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Show ON THE 11\Il\-IEbiATE CAUSES ( CH. VII. farthest; hut if it be directed either higher or lower, it will fall short. With a con1paratively stnall proportion of rich proprietors, \Vho would prefer n1enial service' and territorial influence to an excessive quantity of manufactured and n1ercantile products, the power of supplying the results of productive labour would be much greater than the will to consume thetn, and the progress of wealth \Vould be checked by the want of efrective demand.* With an excessive proportion of sn1all proprietors both of land and capital, all gre.at it~provexnents on the land, all great enterpnzes 1n commerce and manufactures, and all the wonders described by Adam Sn1ith, as resulting frotn the division of labour, would be at an end; and the progress of wealth would be checked by a failure in the po\vers of supply. It will be found, I believe, true that all the great results in political econon1y, respecting 'vealth, depend upon proportions.; and it is from overlooking this 1nost in1portant truth, that so 111any errors have prevailed in the prediction of consequences ; that nations have sometin1es been .enriched \Vhen it \vas expected that they 'vould be itnpoverished, and impoverished ,vhen it was ex- * It is perhaps just possible to conceive a passion for menial service which would stimulate landlords to cultivate lands in the ' best way, in order to support the greatest quantity of such atten-dants. This would be the same thing as the passion for population adverted to in a former section. Such a passion, to the extent here supposed, may be possible; but scarcely any supposition can be }(:ss probable. SEC. VII.] OF THE l~ROGRESS OF \VJ.!:ALTI~. 433 pected that they \Voulcl be enriched ; and that such contradictory opinions have occasionally prevailed respecting the n1ost effective encouragements to the increase of wealth. But there is no part of the whole subject, where the efficacy of proportions in the production of \vealth is so strikingly exetnplified, as in the division of landed and other property; and ".-here it is so very obvious that a division to a certain extent tnust be beneficial, and beyond a ,certain extent prejudicial to the increase of ,,yealth. On the effects of a great sub-division of property, a fearful experitnent is no\V making in France. The la\v of succession in that country divides property of all kinds an1ong all the children equally, without right of prirnogeniture or distinction of sex, and allovvs but a small portion of it to be dis ... posed of by \vill. This la\v has not yet prevailed long enough to she"v '"'hat its effects are likely to be on the national "vealth and prosperity. If the state of property in France appears at present to be favourable to industry and dctnand, no inference can thence be drawn that it \vill be favourable in future. It is universally allo\lved that a division of property to a certain extent is extreinely desirable; and so n1any traces yet remain almost all over Europe of the vast landed possessions \\rhich have descended fron1 the feudal times, that there are not many states in · \V hich such a la"v as that of France n1ight not be of u c, with a vie\v to ,vealth, for a certain nun1ber of years. But if such a la"r were to continue per- F F |