( 231 ) 



CHAP. XIII. 



Of the Checks to Population among the Greeks. 



It has been generally allowed, and will not in- 

 deed admit of a doubt, that the more equal di- 

 vision of property among the Greeks and Romans, 

 in the early period of their history, and the di- 

 rection of their industry principally to agriculture, 

 must have tended greatly to encourage popula- 

 tion. Agriculture is not only, as Hume states,* 

 that species of industry, which is chiefly requisite 

 to the subsistence of multitudes, but it is in fact 

 the sole species by which multitudes can exist ; 

 and all the numerous arts and manufactures of 

 the modern world, by which such numbers ap- 

 pear to be supported, have no tendency whatever 

 to increase population, except so far as they tend 

 to increase the quantity and to facilitate the dis- 

 tribution of the products of agriculture. 



In countries where, from the operation of par- 

 ticular causes, property in land is divided into 

 very large shares, these arts and manufactures 

 are absolutely necessary to the existence of any 

 considerable population. Without them modern 

 Europe would be unpeopled. But where pro- 

 perty is divided into small shares, the same ne- 



* Essay xi. p. 407, 4to edit. 



