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

Agriculture, and Commerce.
4!JJ
ula!ion, becanse it increases. the stock of p~oYision by
whIch the people art.' ~ub 'lsted. But tillS effect of
_foreign commerce is '0 litdt! seen in our own country,
that, I believl:', it m=!y be affirmed of Great Britain,
what Bishop Bt:rkley said of a neighbou;ing island,
that, if it were f'ncompa~sed with a wall uf bra~, fIfty
cubits high, the country might maintain the sam_e
number of inhabitants that find subsi~!ence in it at
present; and that every necessary, and even every
real comfort and accommodation of human life might
be ~upplied in as great abundance as they now are.
Here, therefore, as before, we D;ay fairly ask, by what
operation it is, that foreign c·J~i1merce, which brings
into the country no more article of human subsistence,
promotes the multiplication of hUlnaIi life?
. The answer cf this inquiry wIll be contained in
tbe discu~sioD _ of another; viz~
Since the soil will maintain gl3ny more than it can~'1
employ, wh~t must be do~e, suppo~ing ~he c?untry
to be full, wIth the remaInder of tQe !nhabltaJ;lls?
They who, by the rule~ of partition, {and some such
must be established in every cour try) are eri titled to
the land; and they wh },_ by their labour upon the
soil, zcquire a right in its produce, w:1l not part with
their property for nothing; or rather, they will no
longer raise from the s()il ",rhat they can neither use
themSlJves, nor ex~hange for what ~hey want. Or
lastly, if these wer~ willing to distrihute what they
could spare of the previsinn which the ground yiEld ..
ed, to other~ \v ho had- no share or concern in the
property or cultivation of it, yet ~till the most enormous
mischief~ ~ v;ou' j ensue from great nunjbers remaining
unemployed. The idleness of one half of
the community would overwhelm the whole with
confusion anti di~order.. Olle only way presents ft.
self of removing the difficulty which this question
states, and \\~hich is ~j(nply this; that they, wh()se
work is 110t wanted, n~)r can be elnpJoy~d in the .
raising of provision ont of th·.~ ground, convert their I
hands and ingenuity to the fabrication of 1rticlesl
which nlCl,y gratify arId requite those who are so em-
~KX.
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