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 employed
 in procuring them.
3. A small people, with a large territory, may subsist
 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 vegetable
 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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