Villages

In this first of four chapters on economic geography and location theory, Cantillon explains that settlements are based on the requirements of production, especially the quantity of labor, and the extent of the specialization and division of labor.

HOWEVER THE LAND IS USED, whether pasture, wheat, vineyards, etc., the farmers or laborers who carry on the work must live nearby. Otherwise the time spent going to their fields and returning to their houses would consume too much of the day. Hence the necessity for villages widespread in all the countryside and cultivated lands, where there also must be enough blacksmiths and wagon makers for the tools, ploughs, and carts that are needed, especially when the village is far from the towns. The size of a village is naturally proportioned to the number of inhabitants the land requires for daily work, and to the artisans who find enough employment there by serving the farmers and laborers. However, these artisans are not quite so necessary in the vicinity of towns where the laborers can travel without much loss of time.
If one or more of the property owners reside in the village, the number of inhabitants will be greater in proportion to the domestic servants and artisans attracted there, and inns will be established for the convenience of the domestic servants and workmen who earn a living from the property owners.
If the land is only suitable for maintaining sheep, as in the sandy districts and moorlands, the villages will be fewer and smaller because only a few shepherds are required on the land.
 If the land consists of sandy soil where only trees grow and there is no grass for livestock, and it is distant from towns and rivers, the trees will be useless for consumption. As in many areas of Germany, there will only be as many houses and villages as are needed to gather acorns and feed pigs in season. And, if the land is sterile, there will be no villages or inhabitants.

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