CHAPTER II.

INFLUENCE EXERCISED BY PHYSICAL LAWS OVER THE ORGANIZATION OF SOCIETY AND OVER THE CHARACTER OF INDIVIDUALS.

If we inquire what those physical agents are by which the human race is most powerfully influenced, we shall find that they may be classed under four heads: namely, Climate, Food, Soil, and the General Aspect of Nature; by which last, I mean those appearances which, though presented chiefly to the sight, have, through the medium of that or other senses, directed the association of ideas, and hence in different countries have given rise to different habits of national thought. To one of these four classes, may be referred all the external phenomena by which Man has been permanently affected. The last of these classes, or what I call the General Aspect of Nature, produces its principal results by exciting the imagination, and by suggesting those innumerable superstitions which are the great obstacles to advancing knowledge. And as, in the infancy of a people, the power of such superstitions is supreme, it has happened that the various Aspects of Nature have caused corresponding varieties in the popular character, and have imparted to the national religion peculiarities which, under certain circumstances, it is impossible to efface. The other three agents, namely, Climate, Food, and Soil, have, so far as we are aware, had no direct influence of this sort; but they have, as I am about to prove, originated the most important consequences in regard to the general organization of society, and from them there have followed many of those large and conspicuous differences between nations, which are often ascribed to some fundamental difference in the various races into which mankind is divided. But while such original distinctions of race are altogether hypothetical,[38] the discrepancies which are caused by difference of climate, food, and soil, are capable of a satisfactory explanation, and, when understood, will be found to clear up many of the difficulties which still obscure the study of history. I purpose, therefore, in the first place, to examine the laws of these three vast agents in so far as they are connected with Man in his social condition; and having traced the working of those laws with as much precision as the present state of physical knowledge will allow, I shall then examine the remaining agent, namely, the General Aspect of Nature, and shall endeavour to point out the most important divergencies to which its variations have, in different countries, naturally given rise.

[38] I cordially subscribe to the remark of one of the greatest thinkers of our time, who says of the supposed differences of race, 'of all vulgar modes of escaping from the consideration of the effect of social and moral influences on the human mind, the most vulgar is that of attributing the diversities of conduct and character to inherent natural differences.' _Mill's Principles of Political Economy_, vol. i. p. 390. Ordinary writers are constantly falling into the error of assuming the existence of this difference, which may or may not exist but which most assuredly has never been proved. Some singular instances of this will be found in _Alison's History of Europe_, vol. ii. p. 336, vol. vi. p. 136, vol. viii. pp. 525, 526, vol. xiii. p. 347; where the historian thinks that by a few strokes of his pen he can settle a question of the greatest difficulty, connected with some of the most intricate problems in physiology. On the supposed relation between race and temperament, see _Comte_, _Philosophie Positive_, vol. iii. p. 355.

Beginning, then, with climate, food, and soil, it is evident that these three physical powers are in no small degree dependent on each other: that is to say, there is a very close connexion between the climate of a country and the food which will ordinarily be grown in that country; while at the same time the food is itself influenced by the soil which produces it, as also by the elevation or depression of the land, by the state of the atmosphere, and, in a word, by all those conditions to the assemblage of which the name of Physical Geography is, in its largest sense, commonly given.[39]

[39] As to the proper limits of physical geography, see _Prichard on Ethnology_, in _Report of the British Association for_ 1847, p. 235. The word 'climate' I always use in the narrow and popular sense. Dr. Forry and many previous writers make it nearly coincide with 'physical geography:' 'Climate constitutes the aggregate of all the external physical circumstances appertaining to each locality in its relation to organic nature.' _Forry's Climate of the United States and its Endemic Influences_, New York, 1842, p. 127.

The union between these physical agents being thus intimate, it seems advisable to consider them not under their own separate heads, but rather under the separate heads of the effects produced by their united action. In this way we shall rise at once to a more comprehensive view of the whole question; we shall avoid the confusion that would be caused by artificially separating phenomena which are in themselves inseparable; and we shall be able to see more clearly the extent of that remarkable influence, which, in an early stage of society, the powers of Nature exercise over the fortunes of Man.

Of all the results which are produced among a people by their climate, food, and soil, the accumulation of wealth is the earliest, and in many respects the most important. For although the progress of knowledge eventually accelerates the increase of wealth, it is nevertheless certain that, in the first formation of society, the wealth must accumulate before the knowledge can begin. As long as every man is engaged in collecting the materials necessary for his own subsistence, there will be neither leisure nor taste for higher pursuits; no science can possibly be created, and the utmost that can be effected will be an attempt to economise labour by the contrivance of such rude and imperfect instruments as even the most barbarous people are able to invent.

In a state of society like this, the accumulation of wealth is the first great step that can be taken, because without wealth there can be no leisure, and without leisure there can be no knowledge. If what a people consume is always exactly equal to what they possess, there will be no residue, and therefore, no capital being accumulated, there will be no means by which the unemployed classes may be maintained.[40] But if the produce is greater than the consumption, an overplus arises, which, according to well-known principles, increases itself, and eventually becomes a fund out of which, immediately or remotely, every one is supported who does not create the wealth upon which he lives. And now it is that the existence of an intellectual class first becomes possible, because for the first time there exists a previous accumulation, by means of which men can use what they did not produce, and are thus enabled to devote themselves to subjects for which at an earlier period the pressure of their daily wants would have left them no time.

[40] By unemployed classes, I mean what Adam Smith calls the unproductive classes; and though both expressions are strictly speaking inaccurate, the word 'unemployed' seems to convey more clearly than any other the idea in the text.

Thus it is that of all the great social improvements the accumulation of wealth must be the first, because without it there can be neither taste nor leisure for that acquisition of knowledge on which, as I shall hereafter prove, the progress of civilization depends. Now, it is evident that among an entirely ignorant people, the rapidity with which wealth is created will be solely regulated by the physical peculiarities of their country. At a later period, and when the wealth has been capitalized, other causes come into play; but until this occurs, the progress can only depend on two circumstances: first on the energy and regularity with which labour is conducted, and secondly on the returns made to that labour by the bounty of nature. And these two causes are themselves the result of physical antecedents. The returns made to labour are governed by the fertility of the soil, which is itself regulated partly by the admixture of its chemical components, partly by the extent to which, from rivers or from other natural causes, the soil is irrigated, and partly by the heat and humidity of the atmosphere. On the other hand, the energy and regularity with which labour is conducted, will be entirely dependent on the influence of climate. This will display itself in two different ways. The first, which is a very obvious consideration, is, that if the heat is intense, men will be indisposed, and in some degree unfitted, for that active industry which in a milder climate they might willingly have exerted. The other consideration, which has been less noticed, but is equally important, is, that climate influences labour not only by enervating the labourer or by invigorating him, but also by the effect it produces on the regularity of his habits.[41] Thus we find that no people living in a very northern latitude have ever possessed that steady and unflinching industry for which the inhabitants of temperate regions are remarkable. The reason of this becomes clear, when we remember that in the more northern countries the severity of the weather, and, at some seasons, the deficiency of light, render it impossible for the people to continue their usual out-of-door employments. The result is, that the working classes being compelled to cease from their ordinary pursuits, are rendered more prone to desultory habits; the chain of their industry is as it were broken, and they lose that impetus which long-continued and uninterrupted practice never fails to give. Hence there arises a national character more fitful and capricious than that possessed by a people whose climate permits the regular exercise of their ordinary industry. Indeed, so powerful is this principle, that we may perceive its operation even under the most opposite circumstances. It would be difficult to conceive a greater difference in government, laws, religion, and manners, than that which distinguishes Sweden and Norway on the one hand, from Spain and Portugal on the other. But these four countries have one great point in common. In all of them, continued agricultural industry is impracticable. In the two southern countries, labour is interrupted by the heat, by the dryness of the weather, and by the consequent state of the soil. In the two northern countries, the same effect is produced by the severity of the winter and the shortness of the days. The consequence is, that these four nations, though so different in other respects, are all remarkable for a certain instability and fickleness of character; presenting a striking contrast to the more regular and settled habits which are established in countries whose climate subjects the working classes to fewer interruptions, and imposes on them the necessity of a more constant and unremitting employment.[42]

[41] This has been entirely neglected by the three most philosophical writers on climate: Montesquieu, Hume, and M. Charles Comte in his _Traité de Législation_. It is also omitted in the remarks of M. Guizot on the influence of climate, _Civilisation en Europe_, p. 97.

