of the land is insufficient for the inhabitants, in all, or nearly all, the civilised countries; and that, therefore, when a scarce year happens, they experience great distress. We have now, I think, ascertained the real cause of scarcity, to wit, that a sufficient number of hands are not employed on the land. We are next to inquire, what is the cause of this want of hands in agriculture? This cause must be of a moral nature.
For the present purpose, the people which compose a civilised nation may be divided into three sorts: the first, consisting of those who work in cultivating the land; the second, of those who are employed in trade and manufactures; the third, of those who do nothing. The first sort, it is obvious, furnishes the provisions for itself and the other two; and the whole will be furnished, either scantily or plentifully, as the first sort bears the greater or less proportion to it.[1] Notwithstanding this is sufficiently evident, and that bread can only be supplied by the husbandman, and that plenty of it can only be supplied by a sufficient number of them, yet it is trade and manufactures that are said to give bread to people, and to be what ought chiefly to be relied on for their sustenance; but this can only be true when the articles got up by
- ↑ This proportion is as one to six nearly, at present.
