The effects of this power of the earth, though uniformly acting, or disposed to act, are increased or diminished by two causes, to wit, the greater or less quantity of the labour of man bestowed on it, and the favourableness or unfavourableness of seasons.
The quantity of man's labour applied being much the same one year as another, we might suppose that the quantity of the produce of the land would be uniform, and differing but little in different years.
The difference in the quantity of the produce of the necessaries of life in one year, from that of other years, must depend on the difference of seasons.
But whether or not the general produce, i. e. that of a number of years taken together, of the necessaries of life, be proportioned to the number of people inhabiting a country, depends on the quantity of land they occupy, and on the number of hands employed in cultivating it.
That the quantity of land inhabited by a people is too little, I believe does not happen in any instance; but that too few hands are employed, in almost all instances, in civilised countries.
The natural or spontaneous produce of the soil, or the produce of the soil unassisted, how-
