Ch. X. and Commerce combi/ied. 155 



And it is happy for mankind that such are the 

 laws of nature. If the competition for the neces- 

 saries of life, in the progress of population, could 

 reduce the whole human race to the necessity of 

 incessant labour for them, man would be conti- 

 nually tending to a state of degradation ; and all 

 the improvements which had marked the middle 

 stages of his career would be completely lost at 

 the end of it ; but, in reality, and according to 

 the universal principle of private property, at the 

 period when it will cease to answer to employ 

 more labour upon the land, the excess of raw 

 produce, not actually consumed by the cultiva- 

 tors, will, in the shape of rents, profits, and wages, 

 particularly the first, bear nearly as great a pro- 

 portion to the whole as at any previous period, 

 and, at all events, sufficient to support a large 

 part of the society living, either without manual 

 labour, or employing themselves in modifying the 

 raw materials of the land into the forms best 

 suited to the gratification of man. 



When we refer, therefore, to the practical limits 

 of population, it is of great importance to recol- 

 lect that they must be always very far short of 

 the utmost power of the earth to produce food. 



It is also of great importance to recollect that, 

 long before this practical limit is attained in any 

 country, the rate of the increase of population 

 will gradually diminish. When the capital of a 

 country becomes stationary from bad government, 

 indolence, extravagance, or a sudden shock to 

 commerce, it is just possible that the check to 



