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Show 490 ON THE 11\IMEDIA'fE CAUSES [ CJ(. VII. the proportion between productive and unproductive consumers, being best suited to the natural resources of the soil, and the acquired tastes and habits of the people. SECTION X. Application cif some of the precedi11g Principles to the Distresses of the Labouring Classes since 1815, with General Observations. It has been said that the distresses of the labouring classes since 1815 are owincbr to a deficie. nt capital , which is evidently unable to ernploy all that are in '~?ant of vvork. That the capital of the country does not bear an adequate proportion to the population; that the capital and revenue too·ether do I 0 not bear so great a proportion as they did before l S 15 ; and that such a disproportion \i\rill at once ~ccount for very great distress an1ong the IabourI~ lg classes, I an1 most ready to allow. But it is a very different thing to allo\v that the capital is deficient compared \Vith the population; and to allow that it is deficient corn pared vvith the dernand for it, and the demand for the con1modities procured by it. The t\VO cases are very frequently confounded, because they both produce distress among the labouring classes; but they are essentially distinet. They are atte. nded with some very dif. . SEC. X.] OF THE PROGRESS OF \VEALTH. 4·91 ferent syn1pto1ns, and require to be treated in a very different n1anner. If one fourth of the capital of a country were suddenly destroyed, or entirely transferred to a different part of the \Vorld; without any other cause occurring of diminished den1and, this scantiness of capital ' would certainly occasion great distress a1nong the working classe"'; but it would be attended with great advantages to the retnaining capitalists. Con1n1odities, in general, \vould be scarce, and bear a high price on account of the deficiency in the n1eans of producing· then1. Nothing would be so easy as to find a profitable en1ployment for stock; but it \Vould by no n1eans be easy to find stock for the nun1 ber of enlployments ·in which it \Vas deficient; and consequently the rate of profits vvould be very high. In this state of thing·s, there would be an im1necliate and pressing den1and for capital, on account of there being an in1n1ediate and pressing clen1and for cotnlnodities; and the obvious ren1edy \Vould be, the supply of the den1and in the only \Vay i1~ vvhich it could take place, namely, by saving frorn revenue to add to capital. This supply of capital \Vould, as I stated in a former section, take place just upon the same principle as a supply of population would follow a great destruction of peo'ple on the supposition of there being an inunediate and pressing want of labour evinced by the high real \vages given to the labourer. · On the other hand, if the capital of the country were diminished by the failure of some branche I• |