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The proportion in which the improvements in manufactures or the supply of comforts exceed the increase in the supply of food, is very important; for the supply of food being the limit of the population, the more the supply of comforts increases as compared with the number of its consumers, the greater the share of comforts that may be expected to fall to the lot of each individual.
In the natural progress of society, all those inventions and improvements that add to the enjoyment of mankind multiply in a faster ratio than those which only afford the means of mere animal existence: and thus the mass of the population, who derive their only subsistence from their labour, are constantly finding additional conveniences or advantages brought within their reach. They will not be richer, in the common acceptation of the word;—they will be obliged to work as hard as before,—they will find an equal difficulty in subsisting their families; but their dwellings will be more commodious, and their clothing more comfortable. Thus linen and cotton clothing, shoes, stockings, soap, candles, glass windows, tea, sugar, medicine, the means of giving a religious and useful education to their children, have been one by one added to the comforts of the labouring classes in this country, without at all diminishing the difficulty of procuring food for their families. We often hear of a portion of our population being in distress from want of food, but we never hear of any serious apprehensions being entertained of
