Chapter II (2)

[72] 'The consumption of oxygen in a given time may be expressed by the
number of respirations.' _Liebig's Letters on Chemistry_, p. 314;
and see _Thomson's Animal Chemistry_, p. 611. It is also certain
that exercise increases the number of respirations; and birds,
which are the most active of all animals, consume more oxygen than
any others. _Milne Edwards_, _Zoologie_, part i. p. 88, part ii.
p. 371; _Flourens_, _Travaux de Cuvier_, pp. 153, 154, 265, 266.
Compare, on the connexion between respiration and the locomotive
organs, _Beclard_, _Anatomie Générale_, pp. 39, 44; _Burdach_,
_Traité de Physiologie_, vol. ix. pp. 485, 556-559; _Carus's
Comparative Anatomy_, vol. i. pp. 99, 164, 358, vol. ii. pp. 142,
160; _Grant's Comparative Anatomy_, pp. 455, 495, 522, 529, 537;
_Rymer Jones's Animal Kingdom_, pp. 369, 440, 692, 714, 720;
_Owen's Invertebrata_, pp. 322, 345, 386, 505. Thus too it has been
experimentally ascertained, that in human beings exercise increases
the amount of carbonic-acid gas. _Mayo's Human Physiology_, p. 64;
_Liebig and Kopp's Reports_, vol. iii. p. 359.

If we now put these facts together, their bearing on the
propositions in the text will become evident; because, on the
whole, there is more exercise taken in cold climates than in hot
ones, and there must therefore be an increased respiratory action.
For proof that greater exercise is both taken and required,
compare _Wrangel's Polar Expedition_, pp. 79, 102; _Richardson's
Arctic Expedition_, vol. i. p. 385; _Simpson's North Coast of
America_, pp. 49,88, which should be contrasted with the contempt
for such amusements in hot countries. Indeed, in polar regions all
this is so essential to preserve a normal state, that scurvy can
only be kept off in the northern part of the American continent by
taking considerable exercise: see _Crantz_, _History of Greenland_,
vol. i. pp. 46, 62, 338.

[73] See the note at the end of this chapter.

Proceeding from these chemical and physiological principles, we arrive at the conclusion, that the colder the country is in which a people live, the more highly carbonized will be their food. And this, which is a purely scientific inference, has been verified by actual experiment. The inhabitants of the polar regions consume large quantities of whale-oil and blubber; while within the tropics such food would soon put an end to life, and therefore the ordinary diet consists almost entirely of fruit, rice, and other vegetables. Now it has been ascertained by careful analysis, that in the polar food there is an excess of carbon; in the tropical food an excess of oxygen. Without entering into details, which to the majority of readers would be distasteful, it may be said generally, that the oils contain about six times as much carbon as the fruits, and that they have in them very little oxygen;[74] while starch, which is the most universal, and, in reference to nutrition, the most important constituent in the vegetable world,[75] is nearly half oxygen.[76]

[74] 'The fruits used by the inhabitants of southern climes do not
contain, in a fresh state, more than 12 per cent. of carbon; while
the blubber and train-oil which feed the inhabitants of polar
regions contain 66 to 80 per cent. of that element.' _Liebig's
Letters on Chemistry_, p. 320; see also p. 375, and _Turner's
Chemistry_, vol. ii. p. 1315. According to Prout (_Mayo's Human
Physiol._ p. 136), 'the proportion of carbon in oily bodies varies
from about 60 to 80 per cent.' The quantity of oil and fat
habitually consumed in cold countries is remarkable. Wrangel
(_Polar Expedition_, p. 21) says of the tribes in the north-east
of Siberia, 'fat is their greatest delicacy. They eat it in every
possible shape; raw, melted, fresh, or spoilt.' See also _Simpson's
Discoveries on the North Coast of America_, pp. 147, 404.

[75] 'So common, that no plant is destitute of it.' _Lindley's Botany_,
vol. i. p. 111; and at p. 121, 'starch is the most common of all
vegetable productions.' Dr. Lindley adds (vol. i. p. 292), that it
is difficult to distinguish the grains of starch secreted by plants
from cytoblasts. See also on the starch-granules, first noticed by
M. Link, _Reports on Botany by the Ray Society_, pp. 223, 370; and
respecting its predominance in the vegetable world, compare
_Thomson's Chemistry of Vegetables_, pp. 650-652, 875; _Brande's
Chemistry_, vol. ii. p. 1160; _Turner's Chemistry_, vol. ii.
p. 1236; _Liebig and Kopp's Reports_, vol. ii. pp. 97, 98, 122.

[76] The oxygen is 49.39 out of 100. See the table in _Liebig's Letters
on Chemistry_, p. 379. Amidin, which is the soluble part of starch,
contains 53.33 per cent. of oxygen. See _Thomson's Chemistry of
Vegetables_, p. 654, on the authority of Prout, who has the
reputation of being an accurate experimenter.

The connexion between this circumstance and the subject before us is highly curious: for it is a most remarkable fact, and one to which I would call particular attention, that owing to some more general law, of which we are ignorant, highly carbonized food is more costly than food in which comparatively little carbon is found. The fruits of the earth, of which oxygen is the most active principle, are very abundant; they may be obtained without danger, and almost without trouble. But that highly carbonized food, which in a very cold climate is absolutely necessary to life, is not produced in so facile and spontaneous a manner. It is not, like vegetables, thrown up by the soil; but it consists of the fat, the blubber, and the oil[77] of powerful and ferocious animals. To procure it, man must incur great risk and expend great labour. And although this is undoubtedly a contrast of extreme cases, still it is evident that the nearer a people approach to either extremity, the more subject will they be to the conditions by which that extremity is governed. It is evident that, as a general rule, the colder a country is, the more its food will be carbonized; the warmer it is, the more its food will be oxidized.[78] At the same time, carbonized food, being chiefly drawn from the animal world, is more difficult to obtain than oxidized food, which is drawn from the vegetable world.[79] The result has been that among nations where the coldness of the climate renders a highly carbonized diet essential, there is for the most part displayed, even in the infancy of society, a bolder and more adventurous character, than we find among those other nations whose ordinary nutriment, being highly oxidized, is easily obtained, and indeed is supplied to them, by the bounty of nature, gratuitously and without a struggle.[80] From this original divergence there follow many other consequences, which, however, I am not now concerned to trace; my present object being merely to point out how this difference of food affects the proportion in which wealth is distributed to the different classes.

