Ch. xii. Restrictions upon Importation. 189 



so circumstanced. It must either consent to be 

 a poor and inconsiderable community, or it must 

 place its chief dependence on other resources than 

 those of land. It resembles in many respects those 

 states which have a very small territory ; and its 

 policy, with regard to the importation of corn, 

 must of course be nearly the same. 



In all these cases there can be no doubt of the 

 impolicy of attempting to maintain a balance be- 

 tween the agricultural and commercial classes of 

 society which would not take place naturally. 



Under other and opposite circumstances, how- 

 ever, this impolicy is by no means so clear. 



If a nation possesses a large territory consisting 

 of land of an average quality, it may without dif- 

 ficulty support from its own soil a population fully 

 sufficient to maintain its rank in wealth and power 

 among the countries with which it has relations 

 either of commerce or of war. Territories of a 

 certain extent must ultimately in the main sup- 

 port their own population. As each exporting 

 country approaches towards that complement of 

 wealth and population to which it is naturally 

 tending, it will gradually withdraw the corn which 

 for a time it had spared to its more manufacturing 

 and commercial neighbours, and leave them to 

 subsist on their own resources. The peculiar pro- 

 ducts of each soil and climate are objects of fo- 

 reign trade, which can never, under any circum- 

 stances, fail. But food is not a peculiar product ; 

 and the country which produces it in the greatest 

 abundance may, according to the laws which 



