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But in the East Indies, particularly in China and Indostan, the

value of the precious metals, when the Europeans first began to

trade to those countries, was much higher than in Europe; and it

still continues to be so. In rice countries, which generally

yield two, sometimes three crops in the year, each of them more

plentiful than any common crop of corn, the abundance of food

must be much greater than in any corn country of equal extent.

Such countries are accordingly much more populous. In them, too,

the rich, having a greater superabundance of food to dispose of

beyond what they themselves can consume, have the means of

purchasing a much greater quantity of the labour of other people.

The retinue of a grandee in China or Indostan accordingly is, by

all accounts, much more numerous and splendid than that of the

richest subjects in Europe.