1830 ,] 
between Wealth and Value. 
305 
In reasoningtowards the cstablishmentof ageneral principle, it is, in most cases, un- 
necessary to look to any effects proceeding from otlier causes, than those immediately 
under consideration: and viewed under this aspect, it appears that value and wealth 
must proceed hand m hand on the increase, so long as man’s only want is food * 
that which ministers to the one, ministering in like manner to the other. If then 
we make no allowance for the existence of other wants than food in the lower or- 
ders, and for the changes which are likely to he brought about in the modes of 
thinking of all classes in a society which is making progress in the arts of produc- 
tion, we are justly entitled to calculate on the same exact quantity of products 
being necessary for human support, both before and after a change is brought 
about in the means of obtaining products. But in society, as it actually exists 
there are various classes ; some enjoying, and expending,' on their own persons’ 
what would suffice for the support of scores— nay hundreds of their countrymen, and 
influenced by feelings which would revolt at the prospect of bringing children into 
the world, to he possessed of less than they themselves consume; and we know 
that these feelings do not fail, in time, to descend even to the lowest classes. There 
are, in consequence, various changes in the habits, and wants of all classes, which 
must be frequently brought about by the very circumstance we now have under 
consideration, a reduction, namely, in the cost of obtaining products. In a highly 
civilized, and rapidly advancing country, where a large proportion of persons in 
easy circumstances exists; and where the procreative influence is counteracted, 
even amongst the lowest classes, by prevailing modes of thinking; it is highly 
probable that an increase of the sum of enjoyments, brought within the reach of 
the inhabitants, may more directly tend to the spread of luxurious habits, and to 
a permanent increase of the wants of families, amongst all classes, than to an 
extension of population. In this case, the increase of positive value, in the aggre- 
gate, will be checked by that which checks the increase of population ; facility of 
production causing little other' effect on society, than an increased consumption by 
the existing population. But in practice we must calculate, neither an increase 
of people alone, nor on an improvement in the modes of living exactly corre- 
sponding with the additional facility now enjoyed for obtaining that which consti- 
tutes man’s means of existence. We must always calculate on a mixed effect from 
the conflicting influence of the prolific power, and from the inevitable progress of 
luxurious habits ; for it is certain, that there never could be produced in soci- 
ety the unmixed effect which is supposed, when we admit the spread of luxurious 
habits alone, and which, by the bye, is the supposition entertained by Mr. Ricardo, 
and all who follow his steps, in supposing value does not, of necessity, increase 
along with riches ; for in such a case, there could exist no competent motive to in- 
duce producers of wrought wares, to contrive modes for cheapening their respective 
products. If, for instance, after the discovery of a process in manufactures, by which 
double the quantity of produce is obtained in an equal time, I, as a manufacturer, 
should find that I gained only as much as before the introduction of the new process 
— if, in fact, I gave all men twice the quantity of my wares for the same return in 
theirs, of what concern would it be to me whether the new process were adopted 
or not ? In as far as I am concerned as a consumer of my own product, this 
tnay be of consequence ; and in as far as, by the cheapening of the products, the 
market might be extended to those very indigent classes by whom the product at 
the former cost was unattainable, so far I might ultimately be benefitted. These are, 
however, but trifling inducements, and inadequate to the rapid progress of im- 
provements, and extensions of supply consequent thereon, which take place in the 
world. We may rest assured, therefore, that there is effected no considerable im- 
provement in manufactures and consequent extension of supply, except in societies 
where not only the wealth, but the value also of the wealth, proceed hand in 
hand on the increase ; and although this progress may not, perhaps, proceed in a 
manner so clear and marked, as in the illustrations I have given of the principle, 
in which no check on the principle of population is supposed to exist, and no 
changes in the habits of the people are contemplated, still in a manner not very 
different from what is there pointed out. 
Knowing full well, as we all do, that in different countries at the same time, and 
m the same country at different times, very great changes occur in what is esteemed 
sufficient for the mere subsistence of even the lower orders; that society consists 
not of one class, but of many ; all of which must he likely to increase theii numbers 
on very different estimates of what is sufficient for the maintenance ot the indivi- 
duals of their class ; knowing also that the world, or the society on its surface 
rather, is in a state of continual progression; the knowledge ot this day being added 