[77] Of which a single whale will yield 'cent vingt tonneaux.' _Cuvier_,
_Règne Animal_, vol. i. p. 297. In regard to the solid food,
Sir J. Richardson (_Arctic Expedition_, 1851, vol. i. p. 243)
says that the inhabitants of the Arctic regions only maintain
themselves by chasing whales and 'consuming blubber.'

[78] It is said, that to keep a person in health, his food, even in the
temperate parts of Europe, should contain 'a full eighth more
carbon in winter than in summer.' _Liebig's Animal Chemistry_,
p. 16.

[79] The most highly carbonized of all foods are undoubtedly yielded by
animals; the most highly oxidized by vegetables. In the vegetable
kingdom there is, however, so much carbon, that its predominance,
accompanied with the rarity of nitrogen, has induced chemical
botanists to characterize plants as carbonized, and animals as
azotized. But we have here to attend to a double antithesis.
Vegetables are carbonized in so far as they are non-azotized; but
they are oxidized in opposition to the highly carbonized animal
food of cold countries. Besides this, it is important to observe
that the carbon of vegetables is most abundant in the woody and
unnutritious part, which is not eaten; while the carbon of animals
is found in the fatty and oily parts, which are not only eaten,
but are, in cold countries, greedily devoured.

[80] Sir J. Malcolm (_History of Persia_, vol. ii. p. 380), speaking of
the cheapness of vegetables in the East, says, 'in some parts of
Persia fruit has hardly any value.' Cuvier, in a striking passage
(_Règne Animal_, vol. i. pp. 73, 74), has contrasted vegetable
with animal food, and thinks that the former, being so easily
obtained, is the more natural. But the truth is that both are
equally natural: though when Cuvier wrote scarcely anything was
known of the laws which govern the relation between climate and
food. On the skill and energy required to obtain food in cold
countries, see _Wrangel's Polar Expedition_, pp. 70, 71, 191, 192;
_Simpson's Discoveries on the North Coast of America_, p. 249;
_Crantz_, _History of Greenland_, vol. i. pp. 22, 32, 105, 131,
154, 155, vol. ii. pp. 203, 265, 324.

The way in which this proportion is actually altered has, I hope, been made clear by the preceding argument; but it may be useful to recapitulate the facts on which the argument is based. The facts, then, are simply these. The rate of wages fluctuates with the population; increasing when the labour-market is under-supplied, diminishing when it is over-supplied. The population itself, though affected by many other circumstances, does undoubtedly fluctuate with the supply of food; advancing when the supply is plentiful, halting or receding when the supply is scanty. The food essential to life is scarcer in cold countries than in hot ones; and not only is it scarcer, but more of it is required;[81] so that on both grounds smaller encouragement is given to the growth of that population from whose ranks the labour-market is stocked. To express, therefore, the conclusion in its simplest form, we may say, that there is a strong and constant tendency in hot countries for wages to be low, in cold countries for them to be high.

[81] 'Cabanis' (_Rapports du Physique et du Moral_, p. 313) says, 'Dans
les temps et dans les pays froids on mange et l'on agit davantage.'
That much food is eaten in cold countries, and little in hot ones,
is mentioned by numerous travellers, none of whom are aware of the
cause. See _Simpson's Discov. on North Coast of America_, p. 218;
_Custine's Russie_, vol. iv. p. 66; _Wrangel's Expedition_, pp. 21,
327; _Crantz_, _History of Greenland_, vol. i. pp. 145, 360;
_Richardson's Central Africa_, vol. ii. p. 46; _Richardson's
Sahara_, vol. i. p. 137; _Denham's Africa_, p. 37; _Journal of
Asiatic Society_, vol. v. p. 144, vol. viii. p. 188; _Burckhardt's
Travels in Arabia_, vol. ii. p. 265; _Niebuhr_, _Description de
l'Arabie_, p. 45; _Ulloa's Voyage to South America_, vol. i.
pp. 403, 408; _Journal of Geograph. Society_, vol. iii. p. 283,
vol. vi. p. 85, vol. xix. p. 121; _Spix and Martius's Travels in
Brazil_, vol. i. p. 164; _Southey's History of Brazil_, vol. iii.
p. 848; _Volney_, _Voyage en Syrie et en Egypte_, vol. i. pp. 379,
380, 460; _Low's Sarawak_, p. 140.

Applying now this great principle to the general course of history, we shall find proofs of its accuracy in every direction. Indeed, there is not a single instance to the contrary. In Asia, in Africa, and in America, all the ancient civilizations were seated in hot climates; and in all of them the rate of wages was very low, and therefore the condition of the labouring classes very depressed. In Europe, for the first time, civilization arose in a colder climate: hence the reward of labour was increased, and the distribution of wealth rendered more equal than was possible in countries where an excessive abundance of food stimulated the growth of population. This difference produced, as we shall presently see, many social and political consequences of immense importance. But before discussing them, it may be remarked that the only apparent exception to what has been stated is one which strikingly verifies the general law. There is one instance, and only one, of a great European people possessing a very cheap national food. This people, I need hardly say, are the Irish. In Ireland the labouring classes have for more than two hundred years been principally fed by potatoes, which were introduced into their country late in the sixteenth, or early in the seventeenth century.[82] Now, the peculiarity of the potato is, that until the appearance of the late disease, it was and perhaps still is, cheaper than any other food equally wholesome. If we compare its reproductive power with the amount of nutriment contained in it, we find that one acre of average land sown with potatoes will support twice as many persons as the same quantity of land sown with wheat.[83] The consequence is, that in a country where men live on potatoes, the population will, if other things are tolerably equal, increase twice as fast as in a country where they live on wheat. And so it has actually occurred. Until a very few years ago, when the face of affairs was entirely altered by pestilence and emigration, the population of Ireland was, in round numbers, increasing annually three per cent.; the population of England during the same period increasing one and a half per cent.[84] The result was, that in these two countries the distribution of wealth was altogether different. Even in England the growth of population is somewhat too rapid; and the labour-market being overstocked, the working classes are not sufficiently paid for their labour.[85] But their condition is one of sumptuous splendour, compared to that in which only a few years ago the Irish were forced to live. The misery in which they were plunged has no doubt always been aggravated by the ignorance of their rulers, and by that scandalous misgovernment which, until very recently, formed one of the darkest blots on the glory of England. The most active cause, however, was, that their wages were so low as to debar them, not only from the comforts, but from the common decencies of civilized life; and this evil condition was the natural result of that cheap and abundant food, which encouraged the people to so rapid an increase, that the labour-market was constantly gorged.[86] So far was this carried, that an intelligent observer who travelled through Ireland twenty years ago, mentioned that at that time the average wages were fourpence a day, and that even this wretched pittance could not always be relied upon for regular employment.[87]