[42] See the admirable remarks in _Laing's Denmark_, 1852, pp. 204, 366, 367; though Norway appears to be a better illustration than Denmark. In _Rey's Science Sociale_, vol. i. pp. 195, 196, there are some calculations respecting the average loss to agricultural industry caused by changes in the weather; but no notice is taken of the connexion between these changes, when abrupt, and the tone of the national character.

These are the great physical causes by which the creation of wealth is governed. There are, no doubt, other circumstances which operate with considerable force, and which, in a more advanced state of society, possess an equal, and sometimes a superior, influence. But this is at a later period; and looking at the history of wealth in its earliest stage, it will be found to depend entirely on soil and climate: the soil regulating the returns made to any given amount of labour; the climate regulating the energy and constancy of the labour itself. It requires but a hasty glance at past events, to prove the immense power of these two great physical conditions. For there is no instance in history of any country being civilized by its own efforts, unless it has possessed one of these conditions in a very favourable form. In Asia, civilization has always been confined to that vast tract where a rich and alluvial soil has secured to man that wealth without some share of which no intellectual progress can begin. This great region extends, with a few interruptions, from the east of Southern China to the western coasts of Asia Minor, of Ph[oe]nicia, and of Palestine. To the north of this immense belt, there is a long line of barren country which has invariably been peopled by rude and wandering tribes, who are kept in poverty by the ungenial nature of the soil, and who, as long as they remained on it, have never emerged from their uncivilized state. How entirely this depends on physical causes, is evident from the fact that these same Mongolian and Tartarian hordes have, at different periods, founded great monarchies in China, in India, and in Persia, and have, on all such occasions, attained a civilization nowise inferior to that possessed by the most nourishing of the ancient kingdoms. For in the fertile plains of Southern Asia,[43] nature has supplied all the materials of wealth; and there it was that these barbarous tribes acquired for the first time some degree of refinement, produced a national literature, and organized a national polity; none of which things they, in their native land, had been able to effect.[44] In the same way, the Arabs in their own country have, owing to the extreme aridity of their soil,[45] always been a rude and uncultivated people; for in their case, as in all others, great ignorance is the fruit of great poverty. But in the seventh century they conquered Persia;[46] in the eighth century they conquered the best part of Spain;[47] in the ninth century they conquered the Punjaub, and eventually nearly the whole of India.[48] Scarcely were they established in their fresh settlements, when their character seemed to undergo a great change. They, who in their original land were little else than roving savages, were now for the first time able to accumulate wealth, and, therefore, for the first time did they make some progress in the arts of civilization. In Arabia they had been a mere race of wandering shepherds;[49] in their new abodes they became the founders of mighty empires--they built cities, endowed schools, collected libraries; and the traces of their power are still to be seen at Cordova, at Bagdad, and at Delhi.[50] Precisely in the same manner, there is adjoining Arabia at the north, and only separated from it elsewhere by the narrow waters of the Red Sea, an immense sandy plain, which, covering the whole of Africa in the same latitude, extends westward until it reaches the shores of the Atlantic.[51] This enormous tract is, like Arabia, a barren waste;[52] and therefore, as in Arabia, the inhabitants have always been entirely uncivilized, acquiring no knowledge, simply because they have accumulated no wealth.[53] But this great desert is, in its eastern part, irrigated by the waters of the Nile, the overflowing of which covers the sand with a rich alluvial deposit, that yields to labour the most abundant, and indeed the most extraordinary, returns.[54] The consequence is, that in that spot, wealth was rapidly accumulated, the cultivation of knowledge quickly followed, and this narrow strip of land[55] became the seat of Egyptian civilization; a civilization which, though grossly exaggerated,[56] forms a striking contrast to the barbarism of the other nations of Africa, none of which have been able to work out their own progress, or emerge, in any degree, from the ignorance to which the penury of nature has doomed them.

[43] This expression has been used by different geographers in different senses; but I take it in its common acceptation, without reference to the more strictly physical view of Ritter and his followers in regard to Central Asia. See _Prichard's Physical History of Mankind_, vol. iv. p. 278, edit. 1844. At p. 92, Prichard makes the Himalaya the southern boundary of Central Asia.

[44] There is reason to believe that the Tartars of Thibet received even their alphabet from India. See the interesting Essay on Tartarian Coins in _Journal of Asiatic Society_, vol. iv. pp. 276, 277; and on the Scythian Alphabet, see vol. xii. p. 336.

[45] In _Somerville's Physical Geography_, vol. i. p. 132, it is said that in Arabia there are 'no rivers;' but Mr. Wellsted (_Travels in Arabia_, vol. ii. p. 409) mentions one which empties itself into the sea five miles west of Aden. On the streams in Arabia, see _Meiners über die Fruchtbarkeit der Länder_, vol. i. pp. 149, 150. That the sole deficiency is want of irrigation appears from Burckhardt, who says (_Travels in Arabia_, vol. i. p. 240), 'In Arabia, wherever the ground can be irrigated by wells, the sands may be soon made productive.' And for a striking description of one of the oases of Oman, which shows what Arabia might have been with a good river system, see _Journal of Geographical Society_, vol. vii. pp. 106, 107.

[46] Mr. Morier (_Journal of Geog. Soc._ vol. vii. p. 230) says, 'the conquest of Persia by the Saracens A.D. 651.' However, the fate of Persia was decided by the battles of Kudseah and Nahavund, which were fought in 638 and 641: see _Malcolm's History of Persia_, vol. i. pp. xvi. 139, 142.

[47] In 712. _Hallam's Middle Ages_, vol. i. p. 369.

[48] They were established in the Punjaub early in the ninth century, but did not conquer Guzerat and Malwa until five hundred years later. Compare Wilson's note in the _Vishnu Purana_, pp. 481, 482, with _Asiatic Researches_, vol. ix. pp. 187, 188, 203. On their progress in the more southern part of the Peninsula, see _Journal of Asiatic Society_, vol. iii. pp. 222, 223, vol. iv. pp. 28-30.

[49] 'A race of pastoral barbarians.' _Dickinson on the Arabic Language_, in _Journal of Asiat. Society_, vol. v. p. 323. Compare _Reynier_, _Economie des Arabes_, pp. 27, 28; where, however, a very simple question is needlessly complicated. The old Persian writers bestowed on them the courteous appellation of 'a band of naked lizard-eaters.' _Malcolm's Hist. of Persia_, vol. i. p. 133. Indeed, there are few things in history better proved than the barbarism of a people whom some writers wish to invest with a romantic interest. The eulogy passed on them by Meiners is rather suspicious, for he concludes by saying, 'die Eroberungen der Araber waren höchst selten so blutig und zerstörend, als die Eroberungen der Tataren, Persen, Türken, u.s.w. in ältern und neuern Zeiten waren.' _Fruchtbarkeit der Länder_, vol. i. p. 153. If this is the best that can be said, the comparison with Tartars and Turks does not prove much; but it is singular that this learned author should have forgotten a passage in Diodorus Siculus which gives a pleasant description of them nineteen centuries ago on the eastern side: _Bibliothec. Hist._ lib. ii. vol. ii. p. 137. [Greek: echousi de bion lêstrikon, kai pollên tês homorou chôras katatrechontes lêsteuousin], &c.

[50] The only branch of knowledge which the Arabians ever raised to a science was astronomy, which began to be cultivated under the caliphs about the middle of the eighth century, and went on improving until 'la ville de Bagdad fut, pendant le dixième siècle, le théâtre principal de l'astronomie chez les orientaux.' _Montucla_, _Histoire des Mathématiques_, vol. i. pp. 355, 364. The old Pagan Arabs, like most barbarous people living in a clear atmosphere, had such an empirical acquaintance with the celestial phenomena as was used for practical purposes; but there is no evidence to justify the common opinion that they studied this subject as a science. Dr. Dorn (_Transactions of the Asiatic Society_, vol. ii. p. 371) says, 'of a scientific knowledge of astronomy among them no traces can be discovered.' Beausobre (_Histoire de Manichée_, vol. i. p. 20) is quite enthusiastic about the philosophy of the Arabs in the time of Pythagoras! and he tells us, that 'ces peuples out toujours cultivé les sciences.' To establish this fact, he quotes a long passage from a life of Mohammed written early in the eighteenth century by Boulainvilliers, whom he calls, 'un des plus beaux génies de France.' If this is an accurate description, those who have read the works of Boulainvilliers will think that France was badly off for men of genius; and as to his life of Mohammed, it is little better than a romance: the author was ignorant of Arabic, and knew nothing which had not been already communicated by Maracci and Pococke. See _Biographie Universelle_, vol. v. p. 321.

