148 Of Systems of Agriculture Bk. ill. 



where, at the same time that the demand for 

 labour is stationary, the value of corn, compared 

 with manufactures and foreign commodities, is 

 extremely low. 



All the peculiar disadvantages therefore of a 

 purely agricultural country are avoided by the 

 growth and prosperity of manufactures and com- 

 merce. 



In the same manner it will be found that the 

 peculiar disadvantages attending states merely 

 manufacturing and commercial will be avoided 

 by the possession of resources in land. 



A country which raises its own food cannot 

 by any sort of foreign competition be reduced at 

 once to a necessarily declining population. If the 

 exports of a merely commercial country be essen- 

 tially diminished by foreign competition, it may 

 lose, in a very short time, its power of supporting 

 the same number of people ; but if the exports of 

 a country which has resources in land be dimi- 

 nished, it will merely lose some of its foreign 

 conveniencies and luxuries ; and the great and 

 most important of all trades, the domestic trade 

 carried on between the towns and the country, 

 will remain comparatively undisturbed. It may 

 indeed be checked in the rate of its progress for 

 a time by the want of the same stimulus ; but 

 there is no reason for its becoming retrograde ; 

 and there is no doubt that the capital thrown out 

 of employment by the loss of foreign trade will 

 not lie idle. It will find some channel in which 

 it can be employed with advantage, though not 