[82] Meyen (_Geography of Plants_, 1846, p. 313) says that the potato
was introduced into Ireland in 1586; but according to
Mr. M'Culloch (_Dictionary of Commerce_, 1849, p. 1048), 'potatoes,
it is commonly thought, were not introduced into Ireland till 1610,
when a small quantity was sent by Sir Walter Raleigh to be planted
in a garden on his estate in the vicinity of Youghall.' Compare
_Loudon's Encyclop. of Agriculture_, p. 845: 'first planted by Sir
Walter Raleigh on his estate of Youghall, near Cork.'

[83] Adam Smith (_Wealth of Nations_, book i. chap. xi. p. 67) supposes
that it will support three times as many; but the statistics of
this great writer are the weakest part of his work, and the more
careful calculations made since he wrote bear out the statement in
the text. 'It admits of demonstration that an acre of potatoes will
feed double the number of people that can be fed from an acre of
wheat.' _Loudon's Encyclop. of Agriculture_, 5th edit. 1844,
p. 845. So, too, in _M'Culloch's Dict._ p. 1048, 'an acre of
potatoes will feed double the number of individuals that can be
fed from an acre of wheat.' The daily average consumption of an
able-bodied labourer in Ireland is estimated at nine and a half
pounds of potatoes for men, and seven and a half for women. See
_Phillips on Scrofula_, 1846, p. 177.

[84] _Malthus_, _Essay on Population_, vol. i. pp. 424, 425, 431, 435,
441, 442; _M'Culloch's Political Economy_, pp. 381, 382.

[85] The lowest agricultural wages in our time have been in England
about 1_s._ a day; while from the evidence collected by
Mr. Thornton in 1845, the highest wages then paid were in
Lincolnshire, and were rather more than 13_s._ a week; those in
Yorkshire and Northumberland being nearly as high. _Thornton on
Over-Population_, pp. 12-15, 24, 25. Godwin, writing in 1820,
estimates the average at 1_s._ 6_d._ a day. _Godwin on Population_,
p. 574. Mr. Phillips, in his work _On Scrofula_, 1846, p. 345,
says, 'at present the ratio of wages is from 9_s._ to 10_s._'

[86] The most miserable part, namely Connaught, in 1733, contained
242,160 inhabitants; and in 1821, 1,110,229. See _Sadler's Law of
Population_, vol. ii. p. 490.

[87] Mr. Inglis, who in 1834 travelled through Ireland with a particular
view to its economical state, says, as the result of very careful
inquiries, 'I am quite confident, that if the whole yearly earnings
of the labourers of Ireland were divided by the whole number of
labourers, the result would be under this sum--_Fourpence_ a day
for the labourers of Ireland.' _Inglis_, _Journey throughout
Ireland in 1834_, Lond. 1835, 2nd edit. vol. ii. p. 300. At
Balinasloe, in the county of Galway, 'A gentleman with whom I was
accidentally in company offered to procure, on an hour's warning,
a couple of hundred labourers at fourpence even for temporary
employment.' _Inglis_, vol. ii. p. 17. The same writer says
(vol. i. p. 263), that at Tralee 'it often happens that the
labourers, after working in the canal from five in the morning
until eleven in the forenoon, are discharged for the day with the
pittance of twopence.' Compare, in _Cloncurry's Recollections_,
Dublin, 1849, p. 310, a letter from Dr. Doyle written in 1829,
describing Ireland as 'a country where the market is always
overstocked with labour, and in which a man's labour is not worth,
at an average, more than threepence a day.'

Such have been the consequences of cheap food in a country which, on the whole, possesses greater natural resources than any other in Europe.[88] And if we investigate on a larger scale the social and economical condition of nations, we shall see the same principle everywhere at work. We shall see that, other things remaining equal, the food of a people determines the increase of their numbers, and the increase of their numbers determines the rate of their wages. We shall moreover find, that when the wages are invariably low,[89] the distribution of wealth being thus very unequal, the distribution of political power and social influence will also be very unequal; in other words, it will appear that the normal and average relation between the upper and lower classes will, in its origin, depend upon those peculiarities of nature, the operations of which I have endeavoured to indicate.[90] After putting all these things together, we shall, I trust, be able to discern, with a clearness hitherto unknown, the intimate connexion between the physical and moral world; the laws by which that connexion is governed; and the reasons why so many ancient civilizations reached a certain stage of development, and then fell away, unable to resist the pressure of nature, or make head against those external obstacles by which their progress was effectually retarded.

[88] It is singular that so acute a thinker as Mr. Kay should, in his
otherwise just remarks on the Irish, entirely overlook the effect
produced on their wages by the increase of population. _Kay's
Social Condition of the People_, vol. i. pp. 8, 9, 92, 223,
306-324. This is the more observable, because the disadvantages of
cheap food have been noticed not only by several common writers,
but by the highest of all authorities on population, Mr. Malthus:
see the sixth edition of his _Essay on Population_, vol. i. p. 469,
vol. ii. pp. 123, 124, 383, 384. If these things were oftener
considered, we should not hear so much about the idleness and
levity of the Celtic race; the simple fact being, that the Irish
are unwilling to work, not because they are Celts, but because
their work is badly paid. When they go abroad, they get good wages,
and therefore they become as industrious as any other people.
Compare _Journal of Statistical Society_, vol. vii. p. 24, with
_Thornton on Over-Population_, p. 425; a very valuable work. Even
in 1799, it was observed that the Irish as soon as they left their
own country became industrious and energetic. See _Parliamentary
History_, vol. xxxiv. p. 222. So, too, in North America, 'they are
most willing to work hard.' _Lyell's Second Visit to the United
States_, 1849, vol. i. p. 187.

