But now we must consider the following:

The number of a Folk is a variable factor. It will always rise in a healthy Folk. Indeed, such an increase alone makes it possible to guarantee a Folk’s future in accordance with human calculations. As a result, however, the demand for commodities also grows constantly. In most cases the so called domestic increase in production can satisfy only the rising demands of mankind, but in no way the increasing population. This applies especially to European nations. In the last few centuries, especially in most recent times, the European Folks have increased their needs to such an extent that the rise in European soil productivity, which is possible from year to year under favourable conditions, can hardly keep pace with the growth of general life needs as such. The increase of population can be balanced only through an increase, that is, an enlargement, of living space. Now the number of a Folk is variable, the soil as such, however, remains constant. This means that the increase of a Folk is a process, so self evident because it is so natural, that it is not regarded as something extraordinary. On the other hand, an increase in territory is conditioned by the general distribution of possessions in the world; an act of special revolution, an extraordinary process, so that the ease with which a population increases stands in sharp contrast to the extraordinary difficulty of territorial changes.

Yet the regulation of the relation between population and territory is of tremendous importance for a nation’s existence. Indeed, we can justly say that the whole life struggle of a Folk, in truth, consists in safeguarding the territory it requires as a general prerequisite for the sustenance of the increasing population.