Chap 4-10: Effects of Barreness on Countries

Chapter 4: New Effects of the Barrenness and Fertility of Countries

THE barrenness of the earth renders men industrious, sober, inured to hardship, courageous, and fit for war.

  • They are obliged to procure by labour what the earth refuses to bestow spontaneously.
  • The fertility of a country gives ease, effeminacy, and a certain fondness for the preservation of life.
  • The German troops, raised where the peasants are rich such as in Saxony, are not so good as the others.
    • Military laws may provide against this inconvenience by a more severe discipline.

 

Chapter 5: The Inhabitants of Islands

The inhabitants of islands have a higher relish for liberty than those of the continent.

  • Islands are commonly of a small∥ extent.
  • One part of the people cannot be so easily employed to oppress the other.
  • The sea separates them from great empires.
  • Tyranny cannot so well support itself within a small compass.
  • Conquerors are stopped by the sea.
  • The islanders, being without the reach of their arms, more easily preserve their own laws.

 

Chapter 6: Countries raised by Industry

THOSE countries which industry has rendered habitable, and which needs the same industry to provide their subsistence, require a mild and moderate government.

  • There are principally three of this species:
    • the two fine provinces of Kiang-nan and Tcekiang in China,
    • Egypt, and
    • Holland.

 

The ancient emperors of China were not conquerors.

  • The first thing they did to aggrandize themselves was what gave the highest proof of their wisdom.
  • They raised from beneath the waters two of the finest provinces of the empire.
  • These owe their existence to the labour of man
  • It is the inexpressible fertility of these two provinces which has given Europe such ideas of the felicity of that vast country.
  • But a continual and necessary care, to preserve from destruction so considerable a part of the empire, demanded rather the manners of a wise, than of a voluptuous, nation; rather the lawful authority of a monarch, than the tyrannic sway of a despotic prince.
  • Power was, therefore, necessarily moderated in that country, as it was formerly in Egypt, and as it is now in Holland, which nature has made to attend to herself, and not to be abandoned to negligence or caprice.

 

The climate of China naturally leads its people to a servile obedience.

  • Apprehensions naturally follow a too large an empire.
  • Despite these, the first legislators of China were obliged to make excellent laws
    • The government was frequently obliged to follow them.

 

Chapter 7: Human Industry

The earth has been more fit for living through:

  • industry
  • the influence good laws

We see rivers flow where there have been lakes and marshes.

  • This is a benefit which nature has not bestowed.
  • But it is a benefit maintained and supplied by nature.
  • When the Persians§ were masters of Asia, they permitted those, who conveyed a spring to any place which had not been watered before, to enjoy the benefit for five generations.
  • A number of rivulets flowed from mount Taurus.
  • So they spared no expence in directing the course of their streams.
  • At this day, without knowing how they came thither, they are found in the fields and gardens.

 

Destructive nations produce evils more durable than themselves.

  • The actions of an industrious people are the source of blessings which last when they are no more.

Chapter 8: The general Relation of Laws

THE laws have a very great relation to the manner in which the several nations procure their subsistence.

  • There should be a code of laws of a much larger extent for a nation attached to trade and navigation than for people who are content with cultivating the earth.
  • There should be a much greater for the latter than for those who subsist by their flocks and herds.
  • There must be a still greater for these than for such as live by hunting.

 

Chapter 9: The Soil of America

THE cause of there being such a number of savage nations in America is, the fertility of the earth, which spontaneously produces many fruits capable of affording them nourishment.

  • If the women cultivate a spot of land round their cottages, the maiz grows up presently; and hunting and fishing put the men in a state of complete abundance.
  • Besides, black cattle, as cows, buffaloes, &c. thrive there better than carnivorous beasts. The latter have always reigned in Africa.

We should not have all these advantages in Europe, if the land were left uncultivated;

  • it would scarcely produce any thing besides forests of oaks and other barren trees.

Chapter 10: Population, in the Relation to food security

LET us see in what proportion countries are peopled where the inhabitants do not cultivate the earth.

  • The produce of uncultivated land is to that of land improved by culture.
  • The number of savages in one country is to that of husbandmen in another
  • When the people who cultivate the land cultivate also the arts, this is also in such proportions as would require a minute detail.

They can scarcely form a great nation.

  • If they are herdsmen and shepherds, they have need of an extensive country to furnish subsistence for a small number;
  • if they live by hunting, their number must [365] be still less, and, in order to find the means of life, they must constitute a very small nation.

Their country commonly abounds with forests; which, as the inhabitants have not the art of draining off the waters, are filled with bogs; here each troop canton themselves, and form a petty nation.