[89] By low wages, I mean low reward of labour, which is of course
independent both of the cost of labour and of the money-rate of
wages.

[90] In a recent work of considerable ingenuity (_Doubleday's True Law
of Population_, 1847, pp. 25-29, 69, 78, 123, 124, &c.) it is
noticed that countries are more populous when the ordinary food is
vegetable than when it is animal; and an attempt is made to explain
this on the ground that a poor diet is more favourable to fecundity
than a rich one. But though the fact of the greater increase of
population is indisputable, there are several reasons for being
dissatisfied with Mr. Doubleday's explanation.

1st. That the power of propagation is heightened by poor living, is
a proposition which has never been established physiologically;
while the observations of travellers and of governments are not
sufficiently numerous to establish it statistically.

2nd. Vegetable diet is as generous for a hot country as animal diet
is for a cold country; and since we know that, notwithstanding the
difference of food and climate, the temperature of the body varies
little between the equator and the poles (compare _Liebig's Animal
Chemistry_, p. 19; _Holland's Medical Notes_, p. 473; _Pouillet_,
_Elémens de Physique_, vol. i. part i. p. 414; _Burdach's Traité de
Physiologie_, vol. ix. p. 663), we have no reason to believe that
there is any other normal variation, but should rather suppose
that, in regard to all essential functions, vegetable diet and
external heat are equivalent to animal diet and external cold.

3rd. Even conceding, for the sake of argument, that vegetable
food increases the procreative power, this would only affect the
number of births, and not the density of population; for a
greater number of births may be, and often are, remedied by a
greater mortality; a point in regard to which Godwin, in trying
to refute Malthus, falls into serious error. _Godwin on
Population_, p. 317.

Since writing the above, I have found that these views of Mr.
Doubleday's were in a great measure anticipated by Fourier. See
_Rey_, _Science Sociale_; vol. i. p. 185.

If, in the first place, we turn to Asia, we shall see an admirable illustration of what may be called the collision between internal and external phenomena. Owing to circumstances already stated, Asiatic civilization has always been confined to that rich tract where alone wealth could be easily obtained. This immense zone comprises some of the most fertile parts of the globe; and of all its provinces, Hindostan is certainly the one which for the longest period has possessed the greatest civilization.[91] And as the materials for forming an opinion respecting India are more ample than those respecting any other part of Asia,[92] I purpose to select it as an example, and use it to illustrate those laws which, though generalized from political economy, chemistry, and physiology, may be verified by that more extensive survey, the means of which history alone can supply.

[91] I use the word 'Hindostan' in the popular sense, as extending south
to Cape Comorin; though, properly speaking, it only includes the
country north of the Nerbudda. Compare _Mill's History of India_,
vol. ii. p. 178; _Bohlen_, _das alte Indien_, vol. i. p. 11;
_Meiners über die Länder in Asien_, vol. i. p. 224. The word
itself is not found in the old Sanscrit, and is of Persian origin.
_Halhed's Preface to the Gentoo Laws_, pp. xx. xxi.; _Asiatic
Researches_, vol. iii. pp. 368, 369.

[92] So that, in addition to works published on their philosophy,
religion, and jurisprudence, a learned geographer stated several
years ago, that 'kein anderes Asiatisches Reich ist in den letzten
drey Jahrhunderten von so vielen und so einsichtsvollen Europäern
durchreist und beschrieben worden, als Hindostan.' _Meiners_,
_Länder in Asien_, vol. i. p. 225. Since the time of Meiners, such
evidence has become still more precise and extensive; and is, I
think, too much neglected by M. Rhode in his valuable work on
India: 'Dem Zwecke dieser Arbeit gemäss, betrachten wir hier nur
Werke der Hindus selbst, oder Auszüge aus denselben als Quellen.'
_Rhode_, _Religiöse Bildung der Hindus_, vol. i. p. 43.

In India, the great heat of the climate brings into play that law already pointed out, by virtue of which the ordinary food is of an oxygenous rather than of a carbonaceous character. This, according to another law, obliges the people to derive their usual diet not from the animal, but from the vegetable world, of which starch is the most important constituent. At the same time the high temperature, incapacitating men for arduous labour, makes necessary a food of which the returns will be abundant, and which will contain much nutriment in a comparatively small space. Here, then, we have some characteristics, which, if the preceding views are correct, ought to be found in the ordinary food of the Indian nations. So they all are. From the earliest period the most general food in India has been rice,[93] which is the most nutritive of all the cerealia;[94] which contains an enormous proportion of starch;[95] and which yields to the labourer an average return of at least sixty fold.[96]

[93] This is evident from the frequent and familiar mention of it in
that remarkable relic of antiquity, the Institutes of Menu. See
the _Institutes_, in _Works of Sir W. Jones_, vol. iii. pp. 87,
132, 156, 200, 215, 366, 400, 403, 434. Thus too, in the
enumeration of Foods in _Vishnu Purana_, pp. 46, 47, rice is the
first mentioned. See further evidence in _Bohlen_, _das alte
Indien_, vol. i. p. 22, vol. ii. pp. 159, 160; _Wilson's Theatre
of the Hindus_, vol. i. part ii. pp. 15, 16, 37, 92, 95, vol. ii.
part ii. p. 35, part iii. p. 64; _Notes on the Ma-habharata_, in
_Journal of Asiatic Society_, vol. vii. p. 141; _Travels of Ibn
Batuta in Fourteenth Century_, p. 164; _Colebrooke's Digest of
Hindu Law_, vol. i. p. 499, vol. ii. pp. 44, 48, 436, 569, vol.
iii. pp. 11, 148, 205, 206, 207, 266, 364, 530; _Asiatic
Researches_, vol. vii. pp. 299, 302; _Ward on the Hindoos_, vol.
i. p. 209, vol. iii. p. 105.

