Ch. X. _ and Commerce combhied. 149 



with the same advantage as before ; and will be 

 able to maintain an increasing population, though 

 not increasing at the same rate as under the sti- 

 mulus of a prosperous foreign trade. 



The effects of home competition will in like 

 manner be very different in the two states we are 

 comparing. 



In a state merely manufacturing and commer- 

 cial, home competition and abundance of capital 

 may so reduce the price of manufactured com- 

 pared with raw produce, that the increased capital 

 employed in manufactures may not procure in 

 exchange an increased quantity of food. In a 

 country where there are resources in land this 

 cannot happen ; and though from improvements 

 in machinery and the decreasing fertility of the 

 new land taken into cultivation, a greater quan- 

 tity of manufactures will be given for raw pro- 

 duce, yet the mass of manufactures can never fall 

 in value, owing to a competition of capital in this 

 species of industry, unaccompanied by a corre- 

 spondent competition of capital on land. 



It should also be observed that in a state, the 

 revenue of which consists solely in profits and 

 wages, the diminution of profits and wages may 

 greatly impair its disposable income. The in- 

 crease in the amount of capital and in the number 

 of labourers may in many cases not be sufficient 

 to make up for the diminished rate of profits and 

 wages. But where the revenue of the country 

 consists of rents as well as profits and wages, a 

 great part of what is lost in ])rofits and wages is 



