20 6 
Of the Influence of Capital in Manufactures. [July, 
demand for food only increasing with the increase of the population ; and in the 
direct interest which cultivators have, (when the option happens to be given,) of 
constantly keeping only so much capital employed on their lands, as yields them 
the greatest command, at the least cost, over wrought products, and insures them 
the greatest aggregate of gains. 
The rate of agricultural profit, which holds when these objects are effected, must, 
of necessity, be near the minimum rate ; as the stock of food raised, must always 
be near that quantity for which there is a demand, and close upon that which 
would constitute an excess of supply. 
When the wants of mankind have become various, and include, besides food, 
an infinite variety of wrought products, the net proceeds resulting from the 
influence of the reproductive principle, do not, by any means, suffice for satisfying 
even the labouring class ; when, therefore, a fall of price takes place in those 
wrought articles which this class deems most essential to its well being, the surplus 
income, thus at their disposal, for making some additional purchase, will proba- 
bly be devoted to securing a more ample provision of food for their rising families. 
After wages had sunk to that lowest rate, which is only sufficient for keeping up 
the existing population, such a cheapening of wrought goods might admit the 
coming to manhood, of an increasing number of labourers ; and the subsequent 
competition of these for employment, would, of necessity, bring about another 
fall of wages; now a fall of wages being, like any other reductions of products 
outlay, a sufficient cause for enabling a larger capital than before to find profit.ib e 
employment, the relations of outlay, and net return, experiencing thereby a change, 
and the rate of profits rising beyond their minimum ; a circumstance apparent y 
so trifling, as the cheapening of pots and pans, or other common utensils of the 
lower orders, may suffice to cause an important progression both in population 
and in wealth. Nor would this apparently trifling cause be the only one, amon- ^ 
other and remote changes, which would be capable of effecting a virtual remov 
of the barriers by which the progress of wealth had been opposed: it is in 
impossible to detail all that might have a tendency to produce this desirable effM’ 
the following may, however, serve as instances, and thousands of others wi 
fail to suggest themselves to the reader. 
In a society well advanced in knowledge, wherein food forms but a n ^ 
proportion of what each consumes, agricultural capitalists will not estimate 
income by the quantity of raw produce, actually reproduced on their lands, e > 
what has been consumed as seed ; they will judge of this by the net gain w ^ 
they can realize in the market, estimated in the current medium of exchange^ 
other words, by the power they enjoy, of exchanging at will the produce 
lands, for the whole range of reared commodities which most contribute to 
comfort ; and as producers in every branch, have each accommodated their P ^ 
duction to meet, as nearly as possible, the average wishes and demands of a 
neighbours, this power will, in practice, be indicated by the readiness with 
the products of the agriculturalists, or any other class, are convertible ^ 
money, or whatever may have been established as the common medium^ 
exchange. Thus it is, that a tract of the most fertile land, from which a 
production in kind is obtainable, of three or four hundred per cent, might > 
waste as a desert, on account of its distance from any market, where the ^ 
produce could insure a command of all those products conjointly, without w 
man, with his present habits, cannot exist. The whole excess beyond what 
been expended in seed and agricultural labour, might be consumed in feeding 
men and cattle necessary to transport it to the market. A mountainous tra ' 