In regard to the later Arabian astronomers, one of their great merits was to approximate to the value of the annual precession much closer than Ptolemy had done. See _Grant's History of Physical Astronomy_, 1852, p. 319.

[51] Indeed it goes beyond it: 'the trackless sands of the Sahara desert, which is even prolonged for miles into the Atlantic Ocean in the form of sandbanks.' _Somerville's Physical Geography_, vol. i. p. 149. For a singular instance of one of these sandbanks being formed into an island, see _Journal of Geograph. Society_, vol. ii. p. 284. The Sahara desert, exclusive of Bornou and Darfour, covers an area of 194,000 square leagues; that is, nearly three times the size of France, or twice the size of the Mediterranean. Compare _Lyell's Geology_, p. 694, with _Somerville's Connexion of the Sciences_, p. 294. As to the probable southern limits of the plateau of the Sahara, see _Richardson's Mission to Central Africa_, 1853, vol. ii. pp. 146, 156; and as to the part of it adjoining the Mandingo country, see _Mungo Park's Travels_, vol. i. pp. 237, 238. Respecting the country south of Mandara, some scanty information was collected by Denham in the neighbourhood of Lake Tchad. _Denham's Northern and Central Africa_, pp. 121, 122, 144-146.

[52] Richardson, who travelled through it south of Tripoli, notices its 'features of sterility, of unconquerable barrenness.' _Richardson's Sahara_, 1848, vol. i. p. 86; and see the striking picture at p. 409. The long and dreary route from Mourzouk to Yeou, on Lake Tchad, is described by Denham, one of the extremely few Europeans who have performed that hazardous journey. _Denham's Central Africa_, pp. 2-60. Even on the shore of the Tchad there is hardly any vegetation, 'a coarse grass and a small bell-flower being the only plants that I could discover,' p. 90. Compare his remark on Bornou, p. 317. The condition of part of the desert in the fourteenth century is described in the _Travels of Ibn Batuta_, p. 233, which should be compared with the account given by Diodorus Siculus of the journey of Alexander to the temple of Ammon. _Bibliothec. Historic._ lib. xvii. vol. vii. p. 348.

[53] Richardson, who travelled in 1850 from Tripoli to within a few days of Lake Tchad, was struck by the stationary character of the people. He says, 'neither in the desert nor in the kingdoms of Central Africa is there any march of civilization. All goes on according to a certain routine established for ages past.' _Mission to Central Africa_, vol. i. pp. 304, 305. See similar remarks in _Pallme's Travels in Kordofan_, pp. 108, 109.

[54] Abd-Allatif, who was in Egypt early in the thirteenth century, gives an interesting account of the rising of the Nile, to which Egypt owes its fertility. _Abd-Allatif_, _Relation de l'Egypte_, pp. 329-340, 374-376, and Appendix, p. 504. See also on these periodical inundations. _Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians_, vol. iv. pp. 101-104; and on the half-astronomical half theological notions connected with them, pp. 372-377, vol. v. pp. 291, 292. Compare on the religious importance of the Nile _Bunsen's Egypt_, vol. i. p. 409. The expression, therefore, of Herodotus (book ii. chap. v. vol. i. p. 484), [Greek: dôron tou potamou] is true in a much larger sense than he intended; since to the Nile Egypt owes all the physical peculiarities which distinguish it from Arabia and the great African desert. Compare _Heeren's African Nations_, vol. ii. p. 58; _Reynier_, _Economie des Arabes_, p. 3; _Postan's on the Nile and Indus_, in _Journal of Asiatic Society_, vol. vii. p. 275; and on the difference between the soil of the Nile and that of the surrounding desert, see _Volney_, _Voyage en Syrie et en Egypte_, vol. i. p. 14.

[55] 'The average breadth of the valley from one mountain-range to the other, between Cairo in Lower, and Edfoo in Upper Egypt, is only about seven miles; and that of the cultivable land, whose limits depend on the inundation, scarcely exceeds five and a half.' _Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians_, vol. i. p. 216. According to Gerard, 'the mean width of the valley between Syene and Cairo is about nine miles.' Note in _Heeren's African Nations_, vol. ii. p. 62.

[56] I will give one instance of this from an otherwise sensible writer, and a man too of considerable learning: 'As to the physical knowledge of the Egyptians, their cotemporaries gave them credit for the astonishing power of their magic; and as we cannot suppose that the instances recorded in Scripture were to be attributed to the exertion of supernatural powers, we must conclude that they were in possession of a more intimate knowledge of the laws and combinations of nature than what is professed by the most learned men of the present age.' _Hamilton's Ægyptiaca_, pp. 61, 62. It is a shame that such nonsense should be written in the nineteenth century: and yet a still more recent author (_Vyse on the Pyramids_, vol. i. p. 28) assures us that 'the Egyptians, for especial purposes, were endowed with great wisdom and science.' Science properly so called, the Egyptians had none; and as to their wisdom, it was considerable enough to distinguish them from barbarous nations like the old Hebrews, but it was inferior to that of the Greeks, and it was of course immeasurably below that of modern Europe.

These considerations clearly prove that of the two primary causes of civilization, the fertility of the soil is the one which in the ancient world exercised most influence. But in European civilization, the other great cause, that is to say, climate, has been the most powerful; and this, as we have seen, produces an effect partly on the capacity of the labourer for work, partly on the regularity or irregularity of his habits. The difference in the result has curiously corresponded with the difference in the cause. For, although all civilization must have for its antecedent the accumulation of wealth, still what subsequently occurs will be in no small degree determined by the conditions under which the accumulation took place. In Asia, and in Africa, the condition was a fertile soil, causing an abundant return; in Europe, it was a happier climate, causing more successful labour. In the former case, the effect depends on the relation between the soil and its produce; in other words, the mere operation of one part of external nature upon another. In the latter case, the effect depends on the relation between the climate and the labourer; that is, the operation of external nature not upon itself, but upon man. Of these two classes of relations, the first, being the less complicated, is the less liable to disturbance, and therefore came sooner into play. Hence it is, that, in the march of civilization, the priority is unquestionably due to the most fertile parts of Asia and Africa. But although their civilization was the earliest, it was very far, indeed, from being the best or most permanent. Owing to circumstances which I shall presently state, the only progress which is really effective depends, not upon the bounty of nature, but upon the energy of man. Therefore it is, that the civilization of Europe, which, in its earliest stage, was governed by climate, has shown a capacity of development unknown to those civilizations which were originated by soil. For the powers of nature, notwithstanding their apparent magnitude, are limited and stationary; at all events, we have not the slightest proof that they have ever increased, or that they will ever be able to increase. But the powers of man, so far as experience and analogy can guide us, are unlimited; nor are we possessed of any evidence which authorizes us to assign even an imaginary boundary at which the human intellect will, of necessity, be brought to a stand. And as this power which the mind possesses of increasing its own resources, is a peculiarity confined to man, and one eminently distinguishing him from what is commonly called external nature, it becomes evident that the agency of climate, which gives him wealth by stimulating his labour, is more favourable to his ultimate progress than the agency of soil, which likewise gives him wealth, but which does so, not by exciting his energies, but by virtue of a mere physical relation between the character of the soil and the quantity or value of the produce that it almost spontaneously affords.

Thus far as to the different ways in which climate and soil affect the creation of wealth. But another point of equal, or perhaps of superior, importance remains behind. After the wealth has been created, a question arises as to how it is to be distributed; that is to say, what proportion is to go to the upper classes, and what to the lower. In an advanced stage of society, this depends upon several circumstances of great complexity, and which it is not necessary here to examine.[57] But in a very early stage of society, and before its later and refined complications have begun, it may, I think, be proved that the distribution of wealth is, like its creation, governed entirely by physical laws; and that those laws are moreover so active as to have invariably kept a vast majority of the inhabitants of the fairest portion of the globe in a condition of constant and inextricable poverty. If this can be demonstrated, the immense importance of such laws is manifest. For since wealth is an undoubted source of power, it is evident that, supposing other things equal, an inquiry into the distribution of wealth is an inquiry into the distribution of power, and, as such, will throw great light on the origin of those social and political inequalities, the play and opposition of which form a considerable part of the history of every civilized country.

