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Show 374 ON 'filE LMMEDIATE CAUSES [CH. VII. that they at first diminish the means of supply.* The necessary consequence tnust be an increase of profits. 'rbis naturally increases both the power and the revvard of accurnulation; and if only the satne habits of saving prevail an1ong the capitalists as before, the recovery of the lost stock must be rapid, just for the san1e kind of reason that the recovery of population is so rapid when, by some ca~se or other, it has been suddenly destroyed. It is no\v fully acknowledged that it vvould be a gross etT~r in the latter case, to itnagine .that, 'vithout the previous diminution of the population, the same rate of increase would still have taken place; because it is precisely the high "rages occasioned by the den1ancl for labour, '\vh1ch produce the effect of so rapid an increase of population. On the same principle it appears to n1e as gross an error to suppose that, without the previous loss of capital occasioned by the expenditure in question, capital should be as rapidly accutnulated; because it is precisely the high profits of stock occasioned by the den1and for co1nmodities, and the consequent den1and for , * Capital is withdrawn only from those employments where it can best be spared. It is hardly ever withdrawn from agriculture. NothinO' is more common as I have stated in the Chapter on Rent, 0 ' than increased profits, not only without any capital being with~ drawn from the land, but under a ·continual addition to it. Mr. Ricardo's assumption of constant prices would make it absolutely impossible to account theoretically for things as they are. lf capital were considered as not within the pale of demand and supply, the very familiar event of the rapid recovery of capital during a war would be quite inexplicable. SEC. JV.] OF THE PHOGRESS OF \VEALTH. S75 the means of producing then1, 'vhicb at once give the power and the \Vill to accun1ulate. Though it may be allo"'ed therefore that tl!e la\VS which regulate the increase of capital arc not quite so distinct as those 'vhich rco·ulate the itlcrease of population, yet they are certainly just of the same kind; and it is equally vain, 'vith a view to the permanent increase of 'vealth, to continue converting revenue into capital, 'vhen there is 110 adequate den1and fortbe products of such capital, as to continue encouraging marriage and the birth of children without a demand for JaLour anu an increase of the funds for its Inaintenance. SECTION IV. OJ' the Fert_ility C?f tlte Soil, considered as a Stinzulus to the continued Increase of "ff!ea/th. In speaking of the fertility of the soil as not af~ ordtng an adequate stimulus to. the continued Increase of 'vealth, it tnust ahvays Le recollected that a fertile soil gives. at once the oTeatest nat . 1 b'l' o tua capa 1 Ity of \Vealth that a country can possibly possess .. When_ the deficient 'vcalth of such a ~o~ntry Is.n:entwned, it is not intended always to peak posttlv_ely, but cornparatively, that is \Vith reference to Its n~~ural capabilites; and so understood, the proposition will be liable to fe,v or no .B B 4 |
