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Show OF THX RENT OF LAND. [ CH. III. create their own demand, or to raise up a number of den1anders in proportion to the quantity of necessaries produced. And, 3dly, The comparative scarcity of fertile land, either natural or artificial. The quality of the soil here noticed as the pri:. mary cause of the high price of raw produce, is the gift of nature to man. It is quite unconnected with n1onopoly, and yet is so absolutely essential to the existence of rent, that· without it no degree of · scarcity · or monopoly could have occasioned an excess of the price of raw produce above 'vhat was necessary for the payn1ent of wages and profits. If, for instance, the soil of the earth had been such, that, however well directed might have been the industry of man, he could not have produced from it more than 'vas barely sufficient to maintain those whose labour and attention were necessary to its products; though, in this case, food and ra'v materials would have been evidently scarcer than at present, and the land might have been in the same manner monopolized by particular owners; yet it is quite clear, that neither rent nor any essential surplus produce of the land in the forn1 of high profits and high wages could have existed. On the other hand, it \vill be allowed, that in whatever way the produce of a given portion of land may be actually divided, whether the 'vhole is distributed to the labourers and capitalists, or a part is awarded to a landlord, the power of such land to yield rent is exactly proportioned to its fertility, or to the general surplus which it can be ( SJiC. 1.] , OF 'fHE RENT OF LAND. 141 1nade to produce beyond \vhat is strict1y necessary to support the labour and keep up the capital etnployed upon it. If this surplus be as 1, 2, S, 4, or 5, then its potfJer of yielding a rent \\rill be as 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 ; and no degree of n1onopoly-no possible increase of external detnand can essentially alter their different potvers. But if no rent can exist without this surplus, and if the power of particular soils to pay Jent be proportioned to this surplus, it follo\vs that this surplus frorn the land, arising frotn its fertility, must evidently be considered as the foundation o-l' main cause of all rent. Still however, this surplus, necessary and iinportant as it is, would not be sure of possessing a value which would enable it to con1mand a prop~rtionate quantity of labour and other con11nodities, if it had not a power of raising up a population to consun1e it, and, by the articles produced in return, of creating an effective demand for it. ; , , ~ . It has been sometin1es argued; that it is ·n1istaking the principle of population to in1agine, that the increase of food or of ra\v produce alone can occasion a proportionate increase of population. 1~his is no doubt true; but it n1ust be allo\\red, as has been justly observed by Adam Smith, that "when food is provided, it is comparatively easy to find the necessary clothing and lodging." And it should always be recollected, that land does not produce one cotnmodity alone, but, in addition to that n1ost ·indispensable of all con1n1odities-food, |
