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Show SUMJ.\IAltY. PAG.I!: in the actual cil·cuinstanccs of the odety, is necessary for the required supply . . . · · · 247 'l"'hc condition of the labouring cla depend partly upon the rate at which the resource of the country arc increasi~ g, and partly upon the habits of the p~ople . . . . . 248 1-;oth these causes are ubject to change, and often change together . . . . . ~tilJ_, however, habits are different ·with th~ san1e IUCI'ease of resources ; and an inferior mode of living is a cause as wcl] as a consequence of poverty . 249 It would be desirable, though difficult, to ascert.ain the pr~ncipal causes of the difterent nwdes of nbs1stance wluch prevail among the poor of different oount~·je . . . ib~ Frmn high wages two re ults may ari e- 1ther ~ rapul 111-: crease of population, or a decided in1proven1ent 1n the mode of ~iving . . o 25P. Whatevet' t~nds to depress the character of the poor, contnbutes to the fir~t of the~c results; whatever tends to elevate thenl, to nle second ~ . ib. The 1nost efficient causes of depression are, de potism, oppression and ignorance ; the most efficient cau es of elevation are, civil and political liberty and education 251 Of the causes which tend to generate prudential habits, the ~no~t essential is civil liberty; and to the maintenance of civil liberty, political liberty is generally necessary . ~ · ib. Education may prevail under a de potism, and be defioient under a free constitution; but it can do little under a bad gov.ernment, tho~gh much under a good one • ~b~ Ireland is an instance where increasing produce has occasioned a rapid increase of popul3rtiop._, without improving the condition ~f the people . . . . . . . . . . 252 England, in the fu:st ha~f of the last century, is an instance of high wages lea~ing to an in1prqveq mode of living, wit~wut a rapid increase of population . . . . · 253 The change from bread of an inferior quality to the best . wheaten bread was probably aided by a change in the rela-tive values of wheat_, oats and barley, occasioned by adven-titious drcumstances • 25~ When wheaten bread had become ~ustomary in s01ne districts, ~Ul\fl\IARY. 5.37 • ld · PAGl;: It wou spread mto others, even at thG expense of comfort of a different description . 256 ---- SEc'r. III.-Oj tlte Causes ·which principally it!fluencc tlze Demand for Labour, and tlze Increase of the Population. A fall in the value of produce, compared with the price of labour, will not always occasion a proportionate Ulcrease of population 25 7 This disagreement between apparent wages and the progress of population will be further aggravated in those countries where poor laws prevail . 258 The actual application of a greater quantity of food of son1e kind or other, to the lllainteriance of labouring families, is necessary to an increase of population ; and may generally be traced . 259 The increase of population in An1erica, Ireland_, England and Scotland, of late years_, may be traced to this cause . . 260 What is mainly necessary to a rapid increase of population is, · a great de1nand for labour, which demand is proportioned_, not to an increase of capital alone, but of capital and rcve- ·nue together . 261 It has been thought that it is circulating capjtal alone which influences the demand for labour, not fixed; but this distinction, though just in individual instances_, is not neces-sary in reference to the value of the whole produce 0 ib. In general_, the use of fixed capital is extremely favourable to the abundance of circulating capital. This is shewn in almost all our manufactures 2G2 On the use of fixed capital in agriculture n1ainly depends the cultivation of barren soils . . 263 When however fixed capital increases so rapidly, compared with the demand for con1n1oditic , as to lower the value of the whole produce, a 'vant of employment, and tep1porary distress will be felt a1nong the labouring classes ... 264 The exchangeable value of the produce of a country depends partly upon price, and partly upon quantity . 265 It is from the union of the two, in the most favourable pro..., portions that_, under the existing phy ical resources of a |
