wealthy all
over Europe, when they could not find any in their own states; and, it
is probable, that the far greater portion of their debt is at this time in
the hands of foreigners.

Thus it is that wealthy nations let the means by which the wealth [end
of page #135] was acquired go out of their hands; each individual in a
new state, or in an old, follows his own interest and disposition in the
disposal of his property. In the new state, the individual interest and
that of the country are generally the same; in the old one, they are in
opposition to each other, and that opposition is greatly increased by
the unequal division of property. The middling class of proprietors
never seek the most profitable employment for their money; the very
wealthy are always inclined to seek for good security and certain
payment, without any consideration of the interest of their country.

To counteract the tendency of property to accumulate, without
infringing on the rights of individuals, will be found desirable. In the
Fourth Book =sic--there is none.=, a mode of doing this shall be
attentively taken into consideration.

[end of page #136]

CHAP. VI.

_Of the Interior Causes of Decline, which arise from the Produce of
the Soil becoming unequal to the Sustenance of a luxurious People.--
Of Monopoly_.

It has already been mentioned, and we have seen, in the case of Rome
and Italy, that the country which was sufficient to maintain a certain
population, when the manners of the people were simple, becomes
incapable of doing so, when wealth has introduced luxury.

The case of the Romans, though the most clearly ascertained of any,
and the circumstances the best known, is only in part applicable to an
inquiry into the effects of luxury at the present day. The nature of
luxury, the nature of the wants of man, and the diffusion of that
luxury, its distribution amongst the different classes, are so unlike to
what they were, that the comparison scarcely holds in any single
instance.

A most enormous increase of population (a forced population as it
were) in a small country, together with large tracts of land converted
from agriculture to the purposes of pleasure were the principal causes
why Italy, in latter times, was incapable of supplying itself with corn.
Wherever wealth comes in more easily and in abundance, by other
means than by agriculture, that is to a certain degree neglected. To
cultivate ceases to be an object wher