Ch. X. Of Systems of Agriculture, 8^c. 147 



ployment, and consequently that the government 

 is such as to afford the necessary protection to 

 property. Under these circumstances, it is scarce- 

 ly possible that it should ever experience that 

 premature stagnation in the demand for labour, 

 and the produce of the soil, which at times has 

 marked the history of most of the nations of Eu- 

 rope. In a country in which manufactures and 

 commerce flourish, the produce of the soil will 

 always find a ready market at home ; and such a 

 market is yjeculiarly favourable to the progressive 

 increase of capital. But the progressive increase 

 of capital, and particularly of the quantity and 

 value of the funds for the maintenance of labour, 

 is the great cause of a demand for labour, and of 

 good corn wages, while the high relative price of 

 corn, occasioned by the improved machinery and 

 extended capital employed in manufactures, toge- 

 ther with the prosperity of foreign commerce, en- 

 ables the labourer to exchange any given portion 

 of his earnings in corn for a large proportion both 

 of domestic and foreign conveniences and luxuries. 

 Even when the effective demand for labour begins 

 to slacken, and the corn wages to be reduced, 

 still the high relative value of corn keeps up com- 

 paratively the condition of the labouring classes ; 

 and though their increase is checked, yet a very 

 considerable body of them may still be well lodged 

 and well clothed, and able to indulge themselves 

 in the conveniences and luxuries of foreign pro- 

 duce. Nor can they ever be reduced to the mi- 

 serable condition of the people in those countries, 



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