it, his arguments may be conclusively shown to be
contradictory. Such arguments, at least, cannot be worth considering.
But, to say nothing of cases which may be put by an ingenious disputant
in which this may not quite apply, we have to consider reasons which
may be extra-economical. When it is suggested, for example, that the
economic disadvantage is a fair price for political independence; or,
on the other hand, that the stimulus of competition is actually good
for the trade affected; or, again, that protection tends naturally to
corruption; we have arguments which, good or bad, are outside the
sphere of economics proper. To answer them we have to enter the field
of political or ethical inquiry, where we have to take leave of
tangible facts and precise measures.

This is a more prominent element as we approach the more human side (if
I may so call it) of Political Economy. Consider, for example, the
doctrine which made so profound an impression upon the old
school--Malthus's theory of population. It was summed up in the
famous--though admittedly inaccurate--phrase, that population had a
tendency to increase in a geometrical ratio, while the means of
subsistence increased only in an arithmetical ratio. The food available
for each unit would therefore diminish as the population increased. The
so-called law obviously states only a possibility. It describes a
"tendency," or, in other words, only describes what would happen under
certain, admittedly variable, conditions. It showed how, in a limited
area and with the efficiency of industry remaining unaltered, the
necessary limits upon the numbers of the population would come into
play. If, then, the law were taken, or in so far as it was taken, to
assert that, in point of fact, the population must always be increasing
in civilised countries to the stage at which the lowest class would be
at starvation level, it was certainly erroneous. There are cases in
which statesmen are alarmed by the failure of population to show its
old elasticity, and beginning to revert to the view that an increased
rate is desirable. It cannot be said to be even necessarily true that
in all cases an increased population implies, of necessity, increased
difficulty of support. There are countries which are inadequately
peopled, and where greater numbers would be able to support themselves
more efficiently because they could adopt a more elaborate
organisation. Nor can it be said with certainty tha