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Show 210 OF rrl'IE RENT OF LAND. [ CH. liT. would adn1it of rnuch diminution ; and. without increased skill in cultivation, and especially the savino· of labour on the land, it is probable that no soils ~zuch poorer than those \vhich are at present in use, would pay the expense of cult~vation. Even the rich countries of India and South Atnerica are not very differently circutnstanced. From all the accounts \Ve have received of these countries, I cannot believe that agricultural profits are h io·h and it is certain that the real \vages of labour 0 ' arc in general low. i\nd though profits an~l \vages are not together so lo\V as to prevent an Increase of rents f1~rn 'an increase of cultivation vvithout itnprovements in aoTiculture ; yet I conceive that b . their possible increase in ,this way vvould be qutte trifling, cornpared ~vith \vhat it 1night be under an in1proved systen1 of cultivation, and a prosperous co1ntnerce, even without any transfer fron1 the labourer or cultivator. The United States of An1erica seetn to be almost the only country \vith \vhich we are acquainted, where the present \vages of labour and the profits of agricultural stock are sufficiently hjgh to adrnit of a considerable traiisfer ~o rents without itnprovetnents in agriculture. And probably it is only when the skill and capital' of an old and industrious country are employed upon a new, rich, and extensive territory, under a free govern1nent, and in a favourable situation for the export of raw produce, that this state of things can take place. . In old states, experience tells us that \i\Tages may be extremely Io,v, and the profits of the cultivator SEC. VIII. J OF THE RENT OF LAND. ·211 not high, "' hile vast tracts of good land ren1ain unct~ltivated. It is obvious indeed, that an operose and Ignorant system of cultivation, con1bined \Vith such a faulty clistributio~1 of property as to check the pro~Tess of den1and, 1night keep the profits of cultivation lo\v, even in countries of the richest soil. And ~here is little doubt, frotn the very ~arge proportion of people en1ployed in agriculture 1n n1ost unjn1proved territories, that this is a case which not unfrequently occurs. But in all instances of this kind, it n1 ust be alloV\red, that the great source of the future increase of rents ~·ill be in1proven1ents in agriculture and the detnancl occasioned by a prospeTous external and inte~·nal · coml11erce, ~1~d not the i~crease of i)l·ice occasioned by the additional quantity of labour required to produce a given quantity of corn. If, bowever, in a country \vhicb continues to . gro\v nearly its own consun1ption of corn, or the san1e proportion of that consumption, it appears that every sort of improven1ent which has ever been kno\vn to take place in agriculture, manufactures or coinmerce, by which a country has been inricl: ecl,. te~d~ to inciease rents, and every thing by \Vh1ch It 1s 1n1poverished, tends to lovver them, it n1ust be allo\ved that the interests ·of the landlord and those of the state are, under the circun1stances' supposed, absolutely inseparable. lVIr. Ricardo, as l have before intin1ated, takes only one sitnple and confined ~ievv of the ptogress of re.nt. l-Ie considers it as occasioned solely by the Increase of price, arising frotn the increased P2 |
