An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsSmith, Adam
History
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
Smith, Adam
Economics
observed, seems, in the neighbourhood of London, to have got to this
height about the beginning of the last century; but it was much later,
probably, before it got through the greater part of the remoter counties,
in some of which, perhaps, it may scarce yet have got to it. Of all the
different substances, however, which compose this second sort of rude
produce, cattle is, perhaps, that of which the price, in the progress of
improvement, rises first to this height.
Till the price of cattle, indeed, has got to this height, it seems scarce
possible that the greater part, even of those lands which are capable of
the highest cultivation, can be completely cultivated. In all farms too
distant from any town to carry manure from it, that is, in the far greater
part of those of every extensive country, the quantity of well cultivated
land must be in proportion to the quantity of manure which the farm itself
produces; and this, again, must be in proportion to the stock of cattle
which are maintained upon it. The land is manured, either by pasturing the
cattle upon it, or by feeding them in the stable, and from thence carrying
out their dung to it. But unless the price of the cattle be sufficient to
pay both the rent and profit of cultivated land, the farmer cannot afford
to pasture them upon it; and he can still less afford to feed them in the
stable. It is with the produce of improved and cultivated land only that
cattle can be fed in the stable; because, to collect the scanty and
scattered produce of waste and unimproved lands, would require too much
labour, and be too expensive. If the price of the cattle, therefore, is
not sufficient to pay for the produce of improved and cultivated land,
when they are allowed to pasture it, that price will be still less
sufficient to pay for that produce, when it must be collected with a good
deal of additional labour, and brought into the stable to them. In these
circumstances, therefore, no more cattle can with profit be fed in the
stable than what are necessary for tillage. But these can never afford
manure enough for keeping constantly in good condition all the lands which
they are capable of cultivating. What they afford, being insufficient for
the whole farm, will naturally be reserved for the lands to which it can
be most advantageously or conveniently applied; the most fertile, or
those, perhaps, in the neighbourhood of the farm-yard. These, therefore,
will be kept constantly in good condition, and fit for tillage. The rest
will, the greater part of them, be allowed to lie waste, producing scarce
any thing but some miserable pasture, just sufficient to keep alive a few
straggling, half-starved cattle; the farm, though much overstocked in
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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