Ch. X. and Commerce combined. 161 



cess. Before the accumulation of capital comes 

 to a stop from necessity, the profits of stock must, 

 for a long time, have been so low as to afford 

 scarcely any encouragement to an excess of saving 

 above expenditure ; and before the progress of 

 population is finally stopped, the real wages of 

 labour must have been gradually diminishing, till, 

 under the existing habits of the people, they 

 could only support such families as would just 

 keep up, and no more than keep up, the actual 

 population. 



It appears then, that it is the union of the agri- 

 cultural and commercial systems, and not either 

 of them taken separately, that is calculated to 

 pi'oduce the greatest national prosperity ; that a 

 country with an extensive and rich territory, the 

 cultivation of which is stimulated by improve- 

 ments in agriculture, manufactures, and foreign 

 commerce, has such various and abundant re- 

 sources, that it is extremely difficult to say when 

 they will reach their limits. That there is, how- 

 ever, a limit, which, if the capital and population 

 of a country continue increasing, they must ulti- 

 mately reach, and cannot pass ; and that this li- 

 mit, upon the principle of private property, must 

 be far short of the utmost power of the earth to 

 produce food. 



VOL. II. M 