[57] Indeed many of them are still unknown; for, as M. Rey justly observes, most writers pay too exclusive an attention to the production of wealth, and neglect the laws of its distribution. _Rey_, _Science Sociale_, vol. iii. p. 271. In confirmation of this, I may mention the theory of rent, which was only discovered about half a century ago, and which is connected with so many subtle arguments that it is not yet generally adopted; and even some of its advocates have shown themselves unequal to defending their own cause. The great law of the ratio between the cost of labour and the profits of stock, is the highest generalization we have reached respecting the distribution of wealth; but it cannot be consistently admitted by anyone who holds that rent enters into price.

If we take a general view of this subject, we may say that after the creation and accumulation of wealth have once fairly begun, it will be distributed among two classes, those who labour, and those who do not labour; the latter being, as a class, the more able, the former the more numerous. The fund by which both classes are supported is immediately created by the lower class, whose physical energies are directed, combined, and as it were economized, by the superior skill of the upper class. The reward of the workmen is called their wages; the reward of the contrivers is called their profits. At a later period, there will arise what may be called the saving class; that is, a body of men who neither contrive nor work, but lend their accumulations to those who contrive, and in return for the loan, receive a part of that reward which belongs to the contriving class. In this case, the members of the saving class are rewarded for their abstinence in refraining from spending their accumulations, and this reward is termed the interest of their money; so that there is made a threefold division--Interest, Profits, and Wages. But this is a subsequent arrangement, which can only take place to any extent when wealth has been considerably accumulated; and in the stage of society we are now considering, this third, or saving class, can hardly be said to have a separate existence.[58] For our present purpose, therefore, it is enough to ascertain what those natural laws are, which, as soon as wealth is accumulated, regulate the proportion in which it is distributed to the two classes of labourers and employers.

Now, it is evident that wages being the price paid for labour, the rate of wages must, like the price of all other commodities, vary according to the changes in the market. If the supply of labourers outstrips the demand, wages will fall; if the demand exceeds the supply, they will rise. Supposing, therefore, that in any country there is a given amount of wealth to be divided between employers and workmen, every increase in the number of the workmen will tend to lessen the average reward each can receive. And if we set aside those disturbing causes by which all general views are affected, it will be found that, in the long-run, the question of wages is a question of population; for although the total sum of the wages actually paid depends upon the largeness of the fund from which they are drawn, still the amount of wages received by each man must diminish as the claimants increase, unless, owing to other circumstances, the fund itself should so advance as to keep pace with the greater demands made upon it.[59]

[58] In a still more advanced stage, there is a fourth division of wealth, and part of the produce of labour is absorbed by rent. This, however, is not an element of price, but a consequence of it; and in the ordinary march of affairs, considerable time must elapse before it can begin. Rent, in the proper sense of the word, is the price paid for using the natural and indestructible powers of the soil, and must not be confused with rent commonly so called; for this last also includes the profits of stock. I notice this, because several of the opponents of Ricardo have placed the beginning of rent too early, by overlooking the fact that apparent rent is very often profits disguised.

[59] 'Wages depend, then, on the proportion between the number of the labouring population, and the capital or other funds devoted to the purchase of labour; we will say, for shortness, the capital. If wages are higher at one time or place than at another, if the subsistence and comfort of the class of hired labourers are more ample, it is, and can be, for no other reason than because capital bears a greater proportion to population. It is not the absolute amount of accumulation or of production that is of importance to the labouring class; it is not the amount even of the funds destined for distribution among the labourers; it is the proportion between those funds and the numbers among whom they are shared. The condition of the class can be bettered in no other way than by altering that proportion to their advantage; and every scheme for their benefit which does not proceed on this as its foundation, is, for all permanent purposes, a delusion.' _Mill's Principles of Political Economy_, 1849, vol. i. p. 425. See also vol. ii. pp. 264, 265, and _M'Culloch's Political Economy_, pp. 379, 380. Ricardo, in his _Essay on the Influence of a Low Price of Corn_, has stated, with his usual terseness, the three possible forms of this question: 'The rise or fall of wages is common to all states of society, whether it be the stationary, the advancing, or the retrograde state. In the stationary state, it is regulated wholly by the increase or falling-off of the population. In the advancing state, it depends on whether the capital or the population advance at the more rapid course. In the retrograde state, it depends on whether population or capital decrease with the greater rapidity.' _Ricardo's Works_, p. 379.

To know the circumstances most favourable to the increase of what may be termed the wages-fund is a matter of great moment, but is one with which we are not immediately concerned. The question we have now before us, regards not the accumulation of wealth, but its distribution; and the object is, to ascertain what those physical conditions are, which, by encouraging a rapid growth of population, over-supply the labour market, and thus keep the average rate of wages at a very low point.

Of all the physical agents by which the increase of the labouring classes is affected, that of food is the most active and universal. If two countries, equal in all other respects, differ solely in this--that in one the national food is cheap and abundant, and in the other scarce and dear, the population of the former country will inevitably increase more rapidly than the population of the latter.[60] And, by a parity of reasoning, the average rate of wages will be lower in the former than in the latter, simply because the labour-market will be more amply stocked.[61] An inquiry, therefore, into the physical laws on which the food of different countries depends, is, for our present purpose, of the greatest importance; and fortunately it is one respecting which we are able, in the present state of chemistry and physiology, to arrive at some precise and definite conclusions.

[60] The standard of comfort being of course supposed the same.

[61] 'No point is better established, than that the supply of labourers will always ultimately be in proportion to the means of supporting them.' _Principles of Political Economy_, chap. xxi. in _Ricardo's Works_, p. 176. Compare _Smith's Wealth of Nations_, book i. chap. xi. p. 86, and _M'Culloch's Political Economy_, p. 222.

The food consumed by man produces two, and only two, effects necessary to his existence. These are, first to supply him with that animal heat without which the functions of life would stop; and secondly, to repair the waste constantly taking place in his tissues, that is, in the mechanism of his frame. For each of these separate purposes there is a separate food. The temperature of our body is kept up by substances which contain no nitrogen, and are called non-azotized; the incessant decay in our organism is repaired by what are known as azotized substances, in which nitrogen is always found.[62] In the former case, the carbon of non-azotized food combines with the oxygen we take in, and gives rise to that internal combustion by which our animal heat is renewed. In the latter case, nitrogen having little affinity for oxygen,[63] the nitrogenous or azotized food is, as it were, guarded against combustion;[64] and being thus preserved, is able to perform its duty of repairing the tissues, and supplying those losses which the human organism constantly suffers in the wear and tear of daily life.

[62] The division of food into azotized and non-azotized is said to have been first pointed out by Magendie. See _Müller's Physiology_, vol. i. p. 525. It is now recognised by most of the best authorities. See, for instance, _Liebig's Animal Chemistry_, p. 134; _Carpenter's Human Physiology_, p. 685; _Brande's Chemistry_, vol. ii. pp. 1218, 1870. The first tables of food constructed according to it were by Boussingault; see an elaborate essay by Messrs. Lawes and Gilbert on _The Composition of Foods_, in _Report of British Association for 1852_, p. 323: but the experiments made by these gentlemen are neither numerous nor diversified enough to establish a general law; still less can we accept their singular assertion, p. 346, that the comparative prices of different foods are a test of the nutriment they comparatively contain.

[63] 'Of all the elements of the animal body, nitrogen has the feeblest attraction for oxygen; and, what is still more remarkable, it deprives all combustible elements with which it combines, to a greater or less extent, of the power of combining with oxygen, that is, of undergoing combustion.' _Liebig's Letters on Chemistry_, p. 372.

[64] The doctrine of what may be called the protecting power of some substances is still imperfectly understood, and until late in the eighteenth century, its existence was hardly suspected. It is now known to be connected with the general theory of poisons. See _Turner's Chemistry_, vol. i. p. 516. To this we must probably ascribe the fact that several poisons which are fatal when applied to a wounded surface, may be taken into the stomach with impunity. _Brodie's Physiological Researches_, 1851, pp. 137, 138. It seems more reasonable to refer this to chemical laws than to hold, with Sir Benjamin Brodie, that some poisons 'destroy life by paralysing the muscles of respiration without immediately affecting the action of the heart.'

