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Show fJ80 ~UMMAR\' . PAGE the -value of the revenue of the preceding year; but this would preclude increase of value. A great increase of exchangeable value and demand may take place in any one year by a better distribution of prod~ce, and a better adaptation of it to the wants of the soc1ety . . . . . . 420 The fortune of a country, like that of n1ost merchants, ~s made by savings fron1 increased gains, and not {rom a di-minished expenditure . · · · · · · · · · 421 To estimate the increasinO' wealth of a country by the in-creasing value of it gros produce, is not to ~xalt the gross produce at the expen e of the neat ; becau e .Improvements which increase the neat produce, generally Increase at the same time the gros produce . ·, 422 No definition of wealth can be just that does not embrace the gross produce. Tho e who live on wages are the most numerous and important part of the society · 423 The interests of individual capitali t prompt them to save labour. and both theory and experience tend to show that these ~fforts tend on the whole greatly to increase the ex-changeable value of the whole produce . 425 Production and distribution are the two great elements of wealth, which, combined in due proportions, are able to carry it to its utrnost , possible limits · · 426 SEcT. VII.-Of the Distribution occasioned by the Di·oision of Landed Property considered as the means of increasing the Exchangeable Value of the whole Produce. The three causes most favourable to distribution are, the division of landed property; internal and external commerce; and the maintenailce of unproductive consumers · 427 In the first settle1nent of new colonies, an easy subdivision of the land is necessary to give effect to the principle of popu-lation . . . . . . . . . · · · · · ib. The rapid increase of the establishtnents in North America depended greatly upon the facility of settling new families on the land as they branched off from their parent stocks · 42B 'l'he vicious distribution of landed property almost all over Europe, derived from the feudal times, was the main cause SUMMARY. 581 h' h • d PAGJil w Ic Impe ed the progress of cultivators and wealth in the middle ages . . . . . . . . . . . . . '. 429 The difficulty was not so much to inspire the rich with a love of finery as to divide their immense properties and create a greater number of demanders, which could only be effected very gradually . . . . . . . . . . . ib. It is physically possible for a small number of very rich propnetors and capitalists to create a very large deman<.l; but practically, it has always been found that the exc,e sive wealth of the few is never equivalent, in effective demand, to the more moderate wealth of the many . . . . . 430 But though it be true that the division of landed property to a certain extent is favourable to the increase of wealth is equally true that beyond a certain extent it is unfa-' vourable . . 431 It will be found that all the great results ·in political economy respecting wealth, depend upon proportions; and this important truth is particularly obvious in the division of landed property · 432 On the effects of a great subdivision of property, an experiment is now making in France. The law of succession divides property equally among all the children, and allows but a small portion of it to be disposed of by will . 433 Such a law would be of use in most countries of Europe for a time; but if it continue to be the law of France, it will lead to great poverty as well as equality . ib. Such a state of property would neither be favourable to the maintenance of the present mixed government, nor to the continuance of a well constituted republic . 434 But it would be a favourable soil for a military despotism. The army might easily be made the richest class in the country, and it would then possess an influence which, in such a state of things, nothing could resist . . ib. In the British empire, the immense landed possessions which formerly prevailed have b~en divided by the prosperity of commerce and manufactures ' 435 A large body of middle classes has been formed from commerce, manufactures, professions, &c. who are likely to be more effective demanders than small proprietors of land 436 PP3 |
