184 OJ Corn-Laws, 8^c. Bk. iii. 



be ultimately supplied, and oblige the producers 

 to sell at the lowest price they can afford con- 

 sistently with the general rate of profits. But, 

 after having experienced a period of decided en- 

 couragement, the British grower would find him- 

 self in the habit of supplying a larger market than 

 his own upon equal terms with his competitors. 

 And if the foreign and British markets continued 

 to extend themselves equally, he would continue 

 to proportion his supplies to both ; because, un- 

 less a particular increase of demand were to take 

 place at home, he could never withdraw his foreign 

 supply without lowering the price of his whole 

 crop ; and the nation would thus be in possession 

 of a constant store for years of scarcity. 



But even supposing that, by a bounty, com- 

 bined with the most favourable state of prices in 

 other countries, a particular state could maintain 

 permanently an average excess of growth for ex- 

 portation, it must not of course be imagined that 

 its population would not still be checked by the 

 difficulty of procuring subsistence. It would in- 

 deed be less exposed to the particular pressure 

 arising from years of scarcity ; but in other re- 

 spects it would be subject to the same checks as 

 those already described in the preceding chap- 

 ters ; and whether there was an habitual expor- 

 tation or not, the population would be regulated 

 by the real wages of labour, and would come to 

 a stand when the necessaries which these wages 

 could command were not sufficient, under the 

 actual habits of the people, to encourage an in- 

 crease of numbers. 