[94] 'It contains a greater proportion of nutritious matter than any of
the cerealia.' _Somerville's Physical Geography_, vol. ii. p. 220.

[95] It contains from 83.8 to 85.07 percent of starch. _Brande's
Chemistry_, vol. ii. p. 1624; _Thomson's Chemistry of Organic
Bodies_, p. 883.

[96] It is difficult to collect sufficient evidence to strike an
average; but in Egypt, according to Savary, rice 'produces eighty
bushels for one.' _Loudon's Encyclop. of Agriculture_, p. 173. In
Tennasserim, the yield is from 80 to 100. _Low's History of
Tennasserim_, in _Journal of Asiatic Society_, vol. iii. p. 29. In
South America, 250 fold, according to Spix and Martius (_Travels
in Brazil_, vol. ii. p. 79); or from 200 to 300, according to
Southey (_History of Brazil_, vol. iii. pp. 658, 806). The lowest
estimate given by M. Meyen is forty fold; the highest, which is
marsh rice in the Philippine Islands, 400 fold. _Meyen's Geography
of Plants_, 1846, p. 301.

Thus possible is it, by the application of a few physical laws, to anticipate what the national food of a country will be, and therefore to anticipate a long train of ulterior consequences. What in this case is no less remarkable, is that though in the south of the peninsula, rice is not so much used as formerly, it has been replaced, not by animal food, but by another grain called ragi.[97] The original rice, however, is so suited to the circumstances I have described, that it is still the most general food of nearly all the hottest countries of Asia,[98] from which at different times it has been transplanted to other parts of the world.[99]

[97] _Elphinstone's History of India_, p. 7. Ragi is the Cynosurus
Corocanus of Linnæus; and, considering its importance, it has been
strangely neglected by botanical writers. The best account I have
seen of it is in _Buchanan's Journey through the Countries of
Mysore, Canara, and Malabar_, vol. i. pp. 100-104, 285, 286, 375,
376, 403, vol. ii. pp. 103, 104, vol. iii. pp. 239, 240, 296, 297.
In the large cities, millet is generally used; of which 'a
quantity sufficient for two meals may be purchased for about a
halfpenny.' _Gibson on Indian Agriculture_, in _Journal of Asiatic
Society_, vol. viii. p. 100.

[98] _Marsden's History of Sumatra_, pp. 56, 59; _Raffles' History of
Java_, vol. i. pp. 39, 106, 119, 129, 240; _Percival's Ceylon_,
pp. 337, 364; _Transac. of Society of Bombay_, vol. ii. p. 155;
_Transac. of Asiatic Society_, vol. i. p. 510; _Journal of Asiatic
Society_, vol. i. pp. 228, 247, vol. ii. pp. 44, 64, 251, 257,
262, 336, 344, vol. iii. pp. 8, 25, 300, 340, vol. iv. pp. 82, 83,
104, vol. v. pp. 241, 246; _Asiatic Researches_, vol. v. pp. 124,
229, vol. xii. p. 148, vol. xvi. pp. 171, 172; _Journal of
Geograph. Society_, vol. ii. p. 86, vol. iii. pp. 124, 295, 300,
vol. v. p. 263, vol. viii. pp. 341, 359, vol. xix. pp. 132, 137.

[99] Rice, so far as I have been able to trace it, has travelled
westward. Besides the historical evidence, there are philological
probabilities in favour of its being indigenous to Asia, and the
Sanscrit name for it has been very widely diffused. Compare
_Humboldt's Cosmos_, vol. ii. p. 472, with _Crawfurd's History of
the Indian Archipelago_, vol. i. p. 358. In the fourteenth
century, it was the common food on the Zanguebar Coast; and is now
universal in Madagascar. _Travels of Ibn Batuta in Fourteenth
Century_, p. 56; _Ellis's History of Madagascar_, vol. i. pp. 39,
297-304, vol. ii. p. 292; _Journal of Geograph. Society_, vol. iii.
p. 212. From Madagascar its seeds were, according to _M'Culloch's
Dictionary of Commerce_, p. 1105, carried to Carolina late in the
seventeenth century. It is now cultivated in Nicaragua (_Squier's
Central America_, vol. i. p. 38) and in South America
(_Henderson's Hist. of Brazil_, pp. 292, 307, 395, 440, 488),
where it is said to grow wild. Compare _Meyen's Geography of
Plants_, pp. 291, 297, with _Azara_, _Voyages dans l'Amérique
Méridionale_, vol. i. p. 100, vol. ii. p. 80. The ancient Greeks,
though acquainted with rice, did not cultivate it; and its
cultivation was first introduced into Europe by the Arabs. See
_Humboldt_, _Nouvelle Espagne_, vol. ii. pp. 409, 410.

In consequence of these peculiarities of climate, and of food, there has arisen in India that unequal distribution of wealth which we must expect to find in countries where the labour-market is always redundant.[100] If we examine the earliest Indian records which have been preserved--records between two and three thousand years old--we find evidence of a state of things similar to that which now exists, and which, we may rely upon it, always has existed ever since the accumulation of capital once fairly began. We find the upper classes enormously rich, and the lower classes miserably poor. We find those by whose labour the wealth is created, receiving the smallest possible share of it; the remainder being absorbed by the higher ranks in the form either of rent or of profit. And as wealth is, after intellect, the most permanent source of power, it has naturally happened that a great inequality of wealth has been accompanied by a corresponding inequality of social and political power. It is not, therefore, surprising that from the earliest period to which our knowledge of India extends, an immense majority of the people, pinched by the most galling poverty, and just living from hand to mouth, should always have remained in a state of stupid debasement, broken by incessant misfortune, crouching before their superiors in abject submission, and only fit either to be slaves themselves or to be led to battle to make slaves of others.[101]

[100] So far as food is concerned, Diodorus Siculus notices the
remarkable fertility of India, and the consequent accumulation of
wealth. See two interesting passages in _Bibliothec. Hist._ lib.
ii. vol. ii. pp. 49, 50, 108, 109. But of the economical laws of
distribution he, like all the ancient writers, was perfectly
ignorant.

