Strona 454 z 2651

The number of workmen increases with the increasing quantity of

food, or with the growing improvement and cultivation of the

lands; and as the nature of their business admits of the utmost

subdivisions of labour, the quantity of materials which they can

work up, increases in a much greater proportion than their

numbers. Hence arises a demand for every sort of material which

human invention can employ, either usefully or ornamentally, in

building, dress, equipage, or household furniture; for the

fossils and minerals contained in the bowels of the earth, the

precious metals, and the precious stones.

Food is, in this manner, not only the original source of rent,

but every other part of the produce of land which afterwards

affords rent, derives that part of its value from the improvement

of the powers of labour in producing food, by means of the

improvement and cultivation of land.