216 Of increasing Wealth, as it Bk. iii. 



she could not in return import such a quantity as 

 would be any sensible addition to her means of 

 subsistence. Her immense amount of manufac- 

 tures, therefore, she would either consume at 

 home, or exchange for luxuries collected from all 

 parts of the world. At present the country ap- 

 pears to be over-peopled compared with what its 

 stock can employ, and no labour is spared in the 

 production of food. An immense capital could 

 not be employed in China in preparing manufac- 

 tures for foreign trade, without altering this state 

 of things, and taking off some labourers from 

 agriculture, which might have a tendency to di- 

 minish the produce of the country. Allowing, 

 however, that this would be made up, and, indeed, 

 more than made up, by the beneficial effects of 

 improved skill and economy of labour in the cul- 

 tivation of the poorest lands, yet, as the quantity of 

 subsistence could be but little increased, the de- 

 mand for manufactures which would raise the price 

 of labour, would necessarily be followed by a pro- 

 portionate rise in the price of provisions, and the 

 labourer would be able to command but little more 

 food than before. The country would, however, 

 obviously be advancing in wealth ; the exchange- 

 able value of the annual produce of its land and 

 labour would be annually augmented; yet the 

 real funds for the maintenance of labour would be 

 nearly stationary. The argument perhaps ap- 

 pears clearer when applied to China, because it 

 is generally allowed that its wealth has been long 



