e it is more easy to purchase. This
certainly is, at all times, and in all places, one of the consequences of
an influx of wealth, from wheresoever it comes, or by whatever means
it is acquired; though, in Italy, it was felt more than perhaps in any
other part of the world. The manner in which wealth comes into a
nation has a great effect on the consumption of produce, owing to the
description of persons into whose hands it first comes. In Rome, the
wealth came into the hands of the great. The slaves and servants,
though more numerous, were, perhaps, fed in the same manner with
the slaves in earlier periods, though probably not with so much
economy. In a manufacturing country, [end of page #137] the greatest
part of the wealth comes first into the hands of the labouring people,
who then live better and consume more of the produce of the earth;
not by eating a greater quantity, but by eating of a different quality.

In every manufacturing or commercial country, wealth displays itself
in general opulence amongst the lower orders, and the means of
supplying that greater consumption is the same as it was in Rome. The
money that arrives from other countries enables the community to
purchase from other countries the deficiency of provisions, and
prevents the evil effects from being felt at the moment.

When, in course of time, there comes to be a difficulty of obtaining
the supply, from the want of produce in the country itself, then the
decline begins; and as no wealth, arising either from conquest,
colonies, or commerce, bears any great proportion to the daily food of
a people, its effect is soon felt in a very ruinous and terrible manner.

England is the greatest country for extensive commerce that ever
existed, yet the amount of the whole of its foreign trade would not do
much more than furnish the people with bread, and certainly not with
all the simple necessaries of life. If, therefore, a country, such as this
is, were unable to furnish itself with the necessaries of life, the whole
balance of trade, now in its favour, would not be sufficient to supply
any considerable deficiency.

The desire of eating animal food, in place of vegetables, is very
general and, amongst a people living by manufactures, will always be
indulged. If the country was fully peopled, before animal food was so
much used; that is, if the population was as great as the vegetable
produce of the country was able to supply; as the same quantity of