condition of mankind, and be filled with life and enjoyment, population and wealth, or that it should be one vast, dreary, and interminable desert, the cheerless abode of a poor and inconsiderable number of wandering savages, afraid of each other, and living like the brutes? Whether it is best and most desirable that the world should contain ten thousand millions of human inhabitants, (which it is probably capable of maintaining if cultivated and improved to the utmost,) the whole abundantly supplied with the necessaries and many with the conveniences and luxuries of life, or that it should contain certainly not a hundred millions, perhaps not a tenth of that number, and they naked of every thing and enduring every hardship and privation ? Whether, in a word, the LIFE which the world must support, should be that of man, God's image, or that of snakes and serpents; for the number of mankind that could exist without respect to the rights of property, and consequently without capital and without agriculture, is hardly worth taking into the account.

CHAPTER X.

OF THE MORAL CAUSES OF PRODUCTION.

SECTION I.

THE TWO GRAND MORAL CAUSES OF PRODUCTION DELI

NEATED, AND A HIGHLY-IMPORTANT

EFFECT OF THESE CAUSES POINTED OUT.

CONCURRENT

IN the foregoing chapters of this book our inquiries have been confined, almost exclusively, to the investigation of the

physical causes of production, and to the ascertainment and explication of those material means or instruments by which wealth is visibly acquired and produced; but the production and accumulation of wealth, (as well as its distribution,) like all other phenomena or effects brought to pass by the agency of human creatures, are primarily and necessarily influenced by moral causes; and it remains in this place to give an account of these.

There are two grand moral causes of production, which in an especial manner demand the deep attention of the political inquirer. These are the two following, which will indeed be seen to be the fundamental and primary causes of all improvement in the social condition of mankind, as well as of the production and accumulation of wealth:

First,-The desire natural to all mankind to possess and enjoy wealth, or, as it is commonly expressed, to better their condition.

Second,-Political justice, law, and government, or, in other words, security and inviolability to persons and property.

We call these moral causes of production in contradistinction to the physical causes, or to those material means or instruments which have been already distinctly considered in a former chapter.*

It will be apparent at the first glance that there is a wide and important difference in the nature of these two moral causes of production, as well as in the circumstances on which their existence or their presence and absence depend; the first being necessarily always present while the second is only contingently so. The first of these causes is plainly innate, inherent, and inseparable from human nature; and is therefore necessarily always present, and ready to exert

Chapter vi.

its influence where opportunity offers, at the bare volition of every individual agent; whereas the second is extrinsic, accidental, and independent generally of the will of individuals, and is not therefore, like the other, always present and available to all mankind at all times.

It will be evident also on the slightest reflection, that, without the presence and co-operation of the second moral cause, the first can be of little or no avail. Without the establishment of government, law, and justice, producing a certain degree of security to persons and property, it is quite obvious that the desire of bettering our condition could never be effectual for its purpose. Where all might rob and plunder with impunity, wealth could never be produced or accumulated to any considerable extent; and where none could be sure of possessing or enjoying what they might produce, the very motive to accumulate would be annihilated. It is this second moral cause of production, therefore, which alone requires any attention or effort on the part of mankind to provide or establish it; because, wherever this cause is found, the other must necessarily be found also; since, as has been just observed, this other is necessarily and universally existent wherever there are men.

But there is one peculiar and highly-important effect depending upon the moral causes of production, and especially on the quality of the second moral cause,—that is, upon good and bad government,-which, as it has been the main occasion of our treating those causes distinctively, it will be necessary here in some degree to explain, although the discussion belongs more properly to the province of distribution, and will have to be resumed more at large in the second book upon that subject.*

The effect I here allude to is that which good and bad

* See book ii. chap. 9. on the Wages of Labour.

A

government is calculated to produce upon the wages of labour, and upon the habits and modes of subsistence of the lower classes of labourers; and what I shall endeavour to prove is, that under good government the wages of labour and the habits and modes of subsistence of the lower classes of labourers must constantly and indefinitely improve and increase from their endeavour to better their condition, which becomes then effectual for its purpose.

Before, however, proceeding to enlarge upon this part of our argument, it will be expedient to consider the effects of good and bad government, and of the desire of bettering our condition somewhat farther; which we shall do in the two following sections, by setting down a few observations on each of these heads separately.

SECTION II.

OF THE FIRST MORAL CAUSE OF PRODUCTION.

WITH regard to the first, or what may be termed the innate moral cause of production, namely, the desire to possess and enjoy wealth and to better our condition, it arises, as has been already hinted, from the very nature and passions of human kind, which subject them to the necessity and implant in them the desire to procure and consume wealth; it is therefore constant, universal, and invariable.

All men naturally desire to possess and enjoy wealth and to better their condition; in other words, all men naturally desire to possess and enjoy the necessaries, conveniences, and luxuries of life. Food, clothes, and lodging, of some sort or other, are absolutely necessary. These are first desired in abundance, then of better quality; and, as society advances, and wealth, and knowledge, and civilization increase, the desire of improvement increases still more; and,

finally, a taste for luxuries and for all sorts of gratifications and enjoyments becomes general, and extends itself downwards to the very lowest ranks of the people.

Accordingly we find that the importance of this principle has been noticed and acknowledged by the most profound and sagacious authors who have treated the subject. Dr Smith observes of it, that it comes with us from the womb, and never leaves us till we go into the grave. "The principle which prompts to expense," he says "is the passion for present enjoyment, which, though sometimes violent and very difficult to be restrained, is in general only momentary and occasional. But the principle which prompts to save is the desire of bettering our condition,-a desire which, though generally calm and dispassionate, comes with us from the womb, and never leaves us till we go into the grave. In the whole interval which separates those two moments, there is scarce perhaps a single instance in which any man is so perfectly and completely satisfied with his situation as to be without any wish of alteration or improvement of any kind. An augmentation of fortune is the means by which the greater part of men propose and wish to better their condition. It is the means the most vulgar and the most obvious; and the most likely way of augmenting their fortune is to save and accumulate some part of what they acquire, either regularly and annually, or upon some extraordinary occasions. Though the principle of expense, therefore, prevails in almost all men upon some occasions, and in some men upon almost all occasions, yet in the greater part of men, taking the whole course of their life at an average, the principle of frugality seems not only to predominate, but to predominate very greatly.'

And throughout the whole of his immortal work on "the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations," this principle is constantly referred to by Dr Smith as the primary cause

• Wealth of Nations, book ii. chap. 3.

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