| OCR Text |
Show 17~ OF Tl-I.E RENT OF LAND. [ CH. I II. and that n1oney has suffered a deci_ded change of value. yet in the progress of this change, the other outO'oino·s besides labour, in which capital is b b ' . expended, can never all rise at ~he same tn~e, or even finally in the same proportion. A penod of some continuance can scarcely fail to occur "vhen the difference bet,veen the price of produce and the cost of production is so increased as ~o give a O'reat stimulus to agriculture; and as the Increased ~apital, which is employed in consequence of the opportunity of making great temporary profits, can seldon1 or ever be entirely removed fron1 the land, a part of the advantage so derive~ is. perma~ent ; together with the whole of that w h1ch IS oc~as1oned by a greater rise in the price of corn than In son1e of the n1aterials of the farn1er's capital. Mr. Ricardo ackno\v]edges that, in a fall of the value of money, taxed con11nodities will not rise in the san1e proportion vvitb others; and, on· the supposition of the fall in the value of money being peculiar to a particular country, the satne 1nust unquestionably be said of all the various conln1odities which are either \vholly or 1n part in1portcd fro1n abroad, n1any of \;vhich enter into the capital - of the farrner. l-Ie vvould, therefore, derive an increased po,ver fron1 the increased n1oney price of corn compared with those articles. A fall in the value of 1noney cannot indeed be peculiar to one country without the possession of peculiar advantages in e>: portation; but \Vith these ad,7antages, vvhich we kno\:tr are very frequen!ly possessed, and are very frequently increased hy stinlulants, a fall SEC. III.J OF THE RENT OF LAND. 173 in the value of money can scarcely fail pern1anently to increase the po·"ver of cultivating poorer lands, and of advancing rents. Whenever then, by the operation of the four causes above n1entioned, the difference between the pric~ of produce and the cost of the instrutnents of production increases, the rents of land 'vill rise. It is, hovvever, not necessary that all these four causes should operate at the satne tin1e ; it is only necessary that the difference here n1entioned should increase. If, for instance, the price of produce were to rise, '"bile the wages of labour and the price of the other branches of capital did not rise in proportion, and at the same tin1e improved n1odes of aoTiculture \vere con1ing into general use, it is evid~nt that this difference 'might be increased, althouo·h the profits of agricultural stock \Vere not only ~ndiminished, but were to rise decidedly higher. Of the great additional quantity of capital en1- ployed upon the land in this country during the last twenty years, by far the greater part is supposed to have been generated on the soil, and not to have been brought fron1 comn1erce or manufactures. And it \Vas unquestionably the high profits of agricultural stock, occasioned by improven1ents in the n1odes of agriculture, and by the constant rise of prices, follo\ved only slowly by a proportionate rise in the 1naterials of the tanner's capital, that afforded the means of so rapid and so ad van .. tageous an accun1ulation. |
