( .118 ) Bk. iii. 



CHAP. VIII. 



Of the Agricultural System. 



As it is the nature of agriculture to produce sub- 

 sistence for a greater number of families than can 

 be employed in the business of cultivation, it might 

 perhaps be supposed that a nation which strictly 

 pursued an agricultural system would always have 

 more food than was necessary for its inhabitants, 

 and that its population could never be checked 

 from the want of the means of subsistence. 



It is indeed obviously true that the increase of 

 such a country is not immediately checked, either 

 by the want of power to produce, or even by the 

 deficiency of the actual produce of the soil com- 

 pared with the population. Yet if we examine 

 the condition of its labouring classes, we shall find 

 that the real wages of their labour are such as 

 essentially to check and regulate their increase, 

 by checking and regulating their command over 

 the means of subsistence. 



A country under certain circumstances of soil 

 and situation, and with a deficient capital, may 

 find it advantageous to purchase foreign commo- 

 dities with its raw produce rather than manufac- 

 ture them at home : and in this case it will neces- 

 sarily grow more raw produce than it consumes. 

 But this state of things is very little connected 



