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Show S66' ON TilE IMMEDIATJ,t CAUSES [CH. VII. the passion for accun1 ulation together, as if they were of the same nature ; and to consider the demand for the food and clothing of the labourer, · who is to be employed productively, as securing such a general demand for commodities and such a rate of profits for the capital employed in producing them, as will adequately call forth the powers of the soil, and the ingenuity of man in procuring the greatest quantity both of raw and' manufactured produce. Perhaps it n1ay be asked by those who have adopted Mr. Ricardo's view of profits,- what becotnes of the division of that which is produced, when population is checked 1nerely by want of deIn and? It is acknowledged that the powers of production have not begun to fail ; yet, if labour produces largely and yet is ill paid, it will be said that profits n1ust be high. I have already stated in a former chapter, that the value of the 1naterials of capital very frequently do not fall in proportion to the fall in the value of the produce of capital, and this alone will often account for low profits. But independently of this consideration, it is obvious that in the production of any other commodities than necessaries., the theory is perfectly simple. Fron1 'vant of deDland, such commodities n1ay be very low in price, and a large portion of the whole value produced may go to the labourer, although in necessaries he may be ill paid, and his wages, both with regard to the quantity of food which he receives and the labour required to produce it, may be decidedly low. SEC. III.] OF 'rHE PROGRESS OF WEALTH. 367 If it be said, that on account of the large portion of the value of manufactured produce which on this supposition is absorbed by wages, it may be affirmed that the cause of the fall of profits is high wages, I should certainly protest against so manifest an abuse of ·"vords. The only justifiable ground for adopting a nevl terrn, or using an old one in a new sense, is, to convey n1ore precise infonnation to the reader ; but to refer to high wages in this case, instead of to a fall of commodities, would be to proceed as if the specific intention of the writer 'vere to keep his reader as much as possible in the dark as to the real state of things. In the production of necessaries however, it will be allowed, that the answer to the , question is not quite so simple, yet still it n1ay be made sufficiently clear. Mr. Ricardo ackno,vledges that there may be a limit to the employment of capital upon the land from the limited 'vants of society, independently of the exhaustion of the soil. In the case supposed, this limit 1nust necessarily be very narrow, because there would be comparatively no population besides th~ agriculturists to make an effective den1and for produce. Under such circumstances corn n1ight be produced, ,vhich vvould lose the character and quality of wealth; and, as I before observed in a note, all the parts of the same produce would not be of the same value. The actual labourers etnployed rni()'ht be tolerably ,vell fed, as. is freq u en tl y the cas:, p racti call y, i u those countnes 'vherc the labourers are fed by the far- |