thing it required. Under these circumstances there could be little commerce or trade, and the country necessarily remained in almost a stationary condition. The people in one sense were not poor; for the virgin fertility of the soil supplied them abundantly with the ordinary necessaries of life; but there was an almost complete absence of cooperation of labour. One of these families might possess a superfluity of food: there might be some commodity which, in a particular situation, could be easily produced, yet it could not be exchanged for some other commodity which a family might particularly want, and which it might, perhaps, fail to obtain, even by the application of the greatest amount of labour. A colony in this condition derives scarcely any benefit from such great natural advantages as a genial climate, great mineral resources, and vast tracts of fertile land, as yet untilled and unappropriated. Therefore, Mr. Wakefield emphatically insists that a Government, when establishing a new colony, ought not to grant to emigrants settlements of land, far distant, and widely scattered, without at the same time taking steps to encourage the growth of a town population. The settlements which are granted by the Government ought to be concentrated as much as possible, and should, in the first place, be not too remote from the towns. There will then at once arise a cooperation between the industry of the town and the industry of the country. The industry of the town will supply the inhabitants of the country with the commodities which they found most difficult to obtain; and the town population will have an active demand for the food and other natural products which in the country can be raised in such plentiful abundance. The efficiency of labour will thus be greatly increased; for, with such an interchange of commodities, a family which could previously do little more than supply itself with food from a tract of land, can now not only obtain, with the same labour, all the food it requires, but can also purchase from the town population articles of utility and luxury before unattainable. Such a colony will rapidly advance in wealth; roads will be made, and other industrial appliances will be carried out, which will powerfully stimulate the rising commerce.
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Variations in Productive Power.
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