PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION.
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CHAP. XVII.
Question of the proper definition of the wealth of a state.—Reason given by the French Œconomists for considering all manufacturers as unproductive labourers, not the true reason.—The labour of artificers and manufacturers sufficiently productive to individuals, though not to the state.—A remarkable passage in Dr. Prices's two volumes of observations.—Error of Dr. Price in attributing the happiness and rapid population of America, chiefly, to its peculiar state of civilization.—No advantage can be expected from shutting our eyes to the difficulties in the way to the improvement of society.
A question seems naturally to arise here, whether the exchangeable value of the annual produce of the land and labour, be the proper definition of the wealth of a country; or, whether the gross produce of the land, according to the French œconomists, may not be a more accurate definition. Certain it is, that every increase of wealth, according to the definition of the Œeconomists, will
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