128 Of the Agricultural System. Bk. ill. 



its directing its industry chiefly to agriculture^ 

 but from the little encouragement given to in- 

 dustry of any kind, owing to the state of property 

 and the servile condition of the people. While 

 the land is cultivated by boors, the prockice of 

 whose exertions belongs entirely to their masters, 

 and the whole society consists mainly of these 

 degraded beings and the lords and owners of 

 great tracts of territory, there will evidently be 

 no class of persons possessed of the means either 

 of furnishing an adequate demand at home for 

 the surplus produce of the soil, or of accumulating 

 fresh capital and increasing the demand for la- 

 bour. In this miserable state of things, the best 

 remedy would unquestionably be the introduction 

 of manufactures and commerce ; because the in- 

 troduction of manufactures and commerce could 

 alone liberate the mass of the people from slavery 

 and give the necessary stimulus to industry and 

 accumulation. But were the people already free 

 and industrious, and landed property easily divi- 

 sible and alienable, it might still answer to such a 

 country as Poland to purchase its finer manufac- 

 tures from foreign countries by means of its raw 

 products, and thus to continue essentially agri- 

 cultural for many years. Under these new cir- 

 cumstances, however, it would present a totally 

 different picture from that which it exhibits at 

 present ; and the condition of the people would 

 more resemble that of the inhabitants of the 

 United States of America, than of the inhabitants 

 of the unimproved countries of Europe. Indeed 



