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Show 370 ON THE 11\IMEDIATE CAUSES (cH. VII. which can alone furnish the means of an increased consumption in future. All that I. mean to say is, that no nation can possibly gro\V rich by an accu~ 1ulation of capital, arising fron1 a pennanent di~ inution of consun1ption; because, such accun1ulation being greatly beyond what is \Vanted, in order to supply the effective detnand f?r produce, , a part of it would very soon lose both Its usc and its value, and cease to possess the character of wealth. On the supposition indeed of a given consurn~tion the accun1ulation of capital beyond a certain poi~t must appea:r at once to b~ perfect_ly futile. But even takin()' into considerat1on the Increased ' b . consun1ption likely to arise an1ong the labourmg classes from the abundance and cheapness o, f com-n1odities, yet as this cheapness tnust be at the ex-pense of profits, it is obvious that the limits to such an increase of capital fron1 parsitnony, as shall not. be attended by a very rapid diminution of the n1ot1ve to accun1ulate, are very narrow, and n1ay very easily be passed. The laws \Vhich regulate the rate of profits and the progress of capital, bear a very striking and sino·ular resemblance to the Ia,vs wh·ich regulate b 1 • the rate of wa<Yes and the I)rooTess of populatwn. . 0 b 1 Mr. Ricardo has very clearly shewn that t 1e rate of profits 1nust din1inish, and the progress of accumulation be finally stopped, under ~he n1ost favourable circun1stances, by the· increasing difficulty of procuring the food of the la~ourer. I, in like manner, endeavoured to shew· 111 n1Y SEC. 'III.] OF THE PROGRESS OF ~'"EALTII. ~71 Essay on the Principle of Population that, under circumstances the most favourable to cultivatioii which could possibly be supposed to operate in the actual state of the. earth, the vvagcs of the labourer 'vould becon1e more scanty, and the progres of population be finally stopped by the increa ing~ difficulty of procuring the n1eans of subsistence. But Mr. Ricardo has not been satisfied 'vith proving the position just stated. lie has not been satisfied vvith she\lving that the difficulty of procuring the food of the labourer is the only absolutely necessary cause of the fall of profit , in . which I am ready fully and entirely to agree \vith him : but he has gone on to say, that there i no other cause of the fall of profits in the actual state of things that has any degree of permanence. In this latter staten1ent he appears to n1e to have fallen into precisely the saine kind of error as I should have fallen into, if, after havino· she\vn that b the unrestricted povver of population \\ras beyond comparison greater than the po\ver of the earth to produce food under the n1ost favourable circun1- stances possible, I had allowed that population could not be redundant unless the po,vers of the earth to ke~p up 'vith the progress of po] ulation h~d been tnecl to the uttermost. But I all along satd, that population might be redundant, and greatly redundant, compared 'vith the detnand for it and the actual n1eans of supportino· it althou<Yh it .h b ' 5 mtg t most properly be considered as deficient, and greatly deficient, compared \vith the extent of territory, and the powers of such territory to produce BB~ |