OCR Text |
Show 378 ON THE IMMEDIATE CAUSES (cu. VII. they had the opportunity, to exchange their surplus raw produce for the foreign con11nodities with which they \Vere acquainted, and which they l1ad learnt to estin1ate. But it would be a very difficult thing, and very ill suited to their habits and degree of information, to en1ploy their power of cotnrnanding labour in setting up nlanufactures on their O\Vll estates. Though the land might be rich, it might not suit the protluction of the materials n1ost vvan ted; and the necessary n1achinery, the necessary skill in using it, and the necessary intelligence aud activity of superintendance, would all unavoidably be deficient at first, and under the circun1stances supposed, n1ust be of very slow growth ; so that after those ru~er and Inore indispensable articles vvere supplied, which are always \Vanted and produced in an early stage of society, it is natural enough that a great lord should prefer distinguishing himself by a few splendid foreign COllllDOdities, if he could get then1, and a great nun1 her of retainers, than by a large quantity of clun1sy manufactures, which involved great trouble of superintendance. It is certainly true, however, tak·ing as an in· stance an individual workn1an, and supposing him to possess a given degree of industry and skill, that the less tin1e he is ernployed in procuring food, the more tin1e will he be able to devote to the pro· curing of conveniences and luxuries; but to apply this truth to whole nations, and to infer that the greater is the facility of procuring food, the 1nore abundantly will the people be supplied with con· SEC. IV. J . OF THE PROGRESS OF "'EALTH. 379 veniences and luxuries would be one amono- the many rash and false conclusions 'v hich arc ften made from the want of due attention to th hanrre which the application of a proposition may tnalr in the premises on which it rests .. ~n the pr . nt case, all depends upon the supposition of a rr1v n decrree of industry and skill, and the 1nean f mpl~ yinO' them. But if, after the necessari of life were obtained, the \Vorkn1an should con id r ind - lence as a greater luxury than those \vhich he \Va, likely to procure by further labour, the propo iti n would at once cease to be true. And a a matt r of fact, confirn1ed by all the account \Ve hav nations, in the different stages of th ir pr o'fe , , it must be allowed that this choice seen1 to be v ry general in the early periods of society, and by 1 1neans uncomn1on in the n1ost improved tat . Fe,v indeed and scanty \Vould be the portion conveniences and luxuries found in ocict ', if. those \Vho are the main instruments of their production had no stronger motives for their c p rti n than the desire of enjoying thetn. It is th ,\ant of necessaries which main1y stimulates the labourin. g classes to produce luxuries; and \V rc thi stnnulus removed or greatly \veakened, o that the necessaries of life could be obtained , ith very little labour, instead of more tin1e b ino- d - voted to the production of conveniences, th re i every reason to think that less time 'voulcl be so devoted. .At an early period of cultivation, when only rich soils are worked, as the quantity of corn is the |