Principles of Political Economy: Abridged with Critical, Bibliographical, and Explanatory Notes, and a Sketch of the History of Political Economy — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Principles of Political Economy: Abridged with Critical, Bibliographical, and Explanatory Notes, and a Sketch of the History of Political Economy
John Stuart Mill · en
That it is defect of providence, not defect of industry, that limits
production among the Chinese, is still more obvious than in the case of
the semi-agriculturized Indians. “Where the returns are quick, where the
instruments formed require but little time to bring the events for which
they were formed to an issue,” it is well known that “the great progress
which has been made in the knowledge of the arts suited to the nature of
the country and the wants of its inhabitants” makes industry energetic and
effective. “What marks the readiness with which labor is forced to form
the most difficult materials into instruments, where these instruments
soon bring to an issue the events for which they are formed, is the
frequent occurrence, on many of their lakes and rivers, of structures
resembling the floating gardens of the Peruvians, rafts covered with
vegetable soil and cultivated. Labor in this way draws from the materials
on which it acts very speedy returns. Nothing can exceed the luxuriance of
vegetation when the quickening powers of a genial sun are ministered to by
a rich soil and abundant moisture. It is otherwise, as we have seen, in
cases where the return, though copious, is distant. European travelers are
surprised at meeting these little floating farms by the side of swamps
which only require draining to render them tillable.”
When a country has carried production as far as in the existing state of
knowledge it can be carried with an amount of return corresponding to the
average strength of the effective desire of accumulation in that country,
it has reached what is called the stationary state; the state in which no
further addition will be made to capital, unless there takes place either
some improvement in the arts of production, or an increase in the strength
of the desire to accumulate. In the stationary state, though capital does
not on the whole increase, some persons grow richer and others poorer.
Those whose degree of providence is below the usual standard become
impoverished, their capital perishes, and makes room for the savings of
those whose effective desire of accumulation exceeds the average. These
become the natural purchasers of the lands, manufactories, and other
instruments of production owned by their less provident countrymen.