To the people it is with wine as with fabrics, and
generally with all goods and merchandise created for the
consumption of the poor. It is always the same deduction: to
reduce by some process or other the cost of manufacture, in
order, first, to maintain advantageously competition with more
fortunate or richer rivals; second, to serve the vast numbers of
plundered persons who cannot disregard price simply because the
quality is good. Produced in the ordinary ways, wine is too
expensive for the mass of consumers; it is in danger of remaining
in the cellars of the retailers. The manufacturer of wines gets
around the difficulty: unable to introduce machinery into the
cultivation of the vine, he finds a means, with the aid of
some accompaniments, of placing the precious liquid within the
reach of all. Certain savages, in their periods of scarcity, eat
earth; the civilized workman drinks water. Malthus was a great
genius.
As far as the increase of the average duration of life is
concerned, I recognize the fact, but at the same time I declare
the observation incorrect.
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