The annual labour of every nation is the fund which originally

supplies it with all the necessaries and conveniencies of life which

it annually consumes, and which consist always either in the

immediate produce of that labour, or in what is purchased with that

produce from other nations.

According, therefore, as this produce, or what is purchased with it,

bears a greater or smaller proportion to the number of those who

are to consume it, the nation will be better or worse supplied with

all the necessaries and conveniencies for which it has occasion.

But this proportion must in every nation be regulated by two

different circumstances: first, by the skill, dexterity, and judgment

with which its labour is generally applied; and, secondly, by the

proportion between the number of those who are employed in

useful labour, and that of those who are not so employed.

Whatever be the soil, climate, or extent of territory of any

particular nation, the abundance or scantiness of its annual supply

must, in that particular situation, depend upon those two

circumstances.