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THE NATURE AN1) CAUSES OE

the abundance of food must be much greater than in any comcountry of equal extent. Such countries are accordinglymuch more populous. In them too the rich, having a greatersuperabundance of food to dispose of beyond what they them-selves can consume, have the means of purchasing a muchgreater quantity of the labour of other people. The retinueof a grandee in China or Indostan accordingly is, by all ac-counts, much more numerous and splendid than that of therichest subjects in Europe . The same superabundance offood of which they have the disposal, enables them to give agreater quantity of it for all those singular and rare produc-tions which nature furnishes but in very small quantities; suchas the precious metals and the precious stones, the great ob-jects of the competition of the rich. Though the mines, there-fore, which supplied the Indian market had been as abundantas those which supplied the European, such commoditieswould naturally exchange for a greater quantity of food inIndia than in Europe . But the mines which supplied the In-dian market with the precious metals seem to have been agood deal less abundant, and those which supplied it withthe precious stones a good deal more so, than the mines whichsupplies the European. The precious metals, therefore,would naturally exchange in India for somewhat a greaterquantity of the precious stones, and for a much greater quan-tity of food than in Europe . The money price of diamonds,the greatest of all superfluities, would be somewhat lower,and that of food, the first of all necessaries, a great deal lowerin the one country than in the other. But the real price oflabour, the real quantity of the necessaries of life which isgiven to the labourer, it has already been observed, is lowerboth in China and Indostan, the two great markets of India ,than it is through the greater part of Europe . The wages ofthe labourer will there purchase a smaller quantity ot food;and as the money price of food is much lower in India thanin Europe , the money price of labour is there lower upon adouble account; upon account both of the small quantity offood which it will purchase, and ol the lowprice of that food.But in countries of equal art and industry, the money priceof the greater part of manufactures will be in proportion tothe money price of labour; and in manufacturing art and in-dustry, China and Indostan, though inferior, seems not to bemuch inferior to any part of Europe . The money price ofthe greater part of manufactures, therefore, will naturally be