the working people,
who spend nearly the whole on personal enjoyment.

The quantity of food that an individual may consume is nearly limited
by nature; but the extent of ground on which that food grows depends
chiefly on the quality. Thus, for example, it will require nearly ten
times the number of acres to maintain one hundred people, who live
on animal food, that =sic= it would require to supply the same persons
living on vegetables; and, as wealth increases, animal food always
obtains the preference. This is evident, from so many proofs, that it
scarcely needs illustration. In London, which is the most wealthy part
of England, there is more animal food consumed than in any other
part, in proportion to the numbers; and, in the country there is always
less than in the towns. In the country, and in the towns of England,
there is more than in any proportional part of Scotland, or in France,
or, indeed, any part of Europe. Expensive as animal food is here, still
it bears less proportion to the wages of labour, or the general wealth,
than in any other country. In every country, as riches have increased,
the consumption of the produce of the earth has augmented.

The Dutch seem to have been well aware of the danger of wealth
making the people consume too much. A man in moderate
circumstances loses his credit there, who roasts his meat instead of
boiling it. It is reckoned wastefulness, and, as such, is the occasion of
confidence being withdrawn from him: it has nearly as bad an effect
on a man's credit, as if he were seen coming from a gaming-house.

It will, perhaps, be said, that the parsimony of the Dutch is ridiculous,
but we ought not to attribute this merely to parsimony, but to a feeling
similar to what we have very properly in England when we see bread
wasted. It arises from a feeling of the general want, not of the
particular loss, which is totally a different thing. If a man give away
imprudently, that loss is to himself, not to the community. As there
cannot be givers without receivers it is a change of hands, but there
ends the matter. A habit of wasting is another [end of page #144]
thing, it is a general loss, and, therefore, hurts the community at large
as well as the individual.

When this augmented consumption takes place, to any great extent, it
is the infallible cause of depopulation. How nearly depopulation and
decline are connected with each other is very easily and well
understood; indeed, it is i