Page:An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798).djvu/355

 for the maintenance of labour, and consequently, as tending always to ameliorate the condition of the poor.

The fine silks and cottons, the laces, and other ornamental luxuries, of a rich country, may contribute very considerably to augment the exchangeable value of its annual produce; yet they contribute but in a very small degree, to augment the mass of happiness in the society: and it appears to me, that it is with some view to the real utility of the produce, that we ought to estimate the productiveness, or unproductiveness of different sorts of labour. The French Œconomists consider all labour employed in manufactures as unproductive. Comparing it with the labour employed upon land, I should be perfectly disposed to agree with them; but not exactly for the reasons which they give.