238 General Observations. Bk. iii. 



annual produce of the land and labour, in both 

 these instances, became in consequence a se- 

 condary consideration ; and its increase, it was 

 conceived, would naturally follow the increase of 

 specie in the one case, or of population in the 

 other. The folly of endeavouring by forcible 

 means to increase the quantity of specie in any 

 country, and the absolute impossibility of accu- 

 mulating it beyond a certain level by any human 

 laws that can be devised, are now fully established, 

 and have been completely exemplified in the in- 

 stances of Spain and Portugal. But the illusion 

 still remains respecting population; and under 

 this impression almost every political treatise has 

 abounded in proposals to encourage population, 

 with little or no comparative reference to the 

 means of its support. Yet surely the folly of en- 

 deavouring to increase the quantity of specie in 

 any country, without an increase of the commo- 

 dities which it is to circulate, is not greater than 

 that of endeavouring to increase the number of 

 people, without an increase of the food which is 

 to maintain them ; and it will be found that the 

 level, above which no human laws can raise the 

 population of a country, is a limit more fixed and 

 impassable than the limit to the accumulation of 

 specie. However improbable in fact, it is possi- 

 ble to conceive that means might be invented of 

 retaining a quantity of specie in a state, greatly 

 beyond what was demanded by the produce of its 

 land and laboui', and the relative state of other 

 countries. But when by great encouragements 