These are the two great divisions of food;[65] and if we inquire into the laws which regulate the relation they bear to man, we shall find that in each division the most important agent is climate. When men live in a hot country, their animal heat is more easily kept up than when they live in a cold one; therefore they require a smaller amount of that non-azotized food, the sole business of which is to maintain at a certain point the temperature of the body. In the same way, they, in the hot country, require a smaller amount of azotized food, because on the whole their bodily exertions are less frequent, and on that account the decay of their tissues is less rapid.[66]

[65] Prout's well-known division into saccharine, oily, and albuminous, appears to me of much inferior value, though I observe that it is adopted in the last edition of _Elliotson's Human Physiology_, pp. 65, 160. The division by M. Lepelletier into 'les alimens solides et les boissons' is of course purely empirical. _Lepelletier_, _Physiologie Médicale_, vol. ii. p. 100, Paris, 1832. In regard to Prout's classification, compare _Burdach's Traité de Physiologie_, vol. ix. p. 240, with _Wagner's Physiology_, p. 452.

[66] The evidence of an universal connexion in the animal frame between exertion and decay, is now almost complete. In regard to the muscular system, see _Carpenter's Human Physiology_, pp. 440, 441, 581, edit. 1846: 'there is strong reason to believe the waste or decomposition of the muscular tissue to be in exact proportion to the degree in which it is exerted.' This perhaps would be generally anticipated even in the absence of direct proof; but what is more interesting, is that the same principle holds good of the nervous system. The human brain of an adult contains about one and a half per cent of phosphorus; and it has been ascertained, that after the mind has been much exercised, phosphates are excreted, and that in the case of inflammation of the brain their excretion (by the kidneys) is very considerable. See _Paget's Lectures on Surgical Pathology_, 1853, vol. i. pp. 6, 7, 434; _Carpenter's Human Physiology_, pp. 192, 193, 222; _Simon's Animal Chemistry_, vol. ii. p. 426; _Henle_, _Anatomie Générale_, vol. ii. p. 172. The reader may also consult respecting the phosphorus of the brain the recent very able work of MM. Robin et Verdeil, _Chimie Anatomique_, vol. i. p. 215, vol. ii. p. 348, Paris, 1853. According to these writers (vol. iii. p. 445), its existence in the brain was first announced by Hensing, in 1779.

Since, therefore, the inhabitants of hot climates do, in their natural and ordinary state, consume less food than the inhabitants of cold ones, it inevitably follows that, provided other things remain equal, the growth of population will be more rapid in countries which are hot than in those which are cold. For practical purposes, it is immaterial whether the greater plenty of a substance by which the people are fed arises from a larger supply, or whether it arises from a smaller consumption. When men eat less, the result will be just the same as if they had more; because the same amount of nutriment will go farther, and thus population will gain a power of increasing more quickly than it could do in a colder country, where, even if provisions were equally abundant, they, owing to the climate, would be sooner exhausted.

This is the first point of view in which the laws of climate are, through the medium of food, connected with the laws of population, and therefore with the laws of the distribution of wealth. But there is also another point of view, which follows the same line of thought, and will be found to strengthen the argument just stated. This is, that in cold countries, not only are men compelled to eat more than in hot ones, but their food is dearer, that is to say, to get it is more difficult, and requires a greater expenditure of labour. The reason of this I will state as briefly as possible, without entering into any details beyond those which are absolutely necessary for a right understanding of this interesting subject.

The objects of food are, as we have seen, only two: namely, to keep up the warmth of the body, and repair the waste in the tissues.[67] Of these two objects, the former is effected by the oxygen of the air entering our lungs, and, as it travels through the system, combining with the carbon which we take in our food.[68] This combination of oxygen and carbon never can occur without producing a considerable amount of heat, and it is in this way that the human frame is maintained at its necessary temperature.[69] By virtue of a law familiar to chemists, carbon and oxygen, like all other elements, will only unite in certain definite proportions;[70] so that to keep up a healthy balance, it is needful that the food which contains the carbon should vary according to the amount of oxygen taken in: while it is equally needful that we should increase the quantity of both of these constituents whenever a greater external cold lowers the temperature of the body. Now it is obvious that in a very cold climate, this necessity of providing a nutriment more highly carbonized will arise in two distinct ways. In the first place, the air being denser, men imbibe at each inspiration a greater volume of oxygen than they would do in a climate where the air is rarefied by heat.[71] In the second place, cold accelerates their respiration, and thus obliging them to inhale more frequently than the inhabitants of hot countries, increases the amount of oxygen which they on an average take in.[72] On both these grounds the consumption of oxygen becomes greater: it is therefore requisite that the consumption of carbon should also be greater; since by the union of these two elements in certain definite proportions, the temperature of the body and the balance of the human frame can alone be maintained.[73]

[67] Though both objects are equally essential, the former is usually the more pressing; and it has been ascertained by experiment, what we should expect from theory, that when animals are starved to death, there is a progressive decline in the temperature of their bodies; so that the proximate cause of death by starvation is not weakness, but cold. See _Williams's Principles of Medicine_, p. 36; and on the connexion between the loss of animal heat and the appearance of _rigor mortis_ in the contractile parts of the body, see _Vogel's Pathological Anatomy of the Human Body_, p. 532. Compare the important and thoughtful work of Burdach, _Physiologie comme Science d'Observation_, vol. v. pp. 144, 436, vol. ix. p. 231.

[68] Until the last twenty or five-and-twenty years, it used to be supposed that this combination took place in the lungs; but more careful experiments have made it probable that the oxygen unites with the carbon in the circulation, and that the blood-corpuscules are the carriers of the oxygen. Compare _Liebig's Animal Chemistry_, p. 78; _Letters on Chemistry_, pp. 335, 336; _Turner's Chemistry_, vol. ii. p. 1319; _Müller's Physiology_, vol. i. pp. 92, 159. That the combination does not take place in the air-cells is moreover proved by the fact that the lungs are not hotter than other parts of the body. See _Müller_, vol. i. p. 348; _Thomson's Animal Chemistry_, p. 633; and _Brodie's Physiol. Researches_, p. 33. Another argument in favour of the red corpuscules being the carriers of oxygen, is that they are most abundant in those classes of the vertebrata which maintain the highest temperature; while the blood of invertebrata contains very few of them; and it has been doubted if they even exist in the lower articulata and mollusca. See _Carpenter's Human Physiol._ pp. 109, 532; _Grant's Comparative Anatomy_, p. 472; _Elliotson's Human Physiol._ p. 159. In regard to the different dimensions of corpuscules, see _Henle_, _Anatomie Générale_, vol. i. pp. 457-467, 494, 495; _Blainville_, _Physiologie Comparée_, vol. i. pp. 298, 299, 301-304; _Milne Edwards_, _Zoologie_, part i. pp. 54-56; _Fourth Report of British Association_, pp. 117, 118; _Simon's Animal Chemistry_, vol. i. pp. 103, 104; and, above all, the important observations of Mr. Gulliver (_Carpenter_, pp. 105, 106). These additions to our knowledge, besides being connected with the laws of animal heat and of nutrition, will, when generalized, assist speculative minds in raising pathology to a science. In the mean time I may mention the relation between an examination of the corpuscules and the theory of inflammation which Hunter and Broussais were unable to settle: this is, that the proximate cause of inflammation is the obstruction of the vessels by the adhesion of the pale corpuscules. Respecting this striking generalization, which is still on its trial, compare _Williams's Principles of Medicine_, 1848, pp. 258-265, with _Paget's Surgical Pathology_, 1853, vol. i. pp. 313-317; _Jones and Sieveking's Pathological Anatomy_, 1854, pp. 28, 105, 106. The difficulties connected with the scientific study of inflammation are evaded in _Vogel's Pathological Anatomy_, p. 418; a work which appears to me to have been greatly overrated.

