Of the Nutrition and Procreation of a Commonwealth
The “nutrition” of a commonwealth consisteth in the “plenty” and “distribution” of “materials” conducing to life; in “concoction,” or “preparation”; and, when concocted, in the “conveyance” of it, by convenient conduits, to the public use.
As for the plenty of matter, it is a thing limited by Nature to those commodities which from the two breasts of our common mother, land and sea, God usually either freely giveth, or for labour selleth to mankind.
For the matter of this nutriment, consisting in animals, vegetals, and minerals, God hath freely laid them before us, in or near to the face of the earth; so as there needeth no more but the labour and industry of receiving them. Insomuch as plenty dependeth, next to God’s favour, merely on the labour and industry of men.