Page:The Effects of Civilisation on the People in European States.djvu/53

Rh them are sent to other countries, and the produce of them there laid out in the necessaries of life, and brought back for the support of those employed in getting them up. It is known that this is never the case, except in great scarcities, when it always proves very inadequate; no importation having exceeded one-sixth part of the consumption.

The manufactures, in which the great majority of the labouring hands in many nations are employed, are of various kinds: they may be divided, however, into two, viz., such as are of the grosser kind, and are of prime and general use in life; and such others as are more refined and in use only by the rich, are not of prime necessity, but may be dispensed with. It seems natural to suppose that these latter should have only such a number of hands in them as could well be spared, and that a sufficient number should be reserved to produce an abundance of such things as are more useful, and of greater necessity. This, notwithstanding, is not the fact, as appears by the frequent recurrence of great scarcity in less abundant seasons, and its prevailing, in some degree, as will be shown hereafter, in all seasons. We must, therefore, inquire into the cause that prevents the proper number of hands from being employed in raising that which is most necessary to the existence of all the people, and directs them to the