78 
On the Original Sotirce of Wealth. 
[March, 
consequence obtained for productive outlay ; it has further been assumed, that such 
tracts as we, in the present times, find comparatively rich, and peculiarly fitted 
for yielding such products as man desires, were always in a similar state of superi- 
ority ; and hence the inference has been drawn, that, at such times, and in such 
situations, man lightly earns his food, and revels in comparative abundance. But 
these are, I conceive, gratuitous assumptions, not warranted either by sound reason- 
ing, or by the test of experience. History, on the contrary, represents man in almost 
every stage of his career, as struggling for a sufficient subsistence ; and shews us 
infant and uninstructed nations, with nature’s products strong around them, barely 
able to wring but scanty means of subsistence from the tracts their labour suffices 
to keep clear ; the extent of these cultivated tracts being gradually enlarged, as the 
additional labour, and increasing knowledge of increasing numbers of the inhabitants 
become available to this purpose. 
We find then, that even in this early stage of productive knowledge, any given 
extent of country is capable of ultimately giving productive employment to a certain 
population only ; and that all who occupy themselves in cultivation beyond this num- 
ber, impoverish not only themselves, but the society to which they belong : and we 
learn, that it is not even then, more than at any future period, optional with man to 
increase his wealth, provided he be willing to bestow labour only on his own enrich- 
ment, as those contend, who treat labour as the sole source of wealth : all additional 
labour being shewn to be nugatory, unless it co-operate with the principle of repro- 
duction and increase, under circumstances enabling that principle more fully to 
exert its power in increasing the quantity of such products, as constitute man's 
original wealth. 
The popular theories of the present day treat labour as being the only source of 
wealth. But if our original wealth be that which is periodically rendered available to 
our use ; then I say, that the source thereof is the active principle of periodical 
reproduction and increase, wherewith God endowed such organic germs as are suit- 
able for human purposes ; and if the Almighty also doomed man to continual 
co-operation with this principle, then I say, that labour also is essential to our obtain- 
ing the important products in question. And I maintain, that it is of vital importance 
to the full understanding of the subject, that we should neither treat the reproduc- 
tive and incremental principle alone, nor labour (which is merely the principle of 
modification) alone, as being, in themselves, sufficient causes for the effects which 
follow ; for the leading fallacies into which we should in this case run, would, on 
the one hand, be that of supposing no necessity for human exertion to exist; a 
fallacy which has at present no supporters ; and on the other, that of supposing 
men have only occasion to labour, whenever they may happen to be in want of 
wealth ; a fallacy which, in my opinion, vitiates, more or less, all the reasonings 
which have as yet been put forth, professedly with a view to determining the prin- 
ciples of production. 3 
Neither can any reasoners be justified in the assumption, that the soil in con- 
junction with labour, is the original source of wealth ; for in so doing, they run into 
the palpable error, of attributing active power to what is manifestly passive and 
men ; an admission from which their own minds must, unconsciously perhaps, 
revolt m their subsequent reasonings ; and thus leading them, naturally, to attri- 
bute active power to the only active principle of which they have taken notice, 
namely labour; and thus beguiling them into the . . .. 
attributed all effects on wealth to labour alone. 
as 
And if, on the very threshold of the incmirv « 
■bat labour is the only active principle conLjd T 