[101] An able and very learned apologist for this miserable people says,
'The servility so generally ascribed to the Hindu is never more
conspicuous than when he is examined as an evidence. But if it be
admitted that he acts as a slave, why blame him for not
possessing the virtues of a free man? _The oppression of ages has
taught him implicit submission._' _Vans Kennedy_, in
_Transactions of the Society of Bombay_, vol. iii. p. 144.
Compare the observations of Charles Hamilton in _Asiatic
Researches_, vol. i. p. 305.

To ascertain the precise value of the average rate of wages in India for any long period, is impossible; because, although the amount might be expressed in money, still the value of money, that is, its purchasing power, is subject to incalculable fluctuations, arising from changes in the cost of production.[102] But, for our present purpose, there is a method of investigation which will lead to results far more accurate than any statement could be that depended merely on a collection of evidence respecting the wages themselves. The method is simply this: that inasmuch as the wealth of a country can only be divided into wages, rent, profits, and interest, and inasmuch as interest is on an average an exact measure of profits,[103] it follows that if among any people rent and interest are both high, wages must be low.[104] If, therefore, we can ascertain the current interest of money, and the proportion of the produce of the soil which is absorbed by rent, we shall get a perfectly accurate idea of the wages; because wages are the residue, that is, they are what is left to the labourers after rent, profits, and interest have been paid.

[102] The impossibility of having a standard of value, is clearly
pointed out in _Turgot's Réflexions sur la Formation et la
Distribution des Richesses_, in _[OE]uvres_, vol. v. pp. 51, 52.
Compare _Ricardo's Works_, pp. 11, 28-30, 46, 166, 253, 270, 401,
with _M'Culloch's Principles of Political Economy_, pp. 298, 299,
307.

[103] _Smith's Wealth of Nations_, book i. chap. ix. p. 37; where,
however, the proposition is stated rather too absolutely, since
the risks arising from an insecure state of society must be taken
into consideration. But that there is an average ratio between
interest and profits is obvious, and is distinctly laid down by
the Sanscrit jurists. See _Colebrooke's Digest of Hindu Law_,
vol. i. pp. 72, 81.

[104] Ricardo (_Principles of Political Economy_, chap. vi. in _Works_,
p. 65) says, 'whatever increases wages, necessarily reduces
profits.' And in chap. xv. p. 122, 'whatever raises the wages of
labour, lowers the profits of stock.' In several other places he
makes the same assertion, very much to the discomfort of the
ordinary reader, who knows that in the United States, for
instance, wages and profits are both high. But the ambiguity is
in the language, not in the thought; and in these and similar
passages Ricardo by wages meant cost of labour, in which sense
the proposition is quite accurate. If by wages we mean the reward
of labour, then there is no relation between wages and profits;
for when rent is low, both of them may be high, as is the case in
the United States. That this was the view of Ricardo is evident
from the following passage: 'Profits, it cannot be too often
repeated, depend on wages; not on nominal but real wages; not on
the number of pounds that may be annually paid to the labourer,
but on the number of days' work necessary to obtain those
pounds.' _Political Economy_, chap. vii., _Ricardo's Works_, p.
82. Compare _Mill's Principles of Political Economy_, vol. i. p.
509, vol. ii. p. 225.

Now it is remarkable, that in India both interest and rent have always been very high. In the _Institutes of Menu_, which were drawn up about B.C. 900,[105] the lowest legal interest for money is fixed at fifteen per cent., the highest at sixty per cent.[106] Nor is this to be considered as a mere ancient law now fallen into disuse. So far from that, the _Institutes of Menu_ are still the basis of Indian jurisprudence;[107] and we know on very good authority, that in 1810 the interest paid for the use of money varied from thirty-six to sixty per cent.[108]

[105] I take the estimate of Mr. Elphinstone (_History of India_, pp.
225-228) as midway between Sir William Jones (_Works_, vol. iii.
p. 56) and Mr. Wilson (_Rig Veda Sanhita_, vol. i. p. xlvii.).

[106] _Institutes of Menu_, chap. viii. sec. 140-142, in _Works of Sir
W. Jones_, vol. iii. p. 295. The subsequent Sanscrit commentators
recognize nearly the same rate of interest, the minimum being
fifteen per cent. See _Colebrooke's Digest of Hindu Law_, vol. i.
pp. 29, 36, 43, 98, 99, 237, vol. ii. p. 70.

[107] In _Colebrooke's Digest_, vol. i. p. 454, and vol. iii. p. 229,
Menu is called 'the highest authority of memorial law,' and 'the
founder of memorial law.' The most recent historian of India, Mr.
Elphinstone, says (_Hist. of India_, p. 83) 'the code of Menu is
still the basis of the Hindu jurisprudence; and the principal
features remain unaltered to the present day.' This remarkable
code is also the basis of the laws of the Burmese, and even of
those of the Laos. _Journal of the Asiatic Society_, vol. ii. p.
271, vol. iii. pp. 28, 296, 332, vol. v. p. 252.

[108] See, in _Mill's History of India_, vol. i. p. 317, the report of a
committee of the House of Commons in 1810, in which it is stated
that the ryots paid 'the heavy interest of three, four, and five
per cent. per month.' Ward, writing about the same time, mentions
as much as seventy-five per cent. being given, and this
apparently without the lender incurring any extraordinary risk.
_Ward on the Hindoos_, vol. ii. p. 190.

Thus much as to one of the elements of our present calculation. As to the other element, namely, the rent, we have information equally precise and trustworthy. In England and Scotland, the rent paid by the cultivator for the use of land is estimated in round numbers, taking one farm with another, at a fourth of the gross produce.[109] In France, the average proportion is about a third;[110] while in the United States of North America it is well known to be much less, and, indeed, in some parts, to be merely nominal.[111] But in India the legal rent, that is, the lowest rate recognized by the law and usage of the country, is one-half of the produce; and even this cruel regulation is not strictly enforced, since in many cases rents are raised so high, that the cultivator not only receives less than half the produce, but receives so little as to have scarcely the means of providing seed to sow the ground for the next harvest.[112]

[109] Compare the table in _Loudon's Encyclopædia of Agriculture_, p.
778, with _Mavor's note in Tusser's Five Hundred Points of
Husbandry_, p. 195, Lond. 1812, and _M'Culloch's Statistical
Account of the British Empire_, 1847, vol. i. p. 560.

