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Show S46 ON THE Il\IMEDIATE CAUSES [CU. VII. questionably be placed, those which con1e under the head of politics and tnorals. Security of property, ,vithout a certain degree of which, there can be no encouragen1ent to individual industry, depends n1ainly upon the political constitution of a country, the excellence of its laws and the manner in which they are adn1inistered. And those habits ,vhich are the n1ost favourable to regular exertions as vvell as to general rectitude of character, and are consequently n1ost favourable to the production and n1aintenance of wealth, depend chiefly upon the same causes, combined with n1oral and religious instruction. It is not however my intention at present to enter fu11y into these causes, in1portant and effective as they are; but to confi'ne n1yself chiefly to the more itnrnc- . diate and proximate causes of increasing "vealth, \vhether they n1ay have their origin in these political and moral sources, or in any others more specifically and directly 'vi thin the province of political economy. It is obviously true that there are many countries, not essentially different either in the degree of security 'vhich they afford to property, or in the moral and religious instruction received by the people, \\7hich yet, with nearly equal natural capabilities, n1ake a very different progress in wealth. It is the principal object of the present inquiry to. explain this; and to furnish son1e solution of ·certain phenomena frequently obtruded upon our attention, \vhenever \Ve take a \riew of the different states of Europe, or I ~f the ,,vorld; namely, sEC. II.] OF THE PROGRESS OF 'VEALTH. 347 countries ''rith great powers of production comparatively poor, at~d countries with small powers of production comparatively rich. . If the actual riches of a country not subJect to repeated violences and a frequent destruction of produce, be not after a certain period in so_me degree proportioned to its power of producing riches, this deficiency must have arisen from the 'vant of an adequate stimulus to continued production. The practical question then for our consideration is~ what are the most immediate and effective stimulants to the continued creation and progress of wealth. SECTION II. Of the Increase of l'opulation considered as a Stimulus to the continued Increase of. Wealt/,. Many writers have been of opinion that an increase of population is the sole stirnulus necessary to the increase of wealth, because population, being the great source of consumption, must in their opinion necessarily keep up the demand for an increase of produce, which will naturally be followed by a continued increase of supply. That a permanent increase of population is a powerful and necessary element of increasing demand, will be n1ost readily allowed; but that the increase of population a1one, or, 1nore properly |
