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Show 100 ON THE NATURE AND [ CH. II.. mate the value of cattle by the quantity of l~bour and capital, and still less by the mere quantlty of labour which has been expended upon them. . I t tna y poss1' bly be said that although rent 1I S unquestionably paid on all and every part of .t Je cattle produced in this country; yet that th~ tentf of uncultivated land I·S deterrn;· ne d b y t.h e prtcet hoe cattle; that the price of cattle IS determined by cost of production on such good natural ~astures or u. nproved Ian d as wou ld y1· eld a constderable. rent if ernployed in raising corn, because the pooi. uncultivated lands of a populous country are ~evei suffic.ient to produce all the anin1al fo?~l required ; that the rents of the different quahties o! land '\vhich n1ust thus be devoted to the ~eanng of cattle depend upon the price of the mal~ food of the country; and that the price of the mam foo~ toi the country depends upon the labour and capt a necessary to produce it on the 'vorst land ac.t~all! so ernployed. This is to be _su~e rather a ctr~uttous method of proving the Intimate connection between cattle and labour, and certainly will not justify us in saying that the relptive value_ of sheep and shirts is proportioned to the con1parat1ve quan-tity of labour expended u~on e~ch. . . _ But in fact one of the hnks 111 this chain of de-pendance will not hold, and the connexion between cattle and labour is thus at once broken off. Thouo·h the price of the n1ain food of a country depends upon the labour and capital necessary to produce 1. t on the ·V\rorst 1a n d 1·1 1 u.se,· ~e t the ren~ t of land as \vill be she\vn 111ore fully 111 the next ' SEC. IV.] 1\IEASURES OF ·VALUE. 101 chapter, is not regulated by the price of produce. Among the events of the most con1mon occurrence in all nations, is an improvement in agriculture which leads to increased produce and increased population, and after a time to the cultivation of naturally poorer land, 'vith the same price of produce, the same price of labour, and the satne rate of profits. But in this case the rents of all the old lands in tillage m~st rise, and with them of course the rents of natural pastures ~nd the price of cattle, without any change in the price of labour or any increased difficulty in producing the n1eans of subsistence. The staten1ent just n1ade applies to many other important comn1odities, besides animal food. In the first place, it includes wool and raw hides, the 1naterials of two most in1portant manufactures; and applies directly to tin1ber and copse 'vood, both articles of great consequence. And secondly, there are some products, such as hops, for instance, which cannot be grown upon poor soils. Such products it is impossible to obtain V\rithout paying a rent; and if this rent varies, 'vhne the quantity of labour employed in the production of a given quantity of ·corn ren1ains the same, there can be no ground whatever for asserting that the value , of such products is regulated by labour. If it be said that the doctrine which entirely rejects rent, and resolves the prices of all .con1modities into wages and profits, never refers to articles which have any connexion \Vith monopoly, it may be answered, that this exception includes the great H3 |