria, Teneriffe and Lanze- 

 rote, in the Canaries, to be quite cut off from the 

 rest of the world. Let Gran Canaria be inhab- 