[110] This is the estimate I have received from persons well acquainted
with French agriculture. The rent, of course, varies in each
separate instance, according to the natural powers of the soil,
according to the extent to which those powers have been improved,
and according to the facilities for bringing the produce to
market. But, notwithstanding these variations, there must be in
every country an average rent, depending upon the operation of
general causes.

[111] Owing to the immense supply of land preventing the necessity of
cultivating those inferior soils which older countries are glad
to use, and are therefore willing to pay a rent for the right of
using. In the United States, profits and wages (i.e. the reward
of the labourer, not the cost of labour) are both high, which
would be impossible if rent were also high.

[112] See _Rammohun Roy on the Judicial and Revenue Systems of India_,
1832, pp. 59-61, 63, 69, 92, 94. At p. 69, this high authority
says of the agricultural peasantry of Bengal: 'In an abundant
season, when the price of corn is low, the sale of their whole
crops is required to meet the demands of the landholder, leaving
little or nothing for seed or subsistence to the labourer or his
family.' In Cashmere, the sovereign received half the produce of
the rice-crop, leaving the other half to the cultivator.
_Moorcroft's Notices of Cashmere_, in _Journal of Geog. Society_,
vol. ii. p. 266.

The conclusion to be drawn from these facts is manifest. Rent and interest being always very high, and interest varying, as it must do, according to the rate of profits, it is evident that wages must have been very low; for since there was in India a specific amount of wealth to be divided into rent, interest, profits, and wages, it is clear that the first three could only have been increased at the expense of the fourth; which is saying, in other words, that the reward of the labourers was very small in proportion to the reward received by the upper classes. And though this, being an inevitable inference, does not require extraneous support, it may be mentioned that in modern times, for which alone we have direct evidence, wages have in India always been excessively low, and the people have been, and still are, obliged to work for a sum barely sufficient to meet the exigencies of life.[113]

[113] Heber (_Journey through India_, vol. i. pp. 209, 356, 357, 359)
gives some curious instances of the extremely low rate at which
the natives are glad to work. As to the ordinary wages in India
in the present century, see _Journal of Asiatic Society_, vol. i.
p. 255, vol. v. p. 171; _Rammohun Roy on the Judicial and Revenue
Systems_, pp. 105, 106; _Sykes's Statistics of the Deccan Reports
of the British Association_, vol. vi. p. 321; _Ward's View of the
Hindoos_, vol. iii. p. 207; _Colebrooke's Digest of Hindu Law_,
vol. ii. p. 184. On wages in the south of India, the fullest
information will be found in Buchanan's valuable work, _Journey
through the Mysore, Canara, and Malabar_, vol. i. pp. 124, 125,
133, 171, 175, 216, 217, 298, 390, 415, vol. ii. pp. 12, 19, 22,
37, 90, 108, 132, 217, 218, 315, 481, 523, 525, 562, vol. iii.
pp. 35, 181, 226, 298, 321, 349, 363, 398, 428, 555. I wish that
all travellers were equally minute in recording the wages of
labour; a subject of far greater importance than those with which
they usually fill their books.

On the other hand, the riches possessed by the upper classes
have, owing to this mal-distribution of wealth, been always
enormous, and sometimes incredible. See _Forbes's Oriental
Memoirs_, vol. ii. p. 297; _Bohlen_, _das alte Indien_, vol. ii.
p. 119; _Travels of Ibn Batuta_, p. 41; _Ward's Hindoos_, vol.
iii. p. 178. The autobiography of the Emperor Jehangueir contains
such extraordinary statements of his immense wealth, that the
Editor, Major Price, thinks that some error must have been made
by the copyist; but the reader will find in _Grote's History of
Greece_ (vol. xii. pp. 229, 245) evidence of the treasures which
it was possible for Asiatic rulers to collect in that state of
society. The working of this unequal distribution is thus stated
by Mr. Glyn (_Transac. of Asiatic Society_, vol. i. p. 482): 'The
nations of Europe have very little idea of the actual condition
of the inhabitants of Hindustan; they are more wretchedly poor
than we have any notion of. Europeans have hitherto been too apt
to draw their opinions of the wealth of Hindustan from the
gorgeous pomp of a few emperors, sultans, nawabs, and rajahs;
whereas a more intimate and accurate view of the real state of
society would have shown that these princes and nobles were
engrossing all the wealth of the country, whilst the great body
of the people were earning but a bare subsistence, groaning under
intolerable burdens, and hardly able to supply themselves with
the necessaries of life, much less with its luxuries.'

This was the first great consequence induced in India by the cheapness and abundance of the national food.[114] But the evil by no means stopped there. In India, as in every other country, poverty provokes contempt, and wealth produces power. When other things are equal, it must be with classes of men as with individuals, that the richer they are, the greater the influence they will possess. It was therefore to be expected, that the unequal distribution of wealth should cause an unequal distribution of power; and as there is no instance on record of any class possessing power without abusing it, we may easily understand how it was that the people of India, condemned to poverty by the physical laws of their climate, should have fallen into a degradation from which they have never been able to escape. A few instances may be given to illustrate, rather than to prove, a principle which the preceding arguments have, I trust, placed beyond the possibility of dispute.

[114] Turner, who travelled in 1783 through the north-east of Bengal,
says: 'Indeed, the extreme poverty and wretchedness of these
people will forcibly appear, when we recollect how little is
necessary for the subsistence of a peasant in these regions. The
value of this can seldom amount to more than one penny per day,
even allowing him to make his meal of two pounds of boiled rice,
with a due proportion of salt, oil, vegetables, fish, and chili.'
_Turner's Embassy to Tibet_, p. 11. Ibn Batuta, who travelled in
Hindostan in the fourteenth century, says: 'I never saw a country
in which provisions were so cheap.' _Travels of Ibn Batuta_, p.
194.