[69] On the amount of heat disengaged by the union of carbon and oxygen, see the experiments of Dulong, in _Liebig's Animal Chemistry_, p. 44; and those of Despretz, in _Thomson's Animal Chemistry_, p. 634. Just in the same way, we find that the temperature of plants is maintained by the combination of oxygen with carbon: see _Balfour's Botany_, pp. 231, 232, 322, 323. As to the amount of heat caused generally by chemical combination, there is an essay well worth reading by Dr. Thomas Andrews in _Report of British Association for 1849_, pp. 63-78. See also _Report for 1852, Transac. of Sec._ p. 40, and _Liebig and Kopp's Reports on the Progress of Chemistry_, vol. i. p. 34, vol. iii. p. 16, vol. iv. p. 20; also _Pouillet_, _Elémens de Physique_, Paris, 1832, vol. i. part i. p. 411.

[70] The law of definite proportions, which, since the brilliant discoveries by Dalton, is the corner-stone of chemical knowledge, is laid down with admirable clearness in _Turner's Elements of Chemistry_, vol. i. pp. 146-151. Compare _Brande's Chemistry_, vol. i. pp. 139-144; _Cuvier_, _Progrès des Sciences_, vol. ii. p. 255; _Somerville's Connexion of the Sciences_, pp. 120, 121. But none of these writers have considered the law so philosophically as M. A. Comte, _Philosophie Positive_, vol. iii. pp. 133-176, one of the best chapters in his very profound, but ill-understood work.

[71] 'Ainsi, dans des temps égaux, la quantité d'oxygène consommée par le même animal est d'autant plus grande que la température ambiante est moins élevée.' _Robin et Verdeil_, _Chimie Anatomique_, vol. ii. p. 44. Compare _Simon's Lectures on Pathology_, 1850, p. 188, for the diminished quantity of respiration in a high temperature; though one may question Mr. Simon's inference that _therefore_ the blood is more venous in hot countries than in cold ones. This is not making allowance for the difference of diet, which corrects the difference of temperature.

[72] 'The consumption of oxygen in a given time may be expressed by the number of respirations.' _Liebig's Letters on Chemistry_, p. 314; and see _Thomson's Animal Chemistry_, p. 611. It is also certain that exercise increases the number of respirations; and birds, which are the most active of all animals, consume more oxygen than any others. _Milne Edwards_, _Zoologie_, part i. p. 88, part ii. p. 371; _Flourens_, _Travaux de Cuvier_, pp. 153, 154, 265, 266. Compare, on the connexion between respiration and the locomotive organs, _Beclard_, _Anatomie Générale_, pp. 39, 44; _Burdach_, _Traité de Physiologie_, vol. ix. pp. 485, 556-559; _Carus's Comparative Anatomy_, vol. i. pp. 99, 164, 358, vol. ii. pp. 142, 160; _Grant's Comparative Anatomy_, pp. 455, 495, 522, 529, 537; _Rymer Jones's Animal Kingdom_, pp. 369, 440, 692, 714, 720; _Owen's Invertebrata_, pp. 322, 345, 386, 505. Thus too it has been experimentally ascertained, that in human beings exercise increases the amount of carbonic-acid gas. _Mayo's Human Physiology_, p. 64; _Liebig and Kopp's Reports_, vol. iii. p. 359.

If we now put these facts together, their bearing on the propositions in the text will become evident; because, on the whole, there is more exercise taken in cold climates than in hot ones, and there must therefore be an increased respiratory action. For proof that greater exercise is both taken and required, compare _Wrangel's Polar Expedition_, pp. 79, 102; _Richardson's Arctic Expedition_, vol. i. p. 385; _Simpson's North Coast of America_, pp. 49,88, which should be contrasted with the contempt for such amusements in hot countries. Indeed, in polar regions all this is so essential to preserve a normal state, that scurvy can only be kept off in the northern part of the American continent by taking considerable exercise: see _Crantz_, _History of Greenland_, vol. i. pp. 46, 62, 338.

[73] See the note at the end of this chapter.

Proceeding from these chemical and physiological principles, we arrive at the conclusion, that the colder the country is in which a people live, the more highly carbonized will be their food. And this, which is a purely scientific inference, has been verified by actual experiment. The inhabitants of the polar regions consume large quantities of whale-oil and blubber; while within the tropics such food would soon put an end to life, and therefore the ordinary diet consists almost entirely of fruit, rice, and other vegetables. Now it has been ascertained by careful analysis, that in the polar food there is an excess of carbon; in the tropical food an excess of oxygen. Without entering into details, which to the majority of readers would be distasteful, it may be said generally, that the oils contain about six times as much carbon as the fruits, and that they have in them very little oxygen;[74] while starch, which is the most universal, and, in reference to nutrition, the most important constituent in the vegetable world,[75] is nearly half oxygen.[76]

[74] 'The fruits used by the inhabitants of southern climes do not contain, in a fresh state, more than 12 per cent. of carbon; while the blubber and train-oil which feed the inhabitants of polar regions contain 66 to 80 per cent. of that element.' _Liebig's Letters on Chemistry_, p. 320; see also p. 375, and _Turner's Chemistry_, vol. ii. p. 1315. According to Prout (_Mayo's Human Physiol._ p. 136), 'the proportion of carbon in oily bodies varies from about 60 to 80 per cent.' The quantity of oil and fat habitually consumed in cold countries is remarkable. Wrangel (_Polar Expedition_, p. 21) says of the tribes in the north-east of Siberia, 'fat is their greatest delicacy. They eat it in every possible shape; raw, melted, fresh, or spoilt.' See also _Simpson's Discoveries on the North Coast of America_, pp. 147, 404.

[75] 'So common, that no plant is destitute of it.' _Lindley's Botany_, vol. i. p. 111; and at p. 121, 'starch is the most common of all vegetable productions.' Dr. Lindley adds (vol. i. p. 292), that it is difficult to distinguish the grains of starch secreted by plants from cytoblasts. See also on the starch-granules, first noticed by M. Link, _Reports on Botany by the Ray Society_, pp. 223, 370; and respecting its predominance in the vegetable world, compare _Thomson's Chemistry of Vegetables_, pp. 650-652, 875; _Brande's Chemistry_, vol. ii. p. 1160; _Turner's Chemistry_, vol. ii. p. 1236; _Liebig and Kopp's Reports_, vol. ii. pp. 97, 98, 122.

[76] The oxygen is 49.39 out of 100. See the table in _Liebig's Letters on Chemistry_, p. 379. Amidin, which is the soluble part of starch, contains 53.33 per cent. of oxygen. See _Thomson's Chemistry of Vegetables_, p. 654, on the authority of Prout, who has the reputation of being an accurate experimenter.

The connexion between this circumstance and the subject before us is highly curious: for it is a most remarkable fact, and one to which I would call particular attention, that owing to some more general law, of which we are ignorant, highly carbonized food is more costly than food in which comparatively little carbon is found. The fruits of the earth, of which oxygen is the most active principle, are very abundant; they may be obtained without danger, and almost without trouble. But that highly carbonized food, which in a very cold climate is absolutely necessary to life, is not produced in so facile and spontaneous a manner. It is not, like vegetables, thrown up by the soil; but it consists of the fat, the blubber, and the oil[77] of powerful and ferocious animals. To procure it, man must incur great risk and expend great labour. And although this is undoubtedly a contrast of extreme cases, still it is evident that the nearer a people approach to either extremity, the more subject will they be to the conditions by which that extremity is governed. It is evident that, as a general rule, the colder a country is, the more its food will be carbonized; the warmer it is, the more its food will be oxidized.[78] At the same time, carbonized food, being chiefly drawn from the animal world, is more difficult to obtain than oxidized food, which is drawn from the vegetable world.[79] The result has been that among nations where the coldness of the climate renders a highly carbonized diet essential, there is for the most part displayed, even in the infancy of society, a bolder and more adventurous character, than we find among those other nations whose ordinary nutriment, being highly oxidized, is easily obtained, and indeed is supplied to them, by the bounty of nature, gratuitously and without a struggle.[80] From this original divergence there follow many other consequences, which, however, I am not now concerned to trace; my present object being merely to point out how this difference of food affects the proportion in which wealth is distributed to the different classes.

[77] Of which a single whale will yield 'cent vingt tonneaux.' _Cuvier_, _Règne Animal_, vol. i. p. 297. In regard to the solid food, Sir J. Richardson (_Arctic Expedition_, 1851, vol. i. p. 243) says that the inhabitants of the Arctic regions only maintain themselves by chasing whales and 'consuming blubber.'

[78] It is said, that to keep a person in health, his food, even in the temperate parts of Europe, should contain 'a full eighth more carbon in winter than in summer.' _Liebig's Animal Chemistry_, p. 16.

