Agriculture the source of the wealth of Britain; a reply to the objections urged by Mr. Mill, the Edinburgh reviewers, and others, against the doctrines of the pamphlet, entitled "Britain independent of commerce" / With remarks on the criticism of the monthly reviewers upon that work.

  • William Spence
Date:
1808
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Agriculture the source of the wealth of Britain; a reply to the objections urged by Mr. Mill, the Edinburgh reviewers, and others, against the doctrines of the pamphlet, entitled "Britain independent of commerce" / With remarks on the criticism of the monthly reviewers upon that work. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    61/116 page 57
    “ March, he has transformed into a coach worth 60 quar- “ ters, the country is the richer in confequence of this “ manufacture of the coach, to the amount of 10 bufhels, <( (quarters, I fuppofe) of corn.” (p. 26.) Now in reply to this affertion, for it is nothing more, I would merely afk Mr. Mill, by what hocus pocus he can create 10 quarters of corn by manufacturing a coach. He fays the country would be richer in confequence of this manufacture to the amount of 10 quarters of corn. I afk him bow? and I afk him moreover, if he really believes that the country would have been poorer if the coach had been fold for 50 quarters, its original cofL If he does not, then lie mufl allow that the coach being worth 60 quarters has nothing to do with an encreafe of national wealth. The coach is a portion of national wealth ; not the worth of it, whether that worth be exprelied in money or corn. After making the objections juft refuted, Mr, Mill adds feveral remarks on the queflion now under con- fideration, the tendency of all which being merely to fhew that manufactures and the divifion of labour have an indirect influence upon the profperity of agriculture, I certainly do not feel myfelf called upon to controvert. I would only obferve that his affertion, i that it is the < manufacturers who add the whole value it obtains to * f°ur parts at leaft in five of the produce of the foil,* (p. 26.) is founded upon the fame mifapprehenfion of the principle of population ;—the fame inattention to the fact that food is the grand want of man and that with it he can procure every thing;—and the fame neglect of the great truth that the bulk of manufactures are carried on lblely as a mean of obtaining this food from the monopolizers of the foil;—which I conceive have pervaded the whole of his reafoning on this fubject. If, when a cultivator has produced from the land fiye times more than he can himfelf con fume, there were any difficulty in finding mouths to eat the remainder, I and
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3