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
perhaps, must pass away before the old system, which is wearing out
gradually, can be completely abolished through all the different parts of
the country. Of all the commercial advantages, however, which Scotland has
derived from the Union with England, this rise in the price of cattle is,
perhaps, the greatest. It has not only raised the value of all highland
estates, but it has, perhaps, been the principal cause of the improvement
of the low country.
In all new colonies, the great quantity of waste land, which can for many
years be applied to no other purpose but the feeding of cattle, soon
renders them extremely abundant; and in every thing great cheapness is the
necessary consequence of great abundance. Though all the cattle of the
European colonies in America were originally carried from Europe, they
soon multiplied so much there, and became of so little value, that even
horses were allowed to run wild in the woods, without any owner thinking
it worth while to claim them. It must be a long time after the first
establishment of such colonies, before it can become profitable to feed
cattle upon the produce of cultivated land. The same causes, therefore,
the want of manure, and the disproportion between the stock employed in
cultivation and the land which it is destined to cultivate, are likely to
introduce there a system of husbandry, not unlike that which still
continues to take place in so many parts of Scotland. Mr Kalm, the Swedish
traveller, when he gives an account of the husbandry of some of the
English colonies in North America, as he found it in 1749, observes,
accordingly, that he can with difficulty discover there the character of
the English nation, so well skilled in all the different branches of
agriculture. They make scarce any manure for their corn fields, he says;
but when one piece of ground has been exhausted by continual cropping,
they clear and cultivate another piece of fresh land; and when that is
exhausted, proceed to a third. Their cattle are allowed to wander through
the woods and other uncultivated grounds, where they are half-starved;
having long ago extirpated almost all the annual grasses, by cropping them
too early in the spring, before they had time to form their flowers, or to
shed their seeds. {Kalm’s Travels, vol 1, pp. 343, 344.} The annual
grasses were, it seems, the best natural grasses in that part of North
America; and when the Europeans first settled there, they used to grow
very thick, and to rise three or four feet high. A piece of ground which,
when he wrote, could not maintain one cow, would in former times, he was
assured, have maintained four, each of which would have given four times
the quantity of milk which that one was capable of giving. The poorness of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account