ABSTRACT
Animal existence depends upon the gratification of one sole and immediate want, that of food and sustenance. The producer and owner of a piece of furniture of twenty dollar’s value, may consider himself as possessing as much human food, as may be procurable for that price. In a season of agricultural scarcity, a larger quantity of furniture will be given for a smaller quantity of human aliment; but it is invariably true, that whenever barter takes place, the object given on one side is worth that given on the other, and that the one is procurable for the other. The Romans were forever making regulations to repair the loss of population, occasioned by their state of perpetual external warfare. National population is uniformly proportionate to the quantum of national production; but it may vary locally within the limits of each state, according to the favourable or unfavourable operation of local circumstances.
