Page:Reflections on the Formation and the Distribution of Riches by Anne Turgot.djvu/72

Rh way, when we spoke of the division of the several professions, and of the different means by which the Proprietors could make their estates productive, because we could not have explained them then without breaking the thread of ideas.

S52
Necessity of advances in agriculture.

All the various kinds of labours, whether in the cultivation of the land, in industry, or in Commerce, require advances. Even if one should till the land with one's hands, it would be necessary to sow before reaping: it would be necessary to live until after the harvest. The more perfect and energetic the cultivation of the land becomes, the more considerable are these advances. There is need of cattle, of implements of husbandry, of buildings to hold the cattle and store the produce; it is necessary to pay a number of persons proportioned to the extent of the undertaking, and to enable them to subsist until the harvest. It is only by means of considerable advances that we obtain a large return, and that the lands produce a good deal of revenue. In every craft, whatever it may be, it is necessary that the Workman should have tools in advance, that he should have a sufficient quantity of the materials upon which he has to labour; it is necessary that he should subsist while waiting for the sale of his finished goods.