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Show 48i I ON THE IMl\IXDIATE CAUSES ( CH. VII. sumers. But, if it has appeared that the greatest powers of production are rendere~ comparatively unless without adequate consurnptlon, and that a proper distribution of the_ produce is as necessary to the continued increase of wealth as the means of producing it, it follow,·s that, in cases of this kind, the question depends upon proportions; and it would be the height of rashness to detern1ine, under all circun1stances, that the diminution of a national debt and the removal of taxation n1ust necessarily tend to increase the national wealth, and provide en1ployn1ent for the labouring classes. If \Ve \Vere to suppose the po\ivers of production .in a rich and \veil peopled country to be so increased that the vvhole of what it prodt1ced could be obtained by one third of the labour before applied, can there be a reasonable doubt that the principal difficulty would be to effect such a distribution of the produce, as to call forth these great powers of production? To consider the gift of such po,vers as an evil would indeed be n1o~t strange; but they would be an evil, and practically a great and grievous one, if the effect were to be an increase of the neat produce at the expense of the gross produce, and of the populatio.n. But if, on the other hand' a n1ore favourable d1s-tribution of the abundant produce \vere to ~~ke place; if the more intelligent an1ong the working classes were raised into overseers of \Vorks, clerks of various kinds, and retail dealers, \vhile n1any who had been in these situations before, together with numerous others \V bo harl received a tolerable SEC. IX.) 01" THE PROGRESS OF WEALTH. 483 . . . education, we're entitled to an income fro1n the general produce, and could live nearly at leisure upon their n1ortgages; -vvhat an in1proved struc .. ture of society \Vould this state of things present; while the value of the gross produce, and the nun1 hers of the people vvoulcl be increasing \vith rapidity! As I have before said, it \Vould not be possible, under the principle of con1petition, (which can never be got rid of,) to secure much 1nore leisure to those actually engaged .in n1anual labour; but .the very great increase in the number of prizes which would then be attainable by industrious and intelligent exertion, would 1nost essentially improve the~r condition; and, on the whole, the society would have gained a great accession of Coinfort and happiness. It is not tneant to be stated that such a distribution of the produce could be easily effected; but merely that, with such a distribution, the povvers supposed \Vould confer a prodigious benefit on the society, and without such a distribution, or such a change of tastes as would secure an equivalent consun1ption, the powers supposed might be \Vorse than thrown away. N O\V the question is, whether this country, in its actual state, with the great pow·ers of production which it unquestionably possesses, does not bear some sliO'ht resernblance to the case here in1agined; 5 . and whether, \\-rithout such a body of unproductive consumers q.s these \Vho live upon the -interest of the national debt, the san1e stirnulus \Vould have been given to production, and the satne po\vers Would have been called forth. Under the actual l l .i |