That is an interesting thought. I don't know if it has even been stated if someone with the spark can be tought to use the power before it starts to manifest naturally. I would think this would have been mentioned beforehand if it was possible, as it probably would have led the Seanchan to realize that Sul'dam can channel. It is clearly stated (not including the possibility that the some of the Seanchan high elite might know) that this was a very new and startling revelation to those who learned this. I really don't think this is going to happen, or we probably would have seen evidence of it before now.



As for the Seanchan being outnumbered just because they don't accept learners I think there are a few factors to offset this disadvantage. First, Seanchan is as large as, if not larger than Randland, the Aiel Waste, and Shara combined, and if the strength of the army that they brought to Randland (which was really just an over sized reconnaissance mission) is any indication, then they have the massive population to match the scale of their empire. To give you an idea of a potential population, at it's height I believe the Roman Empire had a population of around 50 million people and only had an army of 600,000 or so soldiers. IIRC the Seanchan have easily surpassed this number just considering the soldiers brought over to Randland (which can hardly be anywhere near their full army if they have any intention of retaining their current holdings in Seanchan.) Also, the fact that Seanchan (outside of occasional rebellions and new conquests on the fringes of their empire) would have been relatively stable for many centuries, should have allowed for their population to expand while in Randland it has been in near constant decline, as is shown in the numerous countries that have dissapeared due to depopulation and continuous war.

I can only speculate about the food production levels of the Seanchan Empire, but given what seems to be a much higher level of organization and the greater stability that they enjoy, I would think that they could easily have been near the thresh-hold that any society would reach prior to
the industrial revolution. The Ming Empire in the mid 17th century had an estimated population of 150 million and that was pre-industrial revolution, so Seanchan could potentially be comparable in size.

Also, the Seanchan's considerable organization would very likely allow for a much more comprehensive collection of channelers when compared to the Aes Sedai's and Ashaman's haphazard recruitment strategies. Even if Seanchan didn't have a massively larger population than Randland this would still probably go a long way towards equalizing out the gap created by not recruiting learners. Finding a few random farmers or innkeepers while stopping by a village is worlds away from systematically testing every single person in your realm for the ability to channel.



Can't comment too much on this. I could see it going either way, though the Seanchan's tendency towards superstition makes me think that they might think this way.