To the great body of the Indian people the name of Sudras is given;[115] and the native laws respecting them contain some minute and curious provisions. If a member of this despised class presumed to occupy the same seat as his superiors, he was either to be exiled or to suffer a painful and ignominious punishment.[116] If he spoke of them with contempt, his mouth was to be burned;[117] if he actually insulted them, his tongue was to be slit;[118] if he molested a Brahmin, he was to be put to death;[119] if he sat on the same carpet with a Brahmin, he was to be maimed for life;[120] if, moved by the desire of instruction, he even listened to the reading of the sacred books, burning oil was to be poured into his ears;[121] if, however, he committed them to memory, he was to be killed;[122] if he were guilty of a crime, the punishment for it was greater than that inflicted on his superiors;[123] but if he himself were murdered, the penalty was the same as for killing a dog, a cat, or a crow.[124] Should he marry his daughter to a Brahmin, no retribution that could be exacted in this world was sufficient; it was therefore announced that the Brahmin must go to hell, for having suffered contamination from a woman immeasurably his inferior.[125] Indeed, it was ordered that the mere name of a labourer should be expressive of contempt, so that his proper standing might be immediately known.[126] And lest this should not be enough to maintain the subordination of society, a law was actually made forbidding any labourer to accumulate wealth;[127] while another clause declared, that even though his master should give him freedom, he would in reality still be a slave; 'for,' says the lawgiver--'for of a state which is natural to him, by whom can he be divested?'[128]

[115] The Sudras are estimated by Ward (_View of the Hindoos_, vol. iii.
p. 281) at 'three-fourths of the Hindoos.' At all events, they
comprise the whole of the working classes; the Vaisyas not being
husbandmen, as they are often called, but landlords, owners of
cattle, and traders. Compare _Institutes of Menu_, chap. ix. sec.
326-333, in _Works of Sir W. Jones_, vol. iii. pp. 380, 381, with
_Colebrooke's Digest_, vol. i. p. 15, from which it appears that
the Vaisyas were always the masters, and that the Sudra was to
'rely on agriculture for his subsistence.' The division,
therefore, between 'the industrious and the servile'
(_Elphinstone's History of India_, p. 12) is too broadly stated,
and we must, I think, take the definition of M. Rhode: 'Die Kaste
der Sudras umfasst die ganze arbeitende, oder um Lohn dienende
Classe des Volks.' _Relig. Bildung der Hindus_, vol. ii. p. 561.

[116] 'Either be banished with a mark on his hinder parts, or the king
shall cause a gash to be made on his buttock.' _Institutes of
Menu_, chap. viii. sec. 281, in _Works of Sir W. Jones_, vol.
iii. p. 315. See also _Ward's View of the Hindoos_, vol. iii. p.
67.

[117] _Menu_, chap. viii. sec. 271, in _Jones's Works_, vol. iii.
p. 314.

[118] _Menu_, chap. viii. sec. 270.

[119] 'If a Sudra gives much and frequent molestation to a Brahmin, the
magistrate shall put him to death.' _Halhed's Code of Gentoo
Laws_, p. 262.

[120] _Halhed's Code of Gentoo Laws_, p. 207. As to the case of striking
a Brahmin, see _Rammohun Roy on the Veds_, p. 227, 2nd edit. 1832.

[121] 'And if a Sooder listens to the Beids of the Shaster, then the
oil, heated as before, shall be poured into his ears; and arzeez
and wax shall be melted together, and the orifice of his ears
shall be stopped up therewith.' _Halhed_, p. 262. Compare the
prohibition in _Menu_, chap. iv. sec. 99, chap. x. sec. 109-111,
in _Jones's Works_, vol. iii. pp. 174, 398.

[122] _Halhed_, p. 262: 'the magistrate shall put him to death.' In
Mrichchakati, the judge says to a Sudra, 'If you expound the
Vedas, will not your tongue be cut out?' _Wilson's Theatre of the
Hindus_, vol. i. part ii. p. 170.

[123] _Ward's View of the Hindoos_, vol. iv. p. 308. To this the only
exception was in the case of theft. _Mill's History of India_,
vol. i. pp. 193, 260. A Brahmin could 'on no account be capitally
punished.' _Asiatic Researches_, vol. xv. p. 44.

[124] _Menu_, chap. xi. sec. 132, in _Works of Sir W. Jones_, vol. iii.
p. 422.

[125] 'A Brahmin, if he take a Sudra to his bed as his first wife, sinks
to the regions of torment.' _Institutes of Menu_, chap. iii. sec.
17, in _Jones_, vol. iii. p. 121. Compare the denial of funeral
rites, in _Colebrooke's Digest of Hindu Law_, vol. iii. p. 328.
And on the different hells invented by the Hindu clergy, see
_Vishnu Purana_, p. 207; _Ward's View of the Hindoos_, vol. ii.
pp. 182, 183; _Coleman's Mythology of the Hindus_, p. 113. The
curious details in _Rhode_, _die Religiöse Bildung der Hindus_,
vol. i. pp. 392, 393, rather refer to Buddhism, and should be
compared with _Journal Asiatique_, I. série, vol. viii. pp. 80,
81, Paris, 1826.

[126] _Menu_, chap. ii. sec. 31, in _Jones_, vol. iii. p. 87; also
noticed in _Rhode_, _Relig. Bildung_, vol. ii. p. 561: 'sein Name
soll schon Verachtung ausdrücken.' So, too, Mr. Elphinstone
(_History of India_, p. 17): 'the proper name of a Sudra is
directed to be expressive of contempt.' Compare _Origines du
Droit_, in _[OE]uvres de Michelet_, vol. ii. p. 387, Bruxelles,
1840.

[127] _Menu_, chap. x. sec. 129, in _Jones_, vol. iii. p. 401. This law
is pointed out by Mill (_History of India_, vol. i. p. 195) as an
evidence of the miserable state of the people, which, Mr. Wilson
(note in p. 213) vainly attempts to evade.

[128] 'A Sudra, though emancipated by his master, is not released from a
state of servitude; for of a state which is natural to him, by
whom can he be divested?' _Institutes of Menu_, chap. viii. sec.
414, in _Works of Sir W. Jones_, vol. iii. p. 333.