130 Of the Agricultural System. Bk. iii. 



is necessary to feed, clothe and lodge the persons 

 employed in the cultivation of the soil. This 

 quality is the foundation of that surplus produce 

 which peculiarly distinguishes the industry em- 

 ployed upon the land In proportion as the 

 ■ labour and ingenuity of man exercised upon the 

 land have increased this surplus produce, leisure 

 has been given to a greater number of persons to 

 employ themselves in all the inventions which 

 embellish civilized life ; while the desire to profit 

 by these inventions has continued to stimulate the 

 cultivators to increase their surplus produce. This 

 desire indeed may be considered as almost abso- 

 lutely necessary to give it its proper value, and to 

 encourage its further extension ; but still the order 

 of -precedence is, strictly speaking, the surplus 

 produce ; because the funds for the subsistence 

 of the manufacturer must be advanced to him be- 

 fore he can complete his work ; and no step can 

 be taken in any other sort of industry unless the 

 cultivators obtain from the soil more than they 

 themselves consume. 



If in asserting the peculiar productiveness of 

 the labour employed upon the land, we look only 

 to the clear monied rent yielded to a certain num- 

 ber of proprietors, we undoubtedly consider the 

 subject in a very contracted point of view. In 

 the advanced stages of society, this rent forms 

 indeed the most prominent portion of the surplus 

 produce here meant; but it may exist equally in 

 the shape of high wages and profits during the 

 earlier periods of cultivation, when there is little 



