that the increase of food, or of raw produce
alone, can occasion a proportionate increase of population. This is no
doubt true; but it must be allowed, as has been justly observed by Adam
Smith, that 'when food is provided, it is comparatively easy to find
the necessary clothing and lodging. And it should always be recollected,
that land does not produce one commodity alone, but in addition to
that most indispensable of all commodities--food--it produces also the
materials for the other necessaries of life; and the labour required
to work up these materials is of course never excluded from the
consideration. [6]

It is, therefore, strictly true, that land produces the necessaries of
life, produces food, materials, and labour, produces the means by which,
and by which alone, an increase of people may be brought into being,
and supported. In this respect it is fundamentally different from every
other kind of machine known to man; and it is natural to suppose, that
it should be attended with some peculiar effects.

If the cotton machinery, in this country, were to go on increasing at
its present rate, or even much faster; but instead of producing one
particular sort of substance which may be used for some parts of dress
and furniture, etc. had the qualities of land, and could yield what,
with the assistance of a little labour, economy, and skill, could
furnish food, clothing, and lodging, in such proportions as to create
an increase of population equal to the increased supply of these
necessaries; the demand for the products of such improved machinery
would continue in excess above the cost of production, and this excess
would no longer exclusively belong to the machinery of the land. [7]

There is a radical difference in the cause of a demand for those objects
which are strictly necessary to the support of human life, and a demand
for all other commodities. In all other commodities the demand is
exterior to, and independent of, the production itself; and in the case
of a monopoly, whether natural or artificial, the excess of price is
in proportion to the smallness of the supply compared with the demand,
while this demand is comparatively unlimited. In the case of strict
necessaries, the existence and increase of the demand, or of the number
of demanders, must depend upon the existence and increase of these
necessaries themselves; and the excess of their price above the cost of
their production must depend upon, and is p