Ch. xiii. affects the Condition of the Poor. 217 



stationary, and its soil cultivated nearly to the 

 utmost.* 



In all these cases, it is not on account of any 

 undue preference given to commerce and manu- 

 factures, compared with agriculture, that the 

 effect just described takes place, but merely be- 

 cause the powers of the earth in the production 

 of food have narrower limits than the skill and 

 tastes of mankind in giving value to raw materials, 

 and consequently in the approach towards the li- 

 mits of subsistence there is naturally more room, 

 and consequently more encouragement, for the 

 increase of the one species of wealth than of the 

 other. 



It must be allowed then, that the funds for the 

 maintenance of labour do not necessarily increase 

 with the increase of wealth, and very rardy in- 

 crease in proportion to it. 



But the condition of the lower classes of society 

 certainly does not depend exclusively upon the 

 increase of the funds for the maintenance of labour, 

 or the means of supporting more labourers. That 

 these means form always a very powerful ingre- 

 dient in the condition of the labouring classes, and 

 the main ingredient in the increase of population, is 

 unquestionable. But, in the first place, the com- 



* How far this latter opinion is to be depended upon it is not 

 very easy to say. Improved skill and a saving of labour would 

 certainly enable the Chinese to cultivate some lands with advan- 

 tage which they cannot cultivate now, but the more general use 

 of horses, instead of men, might prevent this extended cultivation 

 from giving any encouragement to an increase of people. 



