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Show ON TilE 11\tl~IEDIATE CAUSES [ CH. VIIi. speaking, the pressure of the population hard against the limits of subsistence, does not furnish an effective stimulus to the continued increase of wealth ' is not only evident in theory, but is confirmed by universal experience. If \vant alone, or the desire of the labouring classes to possess the necessaries and conveniences of life, were a sufficient sti1nulus to production, there is no state in Europe, or in the \vorld, that would have found any other practical limit to its \Vealth than its po\ver to produce; and the earth would probably before this period have contained, at the very least, ten times as many inhabitants as are supported on its surface at pre,. sent. But those who are acquainted with the nature of effective demand, \vill be fully a\vare that, w?ere the right of private property is esta? hshed, and the wants of society are supplied by ·Industry and barter; the desire of any individual to possess the necessary conveniences and luxuries of life, however. in tense, will a vail no thin o· to- . b wards their production, if there be no where a reciprocal demand for so1nething \vhich he possesses. A n1an whose only possession is his labour has, or has not, an effective demand for produce according as his labour is, or is not, in demand by those w~o have the disposal of produce. And no productive labour will ever be in detnand unless the produce when obtained is of O'reater value than the labour which obtained it. N°o fresh hands can be employed in any sort of industry n1erely in c·onsequence of the detnand for its produce occa~ SEC. II.] OF 'tHE PROGRESS OF \VE.ALTH. 349 sioned by the persons ernployed. No farmer will take the trouble of superintending the labour of ten additionaltnen tnerely because his whole produce \vill then sell in the market at an advanced price just equal to what he had paid his additional labourers. There tnust be something in the previous state of the demand and supply of the con1- modity ifl question, or in its price, antecedent to and independently of the demand occasioned by the ne\V labourers, in order to warrant the enlployment of an additional number of people in it production. · It will be said perhaps that the increase of populati.on \Villlo\ver wages, and, by thus din1inisl1- 1ng the costs o~ P:?duction, will increase the profits of the capitalists and the encouragetnent to produce. Some ten1porary effect of this kind may ~o ~oubt take place, but it J.s evidently very strictly hmtted: T?e fal! of wages cannot go on beyond a certain po1nt Without not only stopping the progress' of the population but making it even retrograde; and before this point is reached, it \Vill proh_ ably happen that the increase of produce occaSioned by the labour of the additional numbei of persons will have so lowered ,its value, as 111ore tha~ t~ c.oun~erbalance the fall of \Vages, and thus to ~un~ntsh Instead of increase the profits of the capitalists and the power and will to employ more labour. It is ~bvious .then in theory that an increase of population, 'vhen an additional quantity of labour Is not wanted, \V ill soon be checked by want of |
