THE WEALTH OF NATION'S.

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as might maintain a whole family for many years. Couldthey have been made to understand this, the passion of theSpaniards would not have surprised them.

PART III.

Of the Variations in the Proportion between the respectiveValues of that Sort of Produce which always affords Rent ,and of that which sometimes does, and sometimes does notafford Rent .

The increasing abundance of food, in consequence of in-creasing improvement and cultivation, must necessarily in-crease the demand for every part of the produce of land whichis not food, and which can be applied either to use or to or-nament. In the whole progress of improvement, it mighttherefore be expected, there should be only one variation inthe comparative values of those two different sorts of pro-duce. The value of that sort which sometimes does andsometimes does not afford rent, should constantly rise in pro-portion to that which always affords some rent. As art andindustry advance, the materials of clothing and lodging, theuseful fossils and minerals of the earth, the precious metalsand the precious stones should gradually come to be moreand more in demand, should gradually exchange for a greaterand a greater quantity of food, or in other words, should gra-dually become dearer and dearer. This accordingly has beenthe case with most of these things upon most occasions, andwould have been the case with all of them upon all occasions,it particular accidents had not upon some occasions in-creased the supply of some of them in a still greater propor-tion than the demand.

The value of a free-stone quarry, for example, will neces-sarily increase with the increasing improvement and popu-lation of the country round about it; especially if it shouldbe the only one in the neighbourhood. But the value of asilver mine, even, though there should not be another withina thousand miles of it, will not necessarily increase with theimprovement of the country in which it is situated. Themarket for the produce of a free-stone quarry can seldom ex-tend more than a few miles round about it, and the demandmust generally be in proportion to the improvement and po-pulation of that small district. But the market tor the produceof a silver mine may extend over the whole known world.