[79] The most highly carbonized of all foods are undoubtedly yielded by animals; the most highly oxidized by vegetables. In the vegetable kingdom there is, however, so much carbon, that its predominance, accompanied with the rarity of nitrogen, has induced chemical botanists to characterize plants as carbonized, and animals as azotized. But we have here to attend to a double antithesis. Vegetables are carbonized in so far as they are non-azotized; but they are oxidized in opposition to the highly carbonized animal food of cold countries. Besides this, it is important to observe that the carbon of vegetables is most abundant in the woody and unnutritious part, which is not eaten; while the carbon of animals is found in the fatty and oily parts, which are not only eaten, but are, in cold countries, greedily devoured.

[80] Sir J. Malcolm (_History of Persia_, vol. ii. p. 380), speaking of the cheapness of vegetables in the East, says, 'in some parts of Persia fruit has hardly any value.' Cuvier, in a striking passage (_Règne Animal_, vol. i. pp. 73, 74), has contrasted vegetable with animal food, and thinks that the former, being so easily obtained, is the more natural. But the truth is that both are equally natural: though when Cuvier wrote scarcely anything was known of the laws which govern the relation between climate and food. On the skill and energy required to obtain food in cold countries, see _Wrangel's Polar Expedition_, pp. 70, 71, 191, 192; _Simpson's Discoveries on the North Coast of America_, p. 249; _Crantz_, _History of Greenland_, vol. i. pp. 22, 32, 105, 131, 154, 155, vol. ii. pp. 203, 265, 324.

The way in which this proportion is actually altered has, I hope, been made clear by the preceding argument; but it may be useful to recapitulate the facts on which the argument is based. The facts, then, are simply these. The rate of wages fluctuates with the population; increasing when the labour-market is under-supplied, diminishing when it is over-supplied. The population itself, though affected by many other circumstances, does undoubtedly fluctuate with the supply of food; advancing when the supply is plentiful, halting or receding when the supply is scanty. The food essential to life is scarcer in cold countries than in hot ones; and not only is it scarcer, but more of it is required;[81] so that on both grounds smaller encouragement is given to the growth of that population from whose ranks the labour-market is stocked. To express, therefore, the conclusion in its simplest form, we may say, that there is a strong and constant tendency in hot countries for wages to be low, in cold countries for them to be high.

[81] 'Cabanis' (_Rapports du Physique et du Moral_, p. 313) says, 'Dans les temps et dans les pays froids on mange et l'on agit davantage.' That much food is eaten in cold countries, and little in hot ones, is mentioned by numerous travellers, none of whom are aware of the cause. See _Simpson's Discov. on North Coast of America_, p. 218; _Custine's Russie_, vol. iv. p. 66; _Wrangel's Expedition_, pp. 21, 327; _Crantz_, _History of Greenland_, vol. i. pp. 145, 360; _Richardson's Central Africa_, vol. ii. p. 46; _Richardson's Sahara_, vol. i. p. 137; _Denham's Africa_, p. 37; _Journal of Asiatic Society_, vol. v. p. 144, vol. viii. p. 188; _Burckhardt's Travels in Arabia_, vol. ii. p. 265; _Niebuhr_, _Description de l'Arabie_, p. 45; _Ulloa's Voyage to South America_, vol. i. pp. 403, 408; _Journal of Geograph. Society_, vol. iii. p. 283, vol. vi. p. 85, vol. xix. p. 121; _Spix and Martius's Travels in Brazil_, vol. i. p. 164; _Southey's History of Brazil_, vol. iii. p. 848; _Volney_, _Voyage en Syrie et en Egypte_, vol. i. pp. 379, 380, 460; _Low's Sarawak_, p. 140.

Applying now this great principle to the general course of history, we shall find proofs of its accuracy in every direction. Indeed, there is not a single instance to the contrary. In Asia, in Africa, and in America, all the ancient civilizations were seated in hot climates; and in all of them the rate of wages was very low, and therefore the condition of the labouring classes very depressed. In Europe, for the first time, civilization arose in a colder climate: hence the reward of labour was increased, and the distribution of wealth rendered more equal than was possible in countries where an excessive abundance of food stimulated the growth of population. This difference produced, as we shall presently see, many social and political consequences of immense importance. But before discussing them, it may be remarked that the only apparent exception to what has been stated is one which strikingly verifies the general law. There is one instance, and only one, of a great European people possessing a very cheap national food. This people, I need hardly say, are the Irish. In Ireland the labouring classes have for more than two hundred years been principally fed by potatoes, which were introduced into their country late in the sixteenth, or early in the seventeenth century.[82] Now, the peculiarity of the potato is, that until the appearance of the late disease, it was and perhaps still is, cheaper than any other food equally wholesome. If we compare its reproductive power with the amount of nutriment contained in it, we find that one acre of average land sown with potatoes will support twice as many persons as the same quantity of land sown with wheat.[83] The consequence is, that in a country where men live on potatoes, the population will, if other things are tolerably equal, increase twice as fast as in a country where they live on wheat. And so it has actually occurred. Until a very few years ago, when the face of affairs was entirely altered by pestilence and emigration, the population of Ireland was, in round numbers, increasing annually three per cent.; the population of England during the same period increasing one and a half per cent.[84] The result was, that in these two countries the distribution of wealth was altogether different. Even in England the growth of population is somewhat too rapid; and the labour-market being overstocked, the working classes are not sufficiently paid for their labour.[85] But their condition is one of sumptuous splendour, compared to that in which only a few years ago the Irish were forced to live. The misery in which they were plunged has no doubt always been aggravated by the ignorance of their rulers, and by that scandalous misgovernment which, until very recently, formed one of the darkest blots on the glory of England. The most active cause, however, was, that their wages were so low as to debar them, not only from the comforts, but from the common decencies of civilized life; and this evil condition was the natural result of that cheap and abundant food, which encouraged the people to so rapid an increase, that the labour-market was constantly gorged.[86] So far was this carried, that an intelligent observer who travelled through Ireland twenty years ago, mentioned that at that time the average wages were fourpence a day, and that even this wretched pittance could not always be relied upon for regular employment.[87]

[82] Meyen (_Geography of Plants_, 1846, p. 313) says that the potato was introduced into Ireland in 1586; but according to Mr. M'Culloch (_Dictionary of Commerce_, 1849, p. 1048), 'potatoes, it is commonly thought, were not introduced into Ireland till 1610, when a small quantity was sent by Sir Walter Raleigh to be planted in a garden on his estate in the vicinity of Youghall.' Compare _Loudon's Encyclop. of Agriculture_, p. 845: 'first planted by Sir Walter Raleigh on his estate of Youghall, near Cork.'

[83] Adam Smith (_Wealth of Nations_, book i. chap. xi. p. 67) supposes that it will support three times as many; but the statistics of this great writer are the weakest part of his work, and the more careful calculations made since he wrote bear out the statement in the text. 'It admits of demonstration that an acre of potatoes will feed double the number of people that can be fed from an acre of wheat.' _Loudon's Encyclop. of Agriculture_, 5th edit. 1844, p. 845. So, too, in _M'Culloch's Dict._ p. 1048, 'an acre of potatoes will feed double the number of individuals that can be fed from an acre of wheat.' The daily average consumption of an able-bodied labourer in Ireland is estimated at nine and a half pounds of potatoes for men, and seven and a half for women. See _Phillips on Scrofula_, 1846, p. 177.

[84] _Malthus_, _Essay on Population_, vol. i. pp. 424, 425, 431, 435, 441, 442; _M'Culloch's Political Economy_, pp. 381, 382.

[85] The lowest agricultural wages in our time have been in England about 1_s._ a day; while from the evidence collected by Mr. Thornton in 1845, the highest wages then paid were in Lincolnshire, and were rather more than 13_s._ a week; those in Yorkshire and Northumberland being nearly as high. _Thornton on Over-Population_, pp. 12-15, 24, 25. Godwin, writing in 1820, estimates the average at 1_s._ 6_d._ a day. _Godwin on Population_, p. 574. Mr. Phillips, in his work _On Scrofula_, 1846, p. 345, says, 'at present the ratio of wages is from 9_s._ to 10_s._'

[86] The most miserable part, namely Connaught, in 1733, contained 242,160 inhabitants; and in 1821, 1,110,229. See _Sadler's Law of Population_, vol. ii. p. 490.

[87] Mr. Inglis, who in 1834 travelled through Ireland with a particular view to its economical state, says, as the result of very careful inquiries, 'I am quite confident, that if the whole yearly earnings of the labourers of Ireland were divided by the whole number of labourers, the result would be under this sum--_Fourpence_ a day for the labourers of Ireland.' _Inglis_, _Journey throughout Ireland in 1834_, Lond. 1835, 2nd edit. vol. ii. p. 300. At Balinasloe, in the county of Galway, 'A gentleman with whom I was accidentally in company offered to procure, on an hour's warning, a couple of hundred labourers at fourpence even for temporary employment.' _Inglis_, vol. ii. p. 17. The same writer says (vol. i. p. 263), that at Tralee 'it often happens that the labourers, after working in the canal from five in the morning until eleven in the forenoon, are discharged for the day with the pittance of twopence.' Compare, in _Cloncurry's Recollections_, Dublin, 1849, p. 310, a letter from Dr. Doyle written in 1829, describing Ireland as 'a country where the market is always overstocked with labour, and in which a man's labour is not worth, at an average, more than threepence a day.'

Such have been the consequences of cheap food in a country which, on the whole, possesses greater natural resources than any other in Europe.[88] And if we investigate on a larger scale the social and economical condition of nations, we shall see the same principle everywhere at work. We shall see that, other things remaining equal, the food of a people determines the increase of their numbers, and the increase of their numbers determines the rate of their wages. We shall moreover find, that when the wages are invariably low,[89] the distribution of wealth being thus very unequal, the distribution of political power and social influence will also be very unequal; in other words, it will appear that the normal and average relation between the upper and lower classes will, in its origin, depend upon those peculiarities of nature, the operations of which I have endeavoured to indicate.[90] After putting all these things together, we shall, I trust, be able to discern, with a clearness hitherto unknown, the intimate connexion between the physical and moral world; the laws by which that connexion is governed; and the reasons why so many ancient civilizations reached a certain stage of development, and then fell away, unable to resist the pressure of nature, or make head against those external obstacles by which their progress was effectually retarded.

[88] It is singular that so acute a thinker as Mr. Kay should, in his otherwise just remarks on the Irish, entirely overlook the effect produced on their wages by the increase of population. _Kay's Social Condition of the People_, vol. i. pp. 8, 9, 92, 223, 306-324. This is the more observable, because the disadvantages of cheap food have been noticed not only by several common writers, but by the highest of all authorities on population, Mr. Malthus: see the sixth edition of his _Essay on Population_, vol. i. p. 469, vol. ii. pp. 123, 124, 383, 384. If these things were oftener considered, we should not hear so much about the idleness and levity of the Celtic race; the simple fact being, that the Irish are unwilling to work, not because they are Celts, but because their work is badly paid. When they go abroad, they get good wages, and therefore they become as industrious as any other people. Compare _Journal of Statistical Society_, vol. vii. p. 24, with _Thornton on Over-Population_, p. 425; a very valuable work. Even in 1799, it was observed that the Irish as soon as they left their own country became industrious and energetic. See _Parliamentary History_, vol. xxxiv. p. 222. So, too, in North America, 'they are most willing to work hard.' _Lyell's Second Visit to the United States_, 1849, vol. i. p. 187.

[89] By low wages, I mean low reward of labour, which is of course independent both of the cost of labour and of the money-rate of wages.

[90] In a recent work of considerable ingenuity (_Doubleday's True Law of Population_, 1847, pp. 25-29, 69, 78, 123, 124, &c.) it is noticed that countries are more populous when the ordinary food is vegetable than when it is animal; and an attempt is made to explain this on the ground that a poor diet is more favourable to fecundity than a rich one. But though the fact of the greater increase of population is indisputable, there are several reasons for being dissatisfied with Mr. Doubleday's explanation.

1st. That the power of propagation is heightened by poor living, is a proposition which has never been established physiologically; while the observations of travellers and of governments are not sufficiently numerous to establish it statistically.

2nd. Vegetable diet is as generous for a hot country as animal diet is for a cold country; and since we know that, notwithstanding the difference of food and climate, the temperature of the body varies little between the equator and the poles (compare _Liebig's Animal Chemistry_, p. 19; _Holland's Medical Notes_, p. 473; _Pouillet_, _Elémens de Physique_, vol. i. part i. p. 414; _Burdach's Traité de Physiologie_, vol. ix. p. 663), we have no reason to believe that there is any other normal variation, but should rather suppose that, in regard to all essential functions, vegetable diet and external heat are equivalent to animal diet and external cold.

3rd. Even conceding, for the sake of argument, that vegetable food increases the procreative power, this would only affect the number of births, and not the density of population; for a greater number of births may be, and often are, remedied by a greater mortality; a point in regard to which Godwin, in trying to refute Malthus, falls into serious error. _Godwin on Population_, p. 317.

Since writing the above, I have found that these views of Mr. Doubleday's were in a great measure anticipated by Fourier. See _Rey_, _Science Sociale_; vol. i. p. 185.

If, in the first place, we turn to Asia, we shall see an admirable illustration of what may be called the collision between internal and external phenomena. Owing to circumstances already stated, Asiatic civilization has always been confined to that rich tract where alone wealth could be easily obtained. This immense zone comprises some of the most fertile parts of the globe; and of all its provinces, Hindostan is certainly the one which for the longest period has possessed the greatest civilization.[91] And as the materials for forming an opinion respecting India are more ample than those respecting any other part of Asia,[92] I purpose to select it as an example, and use it to illustrate those laws which, though generalized from political economy, chemistry, and physiology, may be verified by that more extensive survey, the means of which history alone can supply.

[91] I use the word 'Hindostan' in the popular sense, as extending south to Cape Comorin; though, properly speaking, it only includes the country north of the Nerbudda. Compare _Mill's History of India_, vol. ii. p. 178; _Bohlen_, _das alte Indien_, vol. i. p. 11; _Meiners über die Länder in Asien_, vol. i. p. 224. The word itself is not found in the old Sanscrit, and is of Persian origin. _Halhed's Preface to the Gentoo Laws_, pp. xx. xxi.; _Asiatic Researches_, vol. iii. pp. 368, 369.

[92] So that, in addition to works published on their philosophy, religion, and jurisprudence, a learned geographer stated several years ago, that 'kein anderes Asiatisches Reich ist in den letzten drey Jahrhunderten von so vielen und so einsichtsvollen Europäern durchreist und beschrieben worden, als Hindostan.' _Meiners_, _Länder in Asien_, vol. i. p. 225. Since the time of Meiners, such evidence has become still more precise and extensive; and is, I think, too much neglected by M. Rhode in his valuable work on India: 'Dem Zwecke dieser Arbeit gemäss, betrachten wir hier nur Werke der Hindus selbst, oder Auszüge aus denselben als Quellen.' _Rhode_, _Religiöse Bildung der Hindus_, vol. i. p. 43.

In India, the great heat of the climate brings into play that law already pointed out, by virtue of which the ordinary food is of an oxygenous rather than of a carbonaceous character. This, according to another law, obliges the people to derive their usual diet not from the animal, but from the vegetable world, of which starch is the most important constituent. At the same time the high temperature, incapacitating men for arduous labour, makes necessary a food of which the returns will be abundant, and which will contain much nutriment in a comparatively small space. Here, then, we have some characteristics, which, if the preceding views are correct, ought to be found in the ordinary food of the Indian nations. So they all are. From the earliest period the most general food in India has been rice,[93] which is the most nutritive of all the cerealia;[94] which contains an enormous proportion of starch;[95] and which yields to the labourer an average return of at least sixty fold.[96]

[93] This is evident from the frequent and familiar mention of it in that remarkable relic of antiquity, the Institutes of Menu. See the _Institutes_, in _Works of Sir W. Jones_, vol. iii. pp. 87, 132, 156, 200, 215, 366, 400, 403, 434. Thus too, in the enumeration of Foods in _Vishnu Purana_, pp. 46, 47, rice is the first mentioned. See further evidence in _Bohlen_, _das alte Indien_, vol. i. p. 22, vol. ii. pp. 159, 160; _Wilson's Theatre of the Hindus_, vol. i. part ii. pp. 15, 16, 37, 92, 95, vol. ii.