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Show S88 ON THE r:r,IMEDIATE CAUSES [CH. VII. de proportion qui_existe entre les prog_res ~e ~a population et l'accro1ssement de la quant1te d ahmens produite par la cu:ture, renouv:lle 1~ spectacle affiio·eant de la famn1e chaque fo1s qu une grande secheresse ' ou q uelq ue autre cause locale a gate la recolte du ll1a1s."• These accounts strikingly shew the indolence and in1providence \vhich prevail among the people. Such habits must necessarily act as formidable obstacles in the way of a rapid increase of wealth and population. Where they have been once fully established, they are not likely to change, except gradually and slo\V ly under a course of powerful and effective stimulants. And while the extren1e inequality of landed property continues, and no sufficient vent is found for the raw produce in foreign comn1erce, these stin1 ulants 'vill be furnished very slowly and inadequately. · That the indolence of the natives is greatly aggravated by their political situation, cannot for a n1oment be doubted; but that, in spite of this gituation, it yields in a great measure to the usual e~citenlents is suf-ficiently proved by the rapid cultlvation which takes place in the neighbourhood of a new n1ine, where an anin1ated and effective de~ mand is created for labour and produce. " Bien,t6t le besoin reveille l'industrie ; on comn1ence a labourer le sol dans les ravins, et sur les pentes des montagnes voisines, par tout ou le roc est . couv~I:t de terreau : des fern1es s' etablissent dans le voisl~ ..... Nouvelle E::;pagnc, tom. i. liv. ii. c. v. pp. 355 ct 356. SEC. IV·] 0 F 'f I-IE PRO G H. ES S 0 F ' VE a L TII. 389 ~age de la mine: la cherte des vivres, le prix considerable auqucl la concurrence des acheteurs maintient tous les produits de !'agriculture, dedon1n1agent le cultivateur des privations auxquelles l'expose la yie penible des montagnes."Jf€. When these are the effects of a really brisk deInand for produce and labour, we cannot be at a loss for the main cause of the slow cultivation which has taken place over the greatest part of th_e country. Except jn the neighbourhood of the n11nes and near the great towns, the effective den1and for produce is not such as to induce the great proprietors to bring their imn1ense tracts of lan~l properly into cultivation: and the population, Virhtch, as "'e have seen, presses hard against the litn its of subsistence, evidently exceeds in general the demand for labour, or the nun1ber of persons w·hich the country can employ with reo-ula- . 0 nty and constancy in the actual state of its agri-culture and manufacttires. In the midst of an abundance of fertile land, it appears that the natives are often very scantily supp_ lied with it. They would gladly cultivate portions of the extensive districts held by the great proprietors, and could not fail of thus deriving an a. tnple subsistence for then1selves and fan1ilies '· but In the actual state of the demand for produce in n1any parts of the country, and in the actual state of the ignorance and indolence of the natives, such tenants might not be able to pay a rent equal to * Nouvelle Espagne, tom. iii.liv. iv. c. ix. p. 12. cc3 |
