Of the checks to population
We may observe, that the diseases of this parish are said to have increased, in consequence of the scarcity and bad victual of 1783. The same circumstance is noticed in many other parishes, and it is remarked, that though few people died of absolute famine, yet that mortal diseases almost universally followed.
It is remarked also, in some parishes, that the number of births and marriages are affected by years of scarcity and plenty.
Of the parish of Dingwall,' in the county of Ross, it is observed, that after the scarcity of 1783, the births were 16 below the average, and 14 below the lowest number of late years. The year
1787 was a year of plenty, and the following year the births increased in a similar proportion, and were 17 above the average, and 11 above the highest of other years.
In the account of Dunrossness, in Orkney, the writer says that the annual number of marriages depends much on the seasons.
years they may amount to thirty or upwards;
Volume iii. p. 1.
Volume vii. p. 391.
but when crops fail, will hardly come up to the half of that number.
The whole increase of Scotland, since the time of Dr. Webster's survey in 1755, is about 260,000, for which a proportionate provision has been made in the improved state of agriculture and manufactures, and in the increased cultivation of potatoes, which in some places form two-thirds of the diet of the common people. It has been calculated that the half of the surplus of births in Scotland is drawn off in emigrations; and it cannot be doubted that this drain tends greatly to relieve the country, and to improve the condition of those which remain. Scotland is certainly still overpeopled, but not so much as it was a century or half a century ago, when it contained fewer inhabitants.
The details of the population of Ireland are but little known. I shall only observe therefore, that the extended use of potatoes has allowed of a very rapid increase of it during the last century. But the cheapness of this nourishing root, and the
1 According to the returns in the late estimate, the whole population of Scotland is above 1,590,000, and therefore the increase up to the present time is above 320,000.
Of the checks to population, &c.
small piece of ground which, under this kind of cultivation, will in average years produce the food for a family, joined to the ignorance and barbarism of the people, which have prompted them to follow their inclinations with no other prospect than an immediate bare subsistence, have encouraged marriage to such a degree that the population is pushed much beyond the industry and present resources of the country; and the consequence naturally is that the lower classes of people are in the most depressed and miserable state. The checks to the population are of course chiefly of the positive kind, and arise from the diseases occasioned by squalid poverty, by damp and wretched cabins, by bad and insufficient clothing, by the filth of their persons, and occasional want. To these positive checks have, of late years, been added the vice and misery of intestine commotion, of civil war, and of martial law.
ABRAM and Lot, their separation, an illustration of the cause which
overspread the whole earth with people, i. 111.
ABYSSINIA; state of, with respect to the checks to population, i. 187,
188.
AFRICA, of the checks to population in different parts of, i. 173. Great
disposition of the country to population in general, i. 173. This
counterbalanced by the habits of the Negro nations. See the article
Negro. State of Abyssinia, i. 187, 188. Of Egypt, i. 193.
AGows, an Abyssinian nation, dreadful misery and penury in, i. 186.
AGRICULTURE, very great encouragements given to it in China, i. 248
-250. Powerful effect of these, i. 251, 253. Is the sole species of in-
dustry by which multitudes can exist, i. 275, 276. In France, rather
increased than diminished during the revolution, i. 434. Statements
respecting the present condition of it in that country, i. 448. Process-
es for abridging agricultural labor, tend rather to diminish than in-
crease the whole produce, ii. 203. Of the definition of wealth; and
of the agricultural and commercial systems, ii. 206. Consequences of
defining wealth as the gross produce of the land, ii. 206.
nual produce of the land and labor (Dr. Smith's definition,) ii. 206.
As the clear surplus produce of the land, ii. 206. The surplus pro-
duce of the cultivators, the great fund which ultimately pays all who
are not employed upon the land, ii. 207. Different effect of a clear
monied revenue arising from manufactures of the same extent, ii. 209.
Manufactures, according to the Economists, an object on which re-
venue is spent, and not part of the revenue itself, ii. 210. Commerce
and manufactures rather the consequences than the causes of the
wealth of England, ii. 212. Their effect in encouraging the improve-
ment of the land, or otherwise, ii. 213. Effect of a redundancy of com-
mercial capital in this point, ii. 215. Our commerce has not done so
much for our agriculture, as our agriculture has done for our commerce,
ii. 218. Different effects of the agricultural and commercial systems, ii.
220. State of England with respect to agriculture and commerce in
the middle of the last century, ii. 220. Now disadvatageously changed
for the predominance of the commercial system, ii. 221. Price of
labor considered, on this subject, ii. 222. Different effects of the
high price of corn and of rude produce, as occasioned by competition
among different nations, or by that of monied wealth at home, ii. 224.
To endeavor to lower the price of labor by encouraging the importa-
tion of foreign corn, would aggravate the evil, ii. 225. Precarious
state of a nation depending for a considerable part of its supply of
corn upon its poorer neighbors, ii. 226. Opposite condition of one in
which agricultural wealth predominates, ii. 227. No branch of trade
more profitable than the sale of rude produce, ii. 228. Different
circumstances of two countries; one exporting manufactures and im-
porting corn, and the other pursuing a contrary course, ii. 228. Four
very strong reasons why the exportation of corn is to be preferred to
any other kind of export, ii. 230. If a bounty would turn a nation
from the habit of importing corn to that of exporting it, such a mea-
sure is justifiable, (See further the article Bounties), ii. 233. See also
the article Plenty.
AMERICA, period in which population has doubled itself in the northern
States of, i. 6. In the back settlements, i 6. Very rapid increase of
the English colonies, ii. 53, 54. Actual population of the United
States, ii. 56 Hardships experienced in the first settlement of some
of the English colonies, ii 134-136. See also the articie Indians.
ANCIENT or modern nations, question of the superior populousness of,
i. 300-305.
ANDERSON, Mr.; his erroneous proposition, that every increase of po-
pulation tends to increase relative plenty, and vice versa, ii. 280, note.
ARABIA FELIX, practice and effect of polygamy in, i. 183.
ARABS. See the article Bedoweens.
ARDOUR, want of, in the men, generated by the hardships and dangers
of savage life, 1. 44.
ARISTOTLE Saw clearly the strong tendency of population to increase
beyond the means of subsistence; methods proposed by him as re-
sources for its redundance, i. 283, 286. By limiting the age of mar-
riage, the number of children born, and the period of procreating, i.
283. His farther observations on the necessity of regulating the num-
ber of children, i. 284, 285. Points out an error in the measures taken
to increase the population of Sparta, i. 286.
ASIA, checks to population among the modern pastoral tribes of, (See
the article Tartars), i. 144. Enumeration of checks, i. 171.
AUGSBURGH, proportion of its annual marriages to its population, i. 382.
BANKS; the increased circulation demanded during the late scarcity,
supplied principally by the paper of the country banks, ii. 160, 161.
This rather a consequence than a cause of the high price of provi-
sions, ii. 162. It is much better that the issue should have come
from the country banks than the bank of England, ii. 163. Some
advantage might be derived in improving the condition of the poor,
from small country banks, with a particular regulation, ii. 474.
BARBALOES, hardships experienced in the first settlement of the Eng-
lish colony there, ii. 136.
BARBARISM, extreme, of the inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego and of
Van Diemen's Land, i. 29, 30.
BEDOWEENS: State of, with respect to the checks to population among
them, i. 147, 154-160.
BEGGARS, multitude of, in Tibet, i. 243, 244. The relief given to
common beggars often does not come under the appellation of charity,
ii. 426.
BENEFIT CLUBS; plan of improving the condition of the poor by the
compulsory and universal establishment of, considered, ii. 436–440.
BERLIN, proportion of its annual marriages to its population, i. 385.
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