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Show OF THE RENT OF LAND. [en. III. SECTION X~ General Remarks on the Surplus Produce of the Land. It seems rather extraordinary that the very great benefit which society derives from that surplus produce of the land which, in the _progress of society, falls mainly to the landlord 1n the shape of rent, should not yet be fully understood and a~kno\ vledged. I have called this surplus ~- bountiful <Yift of Providence, and am n1ost dec1dedl y of opinion, that it fully deserves the appellation. But Mr. Ricardo has the following passage :- " Nothino- is more cotntnon than to hear of the b advantages which the land possesses over every other source of useful produce, on account of the surplus which it yields in the form of rent. ': et when land is most abundant, "'Then most productive and n1ost fertile, it yields no rent; and it is only, when its powers decay, and less is yielded in return for labour, that a share of the original produce of the more fertile portions is set apart for rent. . It is singular that this quality in the land, whtch should have been noticed as an imperfection, conlpared with the natural agents by which manufactures are assisted, should have been pointed out as constituting its peculiar pre-etninence. If air, water, the elasticity of steam, and the pressure of the atmosphere were of various qualities, if they could be appropriated, and each quality existed SEC. x.J OF THE RENT OF LAND. only in moderate abundance, they, as well as the land, would afford a rent, as the successive qualities 'vere brought in to use. With every worse quality en1ployed, the value of the commodities ]n the nlanufacture of which they were used "\IVould rise, because equal quantities of labour would be less productive. Man would do n1ore by the sweat of his brow, and nature perform less, and the land would be no longer pre-en1inent for its lin1ited powers." " If the surplus produce·which the land affords in the form of rent be an advantage, it is desirable that every year the machinery nevvly constructed should be less efficient than the old, as that 'vould undoubtedly give a greater exchangeable value to the goods manufactured, not only by that machinery, but by all the other machinery in the kingdom; and a rent would be paid to all those who possessed the n1ost productive machinery."* Now, in referring to a gift of Providence, we should surely speak of its value in relation to the laws and constitution of our nature, and of the world in which we live. But, if any person will take the trouble to make the calculation, he will see that if the necessaries of life could be obtained without limit, and the number of people could be dot~ bled . every twenty-five years, the population '~ h1ch rn1ght _h~ ve been produced from a single pair since the Chnstian rera, \vould have been sufficient, not only to fill the earth quite full of people, so that • Prine. of Polit. Econ. ch. ii. p. 59. Q2 |