来自1798年的锐评，完美反映了恁中200年来的现状:
When we are assured that China is the most fertile country in the world, that almost all the land is in tillage, and that a great part of it bears two crops every year, and further, that the people live very frugally, we may infer with certainty that the population must be immense, without busying ourselves in inquiries into the manners and habits of the lower classes and the encouragements to early marriages.
当我们被告知中国是世界上最肥沃的国家，几乎所有土地都在耕种，其中很大一部分每年都能收获两季作物，而且人们生活非常节俭时，我们可以确信人口一定是庞大的，而无需深入研究底层阶级的风俗习惯和早婚的促成因素。
In China, where the real as well as nominal price of labour is very low, sons are yet obliged by law to support their aged and helpless parents.
在中国，劳动力的实际和名义价格都非常低，但法律仍然要求儿子们负担养育年迈和无助的父母的责任。
The traces of the most destructive famines in China and Indostan are by all accounts very soon obliterated.
所有的记载都一致表示，中国和印度最具毁灭性的饥荒的痕迹很快就被抹去了。
Great frugality of living one of the causes of the famines of China and Indostan.
生活的极度节俭是中国和印度饥荒的原因之一。
There must have been periods in such counties when population increased permanently, without an increase in the means of subsistence. China seems to answer to this description. If the accounts we have of it are to be trusted, the lower classes of people are in the habit of living almost upon the smallest possible quantity of food and are glad to get any putrid offals that European labourers would rather starve than eat. The law in China which permits parents to expose their children has tended principally thus to force the population.
在这样的国家，肯定存在人口持续增长而生计手段并未增加的时期。中国似乎符合这种情况。如果我们对其了解的描述是可信的，那么底层人民通常习惯于以几乎最小可能的食物数量为生，他们愿意接受任何欧洲劳工宁可饿死也不愿意吃的腐烂残羹。中国的法律允许父母遗弃孩子，主要助长了这种人口增长。
It is evident, that if trade and foreign commerce were held in great honour in China, from the plenty of labourers, and the cheapness of labour, she might work up manufactures for foreign sale to an immense amount.
显然，如果在中国高度推崇贸易和外国商业，由于劳动力的丰富和劳动力的廉价，她可能会大量生产用于国外销售的制造业产品。
