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Show ON THE Tl\lMEDIATE CAUSES [en. VII. atl cl 1.t .l Onea ltneans of subsistence; that, in . such cases, no t \V1: thsta' .tldin oo· the ackno\V ledged deficiency o. f po. - pu1 a t1. 011, a11d the obvious desirableness o. f ha v. 1ng It o-reatly increased, it ,vas useless and f~ohsh dnectly ~0 encourage the birth of more .children, as the effect of such encouragen1ent, "rJ_thou~ a detnand for labour and the n1eans of paying 1t p.rop~r!y, could only be increased Inisery ancl.n1ortahty ''rlth little or no final increase of population. . Thou o·h Mr. Ricardo has taken a very d rffcrent b . ~ . course, I think that the san1e kind of reason1ng ought to be applied to the rate of profits. and the l)rooTess of capital. Fully acknovv ledgu1g that theroe is hardly a country 1· 11 tl1 e .1c 0.u1· quarte.r s of the O'lobe where capital is not deficient, and 111 most of the~ very greatly deficient,. com!)al;~~ with the tern tory and even the nutnbei of peop ' and fullv allowing at the san1e tin1e the extreme desirablev ness of an. I• ncrease o f cap1· ta 1, I sh ould say that, \Vhere the den1and for con1n1odities wa~ not such as to afford fair profits to the producei,. and the capitalists were at a loss \V here and h_ow to en1ploy their capitals to advantage, the sa:mg fron1 revenue to add still n1ore to these capitals would only tend pre1naturely to ditninish th.e 1110• tive to accumulation, and still further to distress the capitalists, \vith little increase of a wholesome and efl:"ective capital. d The first thin~ \Vanted in both these cases of . e-ficient capital anod defic.i ent populati·o n, t· s .a n eflecd-tive detnand for commod 1. t1· es, t.h a t 1· s, a den1an by those who are able and WI"1 11. n g t o pay an SEC. III.] OF THE PUOGRESS OF WlLALTII. 373 adequate price for them ; and though high profits are not followed by an increase of capital, o ertainly as high wag·cs are by an increase of 1 opulation, yet I believe that they are so followed mor generally than they appear to be, because, in many countries, as I have before jntimated, profits are often thought to be high, owing to the high interest of n1oney, when they are really low; and because, universally, risk in employing capital has precisely the same effect in diminishing the tnotive to accutnulate and the reward of accun1ulation, as low profits. At the satne titne it will be allo\ved that determined extravagance, and a detern1ined indisposition to save, n1ay keep profits perinanently high. 'fhe most powerful stin1ulants n1ay, under peculiar circumstances, be resisted; yet still it 'vill not cease to be true that the natural and legititnate encouragement to the increase of capital is that increase of the po-\lver and -vvill to sa vc which is held out by high profits; and under circurnstances in any degree sitnilar, such increase of }JO\Vcr ·and 'vill to save must ahnost ahvays be accotnpanied by a proportionate increase of capital. . One of the 1nost striking instances of the truth of this ren1ark, and a "further proof of a sino·ular rcsen1blance in the laws that reO'ulatc the jnc~ asc f . b o capttal and of population, is to be found in the rap~dity \Vith 'vhich the loss of c·1pital is recover d tlunng a war which does not interrupt commerce. The loans to. government cdnvert capital into revenue, and Increase den1and at the sa1ne tirn BB3 |