18 Of the general Checks to Population, Bk. i. 



These effects, in the present state of society, 

 seem to be produced in the following manner. We 

 will suppose the means of subsistence in any coun- 

 try just equal to the easy support of its inhabitants. 

 The constant effort towards population, which is 

 found to act even in the most vicious societies, in- 

 creases the number of people before the means of 

 subsistence are increased. The food, therefore, 

 which before supported eleven millions, must now 

 be divided among eleven millions and a half. 

 The poor consequently must live much worse, and 

 many of them be reduced to severe distress. The 

 number of labourers also being above the propor- 

 tion of work in the market, the price of labour must 

 tend to fall, while the price of provisions would at 

 the same time tend to rise. The labourer therefore 

 must do more work, to earn the same as he did 

 before. During this season of distress, the discou- 

 ragements to marriage and the difficulty of rearing 

 a family are so great, that the progress of popula- 

 tion is retarded. In the mean time, the cheapness 

 of labour, the plenty of labourers, and the necessity 

 of an increased industry among them, encourage 

 cultivators to employ more labour upon their land, 

 to turn up fresh soil, and to manure and improve 

 more completely what is already in tillage, till ul- 

 timately the means of subsistence may become in 

 the same proportion to the population, as at the 

 period from which we set out. The situation of 

 the labourer being then again tolerably comfort- 

 able, the restraints to population are in some degree 

 loosened; and, after a short period, the same re- 



