100 
On the Source of Wealth. 
[April, 
those wrought wares also, which contribute more immediately than a small portion 
of food, to personal enjoyment ; agricultural population would, in this case, fail to 
increase so much as it might have done, had food continued man’s only want : the 
joint population, both agricultural, and manufacturing, will, however, be as great, 
and probably much greater, if we admit that wrought wares can serve as a motive 
for such greater exertion, as a mere addition to food was inadequate to call 
forth. 
If, however, we suppose the wrought wares brought into use, to be instruments 
capable of abridging labour ; spades, for instance, to supply the place of the naked 
hand in turning over the soil ; then the source of new income, for the support of 
the new class,, would be palpably evident ; for thereby, the labour necessary in 
realizing any specific quantity of the net produce of the soil, would be greatly re- 
duced ; and each cultivator’s patch of ground rendered more fit for the full deve- 
lopement and increase of his seed. If, with the co-operation of so much industry, 
unaided by manufactured implements, such results were given off by the reproduc- 
tive energy as enabled the existing population to live, and to increase in numbers, 
surely when a better mode of cultivation is introduced, the means of living and of 
multiplying must now be vastly enlarged ; whether for the consumption of a grow- 
ing agricultural population, or for the subsistence of manufacturers, the produce 
of whose labour is more desirable than food. On this subject more will be said 
when we come to treat of capital ; mean time it is obvious, that on any given ex- 
tent of country, there can only be obtained productive employment for a certain 
number of manufacturing, as well as agricultural labourers ; and that the extent 
of the secondary wealth must bear some constant relation to the primary wealth 
which the country can give off ; for after the greatest net produce has been ob- 
tained from the land, and after the reciprocal demands of agriculturists and 
manufacturers have been accommodated to one another, any attempt at a further 
production of wrought products, like attempts to force increase from the soil, by 
dint of labour alone, must be nugatory. Thus, if after the aggregate gains of the 
manufacturing class have reached their maximum, more labour be sunk in this 
mode of production, the food enjoyed by the whole class must be less than it was 
before, owing to the reduced remuneration in primary wealth, which will be 
given ; in other words, to the fall of price which is inevitable, and which is not, 
under these circumstances, more than compensated by the extension of sales ; and 
yet more labourers are essential to the creation of the greater supply, by which 
they are impoverished, than were required for providing the smaller supply, by the 
sale of which they were rendered more wealthy : a diminution of the numbers of 
manufacturers is therefore, under these circumstances, inevitable ; and the further 
extension of their markets is interdicted. 
In what has been written, I have endeavoured to establish the ultimate connex- 
ion with, and dependence on, the reproductive and incremental principle, of all 
wealth, and all revenue, whether primary or secondary; for although we have 
seen the society enriched by the addition of all the wrought goods which were 
produced, still we cannot forget, that it was this most important principle which 
yielded to the cultivator, that which formed his income, and which periodically 
gave to the manufacturer, besides, the means of his subsistence. The manufacturer, 
I/‘7‘ ng r efU ‘ ,UaUtieS 10 natiVe products > which they did not before possess, 
.hlw°, t r nCO , raeOfth<,S0Cietyi the, ' esuIts »fhis labour, being more desirable 
both had the 6 "T r ssesscd >. both Masses were rendered more wealthy ; and 
resnecfe m„7 a , nS ° f ' ^oyment mcreased ^ by the subsequent exchange of their 
respect.; e p.oducts ; and although the manipulation effected by the manufacturer 
