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, 141