PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

Agriculture, IJnd Commerce. 4.,9
th~ means of ~ubsistence; in other words, employ.
ment must, in every country, be the medium of distribution,
and the .ource of supply to individuals.
But when we consider the productifln and distribution
of provision, as distinct from, and independent of
each other; when, supposing the same quantity to
be produced, we enquire in what way, or according
to what rule, it may be distributed, we are led to a
conception of the subject not at all agreeable to truth
and rea lity ; for, in truth and reality 7 though provision
must. be produced before it be distributed; yet
(the production depends, in a great measure, upon th-e
distril:u tion:,; The quantity of provision raised out of
the ground, so far as the raising of it requires human
art or labour, will evidently be regulated by the demand;
the demand, or, in other words, the price'
and sale, being that which alone rewards the care, or
excites the diligence of the husbandman. But thesale
of provision depends upon the number, Dot of
those who want, but of those who have something to
offer in return for what they want; not of those whowould
consume, but of those who can buy; that is,
upon the number of those who h~ve· the fruits of
some other kind of ~ndustry to tender in excha~ge
for what they stand In need of from the production
of the soil.,
( \V e see, therefore, the connexion between populatIOn
and employment. Employment affects population
" directly," as it affords the only medium of distri.
bution by which jadividuals can obtain from the
common stock a supply for the wants of their fami:.
lies: it affects. population "indirecty," as it aug- '
menu the stock itself of provision, in the only way
by which the production of it can be effectually en·
couraged~ by furnishing purchasers. No man" can·
purchase without an equivalent; and that equivalent,
by the w~ncrality of the people, must in every country
be derived from employment.)
And UpOll this basis is founded the public benefit
f:
0f trade, that is to say, its sub~ervicncy to population~
in \'Vl1ich it~ ()nl,' rc~I tltilit,· con~ists.. ()f that in--
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