VIII 
POSITIONS TO BE EXAMINED, CONCERNING NATIONAL 
WEALTH 
DATED APRIL 4, 1769 
1. All food or subsistence for mankind arises from 
the earth or waters. 
2. Necessaries of life, that are not food, and all 
other conveniences, have their values estimated by 
the proportion of food consumed while we are em- 
ployed in procuring them. 
3. A small people, with a large territory, may sub- 
sist on the productions of nature, with no other labor 
than that of gathering the vegetables and catching 
the animals. 
4. A large people, with a small territory, find 
these insufficient, and, to subsist, must labor the 
earth, to make it produce greater quantities of vege- 
table food, suitable for the nourishment of men, and 
of the animals they intend to eat. 
5. From this labor arises a great increase of 
vegetable and animal food, and of materials for 
clothing, as flax, wool, silk, &c. The superfluity of 
these is wealth. With this wealth we paid for 
the labor employed in building our houses, cities, 
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