390 THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF

meat of uncultivated land, is there the most profitable em-ployment of the smallest as well as of the greatest capitals,and the most direct road to all the fortune and illustrationwhich can be acquired in that country. Such land, indeetl,is in North America to be had almost for nothing, or at aprice much below the value of the natural produce; a thingimpossible in Europe , or indeed, in any country where alllands have been private property. If landed estates, how-ever, were divided equally among all the children, upon thedeath of any proprietor who left a numerous family, the estatewould generally be sold. So much land would come tomarket, that it could no longer sell at a monopoly price.The free rent of the land would go nearer to pay the inter-est of the purchase-money, and a small capital might be em-ployed in purchasing land as profitably as in any other way.

England, on account of the natural fertility of the soil, ofthe great extent of the sea-coast in proportion to that of thewhole country, and of the many navigable rivers which runthrough it, and afford the conveniency of water carriage tosome of the most inland parts of it, is perhaps as well fitted bynature as any large country in Europe , to be the seat of fo-reign commerce, of manufactures for distant sale, and of allthe improvements which these can occasion. From the be-ginning of the reign of Elizabeth too, the English legislaturehas been peculiarly attentive to the interest of commerce andmanufactures, and in reality there is no country in Europe ,Holland itself not excepted, of which the lav/ is, upon thewhole, more favourable to this sort of industry. Commerceand manufactures have accordingly been continually advanc-ing during all this period. The cultivation and improvementof the country has, no doubt, been gradually advancing too :but it seems to have followed slowly, and at a distance, themore rapid progress of commerce and manufactures. Thegreater part of the country must probably have been cultivatedbefore the reign of Elizabeth; and a very great part of it stillremains uncultivated, and the cultivation of the far greaterpart, much inferior to what it might be. The law of Eng-land, however, favours agriculture not only indirectly by theprotection ofcommerce,butby several direct encouragements.Except in times of scarcity, the exportation of corn is notonly f re0) p u t encouraged by a bounty. In times of mode-rate plenty, the importation of foreign corn is loaded withduties that amount to a prohibition. The importation of live