The Dimension of Environment

Abstract

[…] During the centuries-long period of Western expansion and establishment of global political and economic dominance, the handful of countries successful as predators were able to break out of the constraints which had, throughout the span of human history, necessarily limited the extent to which labor could be freed from subsistence agriculture to devote its energies and dexterity to providing for needs other than those of the stomach and of the barest subsistence. Labor devoted to manufacturing industry, to commercial enterprise, and to administration, much though it may contribute to enriching society, has to rely upon others to grow the food it consumes. Historically, the surplus of food devoted to supporting the nonagricultural population of industrial countries has come from two sources: first, from improved productivity in domestic agriculture, enabling a shrinking working population engaged in the fields to reap a growing harvest; and, second, from purchases of food made abroad from the proceeds of sales of manufactured goods (and of certain services, such as shipping, insurance, and the like).