Pagina 635 di 2651

There are some sorts of rude produce which nature has rendered a

kind of appendages to other sorts; so that the quantity of the

one which any country can afford, is necessarily limited by that

of the other. The quantity of wool or of raw hides, for example,

which any country can afford, is necessarily limited by the

number of great and small cattle that are kept in it. The state

of its improvement, and the nature of its agriculture, again

necessarily determine this number.

The same causes which, in the progress of improvement, gradually

raise the price of butcher's meat, should have the same effect,

it may be thought, upon the prices of wool and raw hides, and

raise them, too, nearly in the same proportion. It probably would

be so, if, in the rude beginnings of improvement, the market for

the latter commodities was confined within as narrow bounds as

that for the former. But the extent of their respective markets

is commonly extremely different.