214 Of increasing IVealth, as it Bk. iii. 



tures. He then adds, " The cultivation and im- 

 " provement of the country has no doubt been 

 " gradually advancing. But it seems to have 

 " follow^ed slov^'ly and at a distance the more rapid 

 " progress of commerce and manufactures. The 

 " greater part of the country must probably have 

 " been cultivated before the reign of Elizabeth, 

 " and a very great part of it still remains unculti- 

 " vated, and the cultivation of the far greater part 

 " is much inferior to w^hat it might be."* The 

 sarne observation is applicable to most of the 

 other countries of Europe. The best land would 

 naturally be the first occupied. This land, even 

 with that sort of indolent cultivation and great 

 waste of labour which particularly marked the 

 feudal times, would be capable of supporting a 

 considerable population; and on the increase of 

 capital, the increasing taste for conveniences and 

 luxuries, combined with the decreasing power of 

 production in the new land to be taken into culti- 

 vation, would naturally and necessarily direct the 

 greatest part of this new capital to commerce and 

 manufactures, and occasion a more rapid increase 

 of wealth than of population. 



The population of England accordingly in the 

 reign of Elizabeth appears to have been nearly 

 five millions, which would not be very far short of 

 the half of what it is at present (1811); but when 

 we consider the very great proportion which the 

 products of commercial and manufacturing in- 



* Vol. ii. book iv. c. 4. p. 133. 